Another Elite E swap: Project Elite-D

[Majourlittle]

Alright, got the two front forks cut down, swapped, and welded. Started cleaning up the front forks with the grinder to make them all purdy. Got all of my engine parts back from the cleaner and started cleaning up all of the gasket surfaces and started fitting my BBJ to the rest of the engine.

I also had a look at the CT intake and decided that it was ugly as sin... Started to clean up all of the casting lines inside of the intake, then started cleaning up all of the sanding lines on the outside of the intake. Got fed up and threw that into the powder coating bin.

Its coming slowly now, but it will pick up soon as school is over.

[Majourlittle]

I have a whole bunch of pictures coming... Just finished my engine mount with rubber isolators. I also pulled the kickstand out to scrub it down and paint it.

Frame has been cleaned and rust has been hit with the wirewheel. It is strung up for painting.
Front forks have been welded to clean up the metal. Sanded and ready for paint.

In short, Ill be doing some painting soon. How do you guys paint your frames without covering up the vin sticker? just cover it with tape, or something else?

[eliteguy50]

In short, Ill be doing some painting soon. How do you guys paint your frames without covering up the vin sticker? just cover it with tape, or something else?

Taping it off will be the easiest and the proper way for the vin sticker. If you are trying to keep something hard to mask from being painted, you can cover it with grease or vaseline (any petroleum jelly). Then just wipe it off after the paint dries.

[Majourlittle]

Alright, here are a few pictures of the advancement so far.





This is the front end being swapped and painted.




This is the motor mount being finnished and painted. added a few rubber bumpers to it to make it match the old mount.



This thing is ugly and has a bunch of grinding lines still in it. Cleaning this up and will be painting it to match the rest of the theme.




Frame hung and painted.



Handlebars cleaned and painted.



Also, went to press the bearings out of this so that I could have the wheel cleaned and powdercoated, and when I went to press the bearing, the brake cup collapsed! Not only did I trash the bearings, but I also trashed the wheel. Looking for another one now.


I went to the honda dealership as well today and ordered honda crank bearings and transmision gasket. Ill be ordering trans gears and trans stuff sometime tomorrow, and that should cover me for the timebeing.

[Majourlittle]

Well I got some paint on the frame and gave it some time to cure. Had a chance to fuddle with some parts in the garage and am getting it slowly put back together. Still waiting on gears for the scooter so that I can put the trans back together. Also have a few rims that need to go out for powdercoating, then I can mock up the rest of the bike and make sure that the shock will clear, wherever I mount it. basically sitting on my hands on a lot of little things.

A few pictures from tonight. Took a short break tonight for the storm of the week, but basically spent a good four hours on it. One Issue I have found is that all of my hardware is rusted, and its really showing through now with the bike being as clean as it is... I clean what I can, but some of the hardware will need to be replaced.

The frame as it sits, with the harness and cables back on.


My tires, stacked with an old tire. some 90/90 for my dio rims.


Sandblasted stuff.


even the cover is getting some PC, after i mill it down


CT manifold, sanded soothe and painted. Can this be PC'd??


Boost port cut! What a task!




And a trial run of the mockup of the bike. Its getting there.

[Chicago Ben]

great progress so far, looks good

[tru72]

i would defiantly change your rear shock angle.. its gong to ride kinda weird with it like that. but then again it wil work!
To me the shock mount is always the most troublesome part on that 89 swap.
nice work so far!!

[fastplastic]

plus it could also angle the motor in a way where the pipe is a lot closer to the ground then it needs to be....

[Majourlittle]

I haven't fully settled on the shock angle yet. I Am waiting to get the wheels and gears in, and once the engine is fully assembled and the wheels are on, Ill adjust the shock length and angle. I will get the bike put together and then blow it mostly apart to weld the shock on with a new mount.

I ordered a bunch of crap from honda, but I have yet to get my * over there and pick it all up. I think Ill do that today so I have something to do this weekend.

[Majourlittle]

Didn't do much today, but I did machine out the rear belt cover to vent the clutch and make way for future upgrades as well as sand blast the front brake hub.

Also placed an order for a nautilus stebel horn. I figured that with as many crazies we have around here, It may be a lifesaver at some point. If not, It will just be fun to honk and annoy people. with a rating of 139dB, Hopefully it will get someones attention during the morning commute.

[Majourlittle]

I fabricated and welded on a bracket to mount the stebel horn. Just need to get the wiring done now.

Also drew up the mount plate for the shock absorber. this will be mounted in front of the gas tank on the frame. It is a copy of someone else design that I found on here. We cant all come up with winners!

Ordered a Hi/low Halogen/HID light and ballast for the bike as well. I remember how much the lights sucked on this bike, so I might as well make myself as visible as possible.

Reassembled the transmission with new 8.44 gears. Installed the fan as well.


Still deciding on if I want to screw with the porting on the Taiwanese bore... Something tells me that I should leave that variable alone so that diagnosing my other screw ups will be easier down the road.

[Majourlittle]

MOAR PICTURES!!!!

Stebel Horn installation. Made a little bracket to mount the horn. I may remake this since it sticks out a little farther than I need it to.



This horn is so loud, it caused my pup to pee himself. Hope it works like that on the street.

Built a mount for the shock asorber. Will mount the actual shock when I get the wheels in from powdercoating. I also sawed off the old bolt for the shock since it is no longer needed. (weight savings )





I started the body work as well. my footwell was in horrid shape and heavily sunfaded. I needed to paint it, but I knew that I would never get paint to stick. Though I would try a trick for fixing white marks (strain bubbling) in plastics by heating it with a heat gun. Worked like a charm.

before

trial

Half done. See the difference.

And the completed product. My wife though I had bought a new one when I was done!


Currently working on body work. All of my panels are cracked, but the headstock was missing the biggest chunk. Decided to take a piece from my donor scooter to fabricate a patch panel. Had to fix the patch first, then transfer it to the headstock.




Just a little more sanding and it will be perfect. I installed the turn signal to make sure that the body lines fit correctly.


I also order a HID bulb. Comes with a plug that fits directly into the stock plug. Just need to modifiy the housing to hold it all together.




I also have a trail tech vapor on order and will be here tomorrow. Hopefully it will fit perfectly into the gauge cluster hole, or at least enough that I wont have to do much modifications.

Till then.

[Majourlittle]

While trying to do a compression test, i discovered that my stuffer crankshaft is bent...

Looks like Ill be ordering some more bearings and a new crank.

[Majourlittle]

Well, it has been a while. Sent some stuff off for powdercoating and have been waiting on that, as well as it being nearly 110F every freaking day this summer.

Decided that the garage needed cleaning out so that I could get back to it. In other news, I finally got my motorcycle endorsement (after nearly 6000miles of riding).

With that said, I got my treads mounted up and started setting up the engine placement. Having an issue with the stock E shock being too long?! and I can't seem to get it to fit under the scooter with it setting on its centerstand. I have checked the level(ness) of the float on the carb, and the motor placement seems to be good. I went ahead and swapped over to the dio shock and will cut the mount off of the old frame and transfer it over for simplicity sake.

I am glad I went with the big tires! It looks good.



You can see some of the PC that I had done. Not sure about the color. Was suppose to be gun metal gray, but I am not so sure that it is correct. Ill deal with it and look at changing it after I am done and put a few miles on it.




Also started mocking up the placement of all my aftermarket s***. in short, here is the balast for my hid.



it should do nicely there. I dont think that it will be in anythings way.

I also was not impressed with the mount that I created for the stebel. It was bumping into the front faring, so I cut off the mount and fabricated another one. This time I used a washer welded to the frame and it was not as much of a pain in the * as the last mount I created.


It now fits perfectly between the front and leg fairing. just need to get the electrics sorted with the trailtech vapor, and Ill be set!

[Chicago Ben]

looks saweeet dude

nice call on the heat gun turned out awesome