It took a few days to work out the fine tuning. Was having trouble getting the tappets adjusted. The rocker arm shafts are eccentric shaped w/ a slot on the end to use a screwdriver to adjust gap. I kept having trouble getting them to open far enough for the proper clearance, but then I figured out that I needed to rotate them 180* to get the desired result.
Then when I fired it up, it took off like a bat out of hell, idling at about 3000 RPM. Obviously that's fast, as it should be idling around 1200. I discovered that the throttle cable was hung up and holding open the throttle. It's routed underneath the gas tank, and if you're not familiar with old Honda bikes, the gas tank has a line that runs underneath the frame to allow it to draw fuel from both sides after it drops below the split [I'm sure modern bikes have this feature as well]. Well, as you can imagine, I had to lift the tank to let loose the cable, and as such, needed to pull the line off of one side, spilling fuel all over the bike. So at the moment I'm taking a break and giving the gas time to evaporate off, so as not to set ablaze my new toy.
I'm sure there will still be some minor fine tuning to do after I really get it running. The tappets will need to be readjusted after the first 100 miles and I might have to mess with the carb adjustment screws a bit. But basically I've got my motorcycle now!
Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have it registered and insured. And hopefully I'll have my motorcycle lisence back. I lost it a few years ago when I got nailed for DUI, and never tested to get it back. So I'm sure I'll have to do a drive test again. Oh well.
I'm excited!
