Well, today was a big day at the new country estate: I dug out those snazzy newly painted '78E green tins and got them onto my 1978 XS650E Standard....the lovely and talented
Betty - in preparation for the big CVMG Paris National Rally which begins next Friday June 16/2022!
There were a couple of minor bumps along the way (all related to our house move last fall and the fact that my workshop has not yet been built (more on that topic to follow):
1) I cannot find my sets of late-model non-vacuum petcocks - so I am using a pair of NOS petcocks that I got years ago but without the vacuum line as for some reason, the carb boots on this bike do not have the balancing port barbs. The result of this is that I may not have a "reserve" setting - I haven't fully explored the fluidics of the situation just yet;
2) I also cannot find my nice snazzy new sidecover retaining latches - so I had to use a slightly grotty pair that had in my parts bin - but at least I have a nice new pair of the isolator grommets;
3) I dug around and found the original gold tank emblems for the '78E tank but there were only three of the tiny little screws (each emblem requires two screws) - so I can only attach one of the emblems (I won't risk loosing the other one by using only one screw). My friendly local Yamaha dealer has a packet of five new screws on order for the princely sum of about $5.04 - but they may not arrive until after I leave for Paris next week. Soooo, I have asked my good friend
@lakeview if he would spot me a screw until then - and he happens to have one in stock, so I'll be good to go!
BTW - there is a lesson in this story.
How, you may ask, was I able to order tank emblem screws for a 44 year old motorcycle so easily?
The fact is that these tiny little M3 screws (Yamaha p/n 90152-04006-00) are
still a current part used on 2022 models. The Yamaha dealer was able to look them up and source a packet of five screws at $0.75 each - and should have them next week.
OK then -
how did I find that part number? Well, I just went to the Partzilla website and selected Yamaha Motorcycle parts - and went to 1978 XS650E fuel tank - and there they are, complete with part number and an indication that they are a current part and can therefore still be ordered.
Having the OEM part number is golden information. In fact, if you simply type "90152-04006-00" (only the numbers and dashes - no words or other descriptors) into your Google search window, you will find what the part is and who might have it for sale anywhere in the world.
Here endeth the lesson.
All I need to do now is give
Betty a good cleaning and go over all the nuts and bolts and she'll be ready for the bike show! After I got the tins on, I took her for a ride this afternoon and put on 60-70 km and she runs like a new bike - and aren't those tins
beautiful?
Thank you so much to
@Jim for the fabulous paint job and
@Gordon-in-NC for loaning me his NOS green '78E sidecover so that I could get the paint colour-matched at my local body shop supply place. What a great community of kind, talented and generous people we have here.
Here are some photos from earlier this afternoon (I will post more when she's all duded-up and clean):
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Beauty Eh!