75 project - "Pete"

[Fred Camper]

Life often gets in the way. No matter, too cold to ride today anyhow.

[pidjones]

The engine now sits upside-down on a furniture dolly. Most of the bottom is cleaned and prepped for paint. I'll finish cleaning, roll it outside and paint when it warms up a bit. Shoulder is still bothering me and I may have surgery to re-connect the AC joint in a few months.

[pidjones]

Shazbott! Looks like the project will be put on hold for a while. Seems I might need a bit of surgery on the "man gland" and while laid up with that may go ahead and get the AC joint tied together, too. So, starting in about mid-May, the bikes (and Spyder) will be parked for about a year. Already rearranging the garage so Pete is out-of-the-way and there is room for the other bikes in there, too.

[CYBORG]

OUCH!!!!

[Fred Camper]

Health does come first but that is a lot of body rebuilding. Praying for great performance following your surgery.

[pidjones]

Back at it! July 3rd the prostate was pulled. September 4th the AC joint was drilled and tied up. Been doing PT since. Today, ortho said I am free to lift carefully and work on the bike. Today, both the speedo and tach faces were renewed, plus the speedo lube thinned out for it to start working. Will need a bit more work on the handlebar switch wiring, but it is getting there. Of course, weather will preclude cleaning and painting the frame for months, but there is so much wiring to clean up and check out. Sure hope I can find everything again!

[CYBORG]

Good to hear. The bike should be good P.T. as well

[Sagebrush]

Working on the bike again is therapy in itself. Glad you're doing better.

[leonardhcross]

A demonstration video of the method I used to remove the float valve seat. Sorry for the graininess - the only way that I could get it enlarged enough was to use digital zoom on the el-cheapo Go-Pro clone.

Excellent video. Great work-around. Thanks.

[leonardhcross]

Back at it! July 3rd the prostate was pulled. September 4th the AC joint was drilled and tied up. Been doing PT since. Today, ortho said I am free to lift carefully and work on the bike. Today, both the speedo and tach faces were renewed, plus the speedo lube thinned out for it to start working. Will need a bit more work on the handlebar switch wiring, but it is getting there. Of course, weather will preclude cleaning and painting the frame for months, but there is so much wiring to clean up and check out. Sure hope I can find everything again!

I removed the aftermarket handlebars too. The wires were just looped around in a sloppy manner as the bars had no holes for wiring harnesses. The process of feeding 50-year-old harnesses through my replacement bars was a challenge. The one "tip" that I can recommend is that I used a dremel tool with a small grinding tip and widened the hole in the handlebar closest to the switch, (no more than 1/8th in). That made a big difference. I fished a single 14 guage wire into the bars and taped it thoroughly to the harness. By pushing the harness in while, at the same time, pulling on my fishing wire, I was able to nudge it along. I was literally moving the harness about 1/2 inch at a time. Also, using a dull, small screwdriver to push the cable in helped a bunch.

[pidjones]

Thanks, Leonard. Now, to find a new handlebar. The original was bent and rusted. And, they are too tall for my back. It looks like an EBGO 23-93145 repop for a 750ak that is pre-drilled might do the trick.

[Fred Camper]

Always nice to get a predrilled, those are rare compared to the no holes versions.

[pidjones]

Always nice to get a predrilled, those are rare compared to the no holes versions.

And only ~$10 more than non-drilled!

[leonardhcross]

I may have a spare header. Let me know if you need it and I’ll go through my stuff.

[pidjones]

I may have a spare header. Let me know if you need it and I’ll go through my stuff.

Thanks, but I have one now.