My Darlin' Sonja... is Comin' Back Together... Slowly

The boss was whuppin' on me today. Eight bolts. Eight bolts only. Took me all freakin' day. Four on the exhaust header pipes... Four where the pipes mount to the frame.

Lord... never thought fishing would be a part of motorcycle repairs... but fishing I went... to find the nuts that fell into the 'black hole'...

Of all those nuts/bolts... just one... was an effing son-of-a-bitch.

The rear nut on the back jug... It's the one that can't be got to.

I finally found for six  bucks or so, a universal with a built in socket that I thought would be short enough to fit...

A couple of 'dress rehearsals' ended with the sorry damned nuts falling into a black friggin' hole...

You can see it under the exhaust port on the jug... I ran and got replacement nuts for those that fell into that hole...

But then I thought... what's the unintended consequences of leaving a couple nuts in a hole... inside an engine?...

Sooooo... I sat on a bucket and went to "fishishing" with a bent piece of wire... to hook those nuts out of the innards of my Darlin'...

Then... with some paper towels, plugging up that damned hole... I set to wrasslin', cursing, and jury rigging stick and tape gizmo's... to get the pipes re-situated onto my lil' Darlin's power plant.

I'm NOT a mechanic. A damned fine horseman. A superior soldier. A lousy half of a relationship... a fairly accomplished leather craftsman...

... but a mechanic... this puss gut cowboy biker ain't!

But... this is my Sonja. The Yamaha Mechanical sweetheart that carried me to Alaska and back... across the Arizona desert at 130 mph...

I have no option but to see she gets back together proper.

With bits of wire and tape to fish things into proper position... cursing and rolling 'round in the dirt of the shop... the pipes got reattached in proper position. and then... I started her! and she started! so the battery didnt' take a dump while she's been incarcerated on that damned jack!

I ran her up to a couple of thousand rpm for a while... and lasered the pipes with my tricky little laser thermometer...

The hottest the shroud got was 375 degrees at the head... a far  cry from the 1000 degree rating the powder coating of the pipes is supposed to have... so... good so far. A foot or 18" from the head it was 150 degrees cooler. Excellent!

I stuffed my fingers into the space around the head to pipe connection...hunting for an exhaust leak around the compression washers that seal the headers to the heads... and could find nothing...

Good!

I love this bike... I know that sounds stupid... it's a machine... but damn... I love it.

I'm hunting some new led turn signals to put her saddle bags back together... but that's another problem...

... Lousy paint manufacturers... can't do THAT right...

I picked up two cans... of IDENTICAL paint... labeled the same... "satin black"... two cans in a row...

Crap!

The lid is obviously slicker and glossier... while the tub is ... right... flatter...

Two different finishes... in the SAME... paint. and, it being Epoxie paint... I have to wait another damned week to re re-paint... arrrrgggghhhhh....

but...

There is GOOD news!!!!

When Sonja fired up for the exhaust pipe test run... there was no smoke! I'm fearing a valve guide failure... but... no smoke! :) so... maybe... another miraculous Yamaha Self healing repair!!! :)

Tomorrow, maybe, the J&P cycle order of some sequential turn signal strips... and in a week or so... I'll have the machine that somehow, feeds my soul, back on the road...

Some more work yet to do...that she deserves...

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian