Well, I have finally made the decision to take the old fat gal apart and do some major maint. on her, well major to me a non mechanic. Yeah, I do the easy stuff, oil changes, rear end maint., re-build forks,etc, but now I'm talking about the hard stuff. I'm cutting out the cross member, for a kickstand issue, and making it better than new. That tubing Honda used for the cross member is wimpy for our bikes. Hopefully, when I get done, it will be a thing of the past as far as a weak point goes.
Part of the tear down requires taking the swing arm off, and removing the Alternator for better access for welding the new cross member in. Wow, now that was fun. After about ten minutes, I said,"no way this thing comes out of here". I sat back and looked at it again and all the reasons it would not come out, then tried it again and it came out. Magic! Ordered a new Goldwing alternator to replace it. Going to rebuild the old one, it looks pretty worn and I am heading off a future failure by replacing it while it's out.
Today the swing arm comes off and I cut the old cross member out, get the new piece ready to weld in, then get my son to weld it in for me. Yeah, he's a welder and can lay some pretty welds down that hold. Me, I'm a dobber, no way I'd weld that piece in and trust if from now on.
Trout dude called me and gave me some advice, then the next day, Mitch called me and gave me some tips on the job as well. They are headed to East Tennessee to work on DDT's bike soon. Not sure when they will descend upon Gordon's work shop to fix up Ali, but it will be soon. I hope I am done with mine by then. I'm slow, but then again, I'm old.
