First update in a while! The bike's been great! Put a bunch of miles on it.

I was having a problem where it would run out of gas when there was still plety of gas left!! And setting it to reserve would do nothing. Well, the problem was a bunch of things...

The fuel petcock was shot.... no fixing it. I had to buy a new body. Pricey... I think $100 or so from the stealer. Then, I replaced all the o-rings... petcock-to-tank, petcock fuel strainer and fuel gauge. (After taking the petcock off and on a few times, it started leaking!! ARGH!)

The new petcock body was just that, the body. I moved over the knob, strainer and auto-fuel-shutoff diaphram. Oh, the diaphram was messed up and stuck together too ... so it would never shut off the fuel. But after consulting the maunal, I found out how it should look and mount and I just pulled it apart.... and it works fine. Seals well and shuts off automatically. (Tested it.)

So THE MAIN problem was the fuel strainer INSIDE the gas tank. Since I did all my initial work (and KREEMing the tank) before I had the manual, I had no idea there was a strainer in there!!!

After racking my brain as to why my new petcock body was still messed up and not letting me use reserve, I consulted the manual and noticed the damn filter.

I went to the stealer and bought all the bits I needed and waiting for the weekend. When the weekend came around, I grabbed the lip of the strainer that was exposed and pulled. It took a lot of work, but it came out and MAN!!!!! It was completely covered in Kreem. I HAVE NO IDEA how the bike was working at all!!!!!

I cleaned out all the crud and installed the new strainer and o-ring and put it all back together. Then I added like .2 gallons of gas and started her up. Running on "reserve" it was working! WOOHOO!

So I went to the gas station (two blocks away) and filled her up with nice Mobil 92. It's been about 35 miles now and everythings GREAT. No leaks. Auto shutoff works. Good gas flow.

Oh, my gas gauge was horribly innacurate too ... would read empty after only like 1 gallon of gas used!! So I spent a little time bending it trying to make it better. Of course, it kept flasking off a little ruse each time I reinstalled it so I decided to take it to the griding thingy in Eric's garage and use the bristled part ... wow, cleaned it right up.

Anyway, after 35 miles, it still reads totally full. I knew it would read full for a while... but what I'm really looking for is for it to start heading to empty as it actually gets near there...... Of course I use milage too, but it's just nice to have it there too ... You know, on a long trip, my milage might be much better than city driving so it would be nice to know.... Once I get the hang of the new gauge profile, I'll be able to corralatei to gallons left, etc etc.

I'm just so damn happy the tank is all fixed up. Several months later, the Kreem is holding up great. I think I did a good job on it. All the gas I took out of the tank while working on it was totally clean and nice. [[I hope it was!! We poured it all back into Eric's Mitsubishi Eclipse!!! Hehe]]

In other areas of the bike, I've lined up some used rotors from a guy on the net. $35 for both. Not bad! One on mine is badly warped. I'll get them on the bike soon and I hope it will cure my problem.

Also, the fork seals are dead. I have new parts already and just need to put them on. Rick from work will help me.

And lastly, handlebars. New ones are almost $200 !! HAHAHA! No one on the net had any laying around so I ordered some from Denniskirk.com. $35. I measured and bought some that were close to mine in all dimensions except these are a little less tall. Hope it will workout and they will be comfertable. We'll see!!

The bike is really coming together. I think once I get it mechanically all worked out, I need to repaint some it it. Far away looks ok, but close up it's a bit ratty still. But she drives good and that's what matters, huh?

Ok, here is some other info:

Kelly from the Nighthawk mailing list gave me sone numbers on the nighthawk that were published back in 1985:

Rev limiter kicks in somewhere between 11,700 and 12k.  I've hit mine on 3
occasions.  Twice in 2nd and once in 3rd.  According to Cycle Mag the S did
the following in a 1985 test.

Standing 1/4 mile:          12.35 seconds @ 107.46 mph
@ Reline in 1st:             49 mph
@ Reline in 2nd:             71 mph
@ Reline in 3rd:             89 mph
@ Reline in 4th:             106 mph
@ Reline in 5th:             127 mph
@ Reline in 6th:             147 mph