My build (another one)

[mcgovern61]

So my only problem is why are the American GL1000 rear brake pistons so much bigger than the European counterpart.

Maybe we eat too many burgers and fries around here and Honda knew they needed greater braking power for the increased rider weight? :smilie_happy:

 

[ianstaley]

So AT last I have the swinging arm out what a place to put a circlip. So to cover that last few posts about the brake calliper the rear one. take a look at the photos and you will get the picture, no pun intended.

You can see here that the European rear calliper piston easily fits inside the American calliper.

So this the calliper that came with my European bike.

And this is the American version of the same part..

Together side by side..

And sideways

 

[ianstaley]

So coming back to the swinging arm, so I have been able to achieve quite a bit today, may not seem like much to you guys that strip the bike down in ten minutes with time for coffee after 5, but for me this is a big step forwards. So I finally found the circlip, the light in my lock up is non existent, only from the open door and a hand held led light.

So I got it off from the engine side and the whole thing came away, so now there is only one step left to remove the engine from the frame, I can't lift it, I have no electricity in the garage apart from a genny. So I removed the long top bolt and two triangular mounting plates off. So my bike is on a bike hydraulic table, on the table I have put my hydraulic bike jack on that and under the engine. Up the engine goes and a bit of diligent up and downing with the jack I get the top rear mount out. moved to the left and undid the subframe. Removed the engine to sub frame and engine to frame bolts all out and resting on the jack, some judicious hammering on the subframe from the other side and it is off. Literally lift and backwards the frame lifts free of the engine instead of the engine from the frame.

With a little help from a friend the drive shaft circlip is off and the shaft is out. At home I look at the mess that is the shaft. OMG looks like 1/2 Lbs of black grease every where. take a lokk below.

One drive shaft clean, and NO play, this hasn't done many miles from new, and I got her second hand with about 17000 kilometres on the speedo odometer.

After cleaning, I know I have to get the shaft seal and shaft joint out of the swinging arm but that shouldn't pose such a big problem. Clean it and it should drop out.

So now I have the engine free of encumbrance I can now dedicate some time to get the motor turning. I have taken off the cam belt covers, and oh jeeze, it is a mess in there. The belt tensioners are so rusty, it may only be surface but they wont turn, I have bought new springs for the tensioners, but I don't hold out any hope that these are serviceable. I know there is a post on changing the bearings off a Toyota or a Kia or some other tensioner and I know it needs a bit of engineering to do it. So at least I am a bit further along now.

So next step, try turning the engine on the crankshaft nut, if , IF that goes around then I have an engine that is in all likelihood serviceable. I will be in any case taking the cylinder heads off at some point. Fit a new clutch, I have one and I have seen clutches in the pas that are unused for many years in the past and they are generally horrible. So I have new friction plates.

I need to remove and do some polishing on the engine and cleaning, I have 15 years of muck on the cases. So my plan of attack is steam cleaning the cases first. That will get 80 - 90% of the muck off I hope. Then it will be cover up all the openings into the crankcase and heads and any other point of entry and get my portable blaster to work and give the cases a good seeing too. When that is all done time to ***** the cases, decide what will be mirror polished and what will be painted and the colour or mix there off.

It will soon be time for me to go off on holiday with Lis my wife, two weeks in the Pas de Calais in France with my daughter, son in law, 3 of my granddkids and the dog. Then up to Holland for another week with Lisbet's family and then at the end of July home.

I don't know if I said by I have to retake my driving test for a bike. This weekend Saturday morning I will be doing the first part of that test, we have had great weather this week 20-23 centigrade which is warm here no Hot here just like real summer, but because I start my bike test again, just my luck it is going to rain pretty heavily. I am not religious but if I was then boy I must have been a serious bad dude in a previous life.

CUL8TER...... :laptop: and :thanks: thanks for all the replys.

 

[joedrum]

just go ahead and take heads off first before trying to trun the motor over...this way you can clean it up good and oil it up the protect the rings from getting a beating ... the motor sounds like it quite dirty....

 

[ianstaley]

joedrum » Thu Jun 11, 2015 9:08 pm[/url]":24td7hhq]
just go ahead and take heads off first before trying to trun the motor over...this way you can clean it up good and oil it up the protect the rings from getting a beating ... the motor sounds like it quite dirty....

I think your right Joe, looking at the state of the timing belts tells me they are going to break at the wrong time. I wont turn her over on a battery I can't the starter motor that is in now is fubarb, I have a new one ready and waiting.

so it is 23:00 here and time I got some rest. If I do anything tomorrow I will post. ASAP. :thanks:

 

[joedrum]

should turn it over by hand anyway at the crank bolt ....even with the heads off ....nothing fast till the clylinders are all cleaned up....this is where smart hands and touch buys a lot of life in a forgotten motor .....the hooch bike was a rather poor looking motor in the clylinders ...dont dig any metal out of the cylinders but get all stuff above cylinder walls...

 

[ianstaley]

I was going to take of the heads, but that was dependant on the state of the Cam belts , well that's been answered , so it is head removal time. What I might do, before I try to turn the engine over by hand is this.

1 remove the cylinder heads, I have a small inspection camera so would look inside as much as I can, when done, put some light oil in the cylinders let it sit soak , put some new oil in the crank case just to keep the crank covered in oil. leave this to work for a day or two then try the tun over. No hammering just a gentle rock back and forwards if stuck. once released then I can inspect the bores better. If everything looks okay I was considering honing the bores, new rings, re seat the valves (re grind) replace all the oil stem seals (I have them here in house) clean out the oil again and then refill to recommendation and rebuild the heads on, and then maybe a try an in situe start if it all looks and turns and works well, but I am a long way off on that one. I need to rebuild my wiring harness first.

 

[ianstaley]

Okay boy's and girls. so been up to the Honda Engineering Works Shed 54 laughingly known as my lock up. So cleaned up the Bike table (dusted it off) dusted off the engine with all holes plugged. So decided to remove the timing belts, bearing in mind this engine may or may not have serious internal problems, so after taking the belts off, they are wonderfully deformed, no longer round but a sort of squiggly affair that is dire need of replacement. Now can I assume that the central drive point where the two belts meet in the middle is directly attached to the crankshaft and turning on this will in fact turn the motor, if not seized?

Now you have seen the pictures earlier in the post and how great the timing belt tensioners, idlers are in, to be kind very poor comes to mind. However, they and the belts are off, I intend to remove the cylinder heads no matter, but in trying to remove the centre nut on the front the damn things starts turning to the point of compression, I hear a grinding noise, but it is coming from the clutch end of the motor. So from this turning to compression can I assume that the engine is in fact not seized?

And I have been able to make a movie, there will be a few of those coming in this build as well. So I would like those in the know how fubarb'd are the tensioners, One is I am certain, the other one is also suspect.

enjoy. Oh yes Gob Spot is my user name on there. Ian :beg: <--- is in the hope it works.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruBaAxG5pX8[/video]

 

[dan filipi]

Good video.

Neither of those idlers sound very good but honestly every idler I've spun have sounded similar. With that said, I'd do that trick and pull the cap off an fill them with grease then see how they sound and feel. Full of grease they won't spin much but might feel fine.

 

[ianstaley]

I didn't know the cap came off, learn something every day, I have seen a post either here or on NGW of using a car idler and using a nut and bolt to hold it on. Okay will try that tonight. The vid is quite good I thought from my camera Nikon D7000, very clear and the sound was good in my opinion too. Going to start using it more I think.

Thanks for the advice will get straight on it.

Ian :thanks:

 

[Ansimp]

I just need to know how your are servicing the Vespa Ian when you are wearing the manual?
:smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:

 

[dan filipi]

I've never taken the cap off and greased them but there is a thread here about it, looked easy enough.
I did that car idler mod and guess what, when it's all done and installed they aren't much quieter if at all when compared to the stock idlers when running.

 

[ianstaley]

Ansimp » Sat Jun 13, 2015 9:43 pm[/url]":1qvqt3tq]
I just need to know how your are servicing the Vespa Ian when you are wearing the manual?
:smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:

When I was 16 and started riding bikes our heroes (over here then) were Hells Angels, the ideology was attractive to me and my provincial city tiny minds. The idea of "Easy Rider" was the rage, so we were labelled "Rockers" because we rode Motor Bikes, the other side (evil in our eyes) were the "Mods" Suits, short hair and two other items, dependent on riding or walking out.

If they were riding on their Scooters, Lambretta, Vespa's and would wear a Parka (ex US Army winter jacket), as such they were the enemy and deemed fair game. They felt the same about us, if they were walking out (going out at night etc), they would wear a Crombie, a very nice and expensive long usually made of mohair.

In our town on a Friday night we would go into town on the bikes about 4 of us 2 up. They guy on the back had a washing up bottle empty of soap but filled with Bleach. In the centre of Coventry where I lived there was a massive roundabout right in the centre of the city, to separate the walkers from the vehicles buses and cars or whatever there was a steel barrier about 3 1/2 feet tall with just small openings where the buses stopped to pick up passengers, so for the last bus home there would be 100's of mods with their girls standing around waiting for the bus.

Up we would charge at a reasonable speed 25-30Mph and quite close to the railings, they guy on the back would squirt the bleach at the waiting Mods and we would just do the one trip round the island and off at high speed before they new what was happening. You could always see one of our victims by the white or lighter stripe across the chest.

Apparently one night two of our bunch decided to go off into town on a jolly, the driver nicknamed mental, had a BSA 350, it was not renowned for it's reliability I understood afterwards that they got about 1/3 the way round, having a good laugh when the bike decided it was going to stop. I gather they both jumped ship dropped the bike and ran hell for leather to the local police station, where they took refuge for a few hours.

The bike was I am afraid to say a total wreck, set on fire by our best mates the "Mods". If my memory serves we didn't do that again for about 7 months. And visibly laid low for quite a while.

Check it out type in the search bar Mods and Rockers, plenty of news and photos of us all having great fun, the T shirt was a purchase I made to remind me of good times. :moped: :moped:

 

[Ansimp]

Oh for misspent youth!!

 

[slabghost]

I think freeze plugs were used to replace the caps removed to grease the idlers.

 

[ianstaley]

Going down the Kia ideler bearing route. Don't trust either of the tensioners, Good job a bought a new spring, and fortunate that one of the springs is fine.

Passed the first part of the motorbike driving test today called the CBT, Compulsory Basic Training. How to turn, do a figure of 8 and emergency stop. Firs time on two wheels for 15 years yeah baby. It was fun, even thought the weather here is GD awful. So now need to take a theory test (computerised) once that is done I go up to a 500cc and then my test. But my holiday comes at the end of this month 3 weeks abroad, France and Holland, so I have august to do the Direct Access any bike any power output (it is controlled here).

 

[joedrum]

sheesh what a bunch of hurdles to jump to ride a bike

 

[ianstaley]

Joe when I first rode a bike it wasn't like that at all, you applied and received a provisional licence that was valid for three years, during that time there was no requirement for you to do anything but quickly read the Highway code, fit two "L" plates front and back, put the key in the ignition, switch on start it and off you go, oh and you could ride any bike up to 250cc or a 650 with a side car.

With a bit of luck you kangarood it down the street until you learnt how to use your clutch and throttle, all the other things like falling off, using brakes the unimportant things you learnt over the next two week, if you survived.
All this learning CBT is just the start, now I have to do a theory test. It is a 2 part test, part 1 point and click using a mouse on a computer in a multi choice exam, some times there is 1 answer sometimes 2 or 3. You have 50 questions which you must answer correctly 43 to pass, part 2 is hazard perception you have to score 45 out of a possible 75 points. Here is the kicker fail one test you fail both and have to do it again.

Once you have this in the bag, you can then go on to big bike training, then go for your test. Lets say you are 19, pass your test whoopie, great but you can't ride unrestricted for two years, see the options below taken from the governments own site.

A1 Light motorcycle up to 11 kW (and a power-to-weight ratio not more than 0.1 kW per kg) and 125 cc CBT, theory test, practical test 17
A1 Motor tricycles with a power output not more than 15 kW CBT, theory test, practical test 17
A2 Standard motorcycle up to 35 kW (and a power-to-weight ratio not more than 0.2 kW per kg), bike mustn’t be derived from vehicle more than twice its power
Direct access route - theory and practical
Progressive access route - 2 years experience on A1 motorbike and a further practical test 19
A Unrestricted motorcycles in size/power, with or without a sidecar, and motor tricycles with power output over 15 kW
Direct access route - CBT theory and practical (you must be at least 24)
Progressive access route - held an A2 licence for a minimum of 2 years - practical test (21 or over) 24 (direct) or 21 (progressive access)

This is only going to get harder in the future, these are rules imposed by the European Union, and they are getting harder all the time. Bikers here think that the EU wants to BAN bikes all together.

So you can see the hoops we have to go through to get a bike licence. So for me 63 years old, I have done today my CBT, now I can ride a 125 bike. I have 2 years to take my theory and take a test, if I don't do that within the 2 years I have to do it all over again. Same goes for the theory pass that you have 2 years to do a full test.

My CBT test today cost £100 that's about $155. Theory I don't know, but a full driving test costs £95.00. There was a young guy with me said he could ride, when I went off to do the road test he was still practising doing figure of 8's ..

So if I want I can go out tomorrow and buy me a 125 bike and get some practice in as I have some bad habits that I had the last time I rode a bike 15 years ago, strange how it all comes back. :hihihi: :moped:

 

[Ansimp]

Like " riding a bike" Ian! :good:
In August 2008 I bought the Pig and decided I had better get my motorcycle license after letting it lapse some 20 years prior. I wasn't too worried as if you were over 21 and held a open car license you could apply for an open car license with a practical road test and a written test. Unfortunately the legislation had just changed and I now had to do an all day course ( after 2, 1 hour familiarisation lessons ( hadn't even ridden a dirt bike in 5 plus years)) and at the end of it I was entitled to ride a motorcycle up to 250cc. I barely survived a freeway stretch of 105kph on an old CB250 ( thought the bottom end would drop out at 95kph) so I wasn't too keen about riding a 250 for the next 12 months before I could do the whole test again on a bigger bike to gain my open license. Instead I used a grey area of " learning" by riding around on the Pig while in the company of my mates that were open license holders for that 12 months. They have since changed the restricted motorcycle license to include bikes up to 660cc providing they don't have a high power to weight ratio which is a lot safer for a big *******s like me :moped: :good:

 

[dan filipi]

I've had my MC endorsement since I was 16.
It was a whole bunch easier than that above getting it back then.
Let's see, I already had my drivers license and for MC endorcment I had to take a written test, that was it.
My daughters boyfriend just got his endorcement, had to take a $250 rider safety course, then written test, then cone test. $150 more to DMV and he has his license.
It's all good though since I want him safe with my daughter on the back.