Two Days of Truck Work

Last night around 6:15ish, I left Lorton for Manassas, got gas, and should've been home before 7. Unfortunately, traffic backed up from Fairfax to Fauquier, according to an alert sign, meant I got home after 7:30. :P Dinner was ready right about when I arrived, so we had dinner, watched the finale of the Jeopardy $1Mil tournament--those guys are ballsy--and got to work around 8. We got the transfer case and rear driveshaft back up by about 10, and called it a night. I then decided to sleep in the guest-room-formerly-known-as-my-room, rather than ride home in the chilly-by-recent-standard 57-degree night.

Got up, showered, ate, then got to work. Dad finished attaching the transfer case, I put in the gearshifts and the front drive shaft with his help, and we reconnected various bits and connectors. With Tony's (a friend of my dad's) help, we bled the air out of the clutch line--not a quick process, as the book would have you believe--and dad refilled the oils in the transmission and transfer case. Then, we remembered to reattach the battery. :)

Then Moment of Truth #1: I fired it up in neutral, and it worked! However, the ignition was missing on a cylinder, so dad made sure all those wires were connected--he'd knocked one loose before. They were, but then he checked the firing order and found several misplaced. (As far as I know, I replaced the wires exactly as they were before, which should've been right by his former work, but they were wrong somehow.) It then ran much more smoothly, and Moment of Truth #2 arrived: Moving the truck. With a clutch that was noticeably less stiff and activated much earlier, I successfully drove it up the driveway! Huzzah!

And now we're all inside, cleaned up, and having lunch. :)

Mo' workin'

Topped off fluids in truck, replaced skid plate with new bolts, and the truck is healthy once more! Now, dinner with parents/sisters/Matt/Brendan, then I'll drive my fabulously functional truck back home, as I'd rather not drive the motorcycle unnecessarily until the worn chain and sprockets have been replaced. For that, I'll call Coleman Power Sports tomorrow or Monday so they can order the sprockets I need. (I called Blalock Cycle and Loudon Powersports earlier, to find the latter closed and the other less than competent when it came to chain selection--but the did indicate that Coleman's prices were reasonable. Prior to calling about, I checked Froogle and Google to find that a) it's hard to find motorcycle parts online, and b) almost every site I found led to the same damn set of catalogs/searches which had nothing for old Yamaha bikes. :P)