Update and some engine questions:
Rebuilt the front and rear brake calipers today, as well as replacing the fork seals.
Rear caliper rebuild kit included a piston; sadly the fronts did not, so spent some time polishing the pistons for reinstallation
:Before and after, using 1500 grit wetpaper and a drill with tape wrapped around a grinder wheel to spin the pistons.
Did a little disc cleanup, as well.
Front wheel axel was frozen in pretty well. Jam nutted a bolt and still couldn't get it to break loose after an hour sitting with penetrating oil and heat on the threaded end. Resorted to welding the bolt into a sacrificed 1/2" drive socket:
22" breaker bar finally did the trick. Glad that wasn't a roadside repair!
Fork tubes were pitted and rusty; a few pits were down in the seal travel area, but I thought I might give it a shot, to clean them up and see how long they go before buying new fork legs at the next seal refresh:
Was too cheap to pick up a Motion pro seal driver, this time . $7.00 at HD for a piece of PVC and an adapter coupling that was pretty close to perfect size:
The reducer coupling had an internal ridge, that when relieved by about half a mm, fit perfectly around the fork tube to center it.
The OD of the coupling required about the same relief with a grinder to perfectly sit on the seal and drive down past the retaining clip groove:
Ground the pits out with a rubber/abrasive wheel on the Dremel; feathered the edge where it went through the chrome, then went with strips of 600 grit then 1500 grit wet paper, crossways to fork travel direction. Might last a while, might not.
Rear caliper rebuild was no drama; I was pleased to see a piston in the rebuild kit.
Took it out for about a 40 mile test drive this evening. The day's work seems to have cured the sudden brake lockup that made this a free bike in the first place. Ran it up to near triple digits, after I got comfortable that the brakes no longer misbehave. Didn't try to kill me, so I will call it a win.
Will post my engine questions in the next post after this one: