"Putting on the Game Face" |
I know I should be concerned more about the seized piston in Kawasaki, bike 3. I am, but I'm even more concerned about about the stator coils in bike 2. I went up into Michigan to pick it up and discovered when I got there that the coils were missing. This was disconcerting because of all the parts it takes to get a Bighorn running, the stator coils are the hardest to find. I had about given up trying to find the part on Ebay when low and behold a stator plate with the the two coils popped up and I bought the part immediately. Today it arrived and I went at once to bike 2 to see if it was the correct one by fitting it on the primary shaft. It was the right part, that was the good news but the bad news was that the old owner of bike 2 had sheared off the screws in trying to get the plate off, many years ago. So in the engine case two of the three screws are broken off inside the attachment holes. This means that I will have to drill them out tomorrow, put an extractor in the hole and try and twist them out without destroying the threads in the process. I will also need to be careful that I don't drill too deep and go through the case. Some damage is certain to occur, so I'll need to take a tap and repair the consequences of the extraction process. Once I accomplish this there is no assurance that the coils I received off Ebay will still be operative, having been fabricated almost fifty years ago. If I find that to be the case the only option left is to convert to a modern electronics system and that is very expensive. Oh well, whatever it takes. Speaking of repairs, the jet on the float bowl of the carburetor sheared off and I will have to drill that out and try and extract the remains. So, I have the slide operating for the throttle cable. Since there are 4 variations on the carburetor I'm not sure about some of the details particularly how the choke will operate. In addition there are the jets that are hopelessly locked tight in their threads as a result of long term corrosion and rust. I ordered a book on parts numbers for a Bighorn. I hope it has an electrical wiring diagram. |