* Adjusted the chain tensionThe weather today was perfect wrenching weather--cool, a little bit of a breeze, but not ass-cold or anything. Since I did my garage cleaning last week I was able to have a decent radio station on the radio (104.3, which runs a fair dinkum mix of music from the late '60s through my teen years) and I could find all my tools.
* Adjusted the clutch
* Disassembled the instrument panel in order to find out what kind of bulbs I need to buy to get the gear indicator working 100%.
* Replaced a turn signal bulb which mysteriously blew after I did the last step, necessitating re-disassembly.
* Installed a new front brake switch (which I also had to do twice).
* Straightened the bent headlight bracket.
* Tried again to pin down the location of the oil leak on the top end.
* Adjusted the rear brakes.
* Lubricated the chain.
* Had a grand old time doing it.
...except for the offset screwdriver. And I'm not even sure the offset screwdriver I have will work for the task at hand, which is removing the end caps from the cylinder head so I can see if the oil is coming out from there, which seems highly likely at this point.
I ordered the front brake switch from an Ebay auction on Thursday--$9.66, shipped--and it arrived yesterday.
When I have money I'll be taking the instrument cluster apart again, to replace all the bulbs with LED bulbs. (They're standard automotive 194 instrument cluster bulbs, and there's an exact LED replacement; I put a set of them into the Escort.) At $11 a pair for the LED type, though, that one's going to have to wait. The real frustrating part is the gear indicator; it uses these little grain-of-wheat bulbs which I know I'm going to have to special order from somewhere, and they'll cost a packet. (They're just a snip at $6.21 apiece! That's cheap at twice the price! Why, I'll take a dozen gross!! *whimper*) Looking at the thing, I'm thinking that if I could find the right size LED with a built-in current-limiting resistor, I might just put those in instead of grain-of-wheat bulbs. Especially bulbs that cost $6 apiece.
So after all the work was done, I took the bike for a short ride around the neighborhood. The ass-o-meter reports that the motorcycle is now running in tip-top condition, but of course it would feel like that regardless since I'd just spent hours tinkering with it.
The most maddening issue for me right now with the bike is the oil leaks. There may be no way to fix that short of pulling the engine and replacing all the gaskets; if that's the only way to fix it, then I'm going to get the spare engine from Og and overhaul that one, then do an engine swap.
Hell, I've done that on a car; I can for damn sure do it on a motorcycle.
Anyway, this morning I rode the bike to church; and when I went home I did as I did last year: took the long way, making a big circle around town. When I was coming back into town I let the engine wind out a bit, and when the engine wound up high enough and it really started to dig, the clutch would slip.
I know what's happening: the engine's winding up into its powerband and overpowering the clutch. So I know that I'll eventually have to replace the clutch on the thing.
I don't know what engine speed that's at, though, because the flaky tach cable has finally given up the ghost. It's just a little bit too short, so I have to finagle it, and my finagling is no longer effective.
So here's what I want to do this summer:
* New chain.That last is more of a precautionary thing than anything else. The bike is 32 years old, after all. I have no reason to suspect the bearings need replacing, but they're cheap (about $10-$15 a set) and not too difficult to swap out; I could probably do it in an evening if I had all the parts and tools to hand, which means it'll actually take me a couple of days. Whee!
* New tach cable.
* Replace all instrument cluster bulbs with LEDs where possible.
* New wheel bearings, front and rear.
* * *
Tomorrow, then, will be grass cutting day again. Technically I should have done it today, but Mrs. Fungus and I were up late last night watching Airport 1975, and then part of Outland; I didn't get to sleep before 5 AM and had to get up at 8 AM for church today, and since Mrs. Fungus had a special work day today she got up at 11, which means I didn't get to sleep until after noon.
I slept badly, having a dream where a vampire was after me; and when I woke up, I was so groggy I found myself trying to figure out which evil vampire bitch had been about to make dinner of me, before I realized that had only been a dream.
But once I was awake, that was it, so I hit BK for a couple of Whoppers and then got to work on the bike.
* * *
This is one of many reasons why I like AoSHQ:
The New Yorker magazine takes the Benghazi talking points edits to task. Uh oh, the disease has gone airborne and is moving into the elite and royalty now. Shit status: real.Bolded parts were the ones I found extra-funny.
Expected network ad revenue expected to decline Shit status: yea baby.
Gwyneth Paltrow seems piqued that Psy doesn't know who her husband is. Sorry babe, neither do I and I don't care. Shit status: suck it up and cope.
***
Bicycle wheel reinvented to eliminate spokes and bumpy rides. At £600 for a retrofit kit, it still seems pricy. Shit status: expensive.
* * *
Anyway, that was my afternoon--a bit vicious in parts, but a lot of fun, and I actually got something done for once. Whee!