990 Rebuild: Part One Million

Or somewhere near thereabouts...I am making a lot of progress. I am anxious to get this thing running again and a little scared that it won't start when I flick the switch. Well, I'll cross that bottomless chasm when I get to it. I keep myself up at night wondering what little job I screwed up or which bolt I forgot to tighten. Oh well, it's all part of the magic....If I wanna BRAAAP!!! , then I gotta get to work.

So, the throttle bodies are clean and good to go. I think the next obvious step is to install them. That's a big job for a numbskull like me. I took them off way back in March, and now I need to remember how they go back in. Well nothing for it but to jump right in and give it a go... So, the first part of the job is fitting the lower part of the air box and making sure things like the overflow tube and fuel line are run through it. Also, it is important to make sure tings like the wire harness and throttle cables are routed correctly now. It's a lot harder once stuff like this is in the way.

The lower airbox with the fuel line installed.

It's a super tight fit. I actually went back and reinstalled this coolant hose clamp better since there was a kink in the hose that would have caused issues. No biggie, I bought extras in case I screwed up.

This is what it looked like before I replaced the clamp...That kink is no bueno

I test fitted the bottom and then checked the routing of everything and noticed several little issues. So off the box came to fix them

After rerouting a couple wires and such, it looked much better

Now with the box on, no kinked hose and plenty of room

Then the throttle body boots go on.

I took a page out of the former owners book and routed the clamps all on the same side

First thing to do on the TB's are the throttle cables. It took several minutes to get them installed and the slack out. Then I noticed they were routed behind the steering head awkwardly and removed them to straighten them out. I liberally lubed the cables with DriSlide, liquid graphite.

Getting them in is a super tight fit. Liberal use of silicone spray on the boots helped a lot.

It's a real pain to rout the harness past the box so it fits right. I didn't forget to spray the connections with Corrosion X to keep them working well.

Space is cramped around the airbox. Lots of work to rout everything super clean.

Finally, I got the TB's seated in the boots and tightened down. I took my time. I didn't want and problems down the road with a mis-seated TB or a sharp edge cutting into a wire.

It took some work, including loosening the radiator to get the throttle cables routed just right.

It was so tight here that I used a special set of bicycle pliers to close this connection. I couldn't get my fat hands into the spot to do it.

After twenty minutes or so of tidying up, the right side of the box was closed and all the wires routed nicely

Plenty of room for everything else now.

That stupid hose clamp for the fuel line was crazy hard to get on.

Sealed up and good to go.

On no...prefilter is on

And then the main filter.

Followed by the top...The oil breather hose is connected at last.

That was fun...not much left now, but will it start? Time to recharge the battery so I have plenty of juice to discover that. So, what's left?? I have a chain and shifter to install and I will need to set the chain slack afterwards. Then I will need to add oil and coolant and bleed the cooling system. Then install the battery and left hand fuel tank and some gas to see if it starts. I might manage all that next time. After that, assuming it does work, I will need to install the rest of the body panels and the other fuel tank and apply my graphics kit. There's a ton of smaller things to install along the way along with the luggage racks. And of course, there's riding to do. Lot's of riding. I need to escape the household of doom before June 1st when the next credit card bill arrives. I shudder to think of how a certain person will react when they see it. My wife has been enjoying a month of margaritas and British mysteries. I recently was shocked when I took out the recyclables. There 57 bottles of tequila in it. I don't drink tequila. Neither do my dogs. I drink beer, eat tacos and ride bikes. I have a tent and a sleeping bag and a motorcycle that is almost done. Assuming it starts, I will be the happiest guy in Arizona...heck, maybe even in the whole southwest.