Teardown
Yesterday good! Today good, too.
Yesterday was back to grind. Still having a hard time getting up and productive right away in the morning. However, Once I did get rolling I managed to stay so until my goal of working until 5pm! What helped was getting a little job from Adam which gave me good direction to just start cranking, definitely helping kick me off into routine mode.
Regarding work, today has also been good. Still started a little late, but not as late as yesterday. A little bit each day, right?
I had totally forgotten what it was like to have a work schedule and a "time off!" I'm thinking this will be productive for me.
XJ650 Seca Teardown
Anyway, after I got "off work" yesterday I went out in the garage to continue the teardown of the motorcycle. After getting the clutch and shifter out, I realized that I could NOT access what I was hoping to from the side of the bike, and the fix is indeed going to require me removing the engine from the bike and splitting it wide open.
So then begs the question... just get it tuned up so it goes down the road okay? just crack it open and fix 1st gear? Or while I have the engine out just strip it down bare and start the restoration process?
Ultimately I've decided on the latter. Actually it's not as crazy as it sounds. Well, okay so maybe it is. The upshot is that most of the little things the bike needs are on the surface and can be twiddled with after getting the thing back together and running. The one thing that really requires a full strip-down, of course, is the frame. It's got rust on it! This obviously won't do.
So, I'm going to strip it down to the frame, then I'm going to paint the frame, and put it back together. I'm also going to re-paint the engine block itself. Beyond that I'm just going to clean everything as it goes back together, and later when I have more cash, I can start replacing little bits like cracked engine covers, banged up gauges, turn signals, headlight, etc. For the time being, though, I can just slap all the current stuff back on and deal with that piece by piece.
Yesterday was back to grind. Still having a hard time getting up and productive right away in the morning. However, Once I did get rolling I managed to stay so until my goal of working until 5pm! What helped was getting a little job from Adam which gave me good direction to just start cranking, definitely helping kick me off into routine mode.
Regarding work, today has also been good. Still started a little late, but not as late as yesterday. A little bit each day, right?
I had totally forgotten what it was like to have a work schedule and a "time off!" I'm thinking this will be productive for me.
XJ650 Seca Teardown
Anyway, after I got "off work" yesterday I went out in the garage to continue the teardown of the motorcycle. After getting the clutch and shifter out, I realized that I could NOT access what I was hoping to from the side of the bike, and the fix is indeed going to require me removing the engine from the bike and splitting it wide open.
So then begs the question... just get it tuned up so it goes down the road okay? just crack it open and fix 1st gear? Or while I have the engine out just strip it down bare and start the restoration process?
Ultimately I've decided on the latter. Actually it's not as crazy as it sounds. Well, okay so maybe it is. The upshot is that most of the little things the bike needs are on the surface and can be twiddled with after getting the thing back together and running. The one thing that really requires a full strip-down, of course, is the frame. It's got rust on it! This obviously won't do.
So, I'm going to strip it down to the frame, then I'm going to paint the frame, and put it back together. I'm also going to re-paint the engine block itself. Beyond that I'm just going to clean everything as it goes back together, and later when I have more cash, I can start replacing little bits like cracked engine covers, banged up gauges, turn signals, headlight, etc. For the time being, though, I can just slap all the current stuff back on and deal with that piece by piece.