I'm in, I love any rebuild thread!

 

Yes, me too!

 

Wow! Wish I had your workshop set-up and knowledge/skill/experience

 

Haha well let's not be too hasty with all this ego-inflating talk. I can personally guarantee that all skills/experience were earned by screwing things up the first time...

...and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th times too

The workshop is honestly pretty darn nice. Tricky part was convincing the wife that garages are not meant for parking cars in

 

What helped my case was in our previous apartment I didn't have any space to work on my bikes, so I would take things apart in the living room. Changing fork seals in the carpeted living-room was almost the tipping-point. Years later, when we eventually started house shopping, I reminded her of the fork seals and she let me have the garage without too much fuss. All she asks is that I handle all vehicle maintenance, and that her cars are equipped with a remote starter so that she doesn't have to drive a cold car in the winter. Plus she gets full creative control over kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms. I thought that was pretty reasonable

 

Hmmm...........fiendishly clever methinks

 

First start this weekend. Level of nerves proportional to number of hours. Both are higher than I'd like to admit

Wish me luck!

 

Just when you think it's not going to start ,you'll remember to turn the petcock on, and umpteen other thinks to make you doubt that its going to start, but it will, so get that can of beer ready (and cooled) and enjoy the moment

 

Yup. I've got a nice single-malt set aside. It will either be celebratory or consolatory

There's nothing quite like the horrible sounds and smells a new engine makes on first start though. It's a perfect time to question one's competence

Will post results as they are known...

 

Update - the bike starts and runs easily. After a bit of oily smoke as the assembly lube burned off, I was able to run it for 20 minutes at 2000 rpm with no major problems. I did notice that it won't idle properly, apparently lean

In order to test whether the fuel pump was the cause, I bypassed it and ran it a second time. Same result. Suspect that the carbs are gummed up, so they'll be my next stop. If I could justify the cost, I'd consider picking up a set of the improved MK2 carbs, but that'll need to wait for the time-being

Santa brought me a nice new battery, which brings our parts list down to just a chain and sprockets. Once I get it running properly, I can start with the bodywork

There's a lot of bodywork... Ugh

It does sound nice though, with the rotted-out baffles giving a deep and tinny tone to the original's subdued civility. No choice but to finish now