Front End Reassembly, Beginning

Front end disassembly, continued

Fork disassembly continued....

 Unbolting the bars...

Fork caps removed.  Thankfully the toolkit under the seat has just the right tool for this.

Upon loosening the fork cap nut...

Fork cap, washer, and upper spacer...

And the same on the other side.

Another spacer is just underneath.

For sizing (just in case order of the washers were to matter).

The poor bike, without the forks.

Ever so slight fretting or Brinelling (looks to be more fretting in this case) on the upper bearing race.

Lots of Brinelling on the lower race.

After a week of careful dremel cutting and pounding with a cold chisel, I finally broke the inner race off.  Time to start freezing the whole assembly to prepare for new bearing installation.

Headlight & Instrument Cluster Removal

Removing the headlight was easy.  Just pop it off with a screwdriver...

Then I can remove the wires from the instrument cluster.  The bulbs slide out of their sleeves with little effort.

And a picture for keeping the wires in order during reinstallation:

Aluminum Polishing

Strategy:  Degrease with parts washer, scrub with steel wool and aluminum cleaner, polish with Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish.

Result:  Decent shine

Evaluate:  Deep oil stains take a while to remove.

Strategy:  A step further--another pass with steel wool and polish.  Then some application of "Rub 'n' Buff".

Result:  Extreme shine.

Evaluate:  Overkill.  Not sure I'll use that again.  Reinstalled points cover to keep that area free of debris as I attack the frame with rust remover and a wire brush.  See stark contrast below.