Ok,here goes. I finally finished cleaning & started the assembly. I found the A-arm a
little rusty so I sandblasted & painted it, the same for a few minor brackets here &
there. I didn't need to get any new bushings or bearings, just a good cleaning &
greasing was required. I ordered another rubber cover for the other side of the A-arm
just to even things out. I installed the plastic guards on the front swingarm.
(they're neat). I found the front shock remote reservoir bracket developed 2 cracks,
so I replicated a new one.On the rear a good cleaning & greasing was also required. On
the rear swingarm I noticed some chipping from the road debris the tire kicks up. I
made an aluminum guard for the top of the swingarm facing the tire, with a plastic
fender extension on the bottom to help deflect some grime from the shock & its
linkages. I also changed the tires, checked the wheel bearings etc. The engine's back
in its place, so is the front part of the exhaust & the catalytic converter.The front
end is on short of the front wheel (I left it off because of the brake work coming
up). The fairing bracket,headlight,wiring harness,rear tail (short of the side panels)
are all on. On the electrical side I made sure any metal brackets coming in contact
with the wiring harness were well rubberized. Keeping the upcoming engine upgrades in
mind I took the opportunity to get the ignition system set up at this point as well.
The air box is back in place . I had to make a new heat deflector that covers the
front part of the air box as the original was so dry , hard & full of cracks that it
broke in a couple of pieces when I removed it. When I removed the original front brake
pads to put on the new ones,I found they were cracked & missing pieces in the corners.
For the taillight I decided to turn the flashers into running lights as well . (One of
the boys in the bike shop saw this & decided to take it on himself & made the
flashers red like the taillight. It's real neat.) The parts I ordered so far from
Yamaha have all come in within a week. Quite impressive. On the aftermarket side, I
had a tough time locating & acquiring a tinted shield. (An extremely very special
thanks goes to Kevin Hawkins in this dept.) I received my front Ohlins shock but the
rear is going to be only coming in May.(Promised by Ohlins). The HU is ready for
installation as well. This weekend,you guessed it. The brake lines. I've done so much
that I most probably left out a bunch of little things. I do things as I go along, you
know how it is. Overall, for a bike that was supposed to be taken care of, it really
needed this overhaul. More to come.Peter Piazza
