GnarlyWrench

Protip: Soften Carb Boots & Remount Carbs

2012-02-28T14:00:00.001-08:00

Wintergreen oil + Xylene mixed in a certain proportion
can soften hardened rubber carb insulator boots.

Leave them to soak overnight
in the mix of 70% Xylene and 30% Wintergreen oil

The result is clean and pliable insulator boots that are much easier to install.

They should pop right on with no fuss.

Getting the carbs mounted on them can still be a fist though.
An easy fix it to wrap a ratchet strap around the carbs and front of motor.
Tighten down on the ratchet until the carbs pop into the boots and that's it.

Button everything up and you're done.
Soft boots can turn a day of struggles and headaches (and broken boots)
into about a 30 minute re-install, from start to finish.

Productive weekend?

2012-02-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't gotten much done in the way of bikes lately. The weather just hasn't been quite warm enough to be able to paint the things that need painted. However, it has been warm enough to get a few other things done:

Mini-trucks FTMFW.

Hidden gem

2012-02-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

So I found this WICKED RAD paint job hiding under the black spraypaint on Elrich's F2.

WHY IN THE NAME OF CHRIST WOULD YOU PAINT OVER THIS?!?

I wet the sidecover down to give you an idea of what it looked like new.

New Tach Oil Seal - Joey's K3

2012-01-30T13:11:00.000-08:00

New cam cover tachometer oil seals came in, so I took a few minutes to finish up swapping out the leaky one in Joey's K3.

Here's a quick recap of what was already done:
"

Joey's CB750 is inching closer to roadworthy, state-inspected completeness. With the brakes replaced, brake light fixed, and most recently the front wheel bearing done, there's just a couple more things left to do.

First up was the cylinder head cover's tach cable seal. Oil has been spewing out of this since we got the bike running. It's time to fix it.

The oil seal resides in this hole. It surrounds the tach drive gear shaft
and prevents oil from the cam cover escaping.

This is the tach drive gear.
You can see where the shaft exits through the cam cover.

To remove the seal, use a pointed punch or automotive pick.
CAREFULLY puncture the seal and pull it away from the shaft.
If you botch this, you're fucked: scratch the shaft and the seal will leak,
so you'll need a new tach drive gear. Scratch the cam cover and the seal
will leak. You'll need to replace or repair the cam cover.

Once removed from the shaft just pull the seal out.

...and there it is! No problem.

Oil seal removed.

I'm an idiot and managed to lose the three brand new oil seals I ordered. Of course, I didn't realize this until after I removed the one from Joey's motor and destroyed it in the process. Five more are in the mail as we speak.

**Update**
Oil seals arrived!

All five of those suckers.

And that brings us to where we are now:

Old one's out.

New one is replaced with this side facing IN.
Use a punch to help guide the new seal over the tach gear shaft.

There's a dimple on the tach gear shaft, the tip of this punch fits in nicely.

Once the seal is in place you can guide it in using the end of an old tach
or speedo cable. Place it over the oil seal and hammer it in evenly.

Slides right in. No drama.

There you have it. Simple as pie.

New Swag From FTWCO

2012-01-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

My FTWCO swag came in yesterday. I'm pretty stoked about the t-shirt, it looks great and fits well.

Guys, if your bike mysteriously gets a FTWCO sticker slapped on it, it was probably me.

I got a tee...

and a few stickers.

Thanks again to the guys at FTWCO.

Magical Disappearing Main-Jets

2012-01-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

While I wait for Joey's center-stand stopper and cam cover tachometer oil seal to arrive, I decided to yank the carbs and figure out why it's having such a hard time at 3/4 to full throttle.

I hung the carbs so I had both hands free then drained them.

Then, I popped off the first float bowl and found this:

Where'd the main jet go?

The main jet pulled a Houdini and disappeared. Luckily I found it hiding under a nearby mason jar lid.
Carbs 1, 2, and 3 all had the same problem. Carb #4 still had the main jet in.

I'm not really sure how 3 main jets managed to back themselves out, but I'm glad I caught that. This time I was certain to torque them down really well. I'm not entirely certain this will solve the problem though. The bike was having the exact same issue before I swapped out the main jets from 110 to 120.
This time, I put 125's in all four carbs to be sure. I'd rather it be a little too rich to start than too lean. I'll sort out the details later but I'm suspect that with the stock airbox and the 4 into 1 exhaust that's on there now, I'll probably settle on a 122.5.
A quick plug chop will determine what the appropriate jet size once she's back up and running. Hopefully the stock #40 slow jets are still appropriate, since I don't have any screw-type #42's lying around.

Cycle-X Super Sidewinder On Joey's K3... Plus Some Other Stuff

2012-01-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

First up was the cylinder head cover's tach cable seal. Oil has been spewing out of this since we got the bike running. It's time to fix it.

The oil seal resides in this hole. It surrounds the tach drive gear shaft
and prevents oil from the cam cover escaping.

This is the tach drive gear.
You can see where the shaft exits through the cam cover.

To remove the seal, use a pointed punch or automotive pick.
CAREFULLY puncture the seal and pull it away from the shaft.
If you botch this, you're fucked: scratch the shaft and the seal will leak,
so you'll need a new tach drive gear. Scratch the cam cover and the seal
will leak. You'll need to replace or repair the cam cover.

Once removed from the shaft just pull the seal out.

...and there it is! No problem.

Oil seal removed.

All five of those suckers.

Next up is the exhaust. The exhaust that was on there wasn't exactly what I would consider "pretty." It was a mess actually. Luckily, Joey got a deal on a Cycle-X Super Sidewinder exhaust to replace it.
First thing is first though, off came the exhaust collars and pipes without an issue. However, getting the old exhaust spigots off was a bitch and a half.

After only a couple days of being constantly soaked in PB Blaster,
a generous application of heat, a few hours of tapping with some hardened
punches, and pounding with an impact hammer, the screws let loose.

For a minute I was worried I was going to damage something.
Eventually, the screws came out without any drama.

With the collars off I figured I'd take a quick peek to see how the exhaust valves are looking.

Joey complained that his bike was bogging down from 3/4 to full throttle. I'm hoping it's not because of an issue causing it to run lean.

Cylinders 1 and 2 look good.

3 is good! 4 is...

waitaminit...

Fuck.

Well that's another problem we'll be looking into later. I'll pull the carbs off and go over them again to see what's up. I have to remove them to rejet them for this exhaust anyway. Back to mounting the new exhaust!

Old exhaust gaskets removed.

Port faces cleaned of carbon...

...and polished for new gaskets.

Amidst all that cleaning I noticed his trees clamps and fork ears had
developed a good bit of rust. So, I sprayed some phosporic acid on them,
followed by some water to rinse, WD-40 to displace water, and
some lubricant to keep them from rusting again.

While installing the new exhaust I ran into a bit of a problem: it didn't fit. It barely cleared the frame and the headers simply did not match up to the exhaust ports. The spacing on the pipes was not good. Cylinder #1 had an incorrect bend and was way too close to cylinder 2. Cylinders 3 and 4 were also a bit too close together, while cylinders 2 and 3 were just a tough too far apart.

Cylinder 1 was the worst of the pipes.
It was off by about a half inch and the bend angle incorrect

Cylinder #2 is the only one accepting pipe in this pic.

No matter what I tried they just didn't fit right.

After a bit of wrestling it was clear that these were not going to fit on there easily. So, I took them off and managed to squeeze them onto a CB750F head I had by pulling, stretching and using blocks to space the headers out more. After I spaced them out I heated the pipes up while they were attached to the head and cranked down on the mounting bolts to get them seated correctly. I let them sit that way on the spare head for a while. Applied and reapplied head multiple times with a torch. A little persuasion with a malliot and wood blocks, followed by more torque on the mount bolts and eventually they stretched to the proper-ish width. Then I took them off and got them to fit on Joey's K3 ...sort of.

Besides the poor exhaust port fitment, there was also a light brake-
related issue. Even after a good bit of adjustment, the rear brake pedal
would contact the exhaust when depressed.

Brake begins to engage.

Brake engaged.

Brake fully engaged, but motion still somewhat limited by exhaust.

Here's that motion in action.

While it may not be much of an issue now because of the tight adjustment and new shoes, once those rear brakes begin to wear in a little, more pedal motion may be required to fully engage the brake. This motion will be obstructed by the exhaust.

All-in-all I would say it's not terrible though. The exhaust certainly looks the part, and I'm sure there will be a noticeable increase in engine performance.

Final thought: I love the Cycle-X cone muffler, it looks great. However the (designed for a DOHC) Vance & Hines header is just poorly designed in my opinion. The terrible fitment and obstructive final mounting position are impossible to overlook. They could have easily avoided this problem by simply not welding the individual pipes into the 4 into 1 joint. That way the pipes are independently adjustable and the 4>1 joint might be able to slide under the bike just a bit more.

Recommendations: Don't buy these headers. Go source a CB750F exhaust with the 4 into 1 headers and put the Cycle-X muffler on there. You'll get better fitment, the exhaust will be up under the bike and out of the way, and won't intrude on your rear brake motion.

Fix: If you're hellbent on running these, call Cycle-X and see what they recommend as far as installing them. Once you get them on the bike, to prevent the brake pedal issue you can put on rearsets (although your foot will be right behind the exhaust outlet) or adjust the brake tight and grind down the underside of the brake pedal.

New Year, New Bike: CB360 twin

2011-12-31T13:49:00.000-08:00

Look what followed me home today.

Happy New Year!

1976 CB360

D'awww... they look so cute together.

Oh yeah, it's got a new set of Bridgestone Battlax tires on it.

21561 original miles.

PRESERVE NATURE.

And here's the rest of her.

Joey's K3 gets new front wheel bearings.

2011-12-29T12:33:00.000-08:00

The Rear wheel bearings were replaced when we rebuilt Joey's K3 in the first place.

The front wheel bearings were also replaced, but that was on another wheel that wound up snapping a spoke.

Rather than spend the $$ on new spokes, and the time re-lacing them; I opted to take the lazy route and replace the bearings in the original wheel from his K3. It's funny how this wheel was previously not used because I wanted to avoid doing a bearing swap in the first place.

On the upside, this tire has more tread left that the one on the other wheel.

All the parts required.

Old bearings were already pressed out.

Notice the different part numbers?
Bearing on left is a U meaning it's sealed on one side.
The one on right is a UU meaning it's completely sealed.
The stock bearings were single side sealed but having
a fully sealed one in there won't hurt anything.

Place bearing to be set.

Cover with old bearing to drive new one in evenly.

Cover with rubber maillot and smack with a BFH.

Place oil seal.

Place bearing retainer ring and use a spanner or
a screwdriver/chisel+hammer to drive it in.
I actually used a file to turn it most of the way in, then finished
driving it in with a flat-head screwdriver and maillot.

Eventually it'll look something like this.
It's easier to set the bearing retainer first then drive in the oil seal.
Or set the oil seal in the retainer then drive it in like I did.

Place the axle collar (use grease to keep it there).

Place bearing. This is the "U" (one side sealed) bearing.
Note the unsealed side is facing IN the wheel.

Place the seal o-ring over the hub.
Slide on the assembled speedo drive and slide axle through.
Sorry for lack of assembly pics here, the process was a bit too
greasy to be touching my camera in between steps.

Screw on the axle nut to the other side.

Slide on brake disc and bolts. and you're all set!

It's a pretty simple job but there's a lot of places this can go horribly bad.
Most of the bad things happen in the bearing removal process;
particularly with getting the old bearing retainer out.

Next time I do this I'll be making one of these:

Thanks Terry in Austrailia for the write-up!

More Garage Progress

2011-12-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but nothing post-worthy has come about in a while.
I'm assuming no one wants to see pictures of me cleaning, scraping, and sanding a motor for the last 15 days.

To take a break from the monotony of prep-work, I reorganized part of the garage over the break. The overall status of the garage is still "messy." It will likely stay that way until I finish painting, but at least in the meantime I have some room to move about. Also, the foam floor is a definite plus for keeping my butt and bare feet off the cold concrete.

XS650 Motor Paint - Part Deux

2011-12-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Tommy's motor is almost done being painted. There's no new updates since the last post other than I spent 4 hours sanding the left engine side cover (alternator cover). However, I was slightly less than lazy last night and decided to take some pictures. Here you go:

The first attempt at painting this went horribly wrong.

So I stripped it all and sanded it down.

I wish I had taken some before pictures to show the
nastiness and discoloration / pitting of the metal.

After about four hours of sanding and steel wool-ing to a mirror finish,
I realized the paint would NOT stick to that surface.
So, I had to rough everything up with a wire brush.

The motor hung like this for the majority of the spraying.

At one point the motor came down to spray around these areas
where the straps and motor mounts got in the way.

There were a lot of very hard to reach areas on this motor,
making it very difficult to apply paint evenly.
It took 4 coats and a LOT of sanding to get it right.

Sanding the fins on the head and bottom case between coats was tedious.

Spraying between these fins turned out to be harder than expected.
Most of the difficulty was due to my over-sized HVLP spraygun.
It was totally inappropriate for this level of detail and crevices.

I even tried to sand off the tiny little bumps; imperfections left from
the casting process. This proved to be insanely difficult
so I just left 'good enough' alone.

I'm not sure why, but the paint went on a little thick right here.
No worries though, that spot is completely hidden by the starter motor

To be frank, the top of the motor
turned out a hell of a lot better than I anticipated.

Miraculously I managed not to get any paint in any of the threaded holes
that I forgot to mask off.

This should give you an idea of how evenly the paint was applied,
even after four coats.

We're not out of the woods yet. I still need to CAREFULLY peel off the
tape from all the masked areas.

Painting the socket cap screws without taking them completely off
was hard but somehow worked.

Surprisingly this turned out to be the hardest part of the motor to paint.
It still doesn't look quite right. The metallic flake in the paint seems to
want to stick to itself and run down the side in this area.

Also, because of all the gouges and scratches that wouldn't sand out,
the paint was applied unusually thick to hide them.
It's not my best work, but it doesn't look hideous.

Teaser shots: Sex-cess 650 motor pre-paint.

2011-12-13T09:21:00.000-08:00

Well the motor is almost done being painted. There are a few little spots that need to be cleaned up, and the left side cover is going to get re-sprayed completely so that the shift pattern is still visible. I also still need to go over all the gaskets, joints, and edges with an exacto knife.
The majority of the painting is done, I just don't have any pictures of that yet.

Meanwhile back in the internet, certain people have been beating down my door to post some updates. To appease my blog's vast audience (hopefully all 3 of them), I'm posting some updates:

So, without further ado, here's some pictures of the motor before paint.

Hang 'em high.

The motor is hanging from some motor mounts.
I removed them for the second round of paint so I could get better coverage.
Once the mount points and hard to reach spots were sprayed,
the motor got strung up again for rounds three and four of paint.

After all that media blasting and scrubbing (oh my god the scrubbing)

the motor turned out so fresh and so clean (clean) it almost seems

shameful to cover her up with paint.

On a side note, A drill and wood-spade bit is the best thing for mixing this ceramic paint in small cans.

The auger bit was used to gently scrape the sides of the can.

Paint stick scraped the ceramic material from bottom of can while the drill
bit folded it into the paint.

Let us spray

2011-11-29T07:40:00.001-08:00

Setting up a room for painting motors:

The paint room has come together quite nicely with a little help from my clam.
No, I'm not talking about my significant other, I mean my CLAM.
No, I don't have a...
*Sigh* just take a look at the pictures.

If a stapler had sex with a binder clip, this would be the result.

It spits out little reusable clamps when you slide the button.

Viola! Effortless seam clamping.

I used five separate sheets of plastic, one of which had a couple slits cut in it for an escape hatch or something. I needed to clip all those edges together to keep out the dust and keep in the heat and paint.

Now I have one seamless paint room. Even the bottoms of the plastic are clamped to the plastic sheet on the floor.

Time for new shoes; Joey's K3 needs to pass inspection.

2011-11-28T13:09:00.001-08:00

So Joey's CB750 K3 failed VA safety inspection for a couple things:The taillight was out, the rear brake was out of adjustment, and the front wheel bearings were bad.

I'm still waiting on the replacement front bearing but over the Thanksgiving break I fixed the other problems.

I first assumed that the taillight was just burned out since it worked before. Nope, not the case.

How this happened, I have no idea.

Nothing my trusty electrician's knife can't handle.

I yanked the wires from a busted ignition switch I had lying around
and soldered them to Joey's.

All done minus encasing the connections in hot glue to insulate them.

Next up is the rear brake shoe replacement.

Wheel off.

Shoes removed and hub cover cleaned.

Inside of hub cleaned and and roughed.

New shoes and springs installed.

Finally, the bike needs new front wheel bearings. I have a NOS rebuild kit I never got around to using, the only problem is it's missing a bearing. So I went back to Manassas Honda and ordered the missing part.
In the meantime, I pressed out the old bearings:

To say the retainer was a bitch to remove is the understatement of the century.

After a lot of hammering, PB B'laster, chiseling, screaming, and finally Dremel-ing followed by more hammering, the soft aluminum bearing retainer came out.

It looks surprisingly intact,
especially considering the amount of effort I put into destroying it.

With the bearing retainer removed the bearings pressed out, this wheel was set aside and replaced with a spare until the new parts arrive.

Posh AMAL Style Barrel Grips

2011-11-22T15:52:00.001-08:00

I just ordered a set of POSH 7/8" barrel grips in light brown as an early Christmas present to myself.

Here's what the POSH website has to say about them,

It is a grip produced sticking to over the detail such as total length designed to suit shape of saliva that considered the match with the mini switch and a simple handle bar, lame conditions, and color though it is a design that is reminiscent of the AMAL type of 60's.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the most helpful description but here's a few pictures I snagged from the web to make up for it.

Here's their assortment of available colors.

Here are the grips I ordered.

Wash and media blast the XS650 motor

2011-11-21T20:59:00.001-08:00

Here's something you haven't seen in a while. Tommy and I pulled out his XS650 motor from the shed and hosed it off. After it dried, I nailed it with the soda blaster to get all the rest of the gunk, rust, and corrosion off.

The majority of the gunk got scrubbed off with Simple Green.
The harder to reach spaces got the soda blaster.

I wish I had taken 'before' photos. This motor was all sorts of dirty.

In order to get the whole motor I had to remove the starter. I quickly found out that doing so means the motor is going to void itself of oil through the starter gear hole and had to rush to put the motor over a catch pan.

Impromptu oil change, when I noticed oil spilling out of the starter hole.

Next step is paint prep and paint.

Garage makeover progress

2011-11-11T11:35:00.001-08:00

I've made a little progress with tidying the garage up a bit. After several failed attempts at hanging some spare wheels from the ceiling, I think I have finally found a viable solution:

The only problem is, that corner of the garage is now pretty dark because those wheels are blocking all the light. A good permanent solution would obviously be to run recessed lighting throughout the garage, but I already have way too many projects on my hands. Plus that would require me to clean out the attic o.0

Garage makeover 3.0

2011-11-03T14:32:00.001-07:00

Consider this the Beta release of The Red Carpet Garage v3.0

CB750 motors all tucked away on the shelf.
New containers house freshly organized parts.
More available flat surfaces to work on.
A kerosene heater to warm my butt.

Things are coming along nicely. I'll update this post with more pics later.

Virago XV750 for sale.

2011-10-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

I bought an early (monoshock!) Virago a couple months ago on a whim. I'm just now realizing that with 2 friends waiting on me to finish their bikes, plus 3 CB750's and 3 Goldwings of my own to attend to, I probably won't get around to it any time soon.

New starter motor.

Sold it 4 hours after listing.

Still no progress - GL1000

2011-10-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

So the carburetors are still giving me problems.
After the bike has warmed up the idle will occasionally surge up to 3000 RPMs again and then come back down after a second or two.

I took a video to see if anyone has encountered this before and can help me identify the problem.
Please comment if you have any suggestions.

Note: I did not touch the throttle in this video.

Slide slide slippity-slide

2011-10-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

So polishing up the slides that were on the '76 carbs didn't work out so well. I still have surging RPM's off-idle. Frustrated, I said fuck it and scrapped them altogether.

But I do have an ace up my sleeve.

I just pulled these beauties off a (for parts) set of 755A carbs.

See that scallop cut in the bottom of these? Yea that means they're more badass than the flat bottomed girls I yanked out. It also means they'll allow for more airflow, particularly at full throttle.

The best part about these is they're a complete set of matching tops and slides with no damage or scrapes.
They were a bit dirty though.

...and after 5 hours of polishing: (my forearms look like Popeye's)

The needles buffed out nicely.

I really hope these do the trick. I've been on a wild goose chase for about a week now hunting down one problem after another with this bike. This past weekend alone I've had the carbs on and off the bike 5 times.

**Update10/19**

The bike starts and idles fine, but still seems a bit slow to decrease RPM's.

I'm going to set the timing dynamicallty, then try and sync the carbs as best I can and see if that makes a difference.

I already swapped the #115 slow air jets for #110's. It was quirky at first but eventually I got the idle adjusted and now it idles strong.

Two steps forward, two steps back.

2011-10-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I was a bit optomistic about this past weekend. Things didn't work out quite like I planned.
Instead of going to see Deep River on Saturday and take the Fall Foliage ride to Graves Mountain on Sunday, I spent the entirety of my weekend sorting out carb problems.

Friday:

I installed new spark plugs and plug caps,

and put the rest of the bike back together; radiator, fan etc...

Then finished rebuilding the GL1000's carbs (for the first time).

Saturday:

The carbs were mounted on the bike, primed, and ready.

However, when I tried to start the bike I got a quick "put-put-put," like it was going to fire, and then nothing. I tried again, and the bike SPEWED fuel out the right exhaust all over the garage.

Apparently the Clymer's manual was very wrong about the procedure for setting the float height.
The proper way to do it isn't from the gasket surface, or the gasket. Instead, measure the float height from the lip around the edge of the gasket.

So, I removed the carburetors, re-adjusted the floats, remounted them and tried to start the bike.

Before.

The correct orientation for setting float height.

After.

Still no luck. So I ran the handy-dandy troubleshooting checklist: Spark, Fuel, Compression.
Well, cylinders 3&4 had no spark. Luckily it turned out to just be a loose wire.

At this point it was late, and I didn't want to piss off the neighbors by starting the bike
So,I decided to call it a night and try my luck in the morning.

Sunday:
I woke up, threw on some pants and, like a kid on christmas, dashed for the garage.
I hit the starter button and after a minute or so of struggling she fired a little bit.

She was having trouble starting and running so I decided to pull the carbs again to double check everything and bench sync them.

Draining float bowls again.

Double checking float heights.

The floats were all set perfectly, all the passages were clear but got blown out with compressed air anyway.
I syncronised them using a guitar string and threw them back on the bike.

Once mounted, I hit the starter button and she fired right up without hesitation!

But then, I gave it just a touch of throttle and the engine RPM's surged to 3000 and stayed there even after I let off the throttle. After a few more attempts and adjustments I couldn't fix the problem.

When I rebuilt the carbs I swapped out the slow air jets for smaller ones to enrich the idle and off-idle mix
so that the bike wouldn't have a flat spot and stumble when moving from a stop.

Hoping that this was part of my problem I decided to swap the jets out, but I thought,
"I'll be damned if I'm taking those carbs off again."

The slow air jets are pretty hard to access with the carbs still on the bike, but I had just the right tool for the job:

This photo was surprisingly hard to take.

Slow air jet removed...

...from here

Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem, so I guess I'm damned.

The only other thing I could think that might have caused the surging RPM's would perhaps be sticking slides. I pulled the carbs again, hopefully for the final time, and polished the carb slides, tops,
and bores with some 0000 Steel wool.

Only the finest for polishing my carbs!

I think this box is older than I am.

Before. Notice the scuffs.

After polishing.

I also polished the inside of the tops.

I reassembled everything Sunday night and hopefully with some luck we'll find out if this fixed it tomorrow!

...and by request I present to you, friggin' spiders:

I think he was sick of the paparazzi and decided to take his meal elsewhere.

Graves Mountain Ride Sunday!

2011-10-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

There's a group ride from Manassas Honda to Graves Mountain and back this Sunday.

Hopefully, I can get the Goldwing running in time to make it. There's going to be a sad truck following just in case someone (probably me) brakes down.

From MHKS' website

"Join us this Sunday Oct. 16th. as we ride to Graves Mountain Apple Festival.
Ride departs Manassas Honda Kawasaki Suzuki at 10:30
Riders meeting at 10:00, Approx. 90 minutes to Graves Mountain"

I'll be working tirelessly for the next couple days to prep the bike.

Choke linkages all hooked up.
It looks like they're holding hands, awwwww.

The needles polished up pretty nice.
I may shim them just a tad to enrich the air to fuel mix,
since I'm sticking with stock jets for now.

Last night I made some more progress with the carbs. The bodies, linkaged and manifold are all back together, although not pictured. Now all I have to do is put the little stuff (jets, needles, gaskets, etc..) back in and sync them.

Carburetors EVERYWHERE!

2011-10-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

It seems that I've seen a lot of sets of carburetors come and go lately. I think at any given time I have at least a dozen sets lying around.
Off the top of my head I think I've got

3 complete sets of '75 GL1000 carbs
a set of '78 GL1000 carbs
and a set of '76 GL1000 carbs plus a box of random parts/bodies.
2 or 3 sets of early CB750 carbs plus a few boxes full of spare parts/bodies
a couple sets of later (PD42 A and B) CB750 carbs
2 sets of XS650 carbs
a set of Keihin CR29's
A set of CB400 carbs
oops I forgot one; another set of PD42 B's (Elrich's F2 carbs)
I'm sure there's more I just can't remember.

I like to do multiple sets of carbs at once. That way I'm not wasting chemicals when I use my ultrasonic cleaner. I can just reuse the cleaner several times in a row on different sets of carbs. Because of this approach, sometimes the workbench can get a bit cluttered. Here's a little taste of my carburetor chaos.

I was given a couple sets of CB900 C carbs to build a single good set out of. I tore into them and discovered that all one of the sets really needed was new gaskets, an accelerator pump diaphragm, and a float hinge pin.
So now they're sitting off to the side waiting for parts to arrive in the mail.

This box makes it easy to keep everything organized.

In the meantime, I'll be rebuilding a set of '76 GL1000 carbs (Keihin 758 A's) So I can get my Goldwing ready for the Graves Mountain ride next weekend. These suckers are huge, there's a freakin' TON of parts and they are currently occupying my workbench in it's entirety.

Oh... just a couple spare sets laying around.

Yes the Goldwing has only 4 cylinders,
I pulled a couple spare carbs to scavenge for parts.

Like I said, this thing REALLY comes in handy.

7777 pageviews

2011-10-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you for making this possible.
You are awesome.

Well, that's pretty cool.

Getting sidetracked - CB400 café seat prep

2011-10-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Sick of not making any progress on any of my current projects, I got distracted.

I pulled out the cb400, yanked the battery and all the wiring from the seat area, and I took a grinder to it.

These tabs are now gone.

Sorry I didn't get any close up shots of the aftermath.

With these tabs out of the way, I'll be working on fabricating a café style seat soon.
Don't worry, I'm going to take a grinder to those spots and clean everything up later.

I'm still debating on whether or not I want to keep the seatlock. I'm thinking I won't, but it's not gone yet.

Piecing together a set of GL1000 carbs

2011-09-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling this is not going to go as smoothly as planned.

I have 3 sets of Keihin 755A carbs and I'm not sure if I can build one usable set out of all the parts from all three. One set is pretty much completely trashed; busted posts, too corroded to even see any of the jets, let alone remove them, the other set has a busted float pin post on one carb and the emulsion tube is stuck in another. I have yet to crack into the third set but I don't imagine it will be in much better shape.

On the upside I get to take a lot of nasty pictures using my homemade macro lens:

Float seat from the '75 Gl1000 carbs.

Here's a close up of one of the float seats. There's some pretty gross stuff lurking around in those carbs.

I'll get some more pics of the process once I make some progress.

*UPDATE* 9/30
Still on the prowl for some proper Keihin 758A carbs. I've had a few promising leads so if I can manage to pull that off I'll go that route and save the 755A rebuild for when I get the '75 up and running.

Joey's K3 is out on the road. God save us.

2011-09-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

Alright so this menace is up and running. There's still a couple issues to sort out before it's running in tip-top shape but for the most part she's good to go.

Sorry for the awful pics it was raining and I was in a hurry. I'll get some decent ones later hopefully.

Here's a pic I snapped of the sidecovers before I painted them. To be honest I think they looked kind of cool like this.

One of these things is not like the other one.

2011-09-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

One of these things just isn't the same.

Front left carb body

Back left carb body

Back right carb body

Front right carb body

Some words of wisdom from the man himself,

"Unless you know the entire history of a bike, you can't rule out that a previous owner made an ill-advised carb and/or engine swap. Believe me, this happens all the time.
-Randakk

Truer words have never been spoken.

According to Randakk's Tech Tip #32, this guy broke 2 of the 3 carb swap rules in one fell swoop.

2. Never mix carbs from late series to an engine in the early series. (the 769A's are from the 1978 GL1000)
3. Never mix carbs within one rack that have different codes.

I think I'll write a letter:

Dear Previous Owner,
Fuck you.

'Ignorance' does not even begin to describe your despicable actions. I hope the future holds for you, a fate worse than death.

Yours in Christ,
Charles

Resistance is futile ...or too great, either way it won't run.

2011-09-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

The GL1000 has a ballast resistor which ensures the ignition coils get the proper voltage at startup and during normal operation.

When the starter motor is engaged the resistor is bypassed because the starter will draw so much current from the battery, that the coils will naturally get the 7-9v that they need.

When the bike is running however, the ballast resistor limits the voltage to the coils so that the otherwise 12v it would be getting is limited to the proper7-9v. This keeps the coils from overheating, the points from detonating or burning up, and the condensers from overworking and failing.

As, it turns out that my ballast resistor is shot. It should read exactly 3Ω when tested.

This one looked a little roasted around the base of the terminals and tested at 3.5Ω.

Rather than source another one from NAPA, I just decided to man up and get a Dyna electronic ignition.

The Dyna-S supplies the appropriate ballast resistor (different Ω). The only downside to using the included one is that it doesn't fit the stock bracket. This is not a problem if you have a Dremel and file handy. Just shave down the edges on the terminal side of the ballast resistor and the bracket will slide right over.

The only downside to installing this new Dyna-S is that it completely negates all the work I put into getting the stock points set and condensers properly grounded, since all that gets removed.

Anatomy of a Tachometer.

2011-09-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Joey's K3 tachometer:

Gauge halves pried apart

This is the magnet that causes the needle to move.
As it spins it moves a metal plate attached to the needle.

The magnet causes this metal cup to rotate.

Update 9/18:
I cleaned it up and put it all back together. Surprisingly, it works fine now.

CB400F up and running.

2011-09-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

So I took a day off from working on other builds to get the CB400F up and running.

It still looks awful, but at least now it runs.

Here's a list of what I did:

Changed oil
Cleaned and oiled air filters
Cleaned and rebuilt carbs
Adjusted valve tappet clearance (not easy without the special tool)
Set ignition timing
Sync'd carbs and adjusted air screws

I still need a new chain, tires, battery, sparkplugs, proper headlight bracket, mirror, shorter clutch cable, and a speedometer would be nice. It's a long way from being street-able, but I'm happy with the progress so far.
I think I'll treat myself to some new tires and sparkplugs in the near future so I can do a plug chop in order to get the carb settings just right.

That's it! You're grounded!

2011-09-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

Still trying to sort out the GL1000's problems, I decided to take a break from the head scratching and do something productive.

The condensers are normally grounded to the battery box. This is a poor place to ground them because of their distance from the breaker points plate, especially when you consider how prone that battery area is to rusting due to gasses vented by the battery. The Ideal place to mount them would be on the points plate itself but there's no room in there so we must improvise a better solution.

So I busted out some spare 8 AWG wire, some shrink wrap, and a couple of ring terminals and got to work.

The result:

Wire attached to the condenser ground.
Notice the rust on the battery basket where it's mounted.

Wire barely peeking out from behind engine mount where it's grounded.

Altogether pretty clean install.

I figured it would still be good practice to properly ground the condensers, despite the fact that I plan on running a Dyna-S in the near future. Who knows, maybe my electronic ignition could fail and I would have to throw my spare points plate on in order to make it home. It would be a shame to burn through a set of points just for that.

Symptoms of poorly grounded condensers include:

Exploded, prematurely worn, or damaged points
Poor idle
Hard starting
High rev missfire

They should call them Not-So-Easy Outs.

2011-09-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Time to trash all those stupid stud extractors I've inherited. They are always more trouble than they're worth.
This is what happens every single time:

Oh the joys of working on older bikes.

F*ck me.

So Elrich's F2 isn't off to a good start. After having to tear down the entire motor just to replace the cam chain, I snap a bolt off in the case. then I snap a stud extractor off in the bolt.

Next time I'm just going to quit when I'm ahead and drill it out and heli-coil it before I make it worse.
Yes, there will be a next time. I'm sure of that. When you start working on 40+ year old bikes, you'll understand.

Stokin' the neighbors!

2011-08-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

So our neighbor from across the street came over last night, flashlight in hand:

Neighbor: Alright you need to be more considerate of our neighbors.

-Yeah Hi, my name is Charlie.

Neighbor: You need to be more considerate. (guess he wasn't interested in introductions/ pleasantries) Ok? This is, you can't... alright?

-Alright that's fine sorry for being so noisy. Joey, it looks like we're done for the night.

Neighbor: And 3am. Saturday. *shakes head* No.

-Uh, yeah okay boss. Goodnight.

Now... I like to think that I'm being fairly considerate, considering that I have the ability to make a LOT more noise than I do. No air tool usage late at night, I'm not running motorcycles at all hours (because none of them run), or blasting music. In fact we were just idling Joey's bike in the garage (sometime before 11pm) when he came over.
Also, I have no idea what he's talking about when he said, "3am Saturday. No." Saturday is probably the one day of the week I'm actually NOT up late working on bikes since I have ALL DAY to do that.

Hopefully this won't be a reoccurring theme.

I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit when Joey left in his super loud, exhaust-less Bronco, followed shortly by the arrival of another neighbors even louder Jeep Wrangler.

The point of this story was something I don't remember. Anyway, Joey's K3 carbs are almost sync'd. Gonna get that done tonight and he should be on his way with a ride-able motorcycle!!!

And just in case anyone was wondering:

Except as otherwise provided, any noise which emanates from any operation, activity or source and which exceeds the maximum permissible sound levels established in this section below is hereby prohibited. Such levels shall be measured at the property boundary of the sound source or at any point within any other property affected by the noise. When a noise source can be identified and its noise measured in more than one zoning district classification, the limits of the most restrictive classification shall apply.

Zoning District Classification	Maximum dBA Daytime	Maximum dBA Nighttime
Residential	60	55

Daytime shall mean the local time of day between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. weekdays and from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays observed by county government unless otherwise specified.

From a pile of parts to nearly complete - Joey's CB750 K3

2011-08-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

The biggest problems we ran into:
1) the forks that came on this thing were off of a cb350. I didn't realize how different the fork lowers were until we went to put it all together, my later fork tubes and springs would NOT fit it. So, if anyone wants a set of freshly rebuilt and painted cb350 forks let me know ;)

2) We planned to throw the wheels and tires from my K7 on there but didn't realize that the early and later K's had different hubs. So, after about a million different tries with different axles, and spacers, and drums, and whatnot we finally realized the left side of the hub was larger on the K7, probably to make up for the wider swingarm and greater offest on the later F and K bikes. So, we would up cleaning 2 sets of hubs.
The hardest part of all of this, and probably of the entire build was that farking bearing retainer. Using TWO spanner wrenches it still took forever to get off. Joe came to the rescue when putting it back on and helped by holding them in place with a board and his weight. The added leverage of turning the board also helped greatly.

3) The center stand spring. That thing is a mother effer. Joe also had another stroke of genius though. (see below)

For anyone wondering how the wide world of sports you get the centerstand spring back on... here's how:

I SUCK at painting... seriously

2011-08-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

So I painted Joe's K3 and my Gl1000 tank.
That was way harder than I expected it to be.

The tank came out fairly nice because it was mostly flat surfaces and easy to reach spots.

Unfortunately, Joe's frame had more nooks and crannies than an English Muffin. There are also some really tight spaces to try and fit the HVLP gun through in order to spray. The combination of these factors made it really difficult to paint.

I managed to get the primer down without a problem but had a really hard time with the ceramic frame paint.
I also didn't buy enough to practice a whole lot (the tank was my practice).

Next time I'll definitely overbuy on paints for practice and might even get a smaller detail gun to make it easier to paint the frame.

Stripping

Stripped

Trying my hand at painting.

2011-07-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

I put a couple coats of primer on Joey's K3 last night.
It started out great but didn't end so well. I had a couple drips around areas that were hard to get into with the spray gun as I expected. So I let it dry and sanded it down. When I went to apply another coat the gun started spraying out larger globs of paint (assuming some had dried in the cup) and then the frame fell off it's hook. I put a couple big ol' handprints right on the fresh primer. That's when I decided to call it a night. I'll be sanding all that back down and going back for round 2 tonight.

Here's a picture of the frame right after I stripped it, but before I prepped it for paint.

Add a couple more to the pile...

2011-07-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

So, I think I may be a wee bit addicted to bikes.

I picked up another '75 GL1000 last night and I'm headed out to snag the ever elusive CB400-4 this evening.
Pictures coming soon.

*Update: 7/28/11*

Credit to the P.O. Phillip Kelly for the pics. I was too lazy to take pics and too eager to start tearing it apart.

It's already had the carbs and filters removed for cleaning, new bushings for rear shocks, clubman bars instead of those clip-ons, new left-hand control with a new clutch lever and cable (now it's tight as a tick instead of stiff as a brick with a sloppy lever.)

Honda Cub

2011-07-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Chris' Honda Cub carb cleaned up pretty good.

Hot Spot

2011-07-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm still diagnosing the problem that left me and my 76 Gl1000 stranded on the parkway last weekend, but I think I have made some progress.

After using some "Prep 'n' Etch" to de-rust the fuel tank, and taking a second look at the carbs, I moved on to the ignition. The first thing I did was pull the points and found a pretty sizable crater in the surface of one point and the other looked pretty messed up as well. Both surfaces are damaged well beyond sanding, so I'll be replacing them soon.

I'll get some pics for you when I stop being too lazy to whip out my homemade macro lens.

*Update 7/12* Points are swapped out and gap set. Still need to set timing but I'll do that after everything goes back together. Tonight will be remounting carbs and re-checking valve lash.

GL1000 Gas Tank Removal

2011-07-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

Removed rear wheel and brake caliper.

Oh yea... and the shocks and exhaust.

Drop the swingarm out of the way.

Before I can remove the shelter I have to figure out what the hell is going on here.
Previous Owner, added a few switches and whatnot. Now I get to sort it out.

Surprisingly less difficult than expected. It would have been a
whole lot easier if I didn't have to sort out the P.O.'s wiring mess.

After a lot of pulling and wiggling I realized there was still one thing preventing
the removal of the tank; the rear brake lines.

So off it came. Two master cylinder bolts, caliper bracket bolt, and...

...this little guy. Instead of trying to take the lines apart or pry it out of
that hangar, just take off the bolt that attaches it to the battery box
and the whole rear brake assembly will fall out and land on your foot.

SUCCESS!

Now what?

"Wuh, w-w-what are you gonna do with THAT?!?" o.0

Electrolysis.

Don't worry tank, I do this alllllll the time.

Well that didn't last long

2011-07-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Just hours earlier this bike was actually in one piece and running.

The 76 GL1000 crapped out on me yesterday. It ran fine for about a day and a half before stalling out.
I'm unsure as to what caused the problem but basically it refused to start. Then it started but kept cutting out and wouldn't run above 3000 RPM. Finally It decided to start and run long enough for me to make it back home.
I suspect bad gas or maybe some rust made it's way into the carbs.

I'm not taking any chances this time though. The tank got pulled and is current-ly (see what I did there?) undergoing electrolysis. The carbs are going to get pulled soon and a double check of my valve lash adjustment and the entire ignition system is to follow.

***Update***
The symptoms described in this post were caused by a faulty ballast resistor.
See: This post about the ballast resistor for the remedy.

Perfect end to a long day

2011-07-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning the 76 Goldwing was still in pieces. Valve covers over here, faux tank sides over there, exhaust in the corner, etc... After a very long and productive day I'm proud to say she's up and running.

Quick recap of what was done:

Torqued heads to spec
Replaced timing belts and pulleys
Adjusted valve lash
Lube and cleaned tachometer cable (squeaked really bad)
Mount carbs
Replaced throttle cables
Replaced speedo light
Cleaned all electrical connections and terminals
Replaced battery
Bled brakes and re-routed brake lines
Mounted exhaust with new crush washers
Re-mounted shelter sides with new retainer cables and pins
Flushed cooling system
Changed oil

This list really doesn't do all the work justice when you consider the number of times I had to test-fit, mount, re-mount, clean, torque, and evaluate the things I'd done. However, none of that really matters because now she's roadworthy and about to start collecting some serious miles.

I'm so excited, I think I'll take her for a spin.

Cheers!

No news is good news.

2011-06-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry for a lack of content lately, I've been too productive (and pulled in too many directions) to update.
This post is dedicated to Chris (http://sixsylinder.blogspot.com/). He drove all the way down from MD to have me look at some carbs for him so I'd like to let him know that they're in good hands. So step back, hold my beer, and watch this.

Without further ado, I present some shiny things:

CB750 carbs; 2 early style and a set of PD's
Two were recently rebuilt with all new components,
the third, along with another set (not pictured) were just cleaned.

This set got the special treatment, they were hydroblasted.

Stripping with friends!

2011-06-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Joey and I stripped down his K3 last night.

First he scrubbed the frame down with Simple Green and a brush to clean the dirt off.
He did such a good job I let him do the engine too.

Good job Joey!

While he was busy doing that, I sprayed the frame down with Klean-Strip and let it work it's magic.
This stuff is pretty cool. Just spray it on, wait 15 minutes, and wipe paint off. DO NOT get any on you though. It burns like hell.

Frame covered in paint stripper.

After a couple applications of the stripper the frame looked like this:

Stripped frame

There are still a couple spots that need some attention but I'll get that with the sandblaster.

I think the frame looks cool as bare metal with a little rust. But the patina isn't what we're going for with this build. We will hopefully be painting in the near future.

My driveway looks like Charlie Sheen's living room.

2011-06-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

It's not what you think, it's just a lot of baking soda. I media blasted the Goldwing heads and cylinder gasket surfaces the other day. I did get a little soda in the oil passages and all in the water jacket. I managed to get most of it out but there's still a very thin layer clinging to the outside of the cylinders. I'll just flush it by idling the bike and having the water pump suck in fresh supply of garden hose water and spit it out down the driveway.

Blown head gasket

2011-06-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

Despite this catastrophic failure the oil is still normal colored and there's no damage to any components. I suppose pulling the head to get that fuel pump stud heli-coiled was the right choice after all.

I still can't source the oil leak though. There doesn't appear to be a hole or crack in the head after all.
The mystery of the leaky stud is going on the back-burner for now. I'm taking the head to have it heli-coiled tomorrow and ordering new head gaskets in the meantime.

**Update** Mystery oil leak was probably one of the gaskets between the head and mechanical fuel pump or the valve cover gasket most likely.

If it ain't broke...

2011-05-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

...it probably was at one point and was then repaired incorrectly.

After giving just one half of the motor the once over I've come to determine that torque specs meant absolutely nothing to the previous owner of the '76 GL1000.

I've already found that there is a crack or hole in the head where one of the exhaust studs screws in. Also the threads of the stud which holds on the mechanical fuel pump are completely stripped, YAY!

Oil drips from an exhaust stud
I suspect it was screwed in too tight and cracked the head.

The threads have been stripped out of the head by the fuel pump stud.

Stud hole [top left] stripped of it's threads.

I'm in a real pinch right now. I had planned on taking the Goldwing to Charlottesville this weekend, but unless I can pull out some quick miracle fixes that isn't going to happen.

I'm not looking forward to undoing all the work I just put into her. Although it is necessary in order to pull the head so I can have the exhaust hole welded and fuel pump hole heli-coiled and tapped back out to 6mm 1.0 pitch.

It is all in the timing.

2011-05-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

Just passed the MSF course this past weekend with a perfect score. *pats self on back*
In celebration of my soon-to-be-lowered insurance rate, I plan on doing some serious cruising on the Goldwing. But not before making sure she is hot to trot. This means a check-up from the proverbial neck up: brake systems are alright, front forks are good, a new battery is on the way, a new rear tire is on the rim and ready to be installed, drive gear oil is refreshed, and coolant flushed. The next thing on the agenda is timing belts. The previous owner did a lot of maintenance to the GL but couldn't give me an exact mileage or date when the timing belts were changed, so off they come.
Unfortunately I didn't consider that in order to check the timing belts, I had to remove the radiator and therefore drain all the coolant. Oh well, looks like I'll be running water and Water Wetter until the next paycheck.

Anywho, back to the task at hand:

1) Remove the radiator, attached fan, hoses, etc... followed by the cam gear cover.

The radiator and timing and cam gear cover have been removed.

The belts look great but I already spent money on replacements,
so on they go.

2) Turn the motor until the T1 mark is visible through the timing window.

(The number 1 is below the F mark)

3) Make sure the "UP" on the cam gear faces is at the top and the timing marks on the gear edges are lined up with the timing marks on the cam gear housing for both gears. If one mark on the cam gear lines up with the corresponding mark on the casing, then your timing is fucked and your pistons have probably already become closely acquainted with the valves.

"UP" is at top and legible.
Timing mark on right cam gear lines up with housing mark at 90º
(3 o'clock facing motor front).

"UP" is at top and legible.
Timing mark on left cam gear lines up with housing mark at 270º
(9 o'clock facing motor front).

4) Loosen bolts on the two belt tensioners. Yes, all 4 of them. Yes, they're impossible to get off. No, there is no good way to do this except the way that doesn't break them. No, I can't help you if you have broken them.
That being said I used vice grips, a ball-peen hammer and a t-handle socket driver. God-speed.

5) Slide belt off left cam gear being careful not to let gear fling back 1/8 turn making a heart-stopping *CLANK* when it does (ask me how I know this). Then slide the belt off the right cam gear and go grab yourself a beer. The hard part is over. While you're grabbing that beer you might want to make it two. That way you'll have something to bribe the friend that you're going to need to help you with this next part.

Timing belts removed.

6) Installing the belts is the reverse of removal, sort of. Make sure all the timing marks are lined up as described in the second and third steps. Slide the belts on making sure they are taught across the top, then slide them over the tensioners and tighten the tensioner mount bolts.
For that left cam gear you may need to put a wrench over the camshaft mount bolt and turn it to line up the timing marks correctly. Then hold it there while you install the belt making sure it is taught across the top.

This is of course difficult to do alone unless you happen to have 3 hands or a beautiful girlfriend to help you. Thanks Rachel, you're the best!

Timing belts successfully installed.

Nowhere to go but up.

2011-05-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

I just finished refreshing the bottom end of the K7 motor.
Everything was removed; transmission, bearings, crank, etc... Then I hit both case halves with a liberal application of Simple Green and a toothbrush. Everything is now clean and shiny.

Following this I checked and replaced everything that needed it. A new primary chain and tensioner were required, the crank and case bearings were still in wonderful shape, and the gears and shift forks were flawless. The only real problem I encountered was that the thin disc on the end of the shift drum was bent. Well, that and trying to get the shift linkage all put back correctly.

Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the disassembly or cleaning process. That ordeal was a bit too dirty for me to do and operate a camera simultaneously. But here are some pictures of the finished product. New primary chains and tensioner installed, cases clean, and everything reassembled using 90w gear oil.

Next step is to soda blast the upper case, cylinder bores, and head. Once clean I'll assemble everything and paint the motor all together with the old hardware on there. That way I don't have to worry about masking any areas off. Then replace all the hardware with stainless steel hex head sockets and the motor will be good to go!

Cleaning BS-34 Carbs From the '81 XS650

2011-05-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Alright kiddies listen up. This is why you don't leave gas sitting in your carbs for years.

Fortunately there is a solution to remedy the error of your ways; the ultrasonic cleaner!

Fresh Rubber

2011-05-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

Just removed the rear from both Gl1000's. Despite the gouge in the '76 wheel I think I'm going to have my new Dunlop 404 mounted on that one. The other wheel is just a bit too dirty, rusty, and has been sitting for far longer, so there are more unknowns as to its integrity.

Update: May 6th. The integrity of the wheel and it's tire is just fine. I went for a spin on it and managed to get a speeding ticket; 69 in a 45. Whoops. New tire is on but the bike will be sitting for a while as some more maintenance needs to be performed. Next thing on the agenda for the GL is the timing belts and valve lash.

More Mess.

2011-04-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

What a mess!

My poor garage has become a massive mess yet again.
Looks like spring cleaning round 2 this weekend.

Here's Some Eye Candy

2011-04-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Right now the garage looks like it threw up all over itself. I'm short on funds so I'm sorting through piles and boxes of parts and listing stuff for sale.

In the meantime here's some pictures of my Goldwings.
The red one just stole brake lines and a caliper from the blue one. It also got some fresh coolant and had all the brake components cleaned and bled excessively.

Loaner Tools for the Win.

2011-04-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

I ordered all but one case bearing from Manassas Honda (thanks again Drew).
The one they couldn't source I got from Motion Industries ($40+shipping, ouch) which is just down the street from where I work.

I managed to get a blind hole bearing puller on loan from Autozone instead of spending $170 on a new one.

Update: [11/29/11]
I needed to borrow that same Blind Hole Bearing Puller from Autozone last week. So I go in and ask them for it and the guy behind the counter just stares at me like I have two heads. They don't have it listed in their loaner tools. There's no record of it, nothing.
Advance didn't have one either.

I wound up buying one from Harbor Freight for $50ish.

And You Thought I Only Cared About Honda's.

2011-04-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

Tommy's xs650's.
The black one with no front end is the project bike, the other is a parts bike we picked up the other weekend.

Looks like the remnants of a bonfire in the parts bike motor.

Front wheel bearing assembly apart.
New bearings for the Lester Mags are en route from All Balls Racing

Split Cases Personality

2011-04-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

I got the engine cases of the K7 separated last night.
Here's the results:

Pistons off.

Make sure you know which way they go back in.

Cases pulled apart.

*Clink plunk* "Where the hell did this little piece fall from?

...oh.

Gear teeth look great
and the faces will be polished in short order.

I went to Manassas Honda today and ordered 2 new primary chains, a tensioner, and all new crankcase bearings. Expensive, but worth it for the peace of mind that I won't have to do this again anytime soon.

GnarlyWrench it is

2011-04-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

I think I'll stick with gnarlywrench for the blog name, at least for the time being.

Five Hours Later...

2011-04-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

...plus a few puddles, some missing paint, 8 or 9 rubber gloves, and 32 fl.oz. of DOT3, I managed to fix up the brakes on the 76 Goldwing.The previous owner had only one "functional" brake in the front. The rear brake had no pressure and the front left caliper was missing entirely. I snagged a donor caliper from the 75 as well as the brake lines and front brake switch.

As fate would have it, I snapped a brake lever trying to bleed the brakes. Minutes later, I get everything assembled and bled the freshly swapped caliper before discovering that one of the donor brake lines was completely shot and worthless. I decided to use the single brake line that was on there before despite the fact that it is too long... I'll figure that out later.
On to the rear; I just bled it with the rest of once was an extremely large bottle of brake fluid, and it seems to be alright.

I just heard the newspaper delivery guy pull up a couple minutes ago. It is a sound that instills a fleeting sense of pride and accomplishment, followed quickly by pangs of regret and the realization that the real world is only 4 hours away.

What's in a name?

2011-04-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

A rose by any other name would probably smell just as sweet, sure.
A blog however, has no smell and therefore relies greatly on it's name to attract attention.

So, help me rename this blog!
Leave a comment telling me what you think the name should be.
Options I've come up with so far are:

GnarlyWerks [although I think this sounds too much like a trendy VW blog]
GnarlyWrench

...uh that's about it.

If you have a suggestion or would like to second one of these, please let's hear it.

Surprisingly good condition for a neglected bike.

2011-04-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

This K2 swingarm bolt was in surprisingly good condition for being on a bike that had mice nesting in it.

Props to All Balls Racing

2011-04-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

I just got an e-mail from Paul Waslin at All Balls Racing:

CharlieThe 25-1379 has a bearing I the size of 17/47/14We do have a bearing that is 20/47/14 part number is 6204-2RS Paul WaslinAll Balls RacingBearings and Components822 North Reading Ave.New Berlinville, PA 19545T: (888) 228-3323P: (610) 473-0505F: (888)552-0557WEBSITE: All BallsEmail : paul_waslin@allballsracing.com

Fuck yes. Tommy's sex-cess650 will be getting the royal treatment. CBR F4 forks and lester mags, dual discs on the front, single disc rear, thanks to a donor '80 xs650 we picked up over the weekend.

It's always worse than you thought.

2011-04-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Most of the glue was on the carb on the left.
Note the large yellow line of gunk dripping from the top center of the carb body.

I pulled the (horrible) Mikuni BS38CV carbs off of tommy's xs650 on Saturday.
I thought it would be bad, but not this bad.

It only took me about 2 hours to scrape off all the gorilla glue from the outsides of the carb bodies, the throttle linkages, float bowls etc.
The insides didn't escape the previous owners glue fetish either. The vacuum boot for the slide was nice and coated. There was glue in the needle jet, venturi and float bowl. Although, I am forced to admit that he did a good job of plugging those pesky pilot jets as well. Not a problem if you live life at wide open throttle.

Everything is clean including the disturbing amount of rust and oxidation inside the carbs thanks to my new ultrasonic cleaner, a brass brush, and a lot of patience.

If I ever see this bikes previous owner again I'd like to kick him in the teeth.

4/09/10 update: I'm still finding glue bits.
4/20/10 update: Even more glue found all over motor and in between cooling fins.

This Cylinder ROCKS!

2011-04-01T10:25:00.001-07:00

...and this is your cam on drugs.

2011-04-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

I cracked open the K2 last night...

...I really wish I hadn't

"Off With His Head!" K2's Head removed.

2011-04-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

Oops...

2011-03-25T05:16:00.000-07:00

I snapped the threads off the spark timing advance shaft on the K2. Apparently there are no more in Honda stock but they can be had elsewhere. ~~I'll be checking David Silver Spares for a replacement.~~

Update [4/1/11] Gotta love ebay. I found a shaft and timing advancer in a box of random parts that I won in an auction a while back. Hooray for being a packrat.

Giving New Meaning to the Term "Naked Bikes"

2011-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

...and simultaneously making my garage a much cleaner place.

Both bikes are now stripped down pretty much bare.
The K7 is down to the bare frame and the K2 will be undergoing an engine removal soon.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-03-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

The New Game Plan Progresses

2011-03-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

Front wheel removed.

Oil drained.

Looks like the upper triple tree is trash.

Forks removed.

Forks from the K2 and other parts bike disassembled.

The Mess is Spreading

2011-03-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

So after pricing out my K7's engine rebuild at around $5500 (I have expensive taste) I decided to put that project on the backburner for now until I can really afford to do something about it.

In the meantime I need a bike to ride, lucky for me I have this old basket case.

The plan is to pull the motor on this K2 and check it over. If it looks capable, then I'll throw it on the K7.
While I (hopefully) ride the K7 powered by the K2 motor, I'll be building the K2 project.

The K2 is going to require a lot of work all over to get it in running condition. It had been sitting for a couple years and doesn't look as if it's led the most comfortable life up till this point.

As you can see my garage is a disaster.

This is the result of working on multiple projects at the same time.

Refered to Hereafter As...

2011-03-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

When discussing earlier Hondas of the same model between different years, enthusiasts often refer to them by a code consisting of a letter and number.
In the case of the 750, the code is as follows:
K0 = 1969 & 1970 CB750K
K1 = 1971 CB750K
K2 = 1972 CB750K
K3 = 1973 CB750K
K4 = 1974 CB750K
K5 = 1975 CB750K
K6 = 1976 CB750K
K7 = 1977 CB750K
K8 = 1978 CB750K

F1 = 1976 CB750F
F2 = 1977 CB750F
F3 = 1978 CB750F

Ugly Jugs

2011-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

I got the diagnosis from Manassas Honda today; apparently I'll need surgery.
The cylinders have water damage, the cylinder head is off .003" and needs to be planed level.
Ironically, the camshaft that I believed to be worn and therefore the only serious problem, is still within spec.

Off to the shop

2011-03-02T00:14:00.000-08:00

The motor has finally received some lovin'. The cam, cylinder barrels, and head have been removed and are off to Manassas Honda to be checked to make sure they're within spec.

The Beginning of the End - the Top End that is

2011-03-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

In focus is the valve that started this whole process.
Notice the marred edges around the top of the valve stem.

With the valve cover removed I can finally begin to crack into the motor.

Things Are Getting Complicated

2011-02-19T21:02:00.001-08:00

With the addition of another motorcycle the garage is getting a little crowded.

How My Motorcycle Became Just a Cycle

2010-12-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

Motor in the frame

Letting gravity do the work

Engine removed

The motor will be doing a headstand until I get a replacement oil pan.

So Shiny!

2010-12-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

If anyone at the Prince William Landfill Complex happens to see this, please let me know. I spent a couple hours cleaning and polishing it and I'd really like it back.

Note to self: never leave boxed parts out in the open where they can be mistaken for trash.

Could be worse?

2010-12-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

Lets hope this motor holds no terrible surprises.

Metal shavings in your oil pan is not something you want to see.

This is What Victory Looks Like

2010-12-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

So with the last of the unexpected and unnecessarily difficult obstacles out of the way, the engine will soon be separated from the frame. *Knock on wood*

Hopelessly stripped screw

I used the dremel to make a large slit in the head of the screw
and an impact driver to remove it

I said I want iron knees, not IRONY!

2010-10-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

Tappet adjuster smacked the access cover a few times.

Riding home tonight can best be described as ironic, anticlimactic, and heartbreaking.
A nearby car revved it's engine at me, so I of course was obliged to return the gesture. A quick twist of the throttle, *BRAAAAAAAAAAP* the bike revs smoothly to 8000 rpm followed by a disheartening *CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK*!
I managed to limp it home. It doesn't sound like there's anything bouncing around in there, but it doesn't sound good either.

It appears that my motor decided to throw a valve tappet adjuster and nut.
Here are pictures of the resulting carnage: (click for big)

Tappet access cover damage.
Good tappet adjuster in rocker arm on the left,
bent tappet adjuster and missing nut on the right

Bottom is the bad tappet adjuster: damaged threads and bent shape.

Status: The tappet adjuster screw is shot and will need to be replaced. The adjuster nut is on the loose somewhere in the motor. Valve damage is unknown at the moment. There is certainly metal shrapnel in the valve train, and possibly elsewhere.
I believe my riding season may very well be over.
I'll be pulling the motor soon. This is where things get interesting.

Note: the tappet adjuster screw that went was an INTAKE, not one of the exhaust tappets that I adjusted recently.

Knowledge is Power!

2010-10-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

My speedometer doesn't work so I couldn't tell you how fast I was going, but it felt amazing. Redline, 5th gear, passing cars like they're standing still. I'm doing all I can just to hang on to this 33 year old bike as we go screaming down the parkway. Even in fifth gear going uphill; if you grab a hand full of throttle she'll knock your fillings into the back of your throat.

The reason for this ride? I re-adjusted the exhaust valve tappet clearance after reading about the later K and F models having valve reliability issues. It seems that Honda changed the exhaust valve guide design in the later CB's to allow for longer distances between oil changes. This change however, causes the valves to heat up more and can cause the valve to gall and stick. Eventually this will cause the valve to not get out of the piston's way in time and *SMACK* there goes your valve-train.

The solution is to increase the tappet clearance by a little bit. This increase does cause you to lose some cam duration but from what I could tell by my test ride, you don't lose any performance.

It's ALIVE!!!

2010-10-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

She may not look like much, but I love her.

This is my 1977 Honda CB750 K7. I've had her for a few months now but she hasn't been running well until just recently. I've been chasing problem after problem since April: bad wiring, poor grounds, dirty carburetors, horrible timing, et cetera.

Fortunately for me, last night all of my efforts came to fruition. I believe I have finally sorted out most of the major problems. She is far from finished. But at least until the season is over, I believe she is roadworthy.

Sure, the head gasket leaks a little oil, the top end smokes a little bit, and she backfires some. These problems just add to her character. All-in-all she runs strong, and is a joy to ride.

At the moment the K7 is sporting a Yamiya 4-into-1 exhaust and a set of 29mm Keihin CR Specials. Next on the agenda is a little bit of suspension tuning.

My SOHC Obsession

2010-10-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

My obsession with the SOHC I-4 engine started when I inherited a 2000 Ford Ranger with the awful 2.5L, dual plug head, single-overhead-cam, inline 4 motor.

I was forced into a relationship with this mini-truck, sort of like an arranged marriage. But we have grown to love each other very much. Sure we still have a little lovers quarrel every once in a while: I say, "get your ass up the hill" and she says "fuck you, I'm gonna shit a u-joint." However, our relationship has lasted this long and I truly believe that we will be together 'till death-do-us-part. Which could be any day now...

To this day, the truck has never failed me. Of course by never failed me I mean, something goes terribly wrong with it about once every couple months but I manage to fix it and get on my way.
This is important: the idea that I fixed it. I have taken it to the shop for some things that I didn't have the time or resources to fix myself. But most of the maintenance and repairs have been handled by me.

The basic mechanics of the SOHC engine were so simple for me to understand early on that it was hard not to fall in love. So, here we are. I have an obsession with a mostly antiquated automotive mechanical design.

Shamelessly, I recently carried this love over into the world of motorcycles. That is, I have (almost) 2 Honda CB750K bikes that are both a work in progress. Easy to learn and maintain, reliable, and all around fun, they are the perfect first bike for me to have and start working on.

It would appear that I have fallen in love yet again with another SOHC. I'm not sure if this is considered to be the automotive equivalent of polygamy, but I sure hope no one gets jealous.