We ride year-round here in Tennessee. Only ice/snow on the road stops us. New Years' tradition of a ride to Cumberland Falls. My favorite "Tail of the Dragon" times are January/February. Heated gloves and jacket liner are easy on the 1500 Watt electrical system. Now, this hot steamy weather sucks behind the GL1800 fairing, which is one reason for fixibg up the neked '79 for a summertime daily driver.
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A THIRD GoldWing!
- Thread starter jonesn7
- Start date
Still waiting for headers (guy I bought them from shipped them to the wrong person). Should be in early next week. Recovered the '75-77 seat that I bought in Georgia (really like how it looks now).
Rebuilt the right front fork leg from the junker '79 that I stripped down for parts. It will replace the project's right fork that has a bad ding in the tube right where the seals wear. All wiring is complete (hopefully). Tank has been pumped dry. No rust in it - it has been coated with a beige colored product (not Kreem, hopefully) that seems intact, plus they made up new pickups in it. Front master (and maybe calipers) need rebuilt/repaired/replaced. A little spongy and a slight weep from the bottom of the MC reservoir. I'll drain and flush the front system, and when I do I'll pull the reservoir. Hopefully it is the o-ring, which I can replace with one made from o-ring cord stock.
Next step is header and muffler install though. Holding off on rear wheel install until that is done. Which holds back the front end work as I can't move it from where it is. Might make up a plug-and-play kit for using Ford TFI modules triggered by the points to fire the coils. That's about all I can figure to do until I get the headers in. Already sold and shipped the SS headers.
Rebuilt the right front fork leg from the junker '79 that I stripped down for parts. It will replace the project's right fork that has a bad ding in the tube right where the seals wear. All wiring is complete (hopefully). Tank has been pumped dry. No rust in it - it has been coated with a beige colored product (not Kreem, hopefully) that seems intact, plus they made up new pickups in it. Front master (and maybe calipers) need rebuilt/repaired/replaced. A little spongy and a slight weep from the bottom of the MC reservoir. I'll drain and flush the front system, and when I do I'll pull the reservoir. Hopefully it is the o-ring, which I can replace with one made from o-ring cord stock.
Next step is header and muffler install though. Holding off on rear wheel install until that is done. Which holds back the front end work as I can't move it from where it is. Might make up a plug-and-play kit for using Ford TFI modules triggered by the points to fire the coils. That's about all I can figure to do until I get the headers in. Already sold and shipped the SS headers.
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- Joined
- Sep 2, 2013
- Messages
- 5,437
As you predicted.... There are all kinds of sub-forums here, and I at least, enjoy seeing what others are up to besides, and in conjunction with machining. If your not interested, no one is forcing you to look at that, or any particular post, just pass it by. Mike
So far, the '79 has not required any machining. The Hunley did, however. Things like one unobtainium pivot thrust washer that a PO left out. the existing one seems to be phenolic, and since I don;t have a piece that big, I made one of brass. The belt idlers were seriously rusted, so I made new ones with bearings, the original pivot, a nyloc nut holding the bearing on a bolt machined down to fit the pivot arm.
Yesterday I made new hinge pins for the shelter sides on tge '79 out of 80mm x 5mm screws by drilling holes for tiny pins and trimming their length. I just have the smallest HF tools, but they really help.
So, the carb problem on #2 cylinder fouling pkugs on Hunley was finally tracked down to a wallowed-out needle jet. I had spare good ones from a junker '79 so that is fixed, tested, and I'm real happy with it.
'79 carbs in place and rewired with stock ignition. Finally got stock headers on it so the mufglers would mount and rolled it out. Fired right up and even though just static timed and carbs not balanced, it sounded real good! Went ahead and registered it, but still need to finish forks and rebuild front brake system before riding. I hate working on brakes.
Yesterday I made new hinge pins for the shelter sides on tge '79 out of 80mm x 5mm screws by drilling holes for tiny pins and trimming their length. I just have the smallest HF tools, but they really help.
So, the carb problem on #2 cylinder fouling pkugs on Hunley was finally tracked down to a wallowed-out needle jet. I had spare good ones from a junker '79 so that is fixed, tested, and I'm real happy with it.
'79 carbs in place and rewired with stock ignition. Finally got stock headers on it so the mufglers would mount and rolled it out. Fired right up and even though just static timed and carbs not balanced, it sounded real good! Went ahead and registered it, but still need to finish forks and rebuild front brake system before riding. I hate working on brakes.
Just an update on The '79 (Freedom).
I've rebuilt the forks replacing one tube with a spare from the junker and polishing the lower legs. Both front calipers pulled apart and cleaned and lines flushed with brake cleaner. MC rebuilt and new reservoir. Was surprised how fast and easy to fill and bleed with MightyVac. Went through some of the electrical connectors and cleaned/tightened, even replaced one shell. Rebuilt carb rack is close enough that I'm planning to back it out tomorrow for strobe timing and then carb balance. She is now registered, and insurance starts tomorrow.
Used the lathe to spin the brake pistons with ScotchBrite and brake cleaner to polish them up. The shelter side pins I made work real nice. One nice thing about having some machine tools when working on bikes is that you can make special tools. Like the drift that I made for removing emulsion tubes from the carbs. Very easy too damage the tapered tube tip without a nice drift with a matching female taper drift to drive it out.
I've rebuilt the forks replacing one tube with a spare from the junker and polishing the lower legs. Both front calipers pulled apart and cleaned and lines flushed with brake cleaner. MC rebuilt and new reservoir. Was surprised how fast and easy to fill and bleed with MightyVac. Went through some of the electrical connectors and cleaned/tightened, even replaced one shell. Rebuilt carb rack is close enough that I'm planning to back it out tomorrow for strobe timing and then carb balance. She is now registered, and insurance starts tomorrow.
Used the lathe to spin the brake pistons with ScotchBrite and brake cleaner to polish them up. The shelter side pins I made work real nice. One nice thing about having some machine tools when working on bikes is that you can make special tools. Like the drift that I made for removing emulsion tubes from the carbs. Very easy too damage the tapered tube tip without a nice drift with a matching female taper drift to drive it out.
Well, she is now on-the-road! A little clutch adjustment (and swapping clutch link plate in from junker to avoid scraping off 1/4" orange RTV a PO had smeared on it), valve adjustment (half hour spent removing silicone sealant from valve cover gasket), and swaping tach drive that had leaky shaft seal (once again, a PO had tried sealing with silicone), and she runs quite well. Have not worked on appearance, but did mount a luggage rack on the back as they are always very handy. Also changed to a set of bars with only ~4" rise (a $5 Barber swap meet pick up) because the stock Honda bars always hurt my back.
She starts and runs well, front brakes are great and rears bedding in nicely. Transmission shifts smoother than my '06 1800. Swapped-in shocks are working well, but I need to pull and clean them. A PO lined the tank, and has it so the reserve pickup is the only one working. I'll work on that later and do some calibration to fuel gauge. A wire had been added to manually run the fan but was just dangling. I've added a connector and grounded line to plug it in to should that be needed. So far the temperature stays right at the good operating point so the thermostat is working, and I've not had it reach high enough to cycle the fan on.
Considering experiment with Ford TFI modules this winter. I have modules and connectors, just need to make heat sinking mounts and harnesses. The charging system is working well, with 3500 RPM voltage ~14 on a little digital voltmeter that is presently taped to the shelter. I like this little LED meter so much that I'm considering swapping it with the Honda bimetalic meter that is 1 volt off and very slow.
She starts and runs well, front brakes are great and rears bedding in nicely. Transmission shifts smoother than my '06 1800. Swapped-in shocks are working well, but I need to pull and clean them. A PO lined the tank, and has it so the reserve pickup is the only one working. I'll work on that later and do some calibration to fuel gauge. A wire had been added to manually run the fan but was just dangling. I've added a connector and grounded line to plug it in to should that be needed. So far the temperature stays right at the good operating point so the thermostat is working, and I've not had it reach high enough to cycle the fan on.
Considering experiment with Ford TFI modules this winter. I have modules and connectors, just need to make heat sinking mounts and harnesses. The charging system is working well, with 3500 RPM voltage ~14 on a little digital voltmeter that is presently taped to the shelter. I like this little LED meter so much that I'm considering swapping it with the Honda bimetalic meter that is 1 volt off and very slow.
Ford TFI module experiment is so far a success! Mounted under the left shelter on aluminum plates with aluminum shower door rails as fins. Wired to male and female 6 pin plugs that plug into the coil interface of the '78-'79 junction box. Unplug the condensers and go. No timing change needed. Doesn't really seem to be changing the way the bike runs, either. Modules are triggered by the points and coil firing/charging/dwell controlled by the modules. Ballast resistor is bypassed by the plug-in, so all that is needed to go back to points only is swap the plugs and plug in the condensers. After a 20 mile run last night, the TFIs were not even warm.
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2014
- Messages
- 2,843
Just to combine the motorcycle and machining concepts, I have a Honda ST1100 that developed a problem with the side stand. To fix it I needed to machine a custom shaped bolt that compensated for the wear in the pivot point. That was one of my first "productive" lathe projects.
BTW, no bike shop anywhere near me would touch this...the wear was in the frame, and that would have needed some welding and rework. Maybe I could have found a welding shop who could have done it, but it was a good project for my shop.
BTW, no bike shop anywhere near me would touch this...the wear was in the frame, and that would have needed some welding and rework. Maybe I could have found a welding shop who could have done it, but it was a good project for my shop.
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