1976 Honda GL1000

john83

Over 1,000 Posts
I've been watching this thing sit under the carport of a house up the street from me for almost a year now and I've really been needing a bigger bike for two up trips. The girlfriend has never been happy with the back seat on my Thruxton.

I deliver pizza part time while I'm in school and just happened to get a delivery to said house one day. Asked the guy about it and he said he was trying to sell is, wanted to get $300 out of it. I said give me your number.



About a week later we got together and I managed to get him to settle for $275. Loaded it up and brought it back to the house. First order of business was to evict the wasp nest from the false tank but then I pulled the battery out of my other bike and hooked it up for testing purposes. Poured some gas in, shot some ether into the filter, hit the starter a few times and it fired up.


It smoked out half the neighborhood for the first few minutes but that stopped. It won't run without the choke on so I know the carbs need some attention but I think with a few parts and some elbow grease it's gonna turn out pretty good.
 
Done a little bit of work since I brought it home. Pulled the fairing and all the crash bars off of it and got down to this.


Dumped this out of the coolant reservoir.


Looks like someone left their ham sandwich in there or something. I went ahead and drained the rest of the coolant system as well. It looked alright, no chunks or anything but did appear to be straight anti-freeze. Too green to have been mixed with water.

Next I went ahead and pulled the carbs off to see what I'm working with.







Nasty in there but could be worse. Debating on whether or not I need to order a rebuild kit from Randakks or just clean and reassemble. The guy I bought it from said he had it running when he first got it, had a shop go through the carbs. I find that hard to believe since I found a torn air cut valve gasket and a missing valve seat clip.

Primary and secondary jets from the one carb I disassembled. Pretty dirty and those O-rings worry me a bit. I don't think they look too healthy.

More to come.
 
My brother in law Josh feels it important that I mention we had to use his BMW to jump the Goldwing when we were getting it started. He's always picking on me about riding old bikes.
 
Not sure where the wheels came from. Someone suggested they might be Lester wheels. Not sure how to tell though.

The more I look at the carbs the more I think I'm gonna go ahead and order the Randakk kit. May have to wait for some more cash before I do that though, it's about $150.
 
I believe those are Lesters.
I second the Randak kit. Well worth the fundage imo.
Also put a DynaS on your wishlist. It really helps to loose those points.
Did you see the pics of my nephews GL?
It looked a LOT sharper than I thought it would.


Lookin Good!
 
Will, I just saw the pictures of your nephews bike. It looks awesome. I am definitely gonna hit you up for some details on that one. I'm headed in a two up machine direction on this one. The fairing it came with and the hard bags are gone, they were just too goofy looking but I'll replace them with something eventually.

Mike, thanks it was just too good of a price to pass up. I'll go check the wheels in a bit.

I hope to have this on the road before it gets cold down here but we will see. My funds are limited so I gotta do what I can when I can and prioritize. I think the tires have some life in them. I am going to change the timing belts. The brakes are stuck and I've gotta figure that out, hopefully just need bleeding but there may be rebuild kits in their future. The exhaust will probably need replaced. The PO had someone attempt to weld up the holes in the headers with poor results, it still leaks and is rusted all to hell. The muffler assembly may be salvageable but we will see.

I ditched the big floor boards and heel/toe shifter so I'm gonna need some foot pegs and a shift lever. The throttle was sticking like all hell but once I pulled the carbs off the bellcrank and all the linkage moves freely so that's probably just the cables. I'll try to loosen and free them up but may just have to replace them.

Stay tuned.
 
Winner! They are in fact Lester mag wheels. Pretty cool.

Tried to free up the front brakes a little. Just pulled the calipers off, forced the pistons back in then squeezed the brake lever to push them out. Did this a few times but they still don't seem to be returning on their own. I'll try bleeding the system pretty soon.

Did a little more carb dis-assembly. I'll post the pictures later but it's pretty gross in there. Since I don't have the cash for a rebuild kit right now but want to keep pushing forward I may try just a good cleaning and see what kind of results I get.
 
The NGW club is the place to find awesome info.
They have a great interchange list and I was able to get timing belts from RockAuto for about $13 per iirc.
I also replaced the idler pulleys for ultra cheap as well as the cam oil seals.


My nephews was running when we got it, but at some point it had received a set of gl1100 carbs and some idiot had blocked off the air cut-off circuits with goop. A good cleaning is awesome, but the Randak kit has every piece you need in viton.
Certainly not cheap, but a really impressive kit.


Best of luck with it. Ping me if you need a friendly ear. I swore at those carbs more than once...
 
I think I have a spare set of gl1100 headers that you can have if you want to drive to decatur and buy me a beer.
 
Man, the OldWings are popping up everywhere......

Good score John! I'm signed up for this.....
 
Will, I will for sure bend your ear on this one. Wouldn't be the first time you've been a big help to me.

Lingo, I will absolutely drive to Decatur and buy you MORE than one beer. Might be a couple of weeks down the road.

Rich, glad to have you aboard.
 
Okay a few pictures.

When you find things like this in the carbs it becomes pretty evident why the bike won't idle.



This fairing had to go.



This came with it. I've never seen a one piece hard bags, trunk and backrest thing before. It separates into three different compartments and could probably hold a body. Really cool but damn it's ugly. Not going back on.




Here's some weight loss. That dammed radiator guard must have weighed five pounds by itself. This crap ain't going back on. Maybe I can convince someone to buy it. I may buy some better looking crash bars at some point though. If I lay this thing down the first thing to touch would be a cylinder head and I'd rather not leave that sort of thing along side the road.
 
Heh Heh.... I thought they looked like Lesters... CONGRATS! Those wheels are worth more than you paid for the bike! Don't ever part with them without a fight... very desireable.
+1000 to www.NGWclub.com Guys there REALLY know their GL's. The "Shop Talk" section is available to non-members and FULL of info. http://www.ngwclub.com/shoptalk/ You might be able to sell that tuperware there that you removed on there. Sure, it's Afternarket but not "boxy" like the Hondaline accessories were back then. Somebody may want it if you are close by. As a past member there I will initiate you here and tell you "Change Those Belts!" The timing belts that is, if one breaks the valves can smack the piston tops and wreak all kinds of havoc inside the engine.

Good on you for deciding on the Randakks kit. Top notch stuff. I was so impressed with the kit for my GL, I went back to him for my DOHC CB kit.
Yes you will want those case savers. Honda couldn't call them "crash bars" because they don't help in a crash but they will save the engine case if you lay it over!
Next, you might want to rethink ditching that radiator gaurd. It keeps stones, debris, and small chidren from hitting the radiator. I have the same unit on mine, blasted it and painted it black and it is a small amount of weight to sweat over for that bike. I have astock one off my 1100 that should fit. More like screen but much lighter that iron bar style. It's yours if you want it intead... PM me for shipping.

And last but not least... the bad news. That oil in your coolant is a symptom of a blown head gasket (or 2). Good news is it really isn't a bad job especially since you WILL be changing the timing belts anyway, RIGHT?
Now, if you still have coolant in the engine, get yourself an automotive style pressure tester and pull the 4 spark plugs. Put the pressure tester on the radiator neck and see if it holds pressure. If it's bad enough coolant will start to run out a spark plug hole. But if it does hold pressure let it set over night with the spark plugs out. Then come out in the morning and crank the engine over. DO NOT LOOK INTO THE SPARK PLUG HOLES! If you have a head gasket leaking you will get a blast of coolant out the hole as that cylinder comes around to the compression stroke.

Also as a little gift there are several off the shelf parts available from chain automotive stores like Napa or O-Riely's ythat fit our bikes.The prices listed were at my local Napa 4 years ago so they should be close to current pricing.

Timing Belts for GL1000 & GL1100
(Note: X 2)
Gates #T274
NAPA #250274 - $26.99
Goodyear Gatorback #40274 (AutoZone & ??)

Radiator Hoses -- Napa #7733 one does both top & bottom - $16.33

Radiator Cap -- Standard style with 13 Lbs pressure, any auto supply store
NAPA/Belkamp #703-1445 or STANT #10229.

Thermostat, GL1000 and GL1100
Stant #13868
Napa #101 - $7.29

Oil Filter for GL1000 & GL1100
Napa PS4940 - $5.99

Cam Seals
Note: x2 on GL1100s
Napa #ATM 2117994, Altrom, - $6.09

Signal Flasher
NAPA #552 flasher relay, 2 pole
Tridon EL12 at most autoparts stores ~$10 electronic flasher, stops slow/fast flashing. Try the 552 first.


Spark Plugs - (1000, 1100, 1200) Stock is NGK D8ES.
D7EA or ND X22ES-U for cold climate
D8EA or ND X24ES-U for standard operation - $2.19
D9EA or ND X27ES-U for extended high speed operation
 
Wow, thanks for all the useful info! I don't think there was oil in the coolant though. That drain pan that I dumped the coolant jug into already had oil in it and it floated to the top. The goop that was in the overflow jug looked more like some kind of microbial growth. Or something. When I drained the remainder of the coolant it came out nice and clean. It was very bright green.

However, I will follow your advice and see about getting a pressure tester and checking for a bad head gasket.

Don't worry, I was already planning on changing the timing belts. It's only got 22,000 on the clock which probably means they've never been changed and are 35 years old.

Managed to get in a little more carb dis-assembly this morning. Either the PO told me a lie about having a shop go through the carb or the shop told him a lie. It looks like someone even more ham fisted than me has been in there.



My shop manual says to tip the carbs over and let the primary and secondary nozzles fall out. Only problem is they don't fall out. I sprayed some WD-40 in there (because it's all I had on hand) to see if I can get them freed up.

Doh! The dreaded broken float post! Luckily Randakk sells a kit for that as well.



This fell off of the secondary nozzle on one carb. I think someone tried to remove it with a screw driver or something at some point. I reckon add that to the parts list as well.

 
Watching you put off buying the carb kit is pretty funny :D
 
Oh, I'm gonna order it but I've gotta wait for pay day. I bought my Barber tickets and ordered a battery for the beast, that sucked up my spending cash.
 
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