I purchased this 78 750F last fall from a Craig's list seller that was going to part it out. The ad said for parts or take the entire bike.
When I went to see the bike, other than the missing battery, headlight bucket, ears and front signals, it was in excellent shape 14K miles virtually no rust. I looked like it was garage kept most of its life, you could still see the factory yellow paint on banjo bolts. It was also pretty clear that the bike had not run for quite a while. I paid the seller $600. He provided a bill of sale, but the bike did not have a title.
Originally, I was going to remove the seat, and exhaust and put them on my 77F and sell the rest of the bike for parts. But couple of things happened, I went to the DMV with my daughter to get her learner's permit, I showed the DMV the bill of sale and asked them if I could register the bike. In Connecticut vehicles over 25 years old do not require a title. They looked at the paperwork, ran the VIN and told me that I could register the bike using the bill of sale if I got temporary plates, and brought the bike in for a VIN verification. Well, that changed my plans. I decided to get the bike running and road worthy and either keep it or sell the bike and use the proceeds for some new parts for my 77 750F.
The work began, I started by putting in the battery and some fresh gas and see if it would start. After a few tries, the bike fires up and runs poorly only with full choke and about half throttle applied. I pulled the carbs soaked them, cleaned the main jets, blew compressed air through the passages, cleaned the blocked slow jets, got the accelerator pump working, reassembled, changed the plugs and the bike fired right up and ran very well.
I then decided to paint the bike, although the original paint was excellent, the tank had two good size dents, on on the top, where it looked like someone dropped something on it, the other a small round dent on the right side of the tank. I brought the tank to a local body shop, he tried to to use air to pop the dents, no dice, he ended up using his stud welder and pulled the dents. I picked the tank up last week and painted it over the weekend. I always thought these bikes looked good in silver. I wanted a black racing stripe, so I started by priming the tank, painting it black, added tape for the stripe, then painting the silver. It was my first try at painting any kind of stripe.
Here are some pictures:
Here is what I started with:
[img][http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm177/budaken/IMG_0560.jpg/img]
After I finish the paint, it still need a few more things, hopefully by the end of the month it will be complete.
Here's the list of things that still needs to be done:
Full tune up and carb balance
New brake pads
Rebuild rear caliper
Replace front brake lever
Oil Change
Fork oil replacement
New tires
