That totally sums up my day.
First the GOOD.
Last week I installed the Pamco E-Advancer and after the installation I noticed that it was running a little rough and occasionally it would cough back through the carburetor. So today I checked and re set the timing and sure enough I had the timing too retarded. Today I got it spot on and everything fell into place. It is fully advancing like it should, it starts good and has a super steady idle.
So then I checked and set the carburetor balance and fuel mixture screws without using a manometer using the technique described in this thread by Dogbunny.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/simple-carb-mixture-screw-and-sync-adjustments.33791/#post-342503
Then I took it out for a test ride. It is running better than ever now. I'm very happy with it.
Then I took a look at all my instrument lights. I have a few of them that don't work. All the bulbs that I pulled , looked like they were original and exhibited a lot of wear.
I have decided to replace all the bulbs with new.
The BAD
Months ago I had gone through all the wiring connections. I did everything except what was in the headlight bucket. So I pulled the headlight and what a mess I found!
For whatever reason the PO cut and added extensions to the wiring harness. I really don't know why.
The UGLY
Electrical tape everywhere. Multiple bare spots.
And check out what I found under the electrical tape. Clearly the guy couldn't solder, just look at this chicken shit. How was this thing even running?
And what the hell kind of connection is this?
I am going to have to pull all this wiring out and unwrap all this tape and remove all this bodged up crap and get rid of all these Rube Goldberg connections. I have to print out a wiring diagram for all the connections inside the headlight bucket.
I'm thinking it might just be easier to remove the headlight bucket and get all this wiring out in the open where I can work.
Of all the places to tamper with the original wiring , why did he have to do it in the one place that's such a bitch to work in? How the heck has this bike not had a short and left me stranded?
I'm not riding it until all this is sorted. Have I mentioned before how electrical is not my strong suit? Yuck!
I want to buy an old bike! I said
It'll be fun! I said
Hahaha Silly Gringo!