Sheesh. This might be my first drunk post in a long while! So...uh...yeah.
I went to Snappers, then Shattered tonight, after drinking lots of whikkey and Big K cola. Only the finest for me and Amy.
Good times were had. There must have been a bachelorette party goin on at Shatt, for there was a lady in a veil and an entourage of other drunk skanks in tow. It was cool, though, and we hung out with Steve-o and got turbo drunk. I might even have texted the taxi blog guy, but he has not, as of yet, replied to the lowly text message. I saw some of his bathroom graffiti last night at Eastside.
So yeah, I'm going to listen to some Ace of Base and watch some teevee and go to sleep now.
Congrats on viewing the latest Drunk Again post.
-C

Well, the other day I finally got around to picking up my order at the Honda shop. I got the seals in for the petcock and tank. I went straight to Garner's and went to work on Mark's Honda.
I replaced the tank-to-petcock seals, and the rubber piece inside the valve itself. After getting that installed, I attached new fuel line from the shutoff to the carbs, and I had to scrounge a new piece for the little hose that goes between the two sides of the tank.
I put some gas in, and immediately it started running out of the tank hose. I frantically ran around the garage trying to find some sort of hose clamps while fuel spilled onto Garner's floor. I tried some zip-ties. They were too old and brittle, and snapped while I was putting them on. I finally found some small screw clamps in a drawer and managed to clamp one down before the whole half-gallon of gas ended up on the floor.
Well, let's fire 'er up!! I took my old battery, which is on it's last leg, off the charger and threw it in.
I cranked and cranked - nothing. I checked for fuel in the float bowls. Plenty. Checked for spark. None. The damn thing ran before!! What the hell is up? Then I remembered a mystery toggle switch up by the headlight. I flipped it to "on", kicked it, and bam! She fired right up.
I let it idle a bit with the choke on. I messed with the carb throttle and air bleed screws, and got it running pretty smoothly. By now it was dark, and I hopped on that bitch and took it down the street. It seemed to starve for fuel when I got on it a little. I limped it back and tinkered on it for a while, but it just wouldn't idle. So I put it back, and resolved to work on it the next day. Then I looked down; I had adjusted everything with the damn choke on the whole time! I flipped the choke off, and hit the starter, and the engine soared to a couple of thousand rpm. Damn! Just one of those things you forget to do when you're excited.
The next day I re-adjusted everything. It had a bit of trouble when it was cold...my 500 is cold-blooded too. But when it was warmed up, I got on it and took off down the street.
Damn!! That 350 is QUICK!! I blasted around a few blocks and a bunch of people saw a guy with a huge grin fly by. It still seemed a bit rough in the mid rpm range, so I took it back and brought out the air bleeds another 1/4 turn. I hopped on it again, and blasted around a bit more.
I can't believe how tourquey that damn thing is! Way quicker than my 500! It was a blast! And so far, running perfectly.
Like I said, you just can't kill a Honda.

The belly of the beast...
Hey folks, at last an update on the Honda situation:
A couple of weeks ago I cruised over to Gjarner's after work, intending to pull the engine out and tear the upper half into pieces. I did just that. I got the front sprocket cover off after drilling out a screw, and pulled off the exhaust and footpegs. I got the engine out of the right hand side, and set it on the bench. Well, that was my first ever engine removal. Next it pulled the head off and tried to pull the cylinder barrels off, but the left hand piston was frozen in the cylinder. You can see why in the pic; there is a nice coating of rust in the upper half of the cylinder, while the right one is in perfect shape. I shot a bunch of penetrant in the cylinder and took off for the night.
The next night I knocked on Gjarner's door and headed to the garage. He came out shortly, and started cleaning the garage while I finally got the cylinder pulled off of the engine. Yet another first: cylinder removal. I've never had an engine down to the pistons before (Well, except for model airplane engines in high school.)
That's been about it, really. I cleaned up the frame on the enginless cycle, stored all the parts in their appropriate cardboard boxes and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter tubs, and chatted with G. I plan on taking the cylinders to Marko Customs on Garner's recommendation for a cleanup bore on the left side. Hopefully, I will not need to bore it out enough to require oversize pistons, as I am not sure of the availability of those. And you all know how much I like to deal with the local Honda shop. I still haven't received an order for all the seals for the petcock and tank for the other cycle. I went there tonight and the parts department had closed early. Go figure.
So yeah, I'll update when I find out about the cylinders.