Deeper down the rabbit hole...
I got back at it last night. My goal is to do at least one thing to the bike from the race prep list every day. At the end of the week, a surprising amount of items from the list get done. Last night I focused on the coolant system. I needed to drain the coolant and drill the water pump drain bolt and the water jacket drain bolt for the cylinders. Of course coolant got everywhere despite my best efforts to direct it into an awaiting vessel. I also removed the radiator to get access to the cylinder head oil feed line. This is where things get dirty. Literally.
The entire front, bottom and sides of the engine are covered in grime from some combination of oil seepage, road detritus, excessive chain lube and who knows what else. I have noticed a time or two an occasional drop of oil on the floor of the shop after running the engine. I figured I had a leak and went ahead and got some new gaskets for the cylinder head oil line along with some other parts. Now I have to get out the cleaner and work at cleaning up years of neglected oil contamination thanks to a string of previous owners that never considered removing the gunk. Wonderful.
I pulled off the front sprocket cover to see how bad the grunge could be. Thankfully it is only as bad as I imagined. I did notice that the gear shift safety switch lead was very loose. Could this be the cause of my loss of power? I will test it when I get the bike back together. I will also go through the forums for some wisdom from the collective Ninjette mind.
I do envision myself going deeper into the abyss of removing parts to clean up gunk, only to remove more still until I end up knee deep in Ninja parts strewn about the garage. I am justifiably nervous in this as I feel the eyes of the '73 Yamaha boring into me every minute I work on the Ninja as it sits in its disassembled state that has been its customary form for the past 8 years. Let's just hope that the goal of getting to a track day prior to my January race keeps me on track (pun not intended). More to come.
Blue
The entire front, bottom and sides of the engine are covered in grime from some combination of oil seepage, road detritus, excessive chain lube and who knows what else. I have noticed a time or two an occasional drop of oil on the floor of the shop after running the engine. I figured I had a leak and went ahead and got some new gaskets for the cylinder head oil line along with some other parts. Now I have to get out the cleaner and work at cleaning up years of neglected oil contamination thanks to a string of previous owners that never considered removing the gunk. Wonderful.
I pulled off the front sprocket cover to see how bad the grunge could be. Thankfully it is only as bad as I imagined. I did notice that the gear shift safety switch lead was very loose. Could this be the cause of my loss of power? I will test it when I get the bike back together. I will also go through the forums for some wisdom from the collective Ninjette mind.
I do envision myself going deeper into the abyss of removing parts to clean up gunk, only to remove more still until I end up knee deep in Ninja parts strewn about the garage. I am justifiably nervous in this as I feel the eyes of the '73 Yamaha boring into me every minute I work on the Ninja as it sits in its disassembled state that has been its customary form for the past 8 years. Let's just hope that the goal of getting to a track day prior to my January race keeps me on track (pun not intended). More to come.
Blue
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