Summer Progress

I was hoping to have it titled and registered by this point, but life happens, and that's OK. The important part is that I made more progress!!

All new taillights and a license plate bracket:

Couple things here:

• The rear blinkers (Tusk brand, from Rocky Mountain ATV) double as brake lights, adding to the OEM-style center-mounted brake light. I also discovered that these blinkers do not require a flasher unit; like the front blinkers, they are a "sequential" type, and automatically repeat the sequence so long as +12V is applied.
• The license plate bracket is held on by screws right into the plastic, but they will get nuts and washers soon.
• I've been working on "refreshing" the red plastics with a blowtorch. These are hard to find, but mine are still perfectly functional and in one piece (maybe a bit bent, but that's ok), so we're gonna restore them as best as possible. You can see the progress I made on the front fender - I need a bigger torch.
• Still working on the wiring. I can get extremely picky when it comes to my wiring projects. 

Next up - speedometer! I may have mentioned this before, but I've been eyeballing the Trail Tech Vapor as a potential candidate for speedo/odo functions. Only problem is that it costs $200 for a full setup, the battery dies reliably within 6 months, and the speed sensor can be finicky. In my search, I came across a very nice metric unit for $30 that uses the OEM cable, so I jumped on it. I have a pretty solid grasp of metric units, so this isn't an issue for me:

 

As a bonus, I already had the mounting bracket for the bike's original speedometer; just no speedometer haha. 

Back in January, I had ordered new hardware (header studs, gaskets, clamp bolts, heat shield screws) intending to replace all of it, as the two header studs on the left exhaust port were bent and some of the existing hardware was mismatched, or outright missing. 

The first stud came out without too much fuss, vice grips made easy work of it. The second stud, however, became stuck and was such a headache that I ended up pulling the engine out just to have room to work. I attempted to weld a nut to the end of the stud, but ultimately just got a glob of metal that allowed my vice grips to really bite and wrench the stud out for good. Caught my toolbox on fire a little bit. Enjoy the visuals below:

 

  

 

 

  

Some items that still need to be done: 

• Clean up and repaint muffler
• Install new 14T/46T sprockets to replace the shark-finned 13T/53T sprockets (also for better road manners)
• Install new D.I.D. 520VX3 chain
• Replace front wheel (cracked)
• Replace tires 
• Replace gas tank (also cracked) 
• Replace front/rear brake cables
• Replace clutch cable
• Replace throttle cables 

And at some point before the engine goes back in, both it and the chassis need a serious bath.