Friday 18 March 2011

Now that's not what I need!

Well things didn’t start to well yesterday morning, three turns of the ratchet and the bolt sheared off, “GREAT just great!”


Going from this.............



To this........... Well Chuffed!
For me, this is what rebuilding Trinity all about.

(It took 8 attempts to take this picture but got there in the end)


I had a full day to work on Trinity yesterday so starting off with a sheared bolt did not instil confidence but “onwards and upwards” as they say. 
The rough plan for the day was to fit the wiring loom and then the fairing mounting brackets which were all sat in a box wrapped in bubble wrap.  I wimped out and started with the brackets as I just didn’t really relish the thought of fitting the loom.
Now the abba stand is fitted moving Trinity round is a doddle so I got her set up in the middle of the garage. Set up the laptop on the bench with Picasa open. I’m no mechanic by any stretch of the imagination so I took loads & I mean loads of pictures, somewhere in the region of 200. The bolts I needed were all in one large envelope with “Frame mounting bolts” written on it, so I matched the Stainless Steel Allan bolts with the originals & started polishing, covering the laptop with dust in the process. What a day!


Amazing the difference 10 minutes with a polisher can make.


When it came to fitting the brackets it was just a quick look at a photo and job done. Spending ten minutes per bolt gobbled up quite a bit of time but I’m in no rush. The main thing is Trinity is put together correctly and looking as good as I can possibly get her.
Starting on the offside lower fairing bracket which is where the bolt sheared off but I’ll drill that out another day. I cracked on regardless and the day just got better. The brackets went on very easy with the aid of the pictures. No messing or guessing just look at the picture and match the bracket. Fitting the petrol pump brackets proved to be a little interesting as I was not 100% sure where they went until I put the pump back on the bracket then everything fell into place. Fitting a new fuel filter and attaching it to the bracket made the job a doddle.



Nice and clean, but for how long?


Next job on the agenda was to drop the front wheel and fit the bearing retainer clip which I had borrowed to fit in the Swing arm. Yes they are both the exact same size.
Sadly I couldn't put it off any longer and set about fitting the wiring loom.  When I looked at the pictures I then realised the battery tray needed fitting as most of the relays attach to it in some way or another. Whilst I was at it I fitted the rear mudguard but will be taking off the rear indicators as I have brand new  original Kawasaki ones to fit at a later date.



To my surprise the loom went on a dream. Again my non mechanic approach of labelling all the connectors paid off in spades. Espacially when I came to attaching the wires to the coils each connector went
1)      Top Coil top wire
2)      Top Coil bottom wire
3)      Bottom Coil top wire
4)      Bottom Coil bottom wire,   Job done!
The wiring from the ignition switch tucked in quite easily through the whole in the frame but I’m not 100% sure I have laid the cable in the right way so will get Steve to come over and I can have a look at his ZXR.


Trinity is starting to take shape again.

Being at the front of the bike I fitted the clocks, I’ve still not been able to find a replacement for the black sponge cover that runs along the top edge of the headlight, so they remain on the shelf for now. I know it’s just to seal the nose fairing a little but it's really bugging me. The side lights will also be renewed as the foam seals have dried up and split too.
As I was looking through the pictures I noticed I had laid one of the breather pipes up the wrong side of the cabs so took it off and sorted it out. Other things that jumped out from the pictures included, the wire from the coil being attached to the relay, the earth lead to the engine, the fixing of the cables to the frame & finally the earth lead to the Petrol pump bolt all prompted me to finish off a little bit more.



So all in all after a pretty crap start, the day finished on a high. Day off tomorrow, well from Trinity that is!

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