It's been awhile, so I thought I'd post an update.
I got my parts back from RB Designs. Excellent work with quick turn-around as usual. I won't post any photos until later as you've all seen it before.
I dropped off my 2 sets of forks at LT Racing in Port Orchard, WA for revalve and shortening. I was going to do it myself but the learning curve seemed really steep to figure out how to do it properly. Les is a really nice guy with a reputation of doing excellent work. He'll shorten the forks by 7/8" and is ordering springs shortened by that amount too. They'll be ready in 3 weeks or so.
I dropped off my frames and hubs for powdercoating at Powdervision in Issaquah, WA. The frames will be Kawasaki green. I had wanted to have the hubs done in black chrome but found that, since it's a 2 coat finish, it would be quite expensive. I was just going to do black but JR could do it in metallic bronze for the same price. I hope it looks ok. They'll be done in about another week.
The hubs were another PITA. I just could not get the center bushings pushed far enough out of the ways to drift out the bearings. I ended up buying a Tusk blind bearing puller. Even with that, and heat, it took quite a bit of effort to pull the bearings. After 16 years, there was corrosion between the bearings and the aluminum seats. Also, the bushings had corrosion causing them to be frozen in position.
I really need to get the cases split, but I've been putting it off because someone welded the shift lever to the shaft. I have a new shaft and lever already, so I just need to destroy this one in the easiest manner. Maybe a sawzall? Edit: Looking at the photo, I realized it was just a small spot weld. I filed it flush in about 10 minutes and got it freed. Both the shaft and shifter splines were fine. It appears that someone probably lost the pinch bolt and did a quick fix.
I have been working on cleaning up parts. I cleaned the radiators with the Mag wheel cleaner. I also had to straighten 3 of them with a drift along the long edges with a hammer. Tapping lightly, I took a full 1" bend and twist out of a couple of them. I then used tweezers to straighten out lots of fins. Someone must of hit them hard with a pressure washer.
When I disassembled the wheels, I found that about a dozen spokes are unusable. A couple dozen nipples were too rusted on the heads for me to want to use again. I figure I'll end up with enough spokes and nipples for one bike. After much research , the second bike will be getting a new set of front KX250 and rear KDX spokes from Buchanan. After cleaning the existing spokes in the parts washer, they still looked really dull. A drill, some metal polish, and a teenager fixed that.
Polished nipples are nice...
Next week will include splitting the cases and getting the cranks to RB Design for rebuild. Also, I'll finish with ordering parts and continue with the parts cleaning.
