I was able to make a little progress today and am really starting to get excited about this build again.
I started with driving the outer bearing races into the steering tube, then went straight to mating the engine to the frame. I thought the motor looked incredible by itself, but it actually looks better in the frame!
Next up, I mounted the dogbone to the swinger and then pressed in my new Delrin swingarm pivot collars courtesy of BKM...thanks Bryan! These things are awesome.
The swinger went in smoothly and my new TRX400EX pivot bolt holds it together perfectly. I did have to go back and loosen all the engine mounts to get the swinger to mate up...is that normal? After the pivot bolt was torqued, I went back and torqued the mounts.
All in all, I'm very pleased with what was accomplished in a couple of hours:
Hopefully I will have some more time this weekend and get things a little further along. I had hoped to have it on it's wheels, but realized that I don't have the lower dust seal for the steering stem. The front end will unfortunately have to wait for a few more days. Oh well.
The goal is to get the rear suspension and cooling system mounted and maybe even the carb and wiring harness by Sunday evening. With kids sports and other projects it's amazing just how little time is left over on the weekends!
Quick question: Does anyone know a good source for bulk hose? I want to replace the tubing for the coolant overflow bottle, carb vent lines and fuel line. Also trying to keep it stock in appearance. Thanks.