Haha there might have been a little bit of that tonight...
So overall I didn't get the bike on the road like I had hoped tonight. I had to first help fix my dads 25 year old Honda snowblower. With that outta the way, it was back to the 350.
The pegs were first up. Left side mounted easy. Didn't take much fussing to get the shifter linkage working, just a simple matter of picking the right angle on the splines and adjusting the threaded rod for optimal lever angle.
The right side was tricky... The 350 brake pivot and spring isn't quite the same as on the 400, so I couldn't get the peg to mount flush to the frame. I used a spacer to shim it out a bit, retaining about half of the engagement on the post that prevents the leg from rotating under weight. This allowed the org to sit just off the brake lever.
However the right side peg had a stupid spring steel spring, as you can see in the previous post. The left side has a traditional wound spring. When the right side peg lifts up, the spring steel protrudes outward and into the brake lever, and is pried off the peg, flying across the shop. I realized when I was leaving that the 350 peg is an identical design where it pivots, but uses a regular spring just like the 400 left peg. I'll swap them next time I'm in the shop. That will allow the peg to smoothly lift up and spring back down without obstructing the brake pedal. All in all I've got pegs on and it shifts and brakes now. Sweet!
The kick start will not work at all. It smacks the peg after the first push. I'm not even sure how the 500f (550f?) is supposed to solve this.
I check led the sprocket and chain count as suggested. I'm running 96 links with 17/38 sprockets. The rear looks really good. The front has a bit of shark toothing. I have a great 530 o-ring chain still in the box, but no master link. I'll order that up and use it. I test fit it and there is ample clearance all around. Nice little cost saving there.
Next was the clutch. This one stumps me. The lever is a bear to pull. I replaced the cable with a new one and first tried it with the tank off, cable routed with no sharp bends at all. Still so hard. Ok, so it's not the cable routing or cable I guess. I pulled the cover any it looked quite pristine in there. The lifter mechanism was clean and very smooth by hand. I took the basket apart and the plates were very stuck together. Hmm maybe onto something here. I couldn't rotate the basket by hand with the springs removed. After pulling the plates apart and reassembling it was possible to rotate the basket, but not easy. I bolted it all back up, tried the lever, still super stiff. Could it just be the 40 year old plates are sticky and need to be run in a bit? I'm wondering if a good bath in hot oil and dragging the clutch a bit would return them to normal. If not, I'm stumped.
Oh, then I discovered the steering stop has been snapped off. That explains the dent in the tank... Shouldn't be hard to weld a tab on there. Or maybe just drill, tap and put a bolt in or something
Last job of the night was the tach electrical. Wiring to the bulbs was ripped up, so I cut it out and replaced. Still haven't opened the tach up to check the oil damper though. Soon...
So, new sprocket, master link, used kick start lever, clean up the tach inside, and we'll see if this girl is ready to ride.
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