Give up?

Vacuum Pump !

I guess you could say that My idea's really SUCK!

Tank in it's new home!

    Yep the old "Mity- Vac" to the rescue. Sucked those babies down, and they slid right into place... almost like they grew there! Used the trusty compressor to pop them back into shape, and within a few minutes you could never tell that they had been collapsed... COOL... Gas tanks... 12 gallons worth... I must say at this time that the area under the seats IS vented!!!

    While playing with the tanks I added a 3 way valve in front of the tank under the  rear seat. The valve controls which tank is in use, or turns the gas off completely.

3- way valve

Both tanks in place.

    The next item that I finished was my instrument panel. The basic panel is epoxy covered plywood. The plans call for 3mm or about 1/8 for us non metric types.... Too thin as far as I'm concerned. I went with a nice piece of 1/4" 5 ply "Baltic Birch". I wrapped it with the same marine vinyl that I'm using for the seats.

    From left to right- Oil pressure warning light / buzzer- Voltage meter- Tachometer, hour meter, high RPM recorder- Water temperature- Ignition / starter switch.

    Since I was in "fabric" mode from doing the instrument panel- I decided to do the cushions next. I went with 1" "Ensolite" closed cell foam at the bottom with 2" of "Dry Fast" open cell foam laminated on top. I then marked out and cut the foam to the proper shape.

"Dry Fast" on top "Ensolite" on the bottom

Both seats- being cut at the same time.

    Once the foam was properly shaped I cranked up the trusty sewing machine and made seat covers from "Nautolex" marine vinyl.

    As you can see  from the pictures above the steering is now done too. The holes on either side of the steering are the air vents from under the seats. The larger hole is access for the steering and throttle cables. The windshield is being trial fitted.

Wires?? We don't need no stinking WIRES!!

    One of the smartest things I did when I decided to go with a motorcycle motor was to spend some money on the Honda "Factory" service manual. The wiring harness above still contains ALL the motorcycle wiring... lights, horns, turn signals headlight relays, etc. The hardest part was identifying exactly what wires went to what.

    I spent a few evenings going over the wiring diagrams before deciding exactly what I needed. There's some bizarre wiring on motorcycles these days.. The clutch/ transmission/ side stand "interlocks" are the trickiest to figure out... Interesting use of diodes and multiple pathways -  pretty darn slick! Without the wiring diagrams it would be pretty ugly figuring out what's going on. I plan on testing the engine / fan assembly, the wiring harness, and the instrument panel all in the very near future!

   Finally tested the motor  have a look at the "Motor Test Video"- What the video doesn't show is a little bit of white smoke "puffing" out of the number 3 cylinder's exhaust... not a good sign. White smoke is coolant, and it looks like the head gasket is shot. There was also a small leak from one of the carburetors too. Time for some surgery on the motor to see what is going on

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