Time for an update!

The XT has been receiving some attention (unlike this blog!) in the form of mucho cleaning, scraping, sanding and painting of sundry parts.

The engine is now totally disassembled and all bearings have been removed and replacements obtained.

The cylinder has been rebored and I have a new Wiseco standing by to go in. I have a good used crank to go in with a decent rod (the conrod in my motor had an elongated small end eye which could only have got worse).

Once the paint has dried on the cases I'll be heating them up, dropping in the new bearings and starting the bottom-end rebuild.

The tank is away at the painters (not a skill I possess!) and the frame is at the powder coaters - it wasn't THAT bad, but while the bike was completely apart I thought I might as well do it properly, then I can ride the bike for the next 10 years without having to do any further major work.

I picked up the fasteners, clips and brackets from the platers, who did a nice job, but I'm sure there are a couple of bits missing - clutch arm spring, cylinder head nut, engine mounting bolt - which is annoying, to say the least!

With the engine split and the old gasket scraped away I ran a diamond hone round the mating surfaces to get them clean and sharp, ready for fresh gasket material.

I bought some Renthal bars with pretty much the same dimensions as the XT bars, but in ally rather than chrome or black steel. They look great set against the satin black of the newly-painted top yoke and freshly-plated fittings.

The forks have also come in for some attention - I bought a "Good set of forks, nice and straight" off eBay but as you can probably guess they were nothing like the description....one was badly bent with a crease under where the bottom yoke would mount, the other had a broken stud and both lowers had been cleaned up with a wire brush in the past then laquered over badly. I have sent off my existing stanchions for re-chroming and will try to clean up these lowers (mine have been butchered in the long and distant past in order to fit a non-XT front wheel).