flashgolly
New Member
Well in short, I worked building two gates in someone's yard and traded my labor for a motorcycle. I had never ridden on these wonderful machines before, and my mechanical knowledge was limited to putzing around with a 1969 VW Bug.
After talking the deal over with the gentleman, we agreed on roughly estimated price of $500 (worth of my labor) for me to take this sweet find home. I started to work on the gates, and at some point before my finishing, I asked my buddy if he had some spare time with his truck, so we loaded her up with a couple tie down straps, and drove back to my place. The P.O. lovingly put a couple coats of thick wax all over the body, and to my surprise, I rubbed several parts of the motorcycle (side covers, tailpipes, rims) and with very minimal pressure, the original shine was back on the bike!
This is the very same day that I brought her home.
560 original miles -- for serious, no broken speedo cables!
When I opened the tank, I was distraught as the P.O. had not emptied the tank, and it was LITERALLY filled to the brim with rust. So I searched around on eBay, found a 1974 tank which I picked up for 30 bucks with minimal surface rust. One Yamalube tank treatment later, the tank was looking very good (not perfect, but definitely workable). Petcock was next, and since the main line was disintegrated, I ordered one from DCC only to find out they were out of stock until their suppliers in Japan felt like making the next batch (literally word-for-word). Nothing bad about DCC, they were wonderfully quick in response and apology, and I understood that there was nothing they could do. Therefore, I ran over to the local Honda motoshop and picked up a replacement there for slightly more cash.
Next, I removed the carbs, took them apart and cleaned them, and then put them back on. The starter solenoid/relay was next to be taken off, used some electrical contact cleaner and cleaned it out to the best of my ability. After going through the rest of the electrical system, I decided that now would be an appropriate time to pick up a new battery. The battery install went without a hitch (as if I expected THAT to be the difficult part
).
I then went on to do simple maintenance stuffs here and there: points, condenser, oil change (which by the way, dumb mistake, but I mistakingly picked up ATV fluid since the bottles are EXACTLY the same at autozone, just with a quad on front vs. a motorcycle). Then I was finally ready to mentally prepare for starting her up!
I jumped at the opportunity and after one or two times of pressing the start button, she started and BOY did she start! I was one of the most proud 21 year old men that the world could find at that very moment. I brought back a bike from 20+ years of sitting in a garage! YAY!
Since I knew nothing about motorcycles, I learned that I had to sync the carbs, but I did not own a carb sync kit, nor did I have money to invest in one. So, I did my best to wing it, had to play around with the float levels using the old credit card DIY float gauge and proceeded to tune the carbs and such.
Failing moment: I was giddy about my father coming down to visit from Northern California, and just an hour before he showed up, I was still trying to lower the idle down from the 2300-2500 range when I heard a strange clicking noise from the front of the bike. I quickly learned that my started had engaged and attempted to shut off the bike.
Killswitch first - nothing.
Turn the key to the off position - nothing.
Remove the key - nothing.
Run to the shed to get a wrench to take off the battery - bike starting to die.
As I was undoing the cable to the battery, she kicked the last cell -- My battery had boiled and I was sad.
It was then that I was so distraught and college-poor that I parked her for the winter, and have only recently saved enough money to buy a new battery, solenoid, and gain enough courage to start again.
With a winter of searching the DTT forum, I have realized there are some other things I should do before starting the old bird up again such as setting the valve clearance and stuff. If any of you have any suggestions, I would love to take anything from anyone!
Well this is my first go at a forum post and I hope that I can keep up with it, and gain knowledge from the DTT community!
Much love,
Kevin
After talking the deal over with the gentleman, we agreed on roughly estimated price of $500 (worth of my labor) for me to take this sweet find home. I started to work on the gates, and at some point before my finishing, I asked my buddy if he had some spare time with his truck, so we loaded her up with a couple tie down straps, and drove back to my place. The P.O. lovingly put a couple coats of thick wax all over the body, and to my surprise, I rubbed several parts of the motorcycle (side covers, tailpipes, rims) and with very minimal pressure, the original shine was back on the bike!
This is the very same day that I brought her home.
560 original miles -- for serious, no broken speedo cables!
When I opened the tank, I was distraught as the P.O. had not emptied the tank, and it was LITERALLY filled to the brim with rust. So I searched around on eBay, found a 1974 tank which I picked up for 30 bucks with minimal surface rust. One Yamalube tank treatment later, the tank was looking very good (not perfect, but definitely workable). Petcock was next, and since the main line was disintegrated, I ordered one from DCC only to find out they were out of stock until their suppliers in Japan felt like making the next batch (literally word-for-word). Nothing bad about DCC, they were wonderfully quick in response and apology, and I understood that there was nothing they could do. Therefore, I ran over to the local Honda motoshop and picked up a replacement there for slightly more cash.
Next, I removed the carbs, took them apart and cleaned them, and then put them back on. The starter solenoid/relay was next to be taken off, used some electrical contact cleaner and cleaned it out to the best of my ability. After going through the rest of the electrical system, I decided that now would be an appropriate time to pick up a new battery. The battery install went without a hitch (as if I expected THAT to be the difficult part
). I then went on to do simple maintenance stuffs here and there: points, condenser, oil change (which by the way, dumb mistake, but I mistakingly picked up ATV fluid since the bottles are EXACTLY the same at autozone, just with a quad on front vs. a motorcycle). Then I was finally ready to mentally prepare for starting her up!
I jumped at the opportunity and after one or two times of pressing the start button, she started and BOY did she start! I was one of the most proud 21 year old men that the world could find at that very moment. I brought back a bike from 20+ years of sitting in a garage! YAY!
Since I knew nothing about motorcycles, I learned that I had to sync the carbs, but I did not own a carb sync kit, nor did I have money to invest in one. So, I did my best to wing it, had to play around with the float levels using the old credit card DIY float gauge and proceeded to tune the carbs and such.
Failing moment: I was giddy about my father coming down to visit from Northern California, and just an hour before he showed up, I was still trying to lower the idle down from the 2300-2500 range when I heard a strange clicking noise from the front of the bike. I quickly learned that my started had engaged and attempted to shut off the bike.
Killswitch first - nothing.
Turn the key to the off position - nothing.
Remove the key - nothing.
Run to the shed to get a wrench to take off the battery - bike starting to die.
As I was undoing the cable to the battery, she kicked the last cell -- My battery had boiled and I was sad.
It was then that I was so distraught and college-poor that I parked her for the winter, and have only recently saved enough money to buy a new battery, solenoid, and gain enough courage to start again.
With a winter of searching the DTT forum, I have realized there are some other things I should do before starting the old bird up again such as setting the valve clearance and stuff. If any of you have any suggestions, I would love to take anything from anyone!
Well this is my first go at a forum post and I hope that I can keep up with it, and gain knowledge from the DTT community!
Much love,
Kevin
