Biker Dudes I have known.

biker dudes, gotta love those matching hair cuts...some one was moving thier foot I'll bet.

Odds and Ends

Didn't really do a lot today but I did fool around a little. Cleaning up some parts (trying to) repainting and painting some miscellaneous parts I missed the other day, like the foot pegs and the top of the triple tree.  What, you don't know what a triple tree is?  Hmmm....

I put a few parts back on, but only tentatively. Didn't tighten anything down really because a lot of what I was putting back on may have to come back off at some point for one reason or another. I was mainly going through parts and trying to get more organized, and putting a few parts back on the bike got them out of the way and pretty well organized.

Took a couple of random---really random photos just for grins to give some kind of indication of what goes on behind the scenes so to speak...a glipse at the not so pretty...or the nitty-gritty.

Did I mention that my new most favorite tool is a rubber mallet?  I really don't know how I've managed for all these years without one

Did I mention that I screwed up a perfectly good set of handlebars?  They had to be drilled for the wires, so I measuered the bars that were on it when I got it and started drilling at the same distance from the end of the bar.  Problem was there was a solid piece of steel welded in the bars at that point.  So I moved farther up the bar and drilled my holes.

Everything's looking good, got the wires threaded thru, but now the holes are too far from the ends of the bars.  Simple; get the pipe cutter and shorten the bars so the holes are the desired distance from the end.  Everything installed on the left (clutch) side...on to the right...but wait...the hand grip and the switch go on just right but...there's not enough room left on the straight part of the bar to install the front brake lever.   Again the front brake.

I don't know why those pieces of steel were welded inside my handlebars but now my handlebars are scrap metal.

A word about labels

Well I had everything "tagged & bagged" just as I said...or did I?

I started reassembling the Honda this morning and things were going just splendidly until I got to a point where I needed to attach the caliper for the front brake, but couldn't find the bolts for that.

Hmmm, I know I bagged and tagged everything.  So I looked again.  Went though every baggy in the "small parts" tote.  Not there.  Dug though two other totes where I was sure those bolts weren't and sure enough...they weren't.  Looked through the baggies again, this time I was looking at what was in the baggies, as well as what was written on them.  Not there.  Again, this time spreading everything out to make sure I wan't over looking anything.  Still not there.  Now I've looked through all the parts three times, and I can't find the blasted bolts I need for the front brake.

I know they are here somewhere, so I decide to have a cup of coffee and relax for a few and see if that helps, I mean it can't hurt, right, and it's time for a break anyway.

Look again, nope.  Hey, I think to myself, I've got tons of old bolts laying around...some of those are bound to fit.  I try that for a while to no avail, get frustrated and decide to go on line, look up the parts list, and see exactly what it is I'm looking for.  Simple, two 6x25 hex bolts and one 8x35 hex bolt.  No problem one more quick look and if they don't turn up I'll just run ofer to the local HomeDepot and by some bolts...heck they won't even cost $2.00 probably.  Inconvenient but no big deal.

{note to self:  "If you are taking lots of bolts off of something you should label, them and if certain bolts have a dual purpose, you should probably note that.}

{second note to self:  When you are making the note referenced above, a mental note is not only unsatisfactory, it is totally and irrefutably, unsatifactory.}

{note to you:  If you get these e-mail updates and don't want them let me know and I'll get it stopped.  Also, if you get these e-mail updates and don't click the link for "The Motorcycle Diary" at the bottom of the page you are missing the entire "blog-o-licious" experience which you really should be taking advantage of as a means of enriching your otherwise sordid existence.} 

You see as, I got my keys and prepared to journey to the local merchant to purchase replacements for the errant fasteners, I was overwhelmed by an aura of peace, clarity, and tranquility as I hadn't experinced in the past 30 minutes or so.  It was during this moment that the location of the wayward bolts was revealed to my inner eye. 

Yes, you, perhaps have grasped previously, the solution which vexed and escaped me for so long... The bolts that attach the front brake caliper to the left front fork are one and the same with the bolts which attach the front fender, and there was indeed a baggy labeled "front fender."

Now, all that said and in spite of that seemingly excruciating, frustrating search, I had a rather productive, enjoyable morning/afternoon and it went something like this:

            

 

      

      

This is a good "before & after of the rear frame, wheel, and shock absorber.

So you see, even though there some troublesome moments, I managed to get a decent amount of work done, and next time I can't find something I'll have about 10 fewer baggies to dig through.

I must say that they have found an interesting way of making sure you grease the bearings in the steering column.  Since you have to feed the fork through the housing while somehow keeping 19 loose ball bearings in place on the bottom race and 18 loose ball bearings in place for the top race, you really haven't any choice but to slather the races and balls up real heavy with enough grease to make them stick together until you can get the fork through the housing and the cap screwed on.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the progress I made today and I'm pretty well all smugged up about how much better the bike is looking after a little TLC.  But...in the back of my mind I'm thinking about "The Dirty Dozen."   To paraphrase Donald Sutherland from that movie..."It's pretty, but will it run?"  Only time and more work will tell.

Baby steps, but in the right direction at least.

I just spent about an hour and a half buffing the rear wheel hub, getting the rust off the rim, and cleaning the corrosion and rust off the spokes.  It's a big improvement but not perfect.  I think its looking pretty respectable though considering it's 34 years old.

Yesterday I spent most of the morning sanding and priming the frame.  The frame appears to be in very good condition, the only damage being a small dent on the bottom left side tube and a slightly cracked weld on the bracket to which the kick-stand bolts. 

 

I painted the frame today and had hoped to start reassembling things but I got a late start due to my good nature and willingness to help a fellow human being in need, so that's going to happen.  Hopefully I get an earlier start tomorrow and don't find too many spots that I missed while painting. (I already saw a spot on the swing arm that needs some touch up.)

It is going to be kind of slow going for a while as I'm intending to clean and degrease parts as I go...plus, although the parts are identified, they aren't exactly cataloged and organized, so there will be a fair amount of wasted time looking for the next part/assembly and the respective fasteners.

4 little words.

Okay so here's where we are with this little project so far, and I really must say so far it has gone pretty smoothly.  During the disassembly, one snap-ring broke, and I dropped one washer that hasn't turned up yet.  (Where do those things go?)  Everything appears to be usable, if not esthetically pure.  All the chrome parts are rusty and pitted to some extent or another (some actually look as though they will clean up better than I originally thought.  Parts are difficult, but not quite impossible to find.  (Ordered some mirrors today.)  I'll just have to be careful cause a lot of the parts on e-Bay look worse than what I have, which makes me think that if I find replacements I can put my old ones on e-Bay and maybe recoup some of my expenses. 
Anyway here's where I am:

Well there you go...I love a fresh start don't you.  I'm pretty sure the worst is behind me.
I'm still looking for a shop to check out the engine, but the frame is all degreased and sanded and ready for a coat of primer.  Then some paint and then finally the reassembly which should be a piece of cake.  I've sneaked a peek and looked ahead in the manual, and there are only 4 little words left.......

ASSEMBLY IS THE REVERSE!!

Yeah, right...

now where did I put that bolt for the alternator...?

How far will I go with this?

Yesterday I was fooling around and decided to see if that tarnished aluminium (?) on the front fork would clean up any and started trying to do that, and decided that it would be easier to do it if the wheel wern't in the way so the wheel had to come off and it actually looks as if there is a little gleam left under that patina.

The thing is that now there really is very llittle left in it's original position and maybe I should go ahead and take those last two or three things off and clean the rust off the frame and repaint it while I've got things torn down.  I doubt I'll go back here if it ever gets running so i may as well, right?

It also looks like the wheels will clean up pretty well also.  There is a little rust on the rims, but the spokes a just kind of tarnished and  with a little work will look pretty good.  You can see the ones I've worked on some in the picture.






I have also dicided that I need to find a shop to take the pistons, cylinders, and heads into for measurements and possible machining if need be.  No obvious problems like that hole in the top of the cylinder I found in that old VW engine but since it's torn apart already it would be a shame to put everything back only to find out there was a problem and have to redo everything.  I know the engine ran last year at about this time but only briefly so I'm going looking for a shop.

Above: before and after of handle bars (after on the top.)

Didn't like the cafe style bars that were on it when I got and Tony had some spare handlebars laying around.

Tried to clean up some of the rust on the rear fender.  Left is the after picture.  Maybe as good as rubbing compound and elbow grease can get it, but I'm gonna try again.

Sweetness

Sunday Tony did in fact come up.

We looked at each other for a while, talked with Kathy and Anna for a whle, then Tony went out in the garage for a smoke. I followed and we sorta just stood around for a while and then I walked over and picked up a wrench and Tony says what are you thinking about and I says lets get this Jeep out of the garage so we have some room to work...so we do and we get that engine pulled out and onto the work bench.

We kinda study on it for a while, then we take turns looking at the shop manual and looking at the engine, trying to figure out exactly what we are going to have to do to get down to that kick-start shaft.

We finally start taking some things apart to see what lies beneath. We get to the point where we have to take off the oil pump in order to get the clutch housing off and it so happens that removing the oil pump takes a special tool we don't have and we aren't having much luck improvising. So we try another angle.

We take the valve covers off to access the cam chain and we find the book says to separate the chain with a chain breaker and we don't have one of those either. So we study some more and realize we're accumulating a nice sized pile of bolts and screws and miscellaneous parts. We realize that as of now we know what everything is and where it goes but if the pile gets very much bigger it could start to get confusing....so we prudently stop and get organized, bagging and tagging all the parts we have so far. then we decide it's getting late and dark and we're a little tired. Not exactly the best condidtions.

Time to jump in the pool and cool off. Tomorrow will be another day.

Monday we kinda laze around for a while in the morning and decide to ride over to Advance Auto to see if maybe we get lucky and they happen to have what we need in the way of specialty tools...not likely but it's something to do and it's close.

They don't have anything I need and say I should try a motorcycle shop but that they think most of them for some reason are closed on Mondays. Kathy's taking off a 1/2 day so we decide to forget it and just hang with her.

Today is Tueday and Tony's plan is to leave around noon. We're drinking coffee and watching the news and I say "Wanna ride over to Tractor Supply and see what kind of tools they may have." Tony says that sounds great.

All they have that might be of use is a chain breaker, which looks way too big for the job but I decide to try it anyway cause the gal tending the rabbits said I could bring it back if it wasn't what I needed. (It wasn't and I did) We also went by the local Yamaha dealer to see if they might have any tools and they weren't encouaging and I didn't feel like driving to the Honda dealer in Rock Hill, so we just went back home to study some more.


Anyway we start in again and things seem so much clearer after stepping back sometimes. Things we read in the book Sunday were making much better sense today and we dug in, somehow circumvented the 'needed' specialty tools, and had things pretty well torn down with all the parts "bagged and tagged" by lunch time.

We had some lunch, patted ourselves on the baack a little and Tony split for home.



After Tony left I was only going to finish getting the parts organized and the put the tools away...but I got to looking at that engine and couldn't help myself. I really wanted to see what that shaft looked like on the inside so I went back to work....got out the manual and the baggies and the sharpy and finished busting that thing open. I had to remove a couple of things that I missed on the earlier readings but no big deal. Once it was opened up, changing out the shaft was pretty simple. I did resist the urge to start putting it back to gether beyond that because logic tells me this is the best opportunity I will have to clean things up and take some measurments to see if the engine needs any machine work or internal parts, and it just wouldn't make any sense to not do it right at this point....although I won't deny I was tempted.

Bob Dylan on the juke box

When Tony saw the blog yesterday he got all excited and contacted me to say he was coming soon up to help pull that engine.

After a couple of e-mails he decided he's coming Sunday, for a couple of days and wants to get the Honda running, or at the least help work on it some.

So I put Bob Dylan on the juke box (Zune) got the tools out and stripped that baby down carefully and methodically.....taking notes, making sketches, and labeling, and now the engine is ready to come out. All I need is the horse power.

Have I mentioned that "Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance" isn't really about fixing motorcycles.

Let's try this again.

After a long hiatus I pulled out the bike and the tools and started to tear into it again. It's been a good long while so I spent a fair amount of time looking at what was what and what went where because I was afraid i wouldn't remember after all this time. Then I started taking things apart. Worked for a couple of hours until I got down to the nitty-gritty and decided to stop and start fresh another day. Most of what I removed today was stuff that I had removed previously, then re-installed when I decided I wasn't going to mess with the kick-starter, but since I now have a kick-starter shaft, I may as well put it in...just in case I'm not able to get the electrical starting system fixed.


I got to the point where, if I went much farther the engine was coming out and I wasn't ready for that. I'm not sure I can manhandle it out by myself...in fact I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be real smart to try.



Next step will be unhooking and labeling all the wires and hoses and cables.