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Hey there Cats and Kittens!

It seems like this may be the last or close to last post for this thread. I was working on KZombie today and put the last of the puzzle pieces together. I know there will be more fine tuning or even not-so-fine tuning to do but she's pretty much fait accompli now.

I started early again to try and beat the heat, by cutting small points from steel for the seat pan's upholstery anchors:



I know they're not pretty but they're not going to come loose ever. I still have to dress-up the lower pan side with some rust inhibiting paint and was thinking of using POR or KBR since UV light won't be an issue here.
So that was one of the last delays as I couldn't find my shears all week and it was just Friday I stumbled upon them in another moving tub stacked in the corner.
Next was to finally get the new seat cushion and cover installed.
During the week, I had test fitted the new foam and cover and discovered how much tension would be on the vinyl once it was installed and showed the situation to my darling better half. She didn't think the vinyl would hold up to such stress and could possibly tear out or tear away from the cleats or points. It was her idea to put a strain relief in place as the seat was being installed. I just happen have a small role of bailing wire (you know, on the shelf next to the bubble gum for all major repairs in life; right?) and she thought it should be good enough.
Here's the seat being installed onto the pan:



The idea here is that the vinyl is sorta' wrapped around the wire and tucked inside before the vinyl is pulled snug and pressed down over the points. This means the stress or tension of the cushion foam is held in check by the wire instead of just the vinyl.
And...
It worked!



Yeah, I know... Ack! What was I thinking with that seat?
I can hear the gasping from here but frankly, I like it and it's comfortable. Not boy racer cafe style but definitely my speed and it has space on it for a passenger or a spiderweb cargo net.

So that was pretty much the final job. I installed the emblems, although the side badges remain an issue for me. I've been trying to find a printing service that can do vinyl printing in multiple colors because I designed a side panel badge to replace the stock one that is on now. So far, I've contacted a few companies but the limited run of just 2 or maybe it's the number of colors or the small size; I get no response to my queries. Here's the side emblem for grins:



and Devin, I think I'm groovin' on your idea with the red pinstripes on the wheels but it'll come down to my ability to pull off such a thing with paint that I can match instead of the wheel sticker system I've seen. On the bright side, I found a local pin stripe artist who's work looks very good so I may just suck it up and ride the bike over to his shop and leave it to someone more skilled. We'll see.

Yeah, so that's pretty much it.
I was going to fire-up the engine today after I got the seat done and the tank's fuel cap and petcock replaced but I ran into a small snag that I was totally blinded by - the battery. I discovered that my battery which I bought almost 10 years ago and promptly forgot about is just about 1/4" too tall. Yep. Soon as I installed the seat and went to close it I was like
Guess, I have a perfect, recently filled with acid and charged garage battery now and will have to go out and buy another more appropriately sized one soon.

I have some time on my hands yet before I can test ride it anyway because I am waiting on the chain rivet tool to arrive. Originally, I was going to just take this job to "the pro's" who have the tool but then learned that my local motorsports shop doesn't have the tool? I dunno how a motorsports shop could operate without such a motorbike specific tool but apparently they do. Well, the guy said it was actually the chain size that was the problem for them. He told me I would have to take it to the Harley dealer in town.

So tomorrow, I'll be removing the seat, pulling the fuel tank off again, plugging the vacuum line from the carbs and hooking up a life support I.V. bottle of gas and see what happens with the engine. I really wanted to accomplish this today, erm, yesterday now but I had lawn duty and the heat was cranking up to the point even my dog didn't want to be outside.

Oh. I discovered that my rear master cylinder is leaking a little. Seems it drips brake fluid straight down the input shaft off the brake pedal and onto the garage floor. I found a loonie sized (dollar coin) spot this morning as I backed it out into the driveway. Funny or odd that it took over a week since I bled the brakes for it to leak enough to drip off the bike. Hopefully, the master cylinder rebuild kit doesn't turn into the fiasco that the petcock ultimately became - another one year only part, made by a back-up, not recorded, supplier kinda' nightmare.

With luck guys and gals. Next report will be a ride report! Fingers crossed

Nice job on the tack points. I did a few of mine on the 550 too. Also there are full-length tack steps that can be affixed to more damaged pans after clean and repaint. R

R !
Good to hear from you man. Hope ur feeling better.

I actually did look at a few tack strip type options and even picked up one but it seemed it was going to be just as much work to drill, rivet as to simply cut 'n weld. Ultimately, I made several sizes of "points" too, the majority were as pictured but there are a few that are custom sized and shaped to solve issues - such as being an additional anchor between the new steel pan and the old steel pan or like the front corner where it kinda' wraps around from side to lateral. Again, I probably made it into rocket science when it wasn't needed but it's done now and it worked beautifully, in fact, my new points were sharper and slightly wider so they poked through the seat vinyl easier and then had more width to grip the wire.

Good to see there's others here that are up all night!

Wrench! That seat looks sexy! Good job on the upholstery- that's not an easy task. My dad does custom work on mikes, cars, and home upholstery on the sidelines of doing his aircraft work. Looks wicked!

As for the brake fluid- make sure there's none on your paint! That stuff eats paint super fast and will peel it right down to the steel. I found that out the hard way... Props to you for the Canadian currency reference too! If you need any brake parts, let me know. If I remember right, I had to buy the rear master seal when I rebuilt the first time.

Devin

Looking great Wrench. Sent you a PM about the vinyl.

Looking great Wrench. Sent you a PM about the vinyl.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it even more 'cuz you both were at this stage at some point too, so I know you know

I tried all day to get this cantankerous beast to fire up. Fail.
Initially, I hung up a bottle of gas and almost instantly, gas began leaking all over the engine case below. It was coming from the "T" fitting on the fuel rail between carb 2 and 3. I remember someone here on the forum saying how the seals dry out and by soaking it in gas for a while it would stop, So I pulled the carbs off and sat them on my workbench with a tray under them so I could just leave the bottle of gas connected and let them soak. Eventually the "T" on the fuel rail stopped leaking after about an hour-ish and that T-fitting became tight. I installed the carbs again and tried to fire it up but still no joy.

It almost fires. Like it wants to run but it stumbles off and just doesn't quite catch. Full choke, half choke, no choke and throttle twists, made little difference. I eventually ran the battery down and had to pull it out and charge it on the bench while I checked through the manuals - plugs gapped, points gapped and statically timed (tough to do with a digital multimeter as the manual refers to an analog meter's needle bouncing). I checked the new coils and though my readings were slightly higher than the manual stipulates, they were all consistent.
Eventually, I put the recharged battery back in place and then when I turned the key... nothing. No lights, no starter function but I did have the horn. Doh!
Ultimately, I traced the electrical failure to the Black/Yellow wire that links to the battery's negative terminal. The wire was quasi at the bullet connector a couple inches away. So I replaced that wire and the positive wire too just for good measure.
By this time, the kids had come by to visit and so I packed it in for the evening. The mosquitoes were getting obnoxious anyway.

So, I almost got it running a couple of times but not really. Tomorrow, I'm going to pull each plug again and see if they're all sparking. They should be as everything is new but I've had DOA new parts more than once in my life so, we'll see. If it's getting spark, then I'm going to try checking compression out of desperation. I know the valves were all set nearly perfectly and the cam chain is timed exactly as the manual states. I guess the carbs could be the culprit but the bowls are filling with gas and the shut-off valves are working (when I benched them, every one leaked fuel from the over flow tubes as I tipped it over on the bench). I re-did the static bench synch using a 14 guage copper wire and had to drain fuel from each bowl. Also, I set the air screws to 1.5 turns out.
The #2 carb has the accelerator pump so I guess that makes it the "master"?

Whatever. It'll happen when it wants to or when I finally figure out what I have missed.

When you can pics of the plugs? You might try carb cleaner as starting fluid.
Steve

When I pulled the plugs today to check the gaps, The plugs were clean but smelled kinda' burned smell and gas. I'm wondering if maybe the firing order is messed up? The manual says left coil is 1 & 4, right coil is 2 & 3. However, the old, original coils and HTs were labelled differently when I compared them during the new coils installation...
Ah! Could that be it?
Maybe the points are connected backwards?
Yellow primary wire from loom is common to both coils.
Green wire is on left coil and black wire is on right coil.
Right?
I'll double check the points are wired correctly tomorrow. I shoulda' thought about this when I was checking the points gaps and trying to do that silly timing without a dwell meter (another essential tool, I didn't think to grab from the shop )

Baby steps, Wrench, baby steps! You're inching closer to the real deal! I remember the first time I tried to fire up after I did my bore, jet kit, pods and 4-1... With that much work done on the engine at once, I can tell you I sure had a blast trying to get it to even pop over haha. But, once you hear that first clean fire and smell that sweet exhaust, let me tell you how much fresh air gets blown into your sales. You're getting close- I know it's not far off right now. Agreed with Steve- try the carb cleaner as a booster to get things going. I also found after long storage periods or after draining the tank/carbs, the bike would fire up quicker with the petcock on the PRIME position so it didn't rely on vacuum to get fuel to the carbs. Just an idea

Keep at it buddy! You're almost there.

Devin

Hey Devin!

Yeah. I'm whining here but I'm not really terribly pissed or anything. I honestly didn't expect it to go smoothly and besides, if it did actually fire up I would be pissed because I can't take it for a spin yet; waiting on that chain rivet tool (says it arrives Thursday).
Oh, I also found the cup for the rear master cylinder last night? whenever, and ordered it, so with fingers crossed, I'll have that little demon worked out too before taking the thing out.
But, yeah. Baby steps. Baby steps. I find myself looking over at the 1000 now and thinking... Hmmm... Your NEXT!

I've had the coils hooked up backwards more times than I'd like to admit.
Steve