almost there...

[Dave Daniels]

In case you haven't been following my long list of gpz problems, and that's not to say that I think the gpz is a bad bike, no not at all, I like them very much, but I've had my share of woes in the last few months. First of all, my clutch started slipping, so, I decided to "cure" that problem by running Gunk Engine Flush through the bike to "clean off" the clutch plates. Well, this worked temporarily, but I failed to get all the gunk out, leaving some in the oil cooler (I think) and continued running the bike that way. Incidentally, my first test ride after the flush was hard and fast, which I believe led to the engine's demise. Bottom line is, the rod bearing(s) got trashed in the process. So, do I fix it or replace it. Upon deciphering these options, a merciful fellow on the list made me aware of a wrecked bike for sale in California with an engine in it. I contacted the guy and we struck a deal for $500. Then, in my efforts to set up shipping, and after I sent him a
 check, he disappeared not leaving any clues to his whereabouts. In my frustration, after a week of trying to contact him, I sent him an email "almost" accusing him of taking the money and running. Not quite, but almost. Suddenly he responds saying that since our transaction is now tainted with bad blood, he sees on reason to continue the transaction and has sent my check back. Actually, he never made an effort to make sure it came back as I found out it was sitting at his local post office and they had no idea what to to with it. I had to tell them to send it back to me. Anyway, out of nowhere, another engine showed up on Ebay and was located just south of me about an hour. I watched it until a few minutes before auction end and the price was sitting there at $56. So, I put a bid on it and won it for that price. Amazing! I had(have) no idea if the thing will even run right, but I figured at that price I'll only be out the time it takes me to swap engines. The shop that had
 it was nice enough to pull the head and do a leak down test and run a compression test and put a new head gasket on it. Compression's good and they claim they didn't "hear" any strange noises coming from it during the compression test. So, I strip down my bike in the last couple months, and while I'm at it, why don't I just take it completely down to the frame and repaint it since the paint job is not very nice on it anyway. Whoops, cold weather sets in and I can't paint for a while. Oh well, it's winter and I have time. Anyway, to make a short story long, I finally get it painted and start putting it back together. Saturday morning, it's just a bare naked frame with the front end on it. Sunday evening, the engine is in, the rear end is back together, the carbs and airbox are in, all the wirng is hooked back up and the front fairing is on. Now, if the guy who's replating my clutch cover would just hurry up and get it done, I can put that on, insert oil, filter and coolant
 and fire the mother up. Why am I plating the clutch cover you ask? Whoever had the engine before had chrome plated the clutch cover, sprocket cover, alternator cover and timing cover. But, the chrome had flaked off most of the clutch cover so it needed to be redone. I was really thinking, at first, that I'd just put my old black one on. But, I liked how the chrome looked so much that I decided to have it redone. Only $60 for the job. So, I'm almost there and she's looking much more like a motorcyle now than she did two days ago. I hope this motor runs good....I hope....I hope.