Goat

Not a very exciting update. Its all back together and running. Though seems to be throwing oil out the captains side front cylinder... yay. Probably should have done both gaskets while I was there.... Hopefully an Italian tune will sort it. It has been sitting since 1998! While i'm waiting for exhaust bits to turn up. I put on some new rear shocks, and whipped off the front end to replace the super notchy steering head bearings, and fit new stanchions and seals. Races out and a clean: Painted up the triple trees so they don't look as ham: Forks in bits. The stanchions weren't rusty, they had worn through the chrome in one spot. So did need replacing. An expensive endeavor The early wings (75-77) had a weird 2 seal arrangement. The replacment seals only had one, hopefully that won't be a problem. We'll see.

Clutch didn't look bad, cage was ham, wacked it back together as is, but ordered a new cage, which i now have (and have for months). Such a cunt to change though. Will just try adjusting the cable and the throw out mechanism. Hopefully its just something there. Gotta pull the lever all the way to get it to disengage.

The geqrchange itself is super positive on this. A nice caaa-liiiicckk into each gear. No false neutrals. Only problem is i think the clutch is dragging ever so slightly. Which makes finding neutral almost impossible with engine running. Will do some adjustments see if i can stop it dragging. Tis really nice otherwise. Scared it will stall at the lights, as you cant really start it straddling the bike...

Too legit to quit. Took it for a wee ride around the suburbs. Did some hills. Furthest I've ever ridden it. Seems to leak more oil than a brit bike... (Actually no, can confirm that brit bikes leak the most. They even leave oil pools when they don't have any oil in them!) Looks like its the base of the push rod tubes. Should be easy fix i hope. Want to pull the heads anyway to give them a birthday and remove the silver paint Atleast i know its pumping oil around. Hah Pleasure to ride, oodles of torque. Does 100k in 3rd. People treat you differently than they do on my triumph. hah. Feel like a crim. Clutch is like bench pressing 2000lbs with your fist. May need to look into making that a bit softer (and stop it from dragging so i can actually select neutral without stopping the engine). All in all, its great (for what it is), it is so unrefined compared to 70s jap bikes. But it sounds good, looks good and goes good. Plus all legal beagle now. One down 9 to go. Will ride it like this for the next year or two while i try get some more bikes on the road. Then this will go under the knife to build the dream.

Alt docs have been approved. 6 days shy of 3 months after i've submitted them. Need to book compliance now. Probably a 3 month wait on that.... Shit Jeah, I am excite.

Its going back together slowly. As i'm cleaning everything up as it goes back together. I set all the valve clearances, and am giving all the covers a quick once over. Nothing too involved, ain't got time foe dat. Just a quick 400 and some autosol. Everything was so disgusting and stained. Its coming up nicely:

Always enjoy your updates dude. Man you get a lot of shite done. Awesome that you put in all the hard yards to save these cool whips.

Al has really gone off the rails tbh.

Always enjoy your updates dude. Sorry to hear about the misery. Sounds like you're turning it around though!

Just when I though the mechanical gods were cutting me some slack with the local seals, I went to reassemble the rocker assembly only to find out why this head was in the parts bin. The thread was completely stripped on one of the bolts. One with a dowel no less. Yay. Things ground to a halt, as I didn't have any helicoils. Bike night Tuesdays are great. And the infamous Seedy Al turned up: With one of these: Ooosh, M8x1.25 here we come. A quick helicoil and we were back together Gaskets on (Its so happy!): Head on Timing belts are brand spankers even though they look old. Just got a bit filthy from the trip plus engine disassembly and cleaning. Believe it or not, I am cleaning it up as I go. The engine was filthy, and the paint has come off in places and the alloy is stained dark. So can never get it looking mint without a spraybomb. Orders of magnitude better than what it was though. The engine even does a complete 720 degrees without binding. So I must have done something right? Just need to set the valves then the covers can go back on. Tonights job.

Also noticed this isn't a wide glide. Nice. They make the bike look far too big. (Again, in support of my lean harley likings)

Rad! Who are you using for parts? JPCycles are pretty cheap and have super fast shipping. You can search for stuff with the harley parts numbers too. Used that for a whole heap of bits. Awesome that the motor and box are bare alloy, not chromed. So much better! And will never get to that "fucked" stage that chromed alloy always gets to if its neglected. Not sure what style you like, but have you considered looking for a sportster tank for it? Alot smaller, but makes them a heck of a lot less "fat". Have a look on lowbrow customs as they have all sorts of tanks there (and quite a few other harley parts). Run a small stand alone speedo instead of the massive tank mounted one. Some taller profile rear tyres would fill the rear a bit more. Shinkos are relatively cheap and look rad (if you're into the 70's look). Maybe some chrome rear shock springs as the black ones disappear a bit into the bike. I like harleys super lean. So my feedback is to be taken with a grain of salt Awesome bike anyway dude. Keen to see where it goes. Also, you can get kickstart kits for these, just sayin...

There was a spare cylinder head in all the parts with it. So decided to see if I could clean that up. The chambers looked mint, it was just filthy so i pulled it all apart to clean And this little guy was stuck. And i'm talking stuck Some hammers, drifts and some swear words later it was out. Gave the head a good wash in the sink: Found 4 good valves either from this head, or in the parts bins and lapped them in with some cutting compound. Wacked on some new valve stem seals. It was all coming up millhouse. Stripped and cleaned the rocker assembly She's looking beute I couldn't assemble it as I didn't have any cam oil seals. The top end kit didnt come with them. duuumb. Thought i'd look around on the intwerwebs and order some. Was gonna be like $15 each. Hopefully hear by end of week. No biggie. Found out they're the same as honda integra cam seals. Thought id try repco on the off chance I could pick it up then and there. Bam, 2 in stock, on clearance, 58c each. Sold. Its pretty much ready to pop back on the bike. Hopefully tonight.

Got stuck into fixing headgasket this weekend: Have to take quite a bit off the bike to get to head removal. All pretty straight forward though. Once the head was off, you could see there has been coolant sitting in the bores (some was spilt from head removal, but there was oil/coolant sludge in both cylinders this side): Cylinder head had matching gunk No obvious signs the gasket was blown. Might have been in the middle? Could have also happened when i lifted the head off. Peeling the gasket off showed some barbaric damage from PO. Maybe this would be enough for coolant to leak into cylinder? There was also some heavy detonation or corrosion damage to both combustion chambers. This had eaten well into the sealing surface. So I suspect the had gasket may not have been able to seal properly.

Just give @Seedy Al name when you're pulled over