I'm anxiously debating the advancer thing, but since I dont' know #$%* about timing, I might just leave it 'til I can see MLinder again. ...oh and that nut that holds all that stuff on is shot, like rounded off badly.
Still researching the prospect of our trip to Eugene (more aptly, Veneta) by motorcycle for the Oregon Country Fair. Looks to be 116 mi. one way. I think my ol' bike's got that and much more in her. ...just worried about the pilot.
Then again, I did 70 mi in just stupid traffic this Saturday, so it shouldn't be so bad. I plotted a route that would make Pirsig proud. About 3mi from our place, we hop on a country highway that winds around south roughly the same mileage but more directly to our destination. The plus side is it's not all freeway, like the interstate is. It's country road that'll take us down along the fern ridge reservoir and only through a couple towns. I'm excited about it. So excited I clicked through a lot of it on Google Maps.
I feel like I got a lot done yesterday. I swapped the plugs for iridium... 1 and 2 look a little sooty and 3 and 4 are maybe a touch lean, but they're newish plugs so it's hard to tell. I need to sync the carbs when my tool comes in.
It may have been my imagination, but I think the bike started warming up faster with the iridium plugs. The idle was definitely smoother.
I also fixed my mirror with some JB weld, just holding the bugger in place but still adjustable because whatever holds it tight to wherever it's adjusted had broken, so it was flopping around a lot.
Touched up rusty bolts here and there all over with Rustoleum silver, touched up that jbweld mirror fix, too, to make it more or less invisible unless you REALLY look for it...
Finally got around to painting the business end of my 4-4. It looked ok already, but after having to plug up the holes its PO drilled in, it wasn't looking the way it ought to. Used my trick of popping a hole in the bottom of a plastic bag, stretching the hole over the end of the pipe and spraying that way to paint all 4. It worked really well. Overspray cleaned right up with Nevrdull. I now have super-bright chrome and very flat, very black silencer insides.
Beyond that I just cleaned up all the chrome and picked off all the bug guts from our lake ride. I almost didn't want to, b/c I've been working so long on the bike, and for so long there was no chance of bug splatter b/c the damn thing wasn't working at all. ...but my desire for a nice clean bike won out. This is also why I took a toothbrush and some WD-40 to the 'oil leak' that had begun creeping down the side of my cyl. head. Apparently, when the valve adjustment rubber gaskets started weeping/leaking, and let oil seep out, I kept forgetting to really clean it off well, so after my last 70 mi ride, (er, halfway into it) I saw brown oil pooling near my head gasket. I about sh*t my chaps. Turned out the oil that had seeped from my valve covers had just seriously thinned and started getting blown down that way (I traced it, to be sure) and started burning on the fins. With WD-40, everything's clean now.
No new oil anywhere and it LOOKS to be oil tight so far. That WD-40 sure smells nice, too, when you're burning it off a nice, warm, clean engine.
I'm going to run to the store today and pick up some 1/4" ID fuel line. The motion pro stuff I have is 5/16" but was just big enough to leak unless I clamped the hell out of it, and it's so flimsy it just kinks and bends everywhere. The stuff I crammed on yesterday because I was tired of the leaks is 3/16" but needs violent cramming to go on and I can't fit the fuel filter. Major no-no, because I need backup. Also, if nothing else, I like being able to have the visual of turning on the gas and watching the filter fill up and the bubbles get pushed out, so I KNOW fuel is flowing.
