I'm not a big fan of the redneck fellas, but that particular phrase fits tonight. I've gotten the ingnition cover off, stripped the valve cover, bought all my supplies (including a wicked powerful impact wrench for $40 from HF)
First things first. I removed probably 95% of the paint from my valve cover, the rest I'll remove while sanding it down getting it ready for primer and painting. There are some great guides on xjbikes on how to do this. I used aircraft stripper (a super powerful paint remover that will literally eat the skin off your hands. Use with caution) The crevices were the hardest, and a couple spots were just immune to the paint strippers strength, but my guess is, it won't hold up to some coarse grit sandpaper. I bought heat resistant primer (up to 1200F) and gloss enamel rated to 500F. If it gets much hotter than that, I should probably shut the bike off.
I bought an impact wrench to remove the stubborn screws in the ignition cover. Let's just say it works amazingly well. Removed every trace that a notched screw head was there. (although, in truth, they were slightly stripped to begin with. Thanks PO.) I ended up pounding a notch in the screw so that a flat head would fit, and it slipped right out. I'll have to clean it up a bit or at the very least order a new one from chacal. The cover came off easily.
I'll have to take care when reinstalling.
The important thing is, it's off! I bought a feeler gauge set (for $2.99.. sorry chacal), making sure the sizes fit the specs of my bike. I'm going to read up some more before I just start poking
around. I also bought some zip ties for shim removal, a super colossal screwdriver set that fits the impact wrench, so I should have everything I need.Needless to say, I'm a little nervous about putting it all back together. But, I have nothing but time. I am going to contact Steve tomorrow and see if he is interested in coming over and checking it out. I think I could use an extra set of hands. :)
Off to xj! Then to work. :-p
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