The Little Things Help.

Had a great day. Fixed a leaky shower faucet AND my Yamaha - all in the same day.
I get such a feeling of victory when I can complete a plumbing repair. I get frustrated and cuss like a sailor, but when things work I feel like I got one over on The Man (who ever that is!).
Been fiddling with this Moen single handled faucet over the past two weeks. Moen sent me a new cartridge FREE in the mail - they mean it about their lifetime warranty.
Put it in this morning. Trouble. Slow dribble instead of a leak and the water didn't run much at all. Talked to a nice lady on their 800# help line. She told me what to do, I did and it worked!
On a roll now - My winter motorcyle, a 1982 Yamaha XT550, has been having electrical problems. Like the light doesn't work. Took off the seat and side covers and the battery was corroded at both terminals. AND the water was way down. Topped it off with distilled water and cleaned the terminals.Was it going to be that easy? Fired Newt up and ........ NOPEY, no lights except the brake light.



Based on all the directions/suggestions given I decided to try finding a loose connection - specifically a loose ground. (black wire, right?!) well after 45 minutes or so, I found the problem area up front. The ground wire in this pigtail was not connecting well, I could shake it and the light would come on. Newt and I took a spill on the ice last winter and I am pretty sure this is when things got screwed up. The fall did some damage to the LR turn signal and broke the cover that was over the offending pigtail.
In looking around I also found a nut missing off of a bolt that holds the LF turn signal onto the headlight assembly. Ran up to the hardware, got a new bolt AND 2 new 6mm screws for attaching the side covers and some 3M electrical tape. Opened the pigtail up, pushed the loose ground part back into position - gave all the connections a light spritz with WD-40 and then carefully taped the pigtail to the little area where the cover broke off. Taped it over with several layers and sealed top and bottom with liquid tape. Replaced the missing nut and .................. BINGO.Took Newt for a spin and he is back to normal. The lights on the speedo and tach both work (haven't had that for quite some time) ALL the turn signals work, running light, brake light and hi AND low beam on the headlight all work. Whooo-hooooo!

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