28 Days And Counting

So at last check, I'd dropped the bike off with TJ to get some smells and hiccups looked at. Simple, right? When I was about to take the pipes to have them powder coated, he called me at work, which is never a good sign. This time was no different, and he told me I might want to hold off on doing the pipes, since he was 95% sure I had a burnt valve in the engine. No compression in one cylinder (which explains the rpm problems and white smoke in the exhaust) and not exactly a cheap fix.

I asked him how uncheap the fix would be, and the word 'hundreds' kept being applied to different parts of the repair (tear down, parts/fixing, reassemble). I told him I'd get back to him, and went a-searching on ebay. I ended up finding an engine off a bike that's the same everything as mine, but with probably only 1500 miles on it. The bike that the engine came from still had the OEM tires on it (and the bike is stinking 8 years old!), which means it had hardly been ridden in those eight years. By the end of the day, I'd bought the new engine and it was shipped the following day. Arrived in town by Friday and I picked it up a week after I'd bought it. Another week and a half went by before it was all assembled, but TJ couldn't get any oil pressure. A couple more days, more tinkering, and the oil pressure was back. Once the oil pressure was back, then the carb kit could be installed and adjusted, and the bike was finally ready to be picked up after six and a half weeks.

I rode it to work for a week, listening to it, feeling how it rode, and trying to notice any oddities. One hundred and thirty miles later, I took it back to TJ for him to look at the carbs, because there was a pretty strong smell of gasoline when idling. Quick fix, right? Umm. He called again. He'd found where one of the carbs was spitting a little gas out the back of it, and the fuel line from the tank to one of the carbs wasn't keeping a vacuum and needed the petcock valve rebuilt. Sigh.

Yet another week to wait, but that too was done, and the bike dropped back off at the house a week and a half ago. I'm happy to report that Mr. C smells MUCH better at idle now, and seems to roll on the throttle more smoothly than before. I ended up riding a couple of days last week before some of this crazy rain set in. Tomorrow's forecast is looking nice, although we've gotten a small deluge today. I've lots to do at work in the next four weeks, so I'm sure time will fly until I leave. I'll still need some tires, and I might splurge on a white mesh jacket for the ride through Texas.

Yee haw.