Weekend accomplishments.

This weekend I got around to working on the bike.  The first thing I wanted to do it drain the gas tank since the POR-15 tank cleaner/coating is coming in tomorrow.  I started off by draining the carbs' float bowls, which is probably what I should have done when I first bought the bike in August.  I was worried that the gas would already be gummed up in there and/or there would be massive amount of rust in the exiting fuel.  It wasn't that bad actually.  I unscrewed the little bowl screws and released the gas into the packaging from my soldering iron.  The packaging worked perfectly as a nice fuel tray and none of the fuel spilled over the engine.

Float bowl drain screws.

My creative little fuel tray under the float bowls.  Fuel was slight browning.

Emptying the gas tank proved an arduous process.  I thought I would just be able to drain through the petcock, I was wrong.  I had to head back to autozone for a funnel and an adjustable wrench to get the petcock off.  I removed the petcock and drained most of the fuel...slowly.  However a large amount of fuel still remained in some of the cracks and crevices of the tank.  I tried a few different methods, including paper towels to soak it up and siphoning the fuel.  None of these could get the fuel out.  Finally I ran to the grocery store and bought a turkey baster.  This combined with a little tubing at the end worked quite well.  

After draining the tank, I moved on to the next step: the stator and R/R unit.  I tested both for continuity.  I was well pleased to find that the stator seems to be in functioning order (according to continuity tests).  I was ecstatic that the new R/R and my old one (the one that was burned up pretty well) were both fully functional by continuity tests.  

Continuity test on the stator...passed.

Now that the R/R's had passed the tests, I decided to invest a little time in cleaning them up.  I stripped the old R/R of all the burnt up wires and was able to salvage the old connector to the wiring harness. On the new R/R I was able to solder in some new yellow wires which will be insulated and directly soldered to the stator. Hopefully this will help avoid the connector burn outs that caused the original fire.

New wires on the R/R

Before I finished up I decided I would do a little cosmetic work as well. I removed the rear cowl, which had been burnt up and installed the new one.  It's hard to miss this piece.  

Action shot!

Red rear cowl looks good.  Maybe the tank needs a bright color too!