It's April, 2006.  Buster is still covered up, no battery installed yet.  I want to get his chain & sprockets changed before I take him out.  I should get working on that soon!

Here we are now in August, and the job's still not done.  We've made a lot of progress, Buster and I, but we're still not done.  Chain guard came off pretty easily.  Then I had to get the covers off of the transmission to get at the front sprocket.  I ended up taking off the shifter peg, and the footpeg.  Of the 9 screws that held the transmission cover on, two ended up being rounded out pretty bad. 

Back in May I got a torch, and some parrafin wax.  A trick from the VJMC folks was to heat up the screw or bolt, then melt some wax into the threads.  There's a big word they used to describe the wax, that I can't remember, but essentially it displaces whatever's holding the parts together.  Heat, wax, and the impact driver got one of these last two screws out.  The last one required heat, wax, and an EZ Out.  I've never used one of these before.  My brother warned me about drilling the hole on an angle and screwing up the other side of the screw, and what it goes into.  I got the screw out, and sure enough had gone into it on an angle, wand went through it into the cover itself.  But that's ok, because what I messed up is an insert that fits into the crankcase.  No threads in that part of the cover are used to hold it in place, or hold it tight.  Hooray, the cover's off!  I started the job in mid May, got the cover off in early August.  The sprocket cover came next-2 screws, impact driver, and I'm golden.

I got the cover off on a Saturday morning.  Lynn took the kids across the street to play with Ava.  They weren't back yet, so I guess I can keep going.  I pried the master link clip off of the old chain, took it off.  Took the old front sprocket off, and couldn't believe the grease and gunk that built up there.  Cleaned it out, and put on the new front sprocket.  Now I'm feeling pretty good!  Next, the back wheel.  I was dreading this, thinking that it's going to be the tough part.  Wheel off was easy.  Old sprocket off was tough-I'm guessing there was Loc-tite on the threads, because they were locked on pretty tight!  There are washer thingies with tabs that bend up around the nuts that I bent up getting the nuts off, so I pounded them both flat again, and took the sprocket off.  New one fits, but there's a lot of dirt, so I'll clean the wheel before I mount the sprocket.  I'll also clean the swingarm and undersides while I have the wheel off. 

On Sunday morning, I cleaned the wheel, mounted the sprocket, cleaned the underside of the bike, and was faced with the next impossible task-remounting the back wheel.  I wriggled it under the fender, set it up on a 2X4, and pushed it onto the forks.  It slid right on!  I couldn't believe it!  The wheel is on!  Hooray!  Monday night I cut the chain to the right size, three times, and got it on.  Tuesday I lined up the rear wheel, adjusted the chain tension, tightened it down, and reattached the rear brake arm and lever. 

Earlier in the week-maybe Monday?-I ordered a replacement set of Allen head screws.  I can't put the covers back on until they come in.  I can clean the covers though, so I started on that.  Tore the gasket on the transmission cover.  I had been debating replacing it, and was leaning towads keeping the old one.  Now I'm committed.  My local Honda dealer will have it to me in 3 to 5 business days.  I'm on hold now for both the gasket and the screws.  In the meantime I'll clean and polish the covers, and put a dab or two of touch up paint on the worst spots on the chain guard.  Lots of progress, but still not done. 

On August 26, the stars lined up.  I had the screws, the gasket, and some time.  Lynn & the kids were driving back from Grand Haven Saturday morning, so I put him back together.  The good news was, everything went back together nicely.  I like the allen head screws!  The bad news was, the front brake was dragging.  Bad.  I loosened it just to be able to ride Buster up and down the street.  That was cool!  The brake, however, was not cool.  I figured I could tear the caliper down, clean it, then get it back together again before they got back.  I ran to the store to get brake fluid & cleaner.  Took the brake apart, used the existing fluid to pump out the puck.  Cleaned it, reassembled, mounted it up.  Then I got to use my new fancy pressurized brake bleader.  I had the bleed valve at the caliper still set too tight, so no matter what I did no fluid went into the system.  Once I opened it up, I sprayed brake fluid up  through the master cylinder, onto my nice shiny paint.  Not good.  I grabbed the garden hose, cleaned off what I could, and waxed the tank about 3 times.  The paint is damaged, but not too bad.  The bleeder works, but it needs control valves on the air side and the brake fluid side.  It also wouldn't hurt if it was free standing.  A job for another day.  With the brake reassembled and bled, it still drags.  So either I didn't clean it well enough, or the master cylinder itself needs torn down.  I drained the line, took off the front caliper, then rode him through the neighborhood before parking him back in the garage.

Here we are on September 8.  Last night, I started on the master cylinder.  It's dirty & cruddy.  I'll tear it down & rebuild it.  As I was riding to work this morning, it dawned on me that I could take the master cylinder off of Bergie & put it on Buster if I really needed to.  I was hoping to have Buster all fixed up by Oct. 1 for the Holly bike show.  I don't think I'm going to make it.  I ordered the rebuild kit, and a new front tire.  I'm pretty sure I'll just write off the riding season this year for Buster, and concentrate on getting him ready for next year.  New chain & sprockets, new brake system, new tire.  That should make him pretty darned safe.  I am sad though that I won't get him out on the road this year.

Buster lives!  The tire (with inner tube & rim strip) and the master cylinder rebuild kit all came during the week.  We were home on the weekend of the 16th, so it seemed like a good time to have a go at fixing him up.  I figured the tire would give me the most trouble, since I'm an old pro at brakes by now.  First I tried to take the speedometer cable out of the front hub.  Screw was stuck.  Hit it a few times with the impact driver-still stuck.  Could it be already that my whole project is sunk on the very first screw?  No way!  I disconnected the cable from the gauge, and loostened the bolts that hold the axle retainers on.  (On Monday, a quick scan of the SOHC4 forums shows this is a common workaround).  So far, so good.  I already had Buster on the center stands, and jacked him up on the crash bar.  Wheel came right off.  Now, I have a great homemade brake bleeder tool, and I saw a homemade jig on SOHC4 that's just for holding tires.  Instead, I have 2 4X4's on the tailgate of my pickup truck.  I let the air out, and got my tire irons.  About this time, Karl comes over to see what I'm up to.  He brings a valve core tool, but the core in the old inner tube doesn't come out.  We squeeze more air out, but there's still some in there.  No big deal-we pry the tire loose, pull the tube, then take the tire off.  Nothing to it!  The rim shows some rust, so I clean it up with WD-40, then soap & water.  I let it dry, since it should never be exposed to air again.  Once it's dry, I put the new rim strip in, and out one edge of the new tire on.  Now, how do I get that inner tube on?  I'm trying to get it on through the side with the interior of the rim exposed, not through the side that still has the tire hanging off of it.  I'm having some problems, but I think I'm getting close to being able to stick that valve in through the hole.  Karl comes over, and he gets the stem through the hole, but on the other side of the tire.  This means we have to try to force the tube under the tire.  All in all, this is a bad idea.  We got half way, and it just wasn't working.  Took it back out, and then figured out that if we set the rim on the 4X4's with the hole centered between them, put tire irons on either side of the hole, and swing a leg up into the truck to hold the rim down, we can pry the tire down enough to feed the stem through.  From there, it's easy enough to get the tube in.  Leveraging the tire back on was hard, but we got that done too.  Filled it with air, then heard the most awful sound-air hissing back out.  In minutes, it was flat.  We took one side of the tire off, pulled the tube out, and sure enough there were puncture marks from trying to push the tube through the tire with the tire irons.  Fortunately, Nicholson's had tubes, and they didn't close until 4:00 pm.  We fed the old tube into the rim & tire, then blew it up to try to stretch the tire out.  I took the family to my son's very first ever soccer game, then drive over to get a new tube.  After the game (his team, the Tigers, scored two goals-one for each team) I centered the valve hole between the 4X4's and my tire irons, hoisted my leg over, and got the tube on.  The tire was tricky.  I got it about halfway on, then every time I moved my tire irons part of the bead came back out, so I was chasing it around the rim.  Then I got an idea-clamps!   I took two C clamps, and squeezed the lip of the tire together just at the point where the lip was coming out of the rim.  One on each side.  WIth that, I was able to work my way in with the tire irons, and there it was!  I filled it with air, and listened.  No sound!  Success!  Mounted the tire, lowered the bike, and hooked up the speedometer cable.  Now, the brake!

I woke up Sunday morning sore.  I guess I didn't realize how much effort it took to change that tire.  I couldn't sleep in though-I had to work on that brake.  I figured that even if I didn't finish on Sunday, the job could be done in small bites all week long.  Comforting, but not necessary.  The rebuild kit went together perfectly, and within half an hour the master cylinder was remounted.  The caliper took maybe a little bit less time before it was installed and connected.  Time to try my nifty pressurized brake bleeder.  It had been sitting, and looked like some moisture had gotten into the lines, so first I flushed it out with brake fluid, then hooked it up.  When I used it before, I didn't have the bleeder valve open enough, so the fluid didn't come through.  This time, I could hear the air hissing up through the lines.  Still no fluid though-turns out I didn't put enough fluid in to flush AND fill, so I put more in the bleeder.  Now, I can see it flowing up!  I added valves to the bleeder lines so I can control the flow.  I also taped a manilla folder around the master cylinder to catch any spray.  No problems this time-it filled right to the line.  I closed the valve, drained the rest of the fluid out, and I'm done!  Not quite.  I must not have had the metal line out of the caliper as my highest point, because there was still some air in there.  Small squeezes on the brake handle released bubbles.  It's not a perfect system, but it's a lot less messy than what I've done before.  A little more squeezing, and the brake is firming up.

TIME TO RIDE!  Took the kids for a quick ride up & down the street, took Lynn for a quick ride down the street.  He's doing pretty darned good!  His battery was weak, so I rode him around through the neighborhood for a few minutes.  While cleaning up, listening to the Lions get mauled by the Bears, I'd squeeze the brake handle a few times & see tiny bubbles in the master cylinder.  Each time, the brake gets more firm.  I lube the chain, then take him for a nice, long ride.  On the highway, he gets up to 90 (on my speedometer-around 70 for the rest of you) with no problem at all.  I think the highway problem from way back was because the fule flow was constricted.  No wheels fall off, the brake works good, no chain banging.  Overall, I'm impressed, and happy.  I think I did a good job!  I'll run him just enough to have to change the oil this year.  Speaking of oil, I need to check it.  Some came out when I took those covers off.  It wouldn't do to ride up to Holly if he wasn't full.   I'll have time to shine him up-it's raining today,