The past week I’ve been working on a number of items.   First order of business was to put the shocks back together and mount them.  I clamped the shock in a vice an put the preload adjuster, retainer and shock together with the tighter windings of the spring at the bottom.

In lieu of the BMW shock spring compressor, I use  two 1 inch hose clamps to compress the springs so I can put the top shock mount bracket on.  Thread the hose clamps through three of the spring coils near the top and then tight to compress the springs leaving a clear space between the top of the spring and the bottom of the mounting bracket.

I could push the aluminum cover down a bit more to insert the 10 mm wrench on the shock rod and a screw driver through the eye bolt to tighten the top mounting bracket.

To mount the shocks, I used a jack stand and some wood blocks to hold up the rear end so I could insert the top bolt on the right side shock.  Since that side has a stud for the bottom mounting, its easier to mount the right side first.

With the rear shocks mounted,  I took apart the instruments, controls and handlebar to clean them up.  I also needed to remove the Windjammer V wiring harness from the headlight shell so I could reinstall the original headlight wiring harness.

I painted the headlight “ears”, and cleaned and polished the mounting hardware before putting the R90S turn signal brackets and fairing mounting brackets on.

I wired in the turn signal wires and the old front headlight wiring harness and the neutral switch that allows you to start the engine when the clutch is pulled in.  I took some time reviewing the wiring diagrams to find out where the connectors go inside the headlight shell.  I also had to modify some of the connectors to the correct “L” shaped connector with insulator boot. It does look like “wiring spaghetti” inside the headlight shell 🙂

The final task was to mount the speedometer/tach, handlebars, controls and atach the new throttle cables and the existing clutch and front brake cables to the levers.  It took some time and couple of disassemble/reassembly tries to get the wiring and cables routed correctly.  For some reason, its too easy to get one thing going the wrong way with that many cables and wiring harness to contend with.  Here’s the final handlebar and control assembly’s mounted.   The new paint stands out compared to the dulled plastic of the switch assembles.  I’ll try more Amour All and see if I can brighten the plastic on the controls.

At this point, the engine top end, carburetor rebuild and new electronic ignition installation are the remaining mechanical tasks.  And,  the painting project of course, is still left to be done.  But, the Silver Ghost is coming back together.

When I had the front end rebuilt, I had 11 rib fork boots not the standard 13 rib.  So, I removed the tubes and mounted the correct 13 rib boots.  I also cleaned up the snowflake cast front rim and the disk brake rotor assemble and had repainted the brake caliper which was showing aluminum instead of the original black paint.

Here are the pictures of the front end with the incorrect 11 rib and the correct 13 rib fork boots.  It looks much better with the correct ones installed.

I loosely mounted the fork brace and then mounted the front wheel .  I pushed up and down on the forks a couple of times to ensure alignment and then tightened the axle nut and locking bolts.  Again, I pumped the front forks up and down and then tighted the fork brace bolts to the correct torque settings.

I bought new disk brake pads and also had to buy a new brake pipe as corrosion had made one of the nuts too small to fit a standard 10 mm ring spanner.  The two pads are different.  The one that goes into the piston side (right one in the photo) of the caliper has a small hole in it and the fixed pad (left one in the photo) has two raised castings that center the pad in the circular caliper cut out.

The brake pad kits come with a new O-ring that goes inside the center of the caliper piston as shown and a new clip for securing the fixed pad onto  the back of the caliper.

Insert the pad into the piston first. The curved end of  the pad goes to the back of the caliper.  Then, put the pad into the fixed side of the caliper and secure it with the clip on the back with the open ends facing down as shown.

Next, I mounted the caliber to the fork using the excentric pin to hold it in place.  Finally, I connected the new brake pipe to the braided steel brake line.  Here’s the completed front end and wheel with brake caliper.

I spent a couple of hours polishing the aluminum engine cases with Autosol metal cleaner, metal polish and finished up with Aluminum oil.  Now it really matches the transmission and rear drive and has a nice satin patina to it.

Finally, I mounted the subframe. I found mounting it using the bottom bolts first makes it easier to force the top legs into the top of the spine.  Then I used a piece of wire and threaded it through the rear hole to the front hole in the subframe.  I wrapped the wiring harness with duct tape and twisted the wire around that and pulled the wire harness back through the subframe tubing to the rear.   Its all ready for the rear turn signals, but I have to finish painting the rear fender before I can mount them as they attach to the fender.

Here’s the Grey Ghost with the subframe mounted to the frame along with the key lock and the side handle for lifting the bike onto the center stand.  It’s starting to more like a motorcycle. I just need to slap the rear shocks back on when I get the chance.

We have had miserable weather with cold, damp and even snow in Denver for the past two weeks.  We did get two warm days stuck in the middle of each week and I took advantage to complete painting of the small parts and the engine cylinders and valve covers.

For the small parts, I used some wood clamps and some plywood on my saw horses to make a “paint fence” so I could hang the parts.

I again had some problems with paint adhering to some of the parts 🙁 , so I had to strip the turn signal brackets and repaint them.

The next warm day, I painted the cylinders and valve covers.  The valve covers have ridges that are not painted.  I thought putting a little oil on them would keep the paint form sticking.  That was not a good idea as the oil flowed down the side of the ridges requiring me to re-clean the parts.  Next, I tried axle grease very sparingly applied to the top of each ridge.  As noted below, that didn’t really work well as the paint became very sticky and was hard to remove. I primed the parts and then finished up with engine paint rated to 500 degrees temperature.  I taped off the base of the cylinder, the ends of the push rod tubes and the  top of the head where the cylinder gasket goes to prevent getting paint on these surfaces as they have close tolerances.  I also stuffed the cylinder bores with newspaper and taped off all the holes in the top of the heads.

Here’s the parts after painting.

I found that the best approach for cleaning paint off the ridges on the heads was to use a Dremel tool with a coarse sanding cylinder to remove the paint from the top of the ridge.  This also let me remove some gouges and pits in the aluminum. I masked off the covers around the ridges with masking tape to prevent mishaps.  After removing much of the paint with Dremel tool which really gummed up the sanding cylinders (I used 5 of them 🙁 ), I used a sanding block with 220 grit to get all the last bit of paint off and then finished up with 600 grit to polish the aluminum.  Here is the before and after pictures.

Finally, I baked the parts in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 mins.  I opened windows and doors to let the fumes escape. My wife, who is a saint, only mentioned that they were “stinky” as they baked …  “Nothings quite so loving as something in the oven” 🙂

I believe I have all the parts painted other than the fenders, tank, side covers and fairing which will be painted Smoke Silver.  That promises to be an adventure 🙂