1200 Conversion Pt. 2

It’s been raining all weekend here but that wasn’t going to stop me from getting started on the conversion so I put on the rain gear and headed over to a friend’s house since he’s got the tools and a lot more know-how than I do.

Crude was graceful enough to let me do all of the work, which is what I wanted because I need to learn how to do this stuff. Disassembly wasn’t all that bad, just tedious, and went without too many major hitches. A couple bolts didn’t want to come out so Crude had to cold chisel them, including the nut holding the front pulley on.

Speaking of the front pulley, we took it off to get at the neutral switch, which had failed a few months ago. It was definitely a good thing that we took a look at it because the pulley’s splines were almost totally stripped out. There was less than a millimeter left, which means that I would have been left stranded on the road some time soon.

So now I’ve got the heads and cylinders in the garage. The cylinders will be shipped out tomorrow, the heads will be dropped off at Evolution Bike Works on Tuesday for a valve job, and I’ve got a list of parts to order from the dealership. Reassembly starts when all of the parts are back, which should be about three weeks from now.