In the immortal words of Jerry Garcia, "What a long, strange trip it's been."
Stick a fork in this thread....it's done!
Just finished reinstalling the coolant pipe with new O-rings, swapped out the old fuel pump with my Fleabay $99.99 special (thanks, Rad for the heads-up), buttoned up all the mechanicals and fired her up....."The shuttle has cleared the tower!"
Runs like an expensive Japanese watch. Purrs like my KoonKat (avatar kitty). No more coolant spraying all over the garage. No gas leaking anywhere from the fuel pump hold-down or fuel lines. Put a see-through filter in the feed line so I can monitor fuel cleanliness. No oil seeping from the valve cover. I'm a happy fucker!
I'm done for the night...gonna celebrate with some tequila and limes. Will take the next couple of nights to put all the plastic back on, clean up the Silver Streak and put the beotch back on the road by the weekend. Ain't real life a bitch? I oughta take a day off this week and just "get 'er done" so I can go riding, but the weather outlook calls for major suckage the next few days.
I wanna send out thanks to everyone who supported me during this nightmare, with special thanks to RICLET for confirming for me that my fuel pump had indeed gone tits up. May all your children move out, may all your rides be good ones and may all your orgasms cause unconciousness.
Thanks to Radman for spotting that cheap pump on eBay, plus the MANY PMs he sent my way with instructions and advice. Ionbeam and SkooterG get a big tip-o-the hat for their diagnostic help. And Bustanut and FredW, for keeping me positive.
And a final "stick it up yer ass" to odot, who gave me the motivation to prove his sorry ass wrong. I don't need no steenkin' new skoot, ya grumpy old jackass. :****:
You guys have been great. And there's nothing like this forum. It's the kind of support group A.A. wishes it was.
Thank you all.
'Howie
