Today I went over to my dad's house and used his floor jack to get the Vulcan's front end off the ground. We swapped out the speedometer housing, packed it with grease, and took a little grinder to some metal that was rather rough and sharp. The speedometer is now working great so now I don't have to depend on the RPM gauge to figure out my speed. Dad gave me his mirrors off one of his Honda Magna bikes (he has two). We also got the bulb to work and stay working with the turn signal.
So I am all set except for the seat and a windshield which is on the list. The exhaust pipes are coming via UPS so that will probably be the project for next week along with the iridium spark plugs.
I manage to bleed the brakes with Sarah's help. Afterall, it is a two person job. It went fairly smoothly. I also was able to install the centerstand that I ordered on eBay. The only trouble I had with that, was the spring. I had to shove 20 pennies in the spring to get it to expand, and even then it wasn't all the way. I managed to rig up some sort of leverage system using a hex key, my hammer, and the edge of the spring. I so lucked out with getting it to slide down the hex key and latch into position. Then I just had to hammer out (gently) the hex key and presto! Of course, I had to use my wrench to get all the pennies out but I have a centerstand installed on the bike now. I do need to get two bolts and some nuts as those weren't included with the centerstand but there is a spot to install them.
If there is ever a test of patience in this world, I definitely found it. My friend Stevo was bored so he decided to come over and with his help, I'd be able to bleed my brake fluid (it takes two people). Well, needless to say, that night we never even got into the master cylinder because of two very stubborn/frozen screws.
After 2.5 hours one night and 30 minutes the next night. I finally did it. I had to drill through the head of the screw and then drill down into the screw itself and then get the new screw extractor set I bought down in there and I finally got the screw to come out. It was a victory worth shouting from the roof tops!
See pictures!
On Friday, May 23rd I purchased a used Kawasaki Vulcan 750. Later that night I rode it home without any incident. I put in it my garage as there are several things that will need to be looked at before I can commute or even ride it around.
5-29-08.
I checked the brake pads tonight. There is still a good bit left on the brake pads before they will need replaced. I also checked the tire pressure and was astounded to find that there was barely any air pressure to move my gauge! I filled both tires up to max cold which is 40psi. They are dunlop 419 elite 2 tires. They are tubeless. They still have a good bit of tread on them. When they do get to the point of needing replaced, I will be putting metzler tires on the bike or pirelli. I do enjoy the pirelli tires on my Rebel a lot!
The speedometer issue has been a major pain in the rear. Mostly because of a stuck screw up near the speedometer assembly on the terminating end of the speedometer cord. I managed to get that undone after a few shots of WD-40 and about 20-30 minutes. The one down at the wheel was much easier to get off but then again, I had been using WD-40 religiously at this point. I hooked my drill up to the two prongs that feed into the speedometer housing and found out that with the RPMs my drill could deliver to the speedometer cable, it was registering on the speedometer! I got it up to 10mph. Tomorrow night's mission is to disassemble the speedometer housing down by the wheel to find out what parts I need to replace.
Once I have that figured out, I'll be making my first parts order for the Vulcan. NGK Iridium Spark Plugs and speedometer parts will be in the first order from bikebandit.com.
On Sunday, April 6th, I took my motorcycle to my mechanic to fix my slipping clutch that I have been struggling with for a few weeks now. The wife deemed it unsafe so I can't argue against that. It is the 24th now and I am still waiting for my bike to be fixed. He had to order a part and a special tool in order to swap out some of my clutch parts. I am having withdraw symptoms. I dislike driving around in my truck. Don't get me wrong, I have a nice truck. It's just motorcycles are cooler. I'm up to almost 19,000 miles on this update.