And the darkest hour is just before dawn.

We left off with the battery not fitting the box. When I looked at alternatives they were all the same size so it looked like the box had taken a hit. I had the hardest job putting it in and I really didn't want to do that again but eventually I gave in and pulled it. On the bench it was clear that it was distorted and with some fine tuning I got the battery to fit. So the battery came out and the box went into the frame with just as much nausea as the first time.
I primed the carburetor and fired it up, NOTHING. Then purely by chance I found that the starter is disabled unless the clutch is pulled in. (How things have changed in the 40 years since I rode a bike). Attempt number two and incredibly the engine fired right up.

I live on a private road so it seemed pretty safe to take it on a shake down run even without tags, a license, helmet or insurance and was that ever sweet. I thought that it was a little noisy and but chance the previous owner turned up and she thought so too. Investigation revealed that I had not bolted up the header flange right and with that done the engine became much more bearable although now I can hear the sounds of loose tappets. That's OK though as after a few hours I will re-torque the head and re-adjust the valve clearances. But for now I think there will be a moratorium on blogging because I am having way to much fun.


Two final points. I wanted to keep a log of costs, well just because I like to. The bike was $500 and the parts were $492. I did not charge the cost of the tools to the project because I will probably use them for other things anyway. So $992 and I have a pristine Suzuki Savage (and kudos to Lee for looking after it so well). I also had hundreds of $$ worth of fun in fixing this thing
Secondly this was supposed to be a winter project but just like a bottle of wine once I started I couldn't stop. So here we are at 12/4 and four months of winter left. Looks like I will have to use my fallback of annoying Susie. Wish me luck.

Two steps forward and one back.

Actually several steps forward. When I built the engine I used some special lube that sticks to the cam and rockers so they don't start dry. Then when I had to remove the cover to insert the oil mesh thing I lavished some more lube on all the top end parts. Clearly some made it to the bottom of the engine where it promptly leaked onto the garage floor. It looked like it was coming from the left side cover and when I got it off and cleaned up it seemed like the crankcase had taken a huge hit which had deformed the metal. Being soft aluminium I gave it a tickle with a file and it looks (touch wood) like it is all better. I also got the tank on today and hooked up all the fuel, vapor and vacuum lines. Then the seat went on and bonjour! this is what it looks like.




So now all that remains is to install the battery, fuel up and start up. Except that the battery is 1/4 inch too tall to fit the box. Thank you Amazon thank you so much. It looks like I will have to put a hold on the project until I can get the right size battery but that's OK I have got all winter to play although I will have nothing to blog about for a while. Sorry!

The end is in sight

Well to be more precise the end of the build is in sight. I am fully expecting there to be some many fine tuning issues as well as the inevitable issues that always occur after a big rebuild. Fortunately that is all in the plan as I shall mess with this thing throughout the winter and as soon as I am happy it is solid and as soon as the weather has warmed up I will get it inspected, insured and on the road.
Anyway back to the story. I picked up the 32mm socket and gave the pulley some 80 foot pounds. That done I started to put on the covers and trim and it looked so good I had to put in the battery box and toolkit holder. The battery box proved the old adage that 10% of the job takes 90% of the time and I had the worst time getting the screws to line up. Finally it was done and that seemed a good point to end on. So now to fit the tank and work out where the plethora of fuel lines and vents go (thank you California for caring for the environment). Sometime this week I am going to have to press the start button but in the meantime we are looking good.