Front end

Another week went by, and with the little time I have these days, progress is slow. Still, I actually have something to show for my effort.

Yesterday, I finally got my front fender and headlight bucket back from powdercoating. I've been waiting for these for a while, so having a little bit of time today, I decided to work on the front end.

First, the fender. (nothing to report, really. There is only so much that can be said about four 6mm bolts)

Then I started on the headlight bucket and wiring. This is where things got interesting. There are simply too many wires and connectors to fit inside the bucket, so after three or four tries of taking them in and out, positioning the loops in different ways, and scraping my knuckles in the tight spaces, I decided to wrap two connectors in an electrical tape and zip tie them under the ignition switch. I also zip tied the clutch cable to the instrument cluster bracket to make things a bit neater, and routed the clutch cable behind the radiator cover. (the PO had it melting on the exhaust). Inside the bucket, I left the wires necessary to run the headlight, horn, regulator connections, temp gauge connection, turn signals, etc. It is still a lot, but manageable.

As for turn signals, I went with small, single filament pieces, so I had two unused wires for the running lights which were stock on the bike. Since the old forktube sleeves/headlight mounts were beyond repair, I went ahead with simple universal mounts, and used the turn signal stems to attach the headlight bucket (both are 10mm). This is similar to what I did on my CB750 project.

Then, after testing all the connections and blowing a fuse (yeah, there was this one wire that went in the wrong hole...), I had a light. Turn signals were also tested, and worked well under load (both front and rear connected).

 Attaching the light to the bucket was a chore that drove me absolutely crazy, as the powdercoating created some thickness issues and nothing fit the way it used to. It was either that, or the ring was bent when I was not in my possession, because it literally took me over an hour to get things to seat as they should. And even then it was a tight fit.