Drew's 850 L Restoration

[jsandidge]

Final drive

Making a little more progress. Got the final drive all polished up, swing arm and shocks installed.





She is starting to resemble a motorcycle now. Next up is the rear wheel. Soon, she will be a roller!

[jsandidge]

cush bushings

Replaced the cush bushings today. Had to take the old ones out to powdercoat the wheel. It was a bit fiddly, but this worked to press them in. Should have the rear wheel on by tomorrow!

[mikerophone]

Nice work! Did you have a similar wood bracket or peice of padded steel on the other side and did you cool them in the freezer or silicon/grease them up?

[jsandidge]

Nice work! Did you have a similar wood bracket or peice of padded steel on the other side and did you cool them in the freezer or silicon/grease them up?

Yes, there was another block of wood on the other side to sandwich it together. All I used for lube was dish soap.

[growler]

Question, why did you replace these? I was just in my rear wheel to replace the drive spline, should I have done these too?

Replaced the cush bushings today. Had to take the old ones out to powdercoat the wheel. It was a bit fiddly, but this worked to press them in. Should have the rear wheel on by tomorrow!

[jsandidge]

Question, why did you replace these? I was just in my rear wheel to replace the drive spline, should I have done these too?

I doubt you have any need to replace them. They will probably last longer than the bike. I pulled mine out to powdercoat the wheel, since I doubt they would have withstood the 400 degree temps. Since they were out, I decided to replace with new ones.

[jsandidge]

Rear wheel done!

Whew! This was quite the ordeal. Rear wheel is finally done. We have a roller! The past couple of weekends have been busy. Polished and powdercoated the wheel, pressed in new cush bushings and bearings, then mounted the tire. Then, I powdercoated the center and edge of the brake rotor and installed it, powdercoated the right side spacers and caliper mount, balanced the wheel and installed the whole wheel assembly. Oh, also installed a black driven gear from a 1980 850 thanks to a member here. Not too bad for a guy that had never really worked on a motorcycle (or cars for that matter) before finding this site 2 years ago.

Here's the proof!

[alke46]

Nothing better to look at than what appears to be a fresh from the factory model. Great job.!!

[eil]

Right on. Looking spiff!

[jsandidge]

I've been slack on the updates, but not on the progress. I'll post some pics next weekend. But..... She lives again !!! Started her up today for the first time in 10 months. Still have to do a carb synch and dial everything in. Running a little rich right now. I'm 1 size over on the mains, 2-1/2 turns out on the mixture screws. I've been told that these bikes do better at sea level with the larger mains, but I'm not sure if that's quite right. I'll play with it. No road test yet, still have stuff hanging all over the place, but I'm happy.

[jsandidge]

First ride!

Well I just couldn't wait till everything was finished. Took her for a ride around the neighborhood today. Boy that felt good! No lights, gauges, or fenders, so I just went a couple of blocks (a few times, hehe). Plenty of work left to do. Haven't even started on paint yet.

[Cyrano]

That's just the kind of motivation boost to on with the final push. Are you doing the paint yourself?

[jsandidge]

Yes I am. It will be my first attempt to paint anything. Still trying to decide on the scheme.

[mikerophone]

Glad to see you're still at it on this, this bike will be so cherry when you're done.

I think I told you before, but I have the same bike and I can only hope they mine looks half as good as yours does one day!

[Dirty Deeds]

It's next week, let's see some updated pics of your progress.