Daniel and I both arrived at Tara's house about 3:30 on Wednesday, 4/2, for the purpose of cleaning up Mike's Ural and getting it ready to list on E-Bay Motors. Dan noticed the bike was leaking fuel from one of the lines. We walked to the local auto parts store and got some fuel hose and chrome cleaner. I changed the main hose from the tank to the "T" between the two carburetors with no problem because there is no significant fuel in this line if the engine is not turning. We then noticed the crossover hose was leaking. Unfortunately this line is wet if there is fuel in the tank and when I pulled off one end I had a mess on my hands, gasoline going everywhere. I finally got the new hose on after soaking the right sleeve of my sweat jacket and right sandal with gas. That was the end of our efforts for the day other than connecting my battery charger/tender. I changed clothing and put my wet stuff out for Tara to take to the laundromat.
On Thursday morning it was obvious that the battery was a dead duck. After finding the size on the Internet I called the local auto parts store and to my surprise they had the battery. After reading a how-to on the web we set out to remove the old battery. The web piece implied that it could be done without removing the seat. The positive terminal was easy to unfasten. I had some struggles with the nut on the battery clamp but finally got it off after using vice grips to keep the bolt from turning. I could see no way to reach the negative terminal with the seat on but I could not see or feel what kind of fastener was holding the seat on. I finally discovered that there was no nut on the seat bolt and that it could be removed with no tools no doubt complements of the mechanics at the dealership where it was serviced.
Once the seat was off it was the work of a few seconds to unhook the negative terminal. My guide said to remove the "rear starter bolt". We soon discovered that the starter had to be removed to get clearance to slide the battery out. To get the starter out the air cleaner had to be unhooked. Fortunately I carry a pretty comprehensive set of tools in my car and had the 8mm Allen socket required to fit the starter bolts.
After the battery was out we went to the auto parts store and purchased the new one then went to Harbor Freight to buy a small 3 gallon compressor that was on sale (I did not mention that the rear tire was completely flat and the other two were very low). We put the acid in the new battery and while it was sitting the required hour I set up the compressor and aired up the tires while Dan went down to get us some lunch and more fuel tubing (we had noticed more leaks). We ate then moved the bike up near the garage where it would be easier to access. It was of course much easier to get the new battery in and we soon had the starter back in and everything bolted up.
We put the charger on the battery then set up to wash the bike. After completing the wash we went to work with the chrome cleaner. To my surprise most of the rusty chrome cleaned up very well. There are a few pieces where the rust had eaten through the chrome into the steel and those must either be tolerated, re-plated or replaced. Overall the end result is better than I expected. I have sent pictures and a description to my younger son and hopefully he will be able to get it on E-Bay Motors soon and a buyer will appear.
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