FINALLY on road again

[kevie]

Got my XV750 on the road the afternoon before the BKIEOI and it ran well.

It all went wrong a couple years ago when my starter motor shaft sheered in half, turned out the starter clutch kickback spring (worth only about $3) was weakened and left the cogs engaged after the motor started and with the power of the motor vs the starter motor trying to act like a brake ... the engine won.
Tried to get a XV starter ..... couldnt find one.... talked to a very knowlegable mechanic down in Christchurch and he told me how to make one combining the XV750 and XS1100 starter motors YAY it worked so replaced all the starter clutch cogs, spring, etc as well.
then .......... that fixed I found there was no spark in No2 cyl .... traced and tested all through the coils, ignition units, wiring and finally found the fault inside the motor with a frayed wire.... fixed that .... and ...... not only had spark, but a better spark than Ive ever seen on the bike, it had petrol and ........ wouldnt start .... ggggrrrr ... out came the carbs again ..... cleaned them up and blew them all out and found about 6 pinholes in each diaphram so patched them refitted carbs and presto it started and ran .... ooops ..... bugger .... whats the petrol pouring out the No2 exhaust .... off with the carbs again and blush ... oops .... the main jet had come out and lay in the bottom of the float bowl..... should always tighten and recheck the screws when reassembling these things eh
reassembled and it went ..... coughed, hissed and backfiring ... but running ...... phone call to the guru Pete King in Palmy and he recomended ditching the carbon plug leads and go copper core (you know how hard they are to track down Pete??) after abut 2 hours visiting auto places I got some cable and caps from Autokraft, made them and Pete tuned the bike up the best he could without stripping the carbs (told him not to as I was going on the BIKEOI next day come hell or high water).

But it ran down to Wellington and back like a charm, I normally got 140km on a tank before hitting reserve and got 170km YAY

Next year ... carbs are going to come off, get total rebuild including sending the diaphrams to England for rebuild and should be awesome.

Took 2 years (would have taken 2 weeks if Id been a bit less busy and a bit more motivated ) but awesome to be back on two wheels even a friend commented I was smiling more again LOL

Love my bike ..... its worth $3700 on the market and have spent in excess of $7000 on it in the last 9 years I have owned it.

As wifey says ..........."Boys and their Toys"

[gwigs]

Nice one Kevie ,good on ya for making the trip cause every bike counted
Glad she ran well for you...I rode down on my 19yr old Suzi....never missed a beat apart from scaring me by not wanting to start in Taupo and frying all the old oil off the engine crawling into the stadium...it was smoking..
Still all was good..

[kevie]

and frying all the old oil off the engine crawling into the stadium...it was smoking..
Still all was good..

aaahhhh you were the one that came in smoking LOL I was the Marshal that told you you could park it at the end of the line where you were.

Small world eh LOL

[gwigs]

Thanks for that ,yeah small world alright....
Many thanks to all you guys doing the Marshalling....fantastic job
You guys should proud of yourselves.....

[Laxi]

aaahhhh you were the one that came in smoking LOL I was the Marshal that told you you could park it at the end of the line where you were.

Small world eh LOL

shhhh he almost got blamed for the burnout
and thanks gwigs, was 1 of the marshals outside parliament and sucked missing everything

[kevie]

was 1 of the marshals outside parliament and sucked missing everything

I missed some of it too, got to wander back near the end ....... BUT.... the sacrifice of the marshals and organizers made for a smooth running event ...... job well done all that was there, was a great day