Classic Velocity

The excuse is that the /6 was in a variety of places in the garage and elsewhere where work was inconvenient at best, impossible at worst. With the fairing off, there was really no other barrier to beginning the work of restoring it to “normal” configuration. Finally, it got onto the lift and the fun began. First, I discovered that the PO had converted to a fairing in a completely reversible way. Turn signal wires were in the stalks, connections to the main board were via spade plugs, and a whole separate harness had been pushed up into the headlight nacelle. The original headlight harness was used inside the fairing. Thanks. However, I also discovered that the entire harness used the same color wires for every connection !! Not Thanks !! He obviously had a spool of this wire and decided to use it. The only other possibility is that there were stripes of color on these wires which have long since faded away. I think the former as even the areas not exposed to light show no trace of color. More on that in a future post.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the battery was suspect, and the battery frame was very rusted in comparison to everything else. It suggested that battery acid had made its way outside of the battery at some point. Those familiar with the slash series will know that the structure is relatively unchanged from the earliest models. It sits in the middle of the bike above the swing arm pivot, and below the seat. It uses rubber standoff’s to isolate vibration a bit. The studs for those standoff’s sit in a nice little depression so that they do not protrude into the bottom of your battery. In this case, the rusting chemicals got to ferment in these depressions, fusing the stud and the nut into a single glob of iron oxide! Ok, some penetrant soaking overnight and some heat should tackle this, you say to yourself. If you are lucky, which I was with two of them, they just snap off when you try to do anything and free the frame. If you are not, which I was with the last one (of course, see Disablers), It remains strong, and just spins within the head or within the rubber standoff. If the bottom stud/nut does the same (it did), and it is the least accessible of the three (it was), you get to turn a quick simple job into wrist and hacksaw gymnastics.

In an inexplicable law of chemistry and physics, the acid, which combines with air to turn metal into dust, did little to impact the strength and pliability of the rubber in the standoffs, which normally disintegrates just due to interaction with air (see your old tire sidewalls)! How is this possible? But I digress. Once the last stubborn standoff was cut away and removed, I discovered that the OEM is readily available but costs over $25 each ! The Interwebs came to the rescue and I found a pack of 4 for a Honda for $10. They are the same except for the length of the stud. Next there was sanding and painting of the frame, chasing of the threads, and decorroding of the terminal connections. Once reinstalled, it was combined with a replacement sealed battery to complete the job.