REBUILD DAY 2
Today was a lot of fun! Prior to Christmas Day I received a few parts in the mail for the build; a 7" Satin Black and Chrome H4 Dime City Cycles headlight assembly shown above and a 38 Tooth Rear Sprocket. I was a little worried that the headlight wasn't going to fit between the brackets I had installed on the bike last week. The distance required for the headlight assembly to fit was 8 inches and the last headlamp I had on there was only 6 3/4 inches. I didn't think twice about it when I ordered the part because one of the review's a customer had left under the product used this exact same product on their Honda CB 360 with the same brackets and they were raving about how it looked, so I just assumed that it would be the same for me. Lucky for me it was! It was a tight squeeze but she fit snugly in there and I didn't have to worry about putting things on hold by shipping it back to wait for a different model to move forward with. This was a huge relief. In order for Justin's right hand man, Rocket, to do my new wiring harness they need all the electrical elements mounted.
With that being said, the next things I installed were the rear turn signals. They were a matching set to the ones shown in the picture above on either side of the headlight. They are a smoke black color, so they will remain out of sight until I flip them on. I picked up a few 1.25" Hex nuts at Pepboys on my way over to the shop because the ones that came with the turn signals were a brass/gold color and I only want chrome or black on the bike if possible. These went on rather quickly so I continued on to...
...the ignition switch. This was also a two bolt fastening job so not too much difficulty here either. I forgot my key for it at home, but I will need to swing by Justin's next Wednesday to drop off some money for the new platinum drive chain I purchased today along with the new battery. I haven't taken any pictures of the chain yet, because I will most likely post about that once it's installed, but trust that it is going to look great.
Speaking of rear drive chains, the biggest job today was getting the new rear sprocket installed. The four hex nuts came off pretty easily because the guys over at Motorcycle Wheel Works that put on the new bearings didn't tight them up too much on purpose. I didn't have the proper O-Ring tool to remove the snap ring but Justin let me borrow his to get it off. After the snap ring and the o-ring were off, the old sprocket took a few taps with the hammer to break loose from the wheel hub, but it didn't put up too much of a fight. Once the sprocket was off, the four bolts that connect the wheel to the sprocket had to be removed. This was not easy to do without ruining the threads. Due to the rust on the backside of the sprocket plate, we had to pound them pretty good with a hammer from the opposite side until they broke free. The way we protected the threads was by taking the hex nuts and screwing them back on a little so we were hitting the nut and not the bolt. This wasn't my only obstacle. After the bolts were removed from the old sprocket plate and ready to be put on the new one, I realized that the back of the new sprocket didn't have welded slots to hold the bolt in place while it's fastened with the hex nut on the other side. So I had to use a vice grip and my socket wrench at the same time to tighten the bolts. It wasn't a huge deal, but just made things more difficult. I got some new hex nuts from Justin so I didn't have to re-install the old crusty ones. Once those were on good and tight, I got the o-ring and snap ring back on and I was in business. The wheel went back on nice and easy, and looks pretty good if I do say so myself.
Before I left the shop for the day, the new gaskets for my engine were being installed and it sounds like the new wiring harness could be done as early as a week from tomorrow. We shall see I guess.
Check back soon for more updates!!
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