June 3, 2003 {

So I finally tracked down some decent metric tools and started work on the bike. The thing I need to replace first is the front tire - the dry rot is so bad that it'll surely blow out above 20psi. I don't want to prop the bike up on the exhaust, so I removed it. I knew there was a good deal of rust on the underside anyways, and it's an easy starting point for fixing up the bike. 8mm allen wrench removes the side bolts near the swingarm, 12mm socket loosens the middle clasp on the H-pipe, and mini-10mm socket removes the nuts from the block. A full size socket won't work well, because the nuts are too close to the frame. So the exhaust is off. The visible parts didn't look too bad- some scratches and a dent on the bottom-front of the right pipe, but nothing really awful. On the underside, the rust is bad. The chrome is very pitted and the rust has gotten down to the metal. I don't think it has eaten through anywhere, because the pipe is still very solid and doesn't have any weak or crumbling spots. I tried using a radial soft-wire brush on the rust. It removed the light rust fairly well, but just seemed to 'glaze over' the heavy rust. I'll have to find a better rust remover! Interestingly, I looked into the exhaust ports in the head to see if there was any discoloration - indeed there was. The left cylinder was flat black, with no visible deposits beyond normal wear. The right cylinder was splotchy grey, with grey deposits of noticeably different thickness on the valve stem and throughout the rest of the exhaust-side of the head. I'm thinking this is a fuel trim problem with the carb, though I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of stuff :) That's all for tonight - late start leads to little work done.

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