Howdy folks,
Sunday it was a ridiculously balmy 66 degrees here in C-town. I helped Amy clean house for a while with a mop I broke at the last party, so the handle was about a foot long. I was about to head down to Garner's when the man himself rapped on my door, MC Homelite in tow.
He was going for round 3 or 4 with the ol' Maple, but the old chainsaw just wouldn't go. As soon as he put some ass into it, it would just bog down. We fiddled with it for a few minutes and then gave up altogether. You win again this time, Maple, but your time will come.
I grabbed some distilled water for my battery, and headed south to Garner's. I beat him there, and he pulled up shortly after with some Pony Express and Lone Star. Ah, a couple of guys drinkin', workin' on motorcycles. Couldn't get much more macho than that. As I tore into the engine, we chatted about girls, stealing golf carts and other heavy machinery while whiskey drunk, That guy might get me into trouble one of these days. Good times.
I got the exhaust loose and removed the upper engine mount. I took the valve cover cap nuts off, but the cover wouldn't come off until I had removed the rear and front engine mount bolts and rotated the engine forward a little.
The camshaft galley and rockers looked neat and clean, and were coated with oil. No moisture up here. Not much wear. I tried for a while to get the bolts out of the cam chain sprocket so I could get the head off, to no avail. I couldn't rotate them into an accessible position, the engine being seized up and all. I loosened the cam chain tension all the way, but it didn't make much difference. I think with the purchase of a 1/4" drive u-joint, I can get to the top one at least, and rotate the engine as a last resort to get to the other bolt.
I got fed up with mine and put a clutch cable on Mark's bike. The screws in the case broke loose relatively easy, to my surprise. I had to drill out the hole in the case a little so the cheap aftermarket cable would fit. Worked like a charm. His bike is almost ready to go.
I finished out the evening at garners hanging out with his roommate and house guest, drinkin' a few more Lone Stars and shooting the shit.
Next up is dealing with the local Honda shop, which I despise. The customer service is lousy. If you call in to order a few things (petcock seals in this case), you inevitably get put on hold. They have this horrible store song on an endless loop. 5 minutes of that and I want to smash the phone repeatedly into the desk until it shatters. Last time I lasted two minutes before I hung up. If you do get through, the parts guys really don't give a crap about you or your stupid '72 Honda. Has to be done though, unless I want to drive 30 miles to the other nearest Honda dealer in Jeff City.