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.