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EXHAUSTED

March 13, 2018

There was not a lot of time to do much today, but I try do at least one job each day when I'm not on the road, even if it is only something small. I did managed to get a few minor jobs put away.

I finished painting the steering box bolts; however, I discovered during the process one is labeled different from the other two even thought they are the same size, length, thread, etc. It's not a big deal in the scheme of things, just something to go into the notebook to investigate later. Those bolts will have to dry a wee bit more before I'm comfortable reinstalling without chipping or marring the paint.

I finally finished the starter installation. With one bolt remaining I was only waiting for the paint on clutch return spring to dry and sufficiently harden before finishing up that job. I did encounter a bit more resistance when installing that bottom bolt than I would have liked, but it's there now and it's gotta be kept. The spring is in place and the clutch seems happy so all is well.

I then finished removing the old exhaust system. The tailpipe hardware was a combination of the bizarre and the tailpipe itself did not have any exhaust pipe assembly paste between it and the muffler. Maybe that's de rigueur, but it seems a bit dangerous to me. The muffler was mounted to the side brace with 1/2" ASE bolts and to the bottom with 5/16" BSF. Go figure. That said, it was all pretty easy to remove, which was nice.

Other than that I took a look at the gas line to tank fitting, which is leaking, and trying to determine if there is an easy fix for that. I tried the old one more quarter turn technique, alas to no avail and the nut would not budge. I dare not push/pull any harder least I end up snapping the line, or ripping the entire assembly out of the tank resulting in several gallons of petrol pouring onto the garage floor. This will have to wait until I get the other jobs done and push #0777 outside and possibly drain the tank.




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