Thanks everyone
I thought for a while I was going to have to come in here and post a plea to try to bribe AZRider into giving me a hand :P
Managed to get my hands a little dirty today without breaking a nail
Got the bike apart, managed to dribble gasoline all over various things while the tank was upside down (didn't manage to siphon it completely dry) - luckily I remembered to buy vacuum caps so I could flip it back over after plugging the gas lines outputs.
I did manage to break the retaining tab on the bigger electrical connector - could not get it to release, then when I tried to "encourage" it by prying it up a little, it snapped. The connector seems to fit fairly snugly, so I didn't do anything to try to secure it better (I suppose I could have deployed some self fusing tape).
I wound up taking the feelergages out of the housing because they were a right pain in the you know what trying to get to the valves at the front of the bike. Speaking of which, those were THE WORST to try to get to what with the radiators constantly getting in the way.
I did not reseat the valve cover bolts with a torque wrench, but I did try to tighten them relatively snugly...the rear ones went on easily with a T handled wrench, the front ones...I managed to finally get a socket on them. As for the valve lock nuts, I was never able to get a socket on the front ones - the rear ones were reachable with the t-handled wrench if I remember right - I was seriously worried I was going to round them off the way it was going!
If anything, my valves might be a hair loose now, but I *think* 3 of them were on the tight side - either that or I was having issues with the feeler gauges catching on something. buttoned the bike back up and made sure it started
didn't get a chance to take it out for a ride - husband noted there was a lot of traffic (and likely distracted drivers) out this afternoon, so I didn't go for a test drive after I put everything back together.
Here's the proof that I finally got inside the bike
Thanks again for being so helpful and supportive - it was an interesting day getting intimate with my zong
