The Plight of the Bumble Bee

[norton73]

Trans back in, driveshaft in swing arm, everything is back togeather except for the most frustrating part, putting the four bolts in that attaches the driveshaft to the output flange on the back of the trans;





Then a test ride;

[norton73]

While it was apart, a friend up in KY sent me a new brake caliper. He machines the tabs to center the caliper on the rotor, provides a SS line, and new pads. Greatly increases braking power.

Old;

[Argh Oh]

Lottsa work but well worth it. Great idea on brakes too. Now you can do stoppies! Ok, maybe not.

[norton73]

Maybe when I hit a concrete wall the rear wheel will come off the ground.  :)

[Argh Oh]

OK, never mind about the stoppies then.  :-\

[kdtrull]

Lottsa work but well worth it. Great idea on brakes too. Now you can do stoppies! Ok, maybe not.

For sure, the coolness factor is well worth the effort.

[norton73]

Last weekend, I gave the poor GS another mud bath,





Rundell and I rode over to Sylacaga and then rode the Skyline Road north to Cheaha. I managed to crash in one of the mother of all mud puddles.

Last fall, we took a newbie rider, Larry, on his first off road ride. When we got to this puddle, I went down the center and only got wet up to the rims. Larry didn't do as well trying to go around;





This time I got cocky, and tried the same thing. Well...after a winter of 4x4s going through there, the water was a little deeper. I got mid way through, the front wheel slid off the center to the left, and the rear wheel slid to the right, and I high sided bigger than s*%t!  The bike ended up straddling the center berm, and the wheel tracks were now 3 feet deep. I was standing in the hole up to my waist trying to get the bike upright.
Rundel waded in and almost fell. As it was, he ended up with water going into the tops of his boots.
Once we got the bike upright and pushed out, I pulled the float bowls and dumped out all the water. The bike fired right up, but the right turn signal wouldn't turn off, and the headlight wouldn't turn on. We finished the ride and when I got home I pulled all the oil drain plugs. Only the final drive oil looked milky.

[norton73]

Later in the week, I started to investigate the electrical issues.

I couldn't get a decent picture, but the headlight was half full of water.

This is what happens when cold water hits a hot halagon bulb;



And this is what the inside of the flasher relay looks like with mud in it;

[norton73]

Here's the water in the headlight;



After I removed the bulb, I hooked up a piece of hose to my wet/dry shop vac with some duct tape and sucked it out though the hole;



Worked pretty good.  8)

[norton73]

Been a while since I updated this.
While I had the bike apart from the crash, I decided to add a GPS mount, running lights, and a few other electric add one.

Rather than have a hundred wires running to the battery, I decided to add a fuse box.
First issue was where to put it. Looking under the tank, there's a tab with just a couple relays and just enough room.


I made a bracket to hold the fuse box and relocate the wires.

[norton73]

Running lights installed;



You can see the old SS brake line was too long, I ordered and installed a shorter one;



Steering head bearings were feeling a little notchy, time for new ones, also one of the fork seals was leaking;





Protecting the instruments while the front end is apart;



And while the wheel was off, I measured the brake rotor and discovered it was very close to minimum thickness;