Progress has been a bit slow the last few days.......I got very sick and am still not well.  I had a fever that jumped between 100 and then down to 97....then back up to 100.  I have barely had enough energy to sleep!

I did get the engine/footpeg mounts cut back, and I used a sawzall.  The frame is hard metal and it took a blade for each cut......the metal just wears out the blades in a hurry.

My order from RYCA shipped yesterday, and I should feel well enough this weekend to get a lot done on the front forks.

I posted an add in the Marketplace - I am looking for the electrical connectors and wires leading from both the left and right side handlebar controls.  I don't need the controls so if you have some that are damaged but with good connectors they would be great.  I am planning on using electrical controls that are smaller - but the connectors don't match.  I also need the bottom nut from a speedometer cable to use to block off the stock drive on the engine.

wow Dave.....neat tools and the skills to use them......just great! Makes my "dirt floor tobacco barn" machine shop look like the joke it is.

You're coming along nicely!

I LOOOOOOOVE my workshop, and I spend hours and hours in it.  I was a bachelor until I was 38 and lived in an apartment without a garage, and then when I got married we bought a house and I had my first garage that was tiny and cold.  I have spent a lot of cold hours working on things with mediocre tools out in the cold.  We saved up money for 10 years and then were able to build the house and garage of our dreams.....and in another 10 years it will be paid for.  We have an outdoor wood boiler and it heats the garage and house in the winter, and I have tubing in the concrete floor that circulates hot water from the boiler and my garage is nice and toasty!  I bought a metal cutting bandsaw and a lathe a few years back, and I have a MIG welder......and those tools open up a whole world of possibilities.  I have a freind with a TIG welder and the ability to use it......and sometimes that it better than my MIG for welding.

Spending time in my garage is good therapy for me.......

I didn't get a bunch done tonight.....I guess MLK Holiday held up the delivery of the RYCA parts until tomorrow.

I did spend a lot of time doing this tonight.  Laying stuff out, finding the center, getting the tools out, building a jig all took a lot of time.  Drilling the holes went pretty quickly once I was all set up.

This week I got some done....but not a lot.  We are back to working 5 day weeks...having Friday's off was nice if you don't mind losing 20% of your pay!  Today was the only day I could do much this week, tomorrow I am helping a friend take the transmission out of his car.

I did manage to get the fork stops mounted - I didn't weld them but used screws mounted from underneath.  I then polished them up.  Here is a picture of the original ones on the right, RM400 on the left.


I then put a bit of grease on the fork lock, and installed the bottom yoke and stem.  I then operated the lock and it left a dab of grease where I needed to cut a hole in the stem for the fork lock.  The original one used some massive cutter that probably made the hole in about 5 seconds - but all I could do was use my drill press and a milling bit and it took about half an hour.  My drill press is not a very good one and it bounced around a bit - but I went slow and it turned out OK.


Here is what it looks like right now.



I put the GT550 tank on and it appears the fork stop position will work pretty well.  The tank has a hump on the bottom that does not let the tank come down in front as far as it should, and the petcock location is directly above the cylinder and the petcock will have to be moved back farther on the tank.

The next chore is to mount the forks and adjust the size of the axle spacers to work with the narrower front end.

I did not get home until 8:00 PM last night - so I did not have time to do very much.  I had shortened one axle spacer, and in the shortening it removed the large shoulder that rests against the left fork leg.  I shortened the spacer enough that I could attach a thick washer to replace the shoulder - and it turns out the best washer I had for the job was a brass one.  I first soldered the brass washer to the axle spacer using acid core solder:



I then used my Eastwood plating kit and put a new finish on it.


Tonight I will cut the other spacer and get the front wheel mounted.

A question about the stock tree's that you show earlier in this thread, Do they have some built in rake? If so do you know approximately how much. Still waiting on the delivery of our first s40 so can't check for myself. I want to add a bit of rake to my trike and these tree's and forks might be an option for me.

Dave wrote on 02/02/13 at 09:41:16:


Cool, thanks for that. Photos can be deceiving sometimes