GL work & parts list

Hey, its still July! Heat and biting insects haven't slowed progress a bit. Things that are done:
-Everything removed, cleaned.
-Tank drained, cleaned, refilled with clean gas and MMO.
-New fuel lines and filters put in. I didn't get any transparent lines. I like them so's that I can see that the fuel is going in the correct direction and isn't full of shite. But the fat black ones will have to do for now.
-Brakes off
-- Rear master cylinder is knackered; could be rebuilt, but why? More about that in a bit.
-- Front master cylinder works, but its just nasty. I want something in the 7/8 bore range that was made within the last decade. So this on will be replaced by a donor from a crashed Honda RC45 race bike with adjustable bits.
-- Lines are all off. They are to be replaced with custom teflon/stainless lines from Spiegler Performance Parts. They are great, good prices, fast service. They will cut and crimp up custom lines with any of their nice anodized fittings. The factory banjo bolts or new titanium ones will go back in.
-- Front calipers are in OK shape, but need boots and the grippy parts. These are off and cleaned. They will need painted or powder coated. I have 2 sets of front 4 and 6 piston calipers from other big sport bikes (crashed) but they won't go on without making adapters. Maybe later, if the single pots don't do the job.
-- Forks off, polished, then back on temporarily. I do not enjoy polishing, and I'll have to do it again, then clear coat tha bastards. Woo. Seals are weepy and look nasty down in there, so new OEM seals are going in. Upper tubes cleaned and polished with bronze wool. No scratches or pitting on them to ruin the new seals.
-- New battery and just going through all the wiring. Its mucked up pretty good, but most of the wires are connected to the things they need to be connected to.
-Ignition bits checked out. They are working as designed, but the spark looks a little weak.
-New condensers (capacitors)
-Electronic ignition from Dyna-S or something. I forget the details there, but I like modern electronic ignitions over mechanical ones. Points are a liability.
-- Starter was not working properly. At some point the nut which retains the starter bolt and all of the insulating bushings was loosened, which caused catastrophic arcing of the main coil lead against the rotating bits. It would turn over if I held the starter lead at the correct angle, jiggled it about a bit. It also smoked a few times, so I'd had enough of that. I pulled the starter motor out, pulled it entirely to pieces. The winding that goes around the permanent magnets (it has a name) was burned off of the bolt which goes through the housing/insulation bits on which you attach the battery's solenoid relay's hot line. So the bolt had to come out, be re-faced and re-soldered to the primary winding, then bolted back in correctly to preserve the insulating nylon bushings which prevent the whole thing from shorting out. This took maybe 20 minutes of sitting in the grass playing with something I'd never seen the inside of, kind of like a monkey getting ants out of a log. Anyhow, that worked out fine; I cleaned and greased the important bits and gears, fit it all back together somehow and put it back in the right hole. It had dumped about a liter of oil when it came out as its all lubricated by the engine oil on its mechanical side. Which I replaced with MMO temporarily until I change the oil, which will happen once it runs long enough to warm up the old sludge.

 Eh what else. I had to tend to the seating arrangements, as there were none (see previous post). I found very nice CB750 seat from 1978 that had been preserved in all its vinyl goodness for around 80 USD + shipping. Yes, this stuff is expensive when found. I considered making a seat, but looked into the past, then into the future and realized what an awful job I'd done. So I went back to the present and found a good seat from a good old bike, which not surprisingly looks like it was made for this bike or one very much like it. While it fits perfectly from an aesthetic perspective, it requires some creative adapting to fit mechanically. So I fabricated the necessary bits after much looking at things from different angles. I got away with using one piece of scrap steel and a bit of angle iron. This also led to fitting a ZX14 rear tail+signal assembly by chance. Well you can do pretty much anything with steel, so that worked out fine.

Next is fuel pump check, then carbs need doing. That is a whole complete cluster of madness in itself.