West TN. High today is supposed to be 36. It's not really 'strange' to be this cold at this time of year, just not common and just a few weeks early is all, and of course it had to hit when I wanted to get something done, heh. Gonna have to grit my teeth and make more trips inside to warm the fingers I guess, lol.

 

 

I have pretty much the same problem. My father in-law lets me use the garage at the front of his shop but there is no heat in there. And winter is really the only time for major repairs so I get some days in the 20's but mostly in the 30's and on a few occasions teens but when it gets that cold I just say **** it..... It can wait..... What really sucks is the guy who plows the front out always stacks the snow up against the roll up garage door. So when it starts to melt all the water comes into the garage and then will freeze on the floor and when that happens I'm pretty much screwed so I have to make sure the front is always cleared (by me and a shovel)..... I'll have to choose my days this winter...I feel for you Snake... I have to replace the cases on my 98 Evo. Gonna get S&S cases...

 

No way to do it even if I could or else it'd already be there, heh heh.

I'm permanently disabled and in constant pain 24/7/365. I take hydrocodones to try and help mellow it out, but this kind of stuff (and taking care of the chickens and cleaning the coop, and during the summer on the riding mower, trimming trees, cutting down trees around the pond, etc, etc) just kills me, but, no one else will do it and I can't afford anyone, so, I bite the bullet, take another pill and hope for the best and dive in, lol.

I'd love to work at a dealership, just so I could help folks with their bikes, but what takes a normal person an hour to do, takes me three or more because I have to stop so often to rest or move or walk around or sit or whatever it takes to stop hurting for 15 more minutes.

One of the very few things I can brag about is, I got a damn good work ethic. I always work hard, no piddlin' around. Hell, before I got disabled I would *always* be the first on the job site, even before the boss and that included if I'd been out drinking til closing time the night before. My bosses would always damn ear fight over who would get me on their crew at the next job. I was proud of it because I earned that respect (went through two heat prostrations for it too, lol).

Anyway, I figure I got to get this kind of thing done, pain or no pain, since I really need the bike to be running. Went 4 hours straight today and in 32 degrees...I didn't realize how cold it was until I started dropping tools and stuff. Bad hurting too, can hardly walk and was just barely able to get to the chicken coop and lock up the chickens and back. This is one of those rare days that no number of pain meds helps and I just gotta suffer and grin and bear it. Sucks, but hey...life in the woods, heh.

 

Yeah, cold garages is rough as a cob, especially when it comes time to do small stuff...the hands and frozen fingers just don't work as well and dropping little things where it's hard to get them from is just that much worse.

It sucks hearing about you having to do twice the work to be able to keep using the garage too - that shoveling. Is it the county doing the plowing or just someone that does it in the area for everyone? Me, I'm a hot-tempered bastard and if it wasn't one of those and just some asshat who didn't give a crap who he was screwing over, I'd be in the guys face the very next time he was around. The cops here know I don't back down when I know I'm in the right and they gave up messing with me. I even had it out with the electric company and some whiny little metrosexual punk oldish guy called the law on me because I was telling this guy off. They came, searched the big, bad, scary biker, I scared the **** out of them when one asked me if I had a weapon and I said yeah and waited about 10 seconds before I said 'at the house, luckily for you', heh heh. I turned to the electric company guy, told him he was wrong and an *******, turned to the two cops and told them to f off for assuming and walked out and rode back home.

Just hang in there and do what you're doing, you sound like you've got it figured out and got your pattern set. We can always wish for a warm garage some day, lol.

 

Thanks for the confidence... I really can't say anything about the plow guy, My father in law hired him... Hell sometimes it's better to say nothing at all when it's all free...

 

Went ahead and said screw it, put myself in more debt with a friend and got a 2Ki ignition. When I took the nose cone off and saw the original ignition, it hadn't turned brown yet, but was cracking on the edges a little and had leaked a little fluid of some kind that dried to the metal from the heat.

Today is supposed to get up to low 50's. All I need to do is do the static timing thing with the ignition thing, replace the neutral switch (it would sometimes light the 'N' and sometimes not or flicker a bunch while in neutral, so got a new switch), and it'll be done, all except for re-tuning the carb for the new cam.

I found out too that my local dealership does dynotuning and he said he could do it for me for $200. Maybe, just maybe, I'll do it next month just to see what numbers I'll have on the bike when this is all put back together and have a paper record of it. Luckily just now starting to not hurt from the two days of working on it...got 2" of snow anyway while recuperating, heh. I'll holler when I get back from my test ride today when I get it all buttoned up.

 

 

 

Haven't test ridden it yet. Got it all put back together, new neutral switch in (which isn't working, <mutter>), set the timing on new ignition and she fired up first crank.

It was noisy, but I expected a little from the new lifters since they probably didn't fill up sitting in the oil bath (new H-D 'B' lifters). Let it idle as needed to warm up some, it was pretty rich for this cam, small amount of black smoke idling and with a little throttle, so when it was warm, went through the tune on the carb and it's idling nice and rolling on the throttle nice too.

Even after nice and warmed up, this cam is a noisy SoB (EV13)! I've read a few people saying it is, not sure if it's supposed to be or not. Going to give it a couple more hours to warm up outside just a little more and test ride it.