Epic progress
Righty. Plowed into it today like a locomotive on crack.
My goal was to get the bike running. This was no mean feat starting from a frame, but I like challenges.
Started off by trying to clean the carb a bit, it looked quite groddy.
(note, this is a before pic)
Motor in
Handlebars on in prep for dummy rigging of controls to get wiring sorted. Note there is now no key in the ignition...
New breather and overflow (I think thats what they are) pipes for the carb. The old ones wern't too badly gummed up, but they were discoloured and looked horrible. So new ones it was.
I didn't get the carb looking particularly nice, but i'll have at it again later.
Wiring loom just about to go on.
Exhaust in place. I'm going to take it off again and clean it when I get the bike running.
^look at that header
Wiring Loom about half installed. It was at about this time I realized the value of taking a whole lot of reference photos before so You know what to plug into where. I had about half what I needed
I realized just a little after that pic that I had a service manual sitting on the computer at home. Suddenly full of hope I checked it and it had a circuit diagram!! That was in english!!
So got the rest of the wiring loom finished in reletively short order after that.
I plugged in the battery, assembled the throttle line, rigged a makeshift fuel line, checked the engine was in neutral, turned it on and pushed the starter...........nothing. Huh.
After about half an hour of poking various things with a multimeter and ruling out different causes (had a scary moment when I thought it was a broken wire) I took a close look at the starter relay and realized that I hadn't plugged the control wire into the right place! Fixed that and she cranked!!!
and cranked and cranked and cranked .....
ok. Not starting.
Most likely at fault is a gunked carb, seeing as this bike was sitting for quite a while. So I pulled it off and apart
Taking note of the various bits and where they went as I was going. (never done this before y'see)
and left the various needles and jets soaking in what supercheap auto told me was carb cleaner.
Now this little bit came out the bottom (I think) and I have no idea where exactly it's from. Does anyone know what it is? or even could be?
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
I got it running!!!!
although....
after pulling the carby apart for the 5th time I finally worked out that the float needle was working just fine thank you and that all the fuel pouring out the bottom was simply the drain screw left open.
So then if it wasn't the carb, what was it? One other likely culprit....
Pulled off and tested the spark plug...ah. No spark.
I then looked up at the spark plug relay/coil/transformer/powerup/dont touch it thing and found that it wasn't plugged in.
She needed the teensiest bit of coaxing to start, but once it was going.......
So yes, I'm happy now
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Coupla minor things I got sorted, the chain lifter assembled to the swing arm and silly me hadn't put it on when putting the engine in. So swingarm bolt out again, bit of wiggling to get it all in place and tried to put the bolt back though......not happening.
Eventually it took two of us 10 whole minutes to put the $%@#* bolt into place (after i'd struggled with it for about half an hour) had to hit it with a hammer to get it in...naughty I know but hey it worked.
So finally in:
Also put the footpegs back on, seemed like a innane small thing that was better done when I could rather then sometime in the misty future
Chains arrived, yes both of them. Silly me bid on one then saw a better offer on and bought that one thinking/hoping that I wouldn't win the first. But I did.
It's not a huge issue though, becuase its the same size chain as my scorpio, so I have a spare now
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Now that this bike is going and stuff is happening I'm starting to seriously think about where this bike is headed. The way I see it, I have three options.
1) Simply rebuild it and get it made roadworthy. Then sell it off and make some $$$ out of it. Nothing else
2) Mod it. Bogan's post of an EN of GingerMidget's thread got me pretty inspired. Then either sell it or keep it, depending on whats happening then
3) Turn it into a bucket. It would be a blast i'm sure, and quite a cheap way to get into it.
Getting it roadworthy will mean (on top of other things) getting it re-rego'd. This will cost more then what I have spent on it so far and I have no idea whether or not it will need re-vinning too, which would add a quite a bit.
I may be speaking out of naivety here, but I think turning it into a mini-cafe or similar style bike wouldn't be too expensive, and definately very fun. The downside of this is after all that, I would most likely still have to get it roadworthy in order to move it on which raises all the previous points negatives.
Bucketing it, would remove the costs of getting it rego'd/vinned again. I would get to do most of what I would do for the mini-cafe thing, but without having to make it super perfect, which takes up a lot of time and effort. There's something very cool about getting to turn a standard bike into a race machine, even if it is only 125cc.
The only significant costs I can see with this is getting gear for the track. I'm know I can borrow a trailer/car or find someone to help transport so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
hmmm......
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Photobuckets being a pain for me so no nice embedded photos, attachments only
ok todays efforts
First thing I attacked was the horrible gunky exhaust and header. I had a funny moment a while back when I cleaned the header of my scorpio with WD-40. Got off a short ride and thought I smelt something burning. Looked down and saw my header smoking . Then I realized that wd-40 is a light oil type substance. Which burns. However I proceeded to clean this pipe with it because I know its damn good at getting rid of piled up gunk.
Before...
after about 10min with wd-40 and a scouring pad......
Then I brought out the big guns, or gun actually in the form of a wire wheel...
Now with the end looking so bad, and I think the rust goes a fair way into the pipe, am I going to have to replace the exhaust? I hope not, but hell... thats just horrible
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
Then stuck on the gear lever..had a horrible moment when I thought the gear box wasn't going. It went from N to 1st but wasn't moving up to 2nd. Then I remembered its a sequential gearbox and needs some form of movement to switch gears :duh:
Rear brake lever went on too. Had a hell of a time getting the rear part of the lever attached to the drum. That was after I worked out the order they were supposed to go and then fit together too. There is a spring around somewhere (I haven't lost it, I swear) that connects onto the lever to pull it back up. It hasn't gone on.
Then I got out my nice oily shiny new chain, broke it at the required amount of links and stuck that on. Unfortunately I don't have a proper chain breaker, so I had to make do with a grinder, a hammer and a hole punch. It was a horrifying experience that I do not want to repeat, so I jumped on trademe and ordered one up quicksmart for the next time I have to do that.
It's funny with this build, I'm half building the bike, and half playing hide and seek with all the parts scattered around the garage. It wasn't till after I installed the chain that I found the circlip that holds the gear lever in place
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
great build man it looks mint!
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