alright.......on this glorious Friday January 3rd 2014, Yolanda lives again! now that I have your attention....let me pickup where I left off. I tried to get her to fire all day yesterday and nothing. wasn't getting oil pressure. too many shortcuts. nothing can be done half-assed! so after charging up both of my batteries last night this morning I dropped the oil pan, took out the oil pump, cleaned it, replaced the 4 o-rings, new spring and stopper from Elan, and primed it. popped it back in and put it on the side stand. opened the side oil passage there to put my oil pressure gauge in. before I sealed it up I used a turkey baster to pump in oil into that passage until no more would go in, then popped the gauge in place and righted her up on the center stand.
added oil to the tank, and gave her another go. still nothing. hmmm....I remember that with the pamco its easy to have the wrong lead going to the coils (ie I had them swapped so they wouldnt fire). tank off, switch the leads, tank on) hit the button and she murmured. kept at it for a little and she came to life! weaker sounding than I remember. hmmm, its an old engine maybe it needs to warm up. it idled at 1100. then I noticed the 2 and 3 pipes were cold. @#$%. its not the carbs, I know that for a fact. started farting around with the coils and didnt really get anywhere but the 2 and 3 wires were not producing spark. I went over to Fiona (78F) and stole her 2/3 coil with wires attached and popped it on Yolanda. tested for spark. golden! buttoned up again and VROOM she came to life. this time on all four cylinders!
then I couldn't give her any gas or else she would die. classic gas starving situation but she had plenty of gas......so I thought. its been awhile since I used the reserve setting on my petcock so I guess it was blocked or something. I tapped on all the carbs and tapped on the petcock, swiveled the lever back and forth a few times and she ROARED properly. idling now at 1000 when I want to. still need to do a carb sync (easy now that I know how to use the carbtune after I did it to the 78F).
took her out for a 36 degree shakedown run and my front brake is the piss. lever to the grip and I am still rolling. I bled it twice but not good enough. gonna try a vacuum bleeder as soon as I get it from my buddy Curt. I used the OLD K1 stock shocks and they are too tall and wayyy bouncy but I do not want to take the 78F apart until I have put a few hundred miles on Yolanda to make sure she is ready. last thing I need is TWO bikes in pieces
here is a video I shot today. I FINALLY have a freaking motorcycle that I can start with a button. been kickin it (literally) since April of last year, on two bikes too. the 78F starts if I jump the solenoid but the button doesn't work so its kick only. I am so elated and filled with joy. what a great way to start the year! it feels like forever but its only been 9 weeks since the accident. not bad. anyway, I hope you guys can manage to read the whole post, here is the video!
