Again, thanks for all of the comments and encouragement for this project. If it seems like I'm taking my time with this, I guess I am. When I realized there was no way I was going to be able to participate in the Rally, I slowed the pace somewhat and have allowed myself to drift off into other projects, some bike related, some not. I'm not in a huge hurry to finish this, as I'm not really building a daily runner here, but am approaching the process more as a hobby than a necessity; however, I will post as I can.
On to the build.
I'd like to get the center stand and the front wheel on and get the bike onto its own... well, maybe the centerstand would be closer to crutches than feet, but you get my drift. First order of business is to mount the fender. Here it is with all of its mounting hardware
The hardware consists of all of these little parts; 19 (or possibly 25), altogether. First off is the fender mounted speedo cable grommet; then six each of the rubber fender grommets; the small metal standoffs, or chain case collars; and the bolts & split washers. The split washers aren't required by Honda, but I recommend their use
Before assembly, I gave the whole inner fender a good shot of Boeshield, especially the inside of the stays, which are "always" rusty
I slipped the rubber grommets into the holes in the fender brace and stays...
...along with the case collars. The brace only gets grommets and collars on the right side as the caliper hanger is attached with the fender on the left
The grommet for the speedo cable just pops into a hole on the fender
Assembling the fender to the forks is pretty straight forward, actually. It's easy to slide it into the gap between the forks and align the bolt holes, after which it's a simple matter to install the fasteners. The ends of the fender stays fit into wells formed into the fork bottoms, and the fender brace attaches on the right side only for now
On the left side, I finished off the fender installation by adding the brake components.
Notice that the caliper hanger is sandwiched between the fork leg and fender brace, and everything is attached with two 10mm bolts. The caliper adjusting "bolt" (screw, lower right) slides through a hole in the hanger...
...then screws into a threaded lug in the fork bottom, capturing the hanger arm return spring between the fork and caliper hanger. The bolt threads completely through the lug, where it is locked into place with a nut and washer
Next, the splash shield has a little box-like attachment point that fits down over the lower part of the hanger pin; I secured both shield and pin with a 12mm bolt
Here's the shield in place
And here, at last, is the fender installed.
Next, I moved on to the wheel: this is it. It's actually a '77 model as you can tell by the disc retainers. New bearings and rotor
In this case, due to the way I have the bike sitting on the dolly, mounting the wheel was just a matter of tipping the frame forward and the forks just kind of fell into position on the wheel
The axle nut is cut to accept the fork bottom
These are the axle clamps. They have an interesting profile in that one "leg" of the "U" is shorter than the other (you can view this by setting the clamp on a flat surface); this provides the clamping force that keeps the wheel on the bike. New nuts, washers and (especially) lock washers are an absolute must whenever you replace the wheel, at least in my opinion
I assembled the clamps to the fork with the long "leg" toward the front and the gap to the rear. The trick here is that you fully tighten the front nut before going to the rear nut. I started with the disc side...
...then did the same with the other side; gap to the rear, tightening the front nut first. The speedometer drive just kind of dangles there until the clamp is tightened. I'll set its position later; for now I'm just leaving it oriented in a roughly horizontal position
Adding the clamps completed the front wheel and fender installation.
Handlebars next. I have installed stock grips in place of the earlier foamy ones, and the right-hand switch has been rebuilt
. The left switch is a good stock unit I found on ebay
I've restored the bar clamp/dashboard. Chrome bolts are used for a stock installation
The bar simply sits in the cradle provided on the top steering yoke and the clamp fits down over it. The clamp/dash is similar in nature to the wheel clamps in that the front portion is longer than the rear, so installation procedure is the same: tighten the front bolts completely before doing the back ones, leaving the gap to the rear. The bars are positioned by two little punch marks on either side of the clamp that orient them; the marks should line up with the top of the cradle
Tightening the clamp bolts
I want to get this down off the dolly, so the next order of business is the center stand. I picked up this CS from the local boneyard and refinished it in POR-15 Base Coat with a topping of BlackCote (now POR-15 TOPCOAT "Gloss Black"). Here it is with all of its mounting hardware (note the lock washers)
This is a pretty simple installation, made even easier due to the fact that I don't have the swingarm to deal with. The CS just slides into place between the brackets on the frame, then the well-greased CS pivot pipe is inserted...
...and secured with a cotter pin
I then added the clamp bolts. No need to get too aggressive tightening these down, just get them tight enough to be secure. Once the bolts are in place, it's time to install the spring plate and spring; and here's where the beauty of installing these now comes into play. By rotating the CS legs up past horizontal (thanks to the missing swingarm), installing the plate and spring becomes child's play and they easily slide into position; the plate is oriented with the curve pointing down, large hole slipping over the bale on the frame, while the spring connects to the smaller hole on the plate, then to the notched tab on the CS. No money involved... just slide it on. Do it now or you'll regret it as that spring is a serious beeee-otch to assemble at any other point. Believe me. I know.
And, with that, I was able to pull the dolly out and set the bike down on the CS, just one more major step towards completion
Well, I've gone on for too long (as usual), and if you've managed to stay awake through all of this, I'm impressed. Next time I'll be doing the front brake, then tackle the swingarm and the rear wheel, and all of that should be loads of fun.
'til next time
