Swing Arm

Today I installed the swing arm back into the frame. I inserted the new bearing for the drive shaft. This one was a tight fit, so I put it in the freezer for 30 min. After that it dropped nicely into it's spot and I secured it with the lock ring. I then inserted both the new (wider and sealed) bearings into the swing arm, lined it up and screwed the bolts down into the frame and swingarm. I found an awesome deal online for some brand new progressive 418 shocks so those are the ones I will be using. I couldn't resist, so I installed one of them to see how it would look... needless to say... I am pleased! :)

Steering Assembly (Triple Tree)

A nice evening in Florida and time to do some assembling of my Ambo... I decided to put the steering column back together, at least the Triple Tree. I slid the new ballbearing (after heating it up at 300F for 5 min.) over the steering column. Put the bearing rings back into the column and packed the bearings with new grease.

I inserted the shaft in the column and screwed the top nuts back on with the same tool I use to get the chrome collars off the forks (it fits perfectly). Make sure you don't over-tighten the nuts. To prevent that I slide a big bolt into the key hole and make sure it "drops" into the key-slit in the shaft. This also serves another purpose: when aligning the triple tree plates you have to make sure that the key slit is in the "Parked" postion of the forks when you tighten them. This means that the Triple Tree needs to rest to the left stop and the slit needs to be visible/engaged through the keyhole. This way, when you park your bike and want to lock it, the slit in the shaft lines up properly.

The Frame is Back!

Today is the day! Gary called me and told me that the Frame and the major parts were painted and ready for picked! I scheduled the pickup with him and was more then estatic when I saw the paintjob and how the parts came out. The guys at GOPAA did an incredible job! They even greased the exposed (not painted) area's to prevent it from rusting. I put the frame in the shed on my stand and protected the most exposed areas with pipe insulation. Hopefully I can start putting some of the stuff together this week...