Author Topic: My accidental 1982 Nighthawk 650 (Read 13445 times)

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #50 on:** November 30, 2020, 05:10:23 PM »

Initially the parts bike definitely would have been the way to go. I've obtained almost everything I need from eBay at this point so I think I may be past the point where that would have been cost effective. I think I have found some slip-ons that should do the trick. Now, if I could just find some side covers, I think I would be in business...

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #51 on:** November 30, 2020, 05:12:23 PM »

Figured I would do another vid prior to the first road test.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #52 on:** November 30, 2020, 06:16:35 PM »

Was looking forward to a longer road test today. Sadly, it was not to be. I did get it on the road but before taking it onto the highway, I did a test run on some back roads and found that it was losing power around 5,000RPM. So I cut the test pretty short. I did find that this was only under load though. I could pull the clutch and snap the throttle open to redline with no problem. Or I could pull the clutch and roll the throttle to the same with no issue. Same when it is is in neutral in my garage. So it was only when under a load. So after bouncing back and forth with wondering if it was a timing advance problem or a carburetor problem and thinking I was gonna have to yank those puppies off again, I remembered that I did not recall such an issue when I did my first road test. Granted it was a very short test and I did not get too jiggy with it because I did not trust the front tire. But, when I did that test, I had the carb connected without the air intake. So after some noodling, I wondered what kind of shape the air filter was in....

Do you think this is a problem? I don't think I have ever seen a dirtier filter.

I dunno what it looks like under the dirt but I just went ahead and ordered a new one.

Then I took it for another ride and it was waaaaay better! I did notice any power issues until it got near the redline. And those seemed like they might be able to be tuned out.

This test ride was a joy! Once the air filter arrives, I might even be able to get a longer ride in before winter.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #53 on:** December 05, 2020, 01:08:57 PM »

Time for a little drive chain maintenance I guess.

The old chain is pretty gross and I can see some broken or missing O-rings. I know I should probably just put a new one on right now...but...I am not going to. Prioritizing other stuff right now. So I will clean and re-lube for now.

Going to clean up this chainguard as well.

And the rear sprocket

And the front sprocket. I knew this was going to be dirty but DANG!

I did use gas to cut through some of the grease in here. After getting it clean, I could see that there is a chunk of casing missing between the sprocket are and the oil pump area. Its broken on both the engine side and the cover. I assume the chain must have broken it when the bike was laid down. And I found that the oil pump is leaking. So I will put that on the list.

Chain scrubbed and lubed. Gonna put replacing this on the list as well. Will do that when I replace the rear tire next year.

Rear sprocket cleaned up

Chain back on and adjusted

Still have to install the covers. But they are cleaned up. I have never used so much gas to clean stuff before.

You can see the big chunk missing from the sprocket cover.

DaveBarbier · « **Reply #54 on:** December 05, 2020, 03:32:06 PM »

Nice work cleaning it all up. Mineral spirits works well too and less deadly than gas. But gas works so good, haha.

And funny, I just replaced the o-rings in my oil pump. There’s some issues with the o-ring sizes that you might want to know. I cover it in the post I just made.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,184610.100.html

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #55 on:** December 06, 2020, 03:14:02 PM »

Good to know about the mineral spirits and the O-rings. I will keep both those things in mind. There are a few other spots that are still really nasty and I will probably be doing the oil pump over the winter or early next year.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #56 on:** December 06, 2020, 03:26:48 PM »

We had a high of 34 degrees here today but just had to get in a road test. And it was a success this time! She ran great! I also found out that the BMW petcock I put in doesn't give me very long until I have to switch to reserve!

So there was a bit of a scary moment where I thought I might be walking but she started right back up after switching.

Finally found some side covers as well so I almost have a complete bike. In other news, I saw a post on marketplace for the same bike, only complete, for exactly the amount of money I have into it now, and I am not finished! Oh well.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #57 on:** December 06, 2020, 03:29:48 PM »

One thing I am unsure of how to resolve is this filler neck.

It appears the PO did a bit of grinding or sanding and removed the ridge that seals against that cap. So it seems like it needs built up a bit to not leak everywhere.

I know I could replace it, but I am curious if there might be a different method of repair.

RAFster122s · « **Reply #58 on:** March 10, 2021, 01:35:05 AM »

Any work on the bike over the winter?

Some have had success with JB Weld on repairs... may wish to give it a little mechanical tooth with a coarse sanding after you protect the tank from getting any sanding grit in the tank. Parchment paper used for baking is silicone impregnated and won’t stick to the JB weld permanently... a flat board or small pane of glass can give you a flat top then after you splooge on the metal filled JB weld epoxy.

Peel off the parchment paper after overnight and let it cure for a week.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #59 on:** May 08, 2021, 06:26:31 PM »

Ugh, what a long winter. I did continue to work on this. But have not updated this thread in awhile. So have lots of updates, some good, some not so good.

I did some work on the gas tank. It was very tedious and annoying but I do have it about ready to get some paint on it.

The filler neck had appeared to have been filed or ground for some reason. So it did not seal and leaked gas everywhere. So I built that back up with a mix of JB Weld and Bondo.

I am not really sure how well it would hold up. It is sealing much better. But I wanted to use it for awhile before painting so I know if it is gonna be a problem. I think I am satisfied with how it has held up enough to get it painted.

I had thought that that was the only problem with the tank. However, once I started sanding it more, I found that some of the old paint was the only things keeping it from leaking our of the bottom. I had not sealed it yet as I didn't think I had to. But after finding these holes, I filled them with some JB Weld, and also used Red Kote on the inside. I like that sealer much better than Por15 that I had used on other projects.

I think it had a total of 7 pinholes, and some were bigger than pinholes. I filled them and sealed the inside. It has been holding up well so far. No leaks yet, you know...of gas anyway.

RAFster122s · « **Reply #60 on:** May 08, 2021, 06:40:22 PM »

Put a layer of JBWeld on the neck and you don’t want the bonds to contact the gas as it will absorb the gas to a point and fail... leaky tanks are no fun and dangerous. Glad you were able to fixit.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #61 on:** May 08, 2021, 06:53:05 PM »

Another small project I worked on was to fix the leaky oil pump. Member Dave Barbier provided me the correct O-rings for this. That made it a cinch.

It appeared to stop the leaks from the oil pump. Too bad it didn't stop the oil from leaking everywhere else. One things at a time I guess

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #62 on:** May 08, 2021, 07:05:55 PM »

One of the things I was able to do inside, mostly, was repair the side covers I bought from eBay because mine were missing. One had two missing studs. I haven't repaired the extra holes that it has yet but that is coming up soon.

I ordered some replacement studs from JW Parts plus. The parts were great and worked fine. However, they only shipped me half my order. I notified them and they said they would ship the rest but it never arrived and they then stopped responding to email. So that was disappointing.

The parts were fine though. Little more JB weld and I actually had side covers on the bike and it was starting to look much better.

This was one of the existing studs. It's ugly but it seemed solid so I left it.

This is one of the replacements being attached. They hold up pretty good when cured.

One of the missing ones was pretty long. And I had to attach it while the cover was on the bike and had to rig something to hold it own securely while it cured. A Theraband did the trick pretty well

This is it after letting it dry while the cover was positioned on the bike.

After it dried in the right position, I then built up the sides for strength. It did not turn out pretty but it s solid.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #63 on:** May 08, 2021, 07:07:53 PM »

This side cover wasn't broken and popped right on. It is gonna need paint though. Just like everything on this project.

Nice seeing it getting near complete, well, assembled anyway.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #64 on:** May 08, 2021, 07:11:32 PM »

I kept it in my shed during the winter. Little cold while working on it but it provided the best work/storage area I have.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #65 on:** May 08, 2021, 07:57:37 PM »

To do much serious testing, I HAD to get this back tire replaced. I did more riding on it than I should have.

It was in awful shape and old, the date code appear to make it from 2001. I think the bike was laid down that year and had not been ridable since.

The tire was a bastard to remove. But now I can also get this wheel cleaned and clean up the brake drum.

While I am at it I am doing some little stuff like replacing the rounded off nuts on the chain adjuster and cleaning up the rear axle.

Wheel cleaned and polished, new tire mounted and balanced, brake drum cleaned lubed and adjusted and everything reinstalled. Having new tires on makes me feel much better.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #66 on:** May 08, 2021, 08:39:39 PM »

Now that I had new tires, I could do a little more road testing. It would start up and drive ok before but I didn't want to push the speed with old nasty tires.

Unfortunately, now I am finding some performance issues. It seems to really suffers when I get above 5k RPM.

So now I get to check all the usual suspects. I'd already went through the carbs and put new intake boots on. Those might still be suspect but I was going to check some other stuff first.

Like this spark advance...

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #67 on:** May 08, 2021, 09:09:38 PM »

I was pretty sure that the spark advace was not the issue (and it turned out not to be) but it was so rusty I could barely make out the marks, letters and numbers on it.

So I might as well clean it and lube it up.

I took this assembly apart and soaked it in Evaporust to get it cleaned up

It's nice being able to read the marks and getting it lubed up.

Trevor from Warragul · « **Reply #68 on:** May 09, 2021, 04:32:29 AM »

A little dab of grease on the side cover knobs helps them go on and off a bit easier, and they are less likely to break.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #69 on:** May 09, 2021, 06:34:27 PM »

Good tip. I've been applying oil but yeah grease would probably work better.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #70 on:** May 30, 2021, 09:14:18 AM »

Been trying to figure out why it loses power at highway speeds. I cant get it to go much past 60 MPH. It does start right up and seems to run just fine in the garage and I can redline it while it is in neutral or when riding and I pull in the clutch. But when opening the throttle on the highway or even trying to go up a hill, it stumbles and cannot get out of its own way.

After taking it for a ride, there is typically spots all over the exhaust tips. This seems to indicate that I am getting some misfiring.

So I decide to check and see what the plugs would tell me.
This is what they would look like after just letting it run while sitting in the driveway. They look fine to me.
I don't think I got the pics in quite the correct order though

Then I took it for a ride and shut it off ASAP and pulled the plugs. And took a better pic for comparison.

To me it seems like I have something bad going on with cylinder 3. As that exhaust always seems the worst and that plug is clearly fouled.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #71 on:** May 30, 2021, 09:28:39 AM »

One of the things that concerned me was the cheapo ebay intake boots. The Honda ones are pricey so I tried to take the cheap route. Fail.

The replacements are cracked already, which gave me concerns about them leaking.

Guess I am popping for the proper ones. They cheapos fit poorly anyway.

While I had the carbs off, I figured I would check them again. I at least wanted to check to make sure the needle valves weren't leaking. So I left the fuel on with a bucket underneath and let it sit like that overnight.

The carbs did not leak. I also checked the jets to ensure they were not clogged. The carbs seemed good, so I don't think they were the issue.

So I slapped everything back together. I took it for a ride and it behaved the same.

MauiK3 · « **Reply #72 on:** May 30, 2021, 09:36:01 AM »

I wonder what the rake and trail specs are for this bike, the front fork arrangement looks pretty laid out with the axle on the front side of the fork. It must be a very "settled" straight ahead ride.
Nice project, great progress.

MauiK3 · « **Reply #73 on:** May 30, 2021, 09:50:37 AM »

Might want to do a clear tube check on the float bowls to see the exact level the fuel is.
I took a spare float bowl drain plug and drilled it to attache a clear tube.

cheddarGoblin · « **Reply #74 on:** May 30, 2021, 10:03:55 AM »

A couple things I did awhile ago that I realized I missed.

Replaced the air filter. The one that was in it was really clogged adn it is earlier in the thread
new one

I also had purchased a new petcock awhile ago. It was for a BMW as the Honda one is hard to find and this year seems to have an odd thread size.
But I had to switch to reserve pretty soon, so had to trim the primary inlet tube. It may still need some more trimming but I have bigger problems at the moment.

The BMW petcock outlet is also on the side, I think the factory one should be out the back, as the side outlet is pretty tight with the carbs but it does just fit.

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Author Topic: My accidental 1982 Nighthawk 650 (Read 13445 times)