Tins and Brakes

I sorted out the rear brake, which took me longer than I expected.  It was a bit like one of those bar puzzles made of nails.  I also mocked up the fenders and tank and tweaked them here and there.  I'm going to pick a painter and send them out in a week or so, so I wanted to make sure everything fit reasonably.

Roller!

I finished shimming, greasing and installing the wheel bearings.  It's all pretty straight forward.  I made a tool (a length of copper pipe) to keep the bearing stack together, heated the hub and slipped the stacks in.  I've got the newer wheel nuts with the rubber seals, so I replaced the seals.  I also swapped out the old inner felt seals with rubber ones from Benchmark Works.

 I ended up not replacing the wheel bearings - they looked almost new.  I just cleaned them with kerosene and brake cleaner and repacked them. Late last night I  realized I had put all of the top hat spacers in wrong on both swing arms, so I went out into the garage in my pj's and pulled the swing arms and fixed them.  Luckily, I didn't need to replace the seals.

I also installed the center stand and did a video about installing kickstand springs:

Tomorrow I'll fit the fenders and tank just for fun and also set up at least the rear brake if not the front as well.

The Final Drive Is Done

I popped open the final drive and nothing was sketchy - it looked good to my untrained eyes.  I was afraid I'd find rust, chipped gears, etc. While I was in there I replaced the cover gasket and the ring gear seal.   Don't forget to protect the new seal with a Coke can or something when you put the cover back on.

Heat is the key to getting these things open and then back together.  I heated the cover in the oven and installed it twice, but the ring gear bearing still didn't seat right either time.  Finally, I took the combined advice of Vech and Duane Ausherman and put the whole final drive in the oven for an hour at 200* and then tapped both gear shafts and gave it a couple good thumps with the ring gear facing down.  That settled everything.

I've still got some Honda moly 60 paste from my last shaft drive bike, so I coated the wheel splines with that.

I hit the final drive with some sand paper, grit infused nylon wheels with some Neverdull and then finished off with some Scotchbrite pads and Flitz polish.  I also got new polished stainless swingarm and drive plugs.

Next up is to get some wheels on this thing!