Some random, and too long, musings on this bike.
1. I don't know why I didn't do this before, but I found the compartment under the seat with the original owners manual and some old registration papers. This bike "lived" in Portland, Maine, made its way to Boston, then to Chicago in 2009. My PO bought it in 2014, immediately put over $2K into it at a local shop to get it running good, but looks like he quit riding it and let it sit starting in 2018 (I think he put new tires on in early 2018, according to the date stamp on the tires, which were basically unused when I bought the bike). In addition to carbs, tuneup, and front brake, he replaced the clutch, the valve cover gasket, the shocks and fixed the stator. Unfortunately, he also got the tank relined . . . . with Kreem.
2. The bike appears to have sat for five years on its side stand with half a tank of ethanol gas in it, out of the weather but non heated. There were paint bubbles on the left front of the tank caused by fuel leakage. Damn shame because the original paint job on the tank was in pretty good shape otherwise (see picture after grinding away the rusted out spots, probably not salvagable?). Time, ethanol and kreem. The bike would start and run for a minute or two fully choked with a lot of help from the throttle, but couldn't keep it running (didn't really want to with that leaky tank). Front brake was fully seized.
3. On the other hand, the engine (23,000 original miles, original working speedometer) had good compression all around and four 341 pipes in not nearly as bad shape as 50 years in the north would suggest. PO had confirmed that engine tested out in good shape 10 years ago and just needed that valve cover gasket at that time. The pipes actually polished up OK, some rust spots around but not bad. One hole not quite the size of a dime, facing up near the beginning of the muffler on pipe 2. Otherwise, the bike looked like a bike that was 50 years old, was taken care of most of its life and had sat for awhile. The frame is solid, no rust but not pretty and powdercoated like the restored ones. All lights and electronics worked and wiring looked in pretty good shape, harnesses may have been replaced at some point. I made the decision not to pull the engine, unless I found something in the initial work.
4. Carbs cleaned up nicely. Looks like they were rebuilt with Keyster kits in 2014 (ie not original jets). I used new Keyster kits, kept the mains and float valves, changed out gaskets, pilots, screws, springs, rings, etc. Blew everything out, cleaned up in ultrasonic cleaners and they came out in good shape. Removing and putting them back on were frankly harder and more frustrating than the rebuild work, which was fun. Unfortunately, I had to do a bit of rework here.
5. After I cleaned the carbs, fixed the brake (just a caliper rebuild, master cylinder and brake lines in good shape) and confirmed that static timing was close, I tried to start it up on an aux tank. To my surprise, it fired right up and ran smoothly on new plugs. Backfired on rev and slowdown, but that's before tuneup!
6. Bad decision number 1. I bought a perfectly serviceable used tank on ebay, whose internal condition was pretty good. Hadn't been lined before. I cleaned it out good, dried it out good and installed it. I rode the bike around town for 10 miles and it ran. Clutch in great shape, all gears good but in dire need of a tuneup. Bogged down at 3-4K RPM and idle all over the place. No surprise. But then I realized my "cleaning" of the tank invited a bunch of flash rust, which made its way into the carbs. So had to remove and clean it out again and deal with the tank. On the good side, no oil leaks.
7. Bad decision number 2. How hard can it possibly be to reline a tank? I tried and failed. Looked beautiful until the POR 15 lining came off like Saran Wrap. Bone dry means bone dry I guess. I suck at that kind of work.
8. Lets see if we can tune it up property, then decide whether sink more money into the tank, either getting the original one refurbished and painted (probably impossible) or just buying a new one. Following the rules on the turning the crank not using the advance knob, static timing was spot on, but advance was way off on 1 and 4. Points lit up like the night sky in a thunderstorm. I had a bent advance shaft and 10 year old Daichi points. I made my first Yamiya order for OEM points and condensers and a new advance shaft and got everything tuned up properly after than, including the carb sync. But still on an aux tank.
9. Yamiya was so good, I order a new tank from them and moved over the emblems and trim. I have their side cpvers and haven't put them on, still using the originals which are in good shape. I was so excited to put the new tank on that I hooked up the throttle cables backwards. That was interesting!
10. It idles at 900 rpm, no hesistation or bog down, runs great through the entire RPM range. Plugs look like they should. Solid as can be running down the highway at 75 mph and low 5000s RPM. I'd like to remount the carbs and intakes (seems like number 4 is a little bit off) but it's running too good to mess with it.
11. I've since replaced all wheel bearings, rebuilt front forks (new seals and tubes), steering head bearing and swingarm bushing (kibblewhite). Pulling the whole front end off and unhooking the wiring was a little scary but I got it back together with everything working. I need those little rubber boots for the warning lights, they've basically disintegrated. BTW, I didn't need any spacer washer for the new AllBalls tapered steering head bearing to get it back together right and working properly, seemed like everybody else uses the little one, where did I go wrong??
12. After I put everything back together, the wiring in the headlight is beyond ratsnest. I know that's the way it is, but I think mine is worse than it should be and should probably be redone. One of my harnesses is too kinked going in and that ain't good. I'll do that when I figure out those little rubber boots.
13. Next steps? Replace seat cover with original look (have the original pan, but one of the POs changed the cover to the "split level"), get wheels trued up by someone who knows what they're doing (actually seem ok but still), maybe Hondaman ignition (makes too much sense) and maybe upgraded front brake line though no issues with front brake performance, its how it should be. Not messing with the engine until it gives me reason to do so, though it would be nice to get it out and paint it up pretty like some of your restore jobs.
It's been a fun six months messing with this thing!
