Launch cancelled: motor paint a no go.

After months of indecision, much hemming and hawing, and more flip-flopping than a a politician in sandals, I've decided NOT to paint Elrich's F2 motor. Instead we decided that the raw aluminum will best match the rest of the bike so we're sticking to that.
The rough sanding marks made in preparation for paint are going to be tough to overcome, but I think it'll be fine. Here's everything laid out for your viewing pleasure:

This little guy might still see some paint,
just to make it easier to clean off when we have to change the chain.
Also it will be a lot easier than having to remove all that stock paint.

I took the liberty of sanding and polishing the faces of the
shifter and rotor cover. They had some bad pitting on them.

I also removed and checked the cyl studs.
Some weren't properly torqued, and this can cause leaks at the gaskets.

Don't forget to use thread locker when re-installing them.
Just a dab'll do ya!

Voila! Studs are stud-ly once more.

Stay tuned. I have a feeling that this project will go much faster than the last one.

Shock Disassembly

Sobriety is overrated.
If it weren't for that half bottle of liquid courage I would never have attempted to use wire ties as spring compressors. Instead I would have just rented the proper tool the next day. However, I was drunk, impatient, and had a stroke of genius. Here's the result.

Remember kids, don't try this at home (even though it worked REALLY well).

This post brought to you by Mount Gay Rum.

Carburetors EVERYWHERE!

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.

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

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:

Nowhere to go but up.

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!