Ironhead 75 Ironhead cafe racer reboot

[sifty]

Got the other side done over the weekend. Started by measuring and drilling a locating hole in each bar for the Kawasaki switchgear...


Not sure what ink the wrecker used, but it's good stuff, hard to remove the writing...


Took tank off to fettle the new accelerator cable. Had to drill out the ferrule holder on the carb to accept the new cable, and toyed with installing the return pull cable as well, but decided against it, maybe in the future. Cut cable inner to length and soldered in a new brass lug I'd made similar to the clutch one, all works well...


And installed new master cylinder, no dramas, bled things with m/c below the caliper and was a nice easy job, bleed bolt wasn't stuck and the green Dot 4 fluid made it easy to see when new stuff came through...


And I wasn't certain what size the new bore size was, but it was cast in as 5/8" on the Nissin m/c...


And all in apart from wiring, fitted new light grey Biltwell 7/8" Kung Fu grips, think it looks pretty good...


I was going to wait for the connector plugs to arrive but it was a beautiful day so I made some temporary connections with strip connectors to check things work...


And it works well, nice not having to worry when the switches will let me down next, and I find them easier to use. Took her for a few rides over the weekend, clutch is still too hard to use easily, but brakes feel better with a slightly different master cylinder to caliper ratio. There is a slight oil leak that is nothing compared to the Exxon Valdez of old, but I'll wait till I've replaced the clutch springs and primary cover to look at that...


Pretty pleased how things turned out though, might even be able to sell the old controls to offset some of my costs...

[sportsterpaul]

Clean and tidy!

[sifty]

Connectors arrived so thought I'd fix the temporary bodge I'd done to get things running. I set up outside cos it was better light...


RHS done before it started raining so I called things off. Went with 6-pin Sumitomo sealed automotive connectors, part numbers 6189-6171 and 6180-6181 as Kawasaki used these on this side, so assumed they were decent quality...


Was sunny today so set up again by the door to my front yard...


Far more wires on this side so decided to use 2x 6-pin connectors. Looked at 12-13 pin connectors but they were pretty big physically, and I want to hide wiring as much as possible...


Quite enjoyed these connectors, used the correct crimping tool after sliding on the blue seal first...


And you just click them into the connectors in the right place, weather seal is obvious from this angle...


And I'd slid on heat shrink tubing beforehand to tidy things up, didn't really want red but was only colour I had in this size...


And tidied up with cable ties with headlamp screwed back on, pretty happy how things went, I'd use these connectors again...