It’s been a little while since the last update and that’s because I’ve been waiting for parts. I think they are manufacturing them to order in Italy and shipping them via slow-boat.
I couldn’t put the rear end the rest of the way back together because I was waiting for one little spring to arrive. It’s the clutch arm return spring, and I didn’t think I could get the clutch arm back on if I put the swing arm back on, so I had to stop.
I finally got a small package of parts last week and it included the spring so I was good to go for a bit more assembly.
Friday after work I went out and installed the clutch arm with the new spring and then installed the swing arm, final drive, rear fender, shocks, and rear wheel. I also filled the final drive with oil while the wheel was off so it didn’t drip all over the wheel.
Then I found the baggie with the two spacers that are supposed to go on the swing arm bearings…
I decided the easiest thing to do would be to take off the wheel again and suspend the swing am with some rope, pull off the shocks, undo the swing arm pivot pins and pull out the swing arm to install the spacers.
That actually worked pretty well, and with a minimum of cussing. So I put the shocks and wheel back on and continued on.
The next step was to install the lower frame rails. I placed the jack under the motor again and lifted it just enough that I could get the front motor mount bolt out. I pulled out the motor mount bolt and then finessed the left lower frame rail into place. I pushed the bolt through until it got to the right side and then finessed the right lower frame rail into place. The right side took a little more finessing because the motor was shifted a little and I had to shove it over to the left with some prying to get the rail into place.
After driving the motor mount bolt into place and fitting the nut finger tight I installed the upper bolts in the front of the rails – also finger tight.
Next was the rear end of the rails. This is a little more complicated because the frame sags a little or something and you have to jack up the frame rails and use a bunch of muscle to get the two bolt holes to line up. This process is complicated by the fact that the two bolts also fasten the rear foot peg bracket in place and there’s an additional plate (to add stiffness?) that gets installed also. So it’s a hassle. There was swearing. But I got it done eventually.
I had to stop at that point because I had mangled the two bolts on the right side when removing them and thought I hadn’t received the replacements yet.
This was the state of the bike Friday evening:
Saturday I was busy all day with other things. The one thing I did get done was discover that I did have the two bolts needed to do the right side lower frame rail. They were the same length and one needed to be shortened, so I did that.
Sunday I finished assembling the rest of the rear of the bike. I jacked up the right side frame rail and got the bolts in. Then I installed the sidecar mounting brackets, the upper rack and back rest, the passenger seat, the chrome trim pieces, the brake pedal and shifter, new rear brake pads, saddle bag mounting brackets, foot boards… almost all the parts are back on the motorcycle at this point except the fuel tank, air box, exhaust and some front trim.
Here is the state of the motorcycle at the end of Sunday:
And now I wait for parts again. The big thing I’m waiting for now is piston rings. I don’t really want to tear down the heads until I have the rings because I’d like to do one side at a time – tearing it down and putting it back together.
I do have new front brake pads to install, and I want to flush the brakes, so that might get done tomorrow. And the transmission needs oil. And there is some electrical wiring that needs cleaning up. But other than that there isn’t much to do until more parts arrive.
