New member from England

[David Mantle]

Am picking up a good set of 1200 rear shocks at the weekend which I won on ebay for stupid money ( £20 = $32 ) but the old girl will be off the road now till next year. The starter motor clutch packed up and since that is located behind the alternator and involves removing the engine I have decided to rebuild the engine. I have been having problems with oil pressure and apart from checking the crank and oil pump I would like to fit an oil pressure gauge adapter in order to better monitor things in the old engine house department. I am also going to fit an upgraded alternator winding , polish and radius the con-rods for strength and reliability , polish the inlet ports to improve breathing , boost power and increase fuel efficiency.
While the engine is out this will give me the opportunity to strengthen the frame mounts for the centre stand . These old girls also have the general fault of burning out the ignition amplifiers and to this aim I will fit some small fans ( from a computer cause they are also 12v ) to aid their cooling.
These jobs will not necessarily cost a fortune but they will cost a lot of time and patience. I am luckier than most of my friends in that I have a fairly well equipped workshop but more importantly lots of experience in working on engines. I started this hobby aged 14 and am now 56 with no intention of stopping or slowing down.
I also have an old CX500 which has a set of Suzuki GS650 air forks on her plus the rear end of a Yamaha Virago 750 because I like the seat unit. This hybrid of an old dog also needs a full rewire . I have an aluminium swing arm off the Eurosport 650 version which I might adapt to fit. These are about 2 inches longer and will involve modifying the drive shaft and making new suspension mounts because I prefer the twin rear shock setup instead of the monoshock from the Eurosport. This bike has been on the back burner for about 2 years now and I would love to have it roadworthy before the end of Autumn ( FALL to you Americans LOL ) .

 

[joedrum]

you sound like me david .....its always nice to reinvent the better bike .....good luck and make a thread or topic on it here as these are always fun to keep up on.....

 

[David Mantle]

Just thought I would show you a quick photo of the CX 500 out of interest.

These were all my bikes at the time of taking the photo. Since then I have sold the Red CX , the little Green thing in the background and also passed on the BMW. They all had to go to make room for my present Wing. I kept hold of the black CX because I have always had a soft spot for them even though they may be considered a little boring.

 

[joedrum]

i dont know about boring it looks great to me real fit and trim CX .....cant wait to see your next push on it and the wing.....im currently working on putting a 1200shortblock in my 79 wing with early 76 heads cams and carbs ....the cams are hotter in the early 1000s the heads have the ignition drive in them and upgraded to dyna ignition and coils and timing is fully adjustable and the carbs are bigger than the stock 1200 carbs .....im hoping for a pretty mean bore and stroked 1000.....right at the monment its mostly in a large tub im still getting what i need for the clutch transistion and need a starter for the 1200 .....everything has been test fitted it was tight and imight need to make a little room for paint its that tight but a done deal just waiting on parts to come along and get back at it....

by the way iwas born in england as a service brat ....im 55 myself but idont know it the way i carry on .....im also working on a shop at my place thers a thread here titled dog house under construction.....and the bike deal is title mongruel getting 1200 motor ....

 

[David Mantle]

Do the cams off the early 1000`s fit the 1100`s. If they do ..mmmmm.. sounds like a plan to me LOL

 

[joedrum]

yes they do ....but you would have to cut off the igniton drive ....or maybe put the ignition houseing on the 1100 so the shaft would be covered up as not to distory the cam for 1000 use....i havent look into it much but it very likely that the 1100 head can be converted to 1000 ignition ....i would think it could but i have not look to hard at it...

but you would need 1000 carbs to get full benifit from the upgrade ....

 

[David Mantle]

Thanks for the advice - I have just bought a set of cams from a 78 GL1000 courtesy of a breaker in California which should give me the edge I need. The carbs will be my next purchase but I will have to wait awhile cause of work commitments , also lack of money dictate otherwise LOL.

Do I read your post correctly? Are you fitting a GL1200 block into your frame? I did not think they fitted because Honda redesigned the frame and I presumed it was because the mounting points are totally different. If the engines can fit without too much trouble ... that opens up new possibilities for a future project I have in mind. I know that Honda used certain BMW components when developing the Wings and the engine points are in about the same place. I was thinking about putting a BMW 100R engine into an old wing frame I have but now I am thinking more of putting a GL1200 engine into a BMW frame instead. Hopefully , funds permitting, I will look into this more next summer when I should have more money available .

 

[joedrum]

slow down david the 78 79 cams are the wrong ones ......im sorry i sould have explain more throughly the cams you want need to be 75-77 cams and the carbs also with the 75 carbs the best and also the ignition on the 1000 heads needs to match the same year carbs as there are slight differences in the spark advance .....those 78 79 cams are the same as the 1100 cams but if you swiched over to the 79 ignition advance system so you had timing flexability and upgraded to the dyna electronic ignition and matching coils ....and stayed with 1100 carbs you would end up with a great and torquey touring package with lots of low end grunt and just loose out a little on top end performace ....but more than the standard 1100 package....

yes the mounting on the 1200 is the same as 1000-1100-1200....the 1000 frame will only except the 85 and later engines the frames are shorter and wont except the 84 1200 with its rear ignition set up .....thats what im working with ....im not sure but the 1100 frame might except an 84 1200 with rear ignition set up as the 1100 has somewhat the same deal .....my project is useing just the short block with 76 1000 heads , igniton and carbs so i can have all the flexability in the timing ....there are some unknowns yet that i dont even know at this time as im not there yet as final compression and other things that could thow me in the quicksand so to speak so dont take everything i say as fact .....it will only be fact after im successful in my project.....

 

[David Mantle]

Thanks for the input. I appreciate the information regarding the differences in cams etc. It is only through making mistakes that progress can be made. There are some engineers in the UK who may be able to re-profile the cams in order to give me longer duration and dwell so that she can breathe better - so maybe all is not lost after all. At least this way I can still experiment without totally ruining my present setup.
My aim is to really beef up the torque output AND get a slightly higher top speed. At present the bike does not pull much beyond 6,750 rpm in top gear . This gives me a true top speed of 115mph but I know that improvements in power can also give improvements in fuel efficiency because the engine labours less for a given throttle setting.
Last year my wife and I toured Scotland , covering 2 thousand miles in 6 days. The bike averaged 45 mpg. But in order to achieve this we had to limit our cruising speed to about 50 mph most of the time. Whilst this made the trip very enjoyable the times when I opened her up , to overtake for example, made the fuel gauge sink faster than a lead duck in a pond. This is why I would like to give her a real boost in torque output. If she was a chain drive most of my problems could be sorted by changing the sprocket sizes thus changing the gearing. Unfortunately GL1100AD have a very high top gear which I can not do much about. Because it is so high I have to use more throttle , thus more fuel , to overtake than I would like.
That my friend is why I hope to improve this old girl rather than just go for a bigger lump. It may not be the cheaper option but what the heck - I know it will be the more satisfying.

 

[joedrum]

this is only my opinion but after seeing that your 1100 is an 83 .....im thinking you didnt make a bad decission ...on your 83 with its tall gearing for the hyway.....

let me start over ...i have a 79 1000 in its stock form its pretty low geared and when it ran though its torque curve of power there was absolutly no load on the motor and the load was there the cams were out of there torque curve it was a total mismatch in my opinion from the factory and at hiway speed i didnt like the rpm it was turning......so i modified an 83 swingarm to go in my 1000 frame ....this mod lowered rpm at hiway speed considerbly ....when this happen it change the load factor down into the torqur curve of the cam and realy woke the bike up .....this along with the ignition upgrade of the dyna and matching coils increaced the spark output which allowed more gap in the plugs and with the flexable timing on the 1000 made my bike bike a real runner ....i think a perfect match between load and torque curve the final gearing is a little taller than even an 83 grearing but not much .....in my opinion if you were to do this with your 83 switch it over to 1000 ignition with dyna ignition and coils with the cams you have already got this would realy be even better than my set up as you are dealing with an 1100 motor to begine with mines a 1000 .....my 79 will outrun any 1100 ive ever come accross easy ....i think the same package on your 1100 would be even better with its increased bore.....with the hotter 75-76 cams on your 83 i think you would be stumbling to grt going all the time and be somewhat a mismatch in gearing and cams ....i know on my bike it would foolish to change it from where its at.....

now if you had an 80-81 1100 an even 82 1100 i would go with the hotter 75-77 cams and carbs as the gearing is that much different .....but from my experience with my 79 i think going to 75-77 cams and carbs would be a mismatch just like my 79 was from the factory ...load and torque out of place ......thats my thoughts and opinion :mrgreen:

 

[David Mantle]

Have just picked up the GL1200 rear suspension units. the are in good condition apart from the rubber boots. Have pressure tested to 80psi and no leaks which is good news.

My next aim is to get the CX500 rewired and hopefully running in the next couple of weeks. I will then be left with fitting it with brakes , both front and rear , making an exhaust system and generally sorting her out. I have had to weld a seam to fix a leak which was successful and have slapped on some black gloss paint and so far she appears to be petrol tight.

With any luck at least this old project will be sorted soon . I intend to have the GL1100AD engine rebuilt over this winter and also have the frame welded whilst I am at it.

Forgive me if I do not write much over the next few months cause work dictates that I will not have much free time. What free time I have will be taken up with the CX . Until this is complete and running again I bid thee goodnight LOL.