I was actually able to spend a couple of hours in the workshop this morning. The first time in, um, probably 2-1/2 months? One of the reasons I’ve been doing nothing for the last few months is that my enthusiasm for this “quickie” project pretty much drained away with each new discovery of unseen flaws and damage. Electrical troubleshooting was a major headache, but fortunately I was not in a good position to just give up. I spent hours upon hours last fall with a multimeter and a test light. I had breached insulation causing intermittent grounding, several bad bulbs that were also intermittent, and the big culprit, bad switchgear. I bought a replacement left-hand switch housing around Halloween, which indeed solved most of my problems. I also had to buy a new clutch lever and perch, since the stock one was integrated into the switch housing; this is actually a good thing, since the old one was pretty buggered up. Anyways, work and family life has finally slowed down, I got my motivation back, and they both got installed this morning, along with new grips. I did some testing and discovered that all the wire colors are the same as stock, so I’ll be wiring the switch in today or tomorrow.
This bike had been crashed much harder than I realized, and when I remounted the headlight I learned that the steering stop on the steering head tube is badly tweaked. Because if this, the headlight bracket hits the tank when turned all the way to the right. Not a hugely difficult fix, but it’s yet another thing I need to address. Fortunately, I am back into it and trying to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. I’d really like to get this on the road so I can get back to the Bul bitsa project, which has been at full stop for well over a year.
