Two steps forward, two steps back.

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.

Piecing together a set of GL1000 carbs

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.

Trying my hand at painting.

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.

I said I want iron knees, not IRONY!

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.

It's ALIVE!!!

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.