[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=167971#p167971:24xx9g39 said:
wedoo2 » Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:48 pm[/url]":24xx9g39]
I just finished going through your build and I'm impressed with you skills, and your patience, especially since this has been going on for over two years. I have not seen a post about the condition of the motor and heads. You have written about making it pretty but nothing about the mechanical part. Have you started i the heads as yet? If the cases have to be split I am afraid that the pretty will get damaged in the process. And if they have to be split then it seems that it would be easier to paint / polish then. Considering the shape of the bike in the beginning, and the motor being stuck, I'll bet that the rings will need to be replaced. I know that sometimes they free up, and there is honing to be considered and all that. But it does give you a chance to look at bearings and such. Just my thoughts. BTW, I love the cream frame and black cherry body parts scheme. Very bold.
I am just starting on this forum and love the refurbishing stories as many forums I have been involved in do not dedicate an area for them; and yours is a good one. Hope your wife is okay. As for the former wife, there is nothing colder than the heart of an ex.
Thanks for that and welcome to the club, okay so I bought my bike must be about 1992 used in Holland where I lived, I used it for some months until the starter motor went south for ever. I jump started for a while but she was dressed fully and bloody heavy to push, not many hills in Holland. Any way she got put away with the promise I was going to rebuild her next , then next year and then nothing. 2004 my wife and I came back to my home country the UK. a few years back 2014 I think I went back to our house we still have in Holland and brought her back to the uk. For the first year I didn't do a lot. Anyway I decided that if I was ever going to do it it had to be now. So I started to strip her out every nut and bolt had to fought with to get off, many broke. But the frame was quite rusty in major areas and to import her into the UK I would have to have a safety test here called an MOT. So I bought an English frame that was in good condition, that is my start point as I don't have to import anything now, the frame is already registered.
My lock up garage has no electricity and is by American standards about big enough to keep a dog in, so room is at a premium. So I started by getting everything off the old frame. My biggest problem is am am somewhat disabled so lifting isn't one of my fortes. So I managed to get the engine out onto a small bike jack (bed) on my bike lift. I use an electric winch to do the lifting (I have a generator) so I am at the point where all the ancillaries are almost ready. Most of the polishing and chroming and painting is done except the engine. So here is the plan, when it gets a bit warmer, I will be blasting the engine with advice from my friends on here Soda, I now have a 25Kg Bag of Soda for blasting. I need to take my compressor from the house to the lock up, and then I can blast the crap off the engine. Being soda hey what gets left on the ground will dissolve in the first rain, but I will have a clean engine to work on.
She was running when I covered her up, doesn't mean much I know, but when I drained the oil I could clearly make out the bottom of the catch can, it was that clean, so either all the carp has settled inside the crank case which is quite possible or I might be lucky. I can turn the engine over with my hands (the timing belts have been removed) so I know she turns over with too much resistance. So the idea is clean of the crud, take of the spare pair of cylinder head covers and heads to get a good look at the top end for any damage or corrosion. That's when I take off the Cylinder heads, so now I will get a good look inside. I have a complete gasket set here at home I know I will have to swap out all the head side gaskets.
I know that the last time I used her on the road, she was good right up to about 140 KPH (86 MPH) and she still had more to give, no knocks or engine rattles except the fairly normal crunch of gears when she goes into first, well I say fairly normal I have heard quite a few GL's going in to 1st and they all have that same crunch. So some of the things I have been collecting (I am also a pensioner so we don't have deep pockets) have to be done as and when I can afford them. Externally she is ready for the engine etc, but this next 4-5 months will be the engine. I have a complete new set of clutch plates and I want to solve the problem of that special plate that has a tendency to disintegrate. I have been informed that swapping it out for a normal steel plate is the way to go. there is a thread on it on here in the history somewhere. So I have to agree with you that it is a bit disjointed and maybe for some the wrong way round of doing things, but I try to not pay silly money out on something I can do just as well myself. EG the two badges, a guy in the States wants over a hundred UK pounds for a pair of NOS. so I have refurbished mine in my own way, for 10 cents worth of paint and a few hours work. I still have the £99,80 to spend on something else that I need.
So as each month goes by I buy something I need for my bike, and when I come to the States in May my (new found) sister has waiting at her home some parts that have been sent to her so I can either send them home from there or bring then back in my/our cases.
I am waiting on two new front discs from Wingovations here in the UK, every thing on this bike has pretty much been replaced rebuilt by me, polished, painted, welded and when it comes to the engine, that's the easy bit for me, I have rebuilt so many engines in my time I have lost count, the hard bit was learning to weld properly, spray paint, fixing the forks, all this is done, all the re-chroming is done. So to put many friends minds at rest, it is now coming down to the finish line I hope that that line will be this year, but hey if not then that in the long term is okay. I will eventually have a bike that when I go to our local bikers cafe here in Wets Yorkshire I am sure there will be many questions, and I hope a great looking bike for them to look at.
One of the bikes that really is to blame for the kick off is one of the most respected contributors on here. Just check out his two bikes, Condor and Ol Sparkey.
