Day 2

Day two of the Cafe project focused on taking some measurements of the front brake components, as well as installing some of the parts we have purchased for the project.  Super-fast shipping from xs650-direct.com had this box show up at the school on Friday afternoon.  It was just like Christmas!

A nice surpise is that Jason threw in several t-shirts along with our order!  If you are an xs650 rider/restorer/builder in Canada, please be sure to support this shop; the link is on the upper right hand corner of the page.

Mr. Sheppard dug through his parts bin at home and came up with two front brake calipers.  These were from a more modern sportsbike, and would likely have far more powerful braking capabilities that what was originally fitted to the bike way back in 1975.  It was a moot point anyway, as the project as-purchased was missing the front brake anyway!  Here a student begins the process of taking apart the calipers -- we are going to strip and rebuild both, and build one right hand side caliper with the best pistons, the newest-looking seals, etc.  Jury is still out as to whether we can use the larger front rotor or not.

Using the piston removal tool Mr. Sheppard brought from home.  Luckily we were able to borrow some torx sockets from Mr. Gugin to split the calipers.

The seat as it was delivered had a tear in the vinyl top, and was not the correct shape for the "cafe look" we are shooting for.  We hoped that by removing the old vinyl cover and foam, we could restore the seat pan, fit some shaped foam and a new vinyl cover.  However, it became apparent that the seat pan was in horrible shape; water had gotten to the inside of the pan itself and started to rust.  It was a mess, and we eventually decided it was not salvageable.  D'oh!  Time to do some thinking about seats.  At least the hinge and bracket hardware was salvageable....

We learned last week that the alternator located off of the end of the crankshaft was in fact an expensive aftermarket piece.  We pulled the covers off the ignition (located at the top end of the engine) and found... nothing.  We need a new ignition system, an aftermarket Pamco unit, as well as a new mechanical advance unit.  Note the almost-stripped phillips bolt -- this will be replaced as well.  At least the bike will have a new, theoretically bulletproof ignition system!

Mr. Sheppard's VISA is getting a bit of a workout...
Next week we are going to finish the front brakes... some more parts will have likely arrived as well.  Stay tuned!