No one wants to hear yet another person complaining about the triple digit temperatures here in Austin. It's hot, we get it. I am from Texas so I am "used" to these temperatures, but it doesn't mean it doesn't suck after more than a couple days. Not enough to want to leave Texas, but that's another story.
In the meantime, I have been up to my usual nonsense though not enough at any one time worth posting about. I have been working on another project as well (inside, where it's air conditioned) that is unrelated yet quite related to my usual stuff, but I'll post more on that later.
I've taken a couple weeks off of casting because no one, even I, wants to stand over a 1500*F furnace when it's still 100*F outside at 10PM. I am anxious to get back to that but not before the mercury drops a bit.
I have also worked in some time to get a few small things done on Ginny. Again, it's too hot even in the garage to get much done at one time but I have gotten several of the little things accomplished when I had a few minutes. Each was just a small item, most of which unworthy of an individual post so I've grouped them here.
I cleaned up the spark plug wiring as I mentioned in my previous post.
I also was able to get the new throttle cables installed. This was something I tried to do before PMR but it seemed like the cables I ordered had just a hair too little free play to be able to get them them to seat. After studying them for a little bit, I realized I could removed the spacer under the cable seats at the carburetor.
This gave me a little more slack than I needed but I was able take it up with the adjusters. It also solved a second issue I was having with the cables rubbing against the after market tank.
While she was up on the lift, I decided to install the kicker support bracket (I still don't know why one of the POs removed it) and also to swap in a new rear brake cable.
I also tightened up the fork stem but decided to hold off on replacing the leaky fork seal because A) I couldn't remember which one it was and B) I forgot to buy a new seal. That's something I can do with it on the motorcycle jack anyway so time to free up the lift.
Finally, she's back on the ground! It was a little too late the other night while I was doing this to fire her up so that'll have to wait for later.
Since I was moving bikes around though... I decided it wasn't too late to fire up the tiddler (a.k.a. CL70).
I'll be taking this little guy out to the Harvest Classic again this year so I wanted to knock some of the dust off it. I'm sure the neighbors didn't really appreciate me zipping round the neighborhood in the middle of the night on it but at least it wasn't an Ironhead.
Speaking of, my final task of the the evening was to put Caroline on the lift and start making decisions about what pieces I need and what to sell.
She does look kind of sad awaiting her fate.
So when I brought home Caroline... (Have I mentioned that before? The 77's name is 'Caroline'.) When I brought her home... one thing that was apparent was that the handlebars weren't quite bolted down.
I even cautioned my friends that helped me unload her, the bars were stripped, don't use them for leverage.
Tonight I finally got a chance to look at them. I'd assumed the risers were stripped out but, upon closer inspection, they were just missing nuts.
So what to do now? Oh yeah, Dad's junk drawer!
It took some rummaging around...
Not only did I find the nuts I needed, I found nylock nuts to fit! That's far better spec than I needed but will serve it's purpose well.
Dammit, thank you Dad. I miss you.
I know it sounded like I made big promises when I made my 'ode' but... I've been busy with a shit ton of other projects. Maybe I'll post about those but... most likely not. You don't need to know about all the things I do.
Anywho... I thought I'd probably get around to fixing the spark with ol' Ginny. If you may recall, my last jaunt involved a late night trip to Autozone and a purchase of a set of plug wires for a Honda.
They were a bit over sized but some zip ties took care of that. They actually worked and I was happy. I intended to buy the popper cables the next morning but... that hangover sucked.
Tonight I finally got around to it.... Took the previous cables, cut them to size.
With a little help from the Taylor Cable kit... got it all crimped.
Now... I've got some custom spark plug cables!!! Okay, I'll admit, they do look a bit better than my original job.
Ginny, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been there for you lately. I know there are things you need.
I've been busy with... other things. But that's no excuse and I'm ready to make that right.
I'm... I'm ready to give you control.
I want to help you keep clean.
I want to give you that "spark" back that I... no, no WE... both know you've been missing.
I want to give you back things that others have taken from you but you deserve.
I want to return to you things that we both thought were gone forever but, through great friends were brought back to us both.
But most importantly, Ginny, I want to give to you all the small things you may not have missed but that I know you so desperately need.
Ginny, I... I love...
Ah, shit. I've got a lot of work to do.
(Oh man, that title is going to get me in trouble for quite a few reasons.)
I know I've still got way to much to do on Ginny before I get her back on the road, but I couldn't pass on this 1977 XLH. The previous owner parted with her at a very favorable price so into the truck she went.
My initial intent was to swap the better parts over to Ginny and then sell the rest. It's got quite a few parts I needed and had already planned to buy in the near future:
- New bearings in the neck and wheels.
- Wire wheels to replace my current mags.
- Blacked out fork sliders.
- And a newly rebuilt engine to use while I rebuild Ginny's properly.
Though, the more I look at it, the parts on the '77 are pretty nice. I might go the other direction and use parts from Ginny to rebuild her. No, no... I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean it!! You're still my favorite!
I still need to go through it a bit better to see exactly what I got but I'm pleased with what I've seen so far. I think it was a really good purchase and, as you know, I can't pass up a nicely painted oil tank.
This gave me a little more slack than I needed but I was able take it up with the adjusters. It also solved a second issue I was having with the cables rubbing against the after market tank.
