GL 1000 sport wing No Time, No Dime

Skipps Honda in Keyser Wv was rumored to never sell their trade ins and when skipp died the auction drew a massive amount of people with very deep pockets. Thats were I was lucky enough to pick up my next project. It wouldn't be until later that I found out just how lucky I actually was.
The bike is a 78 GL 1000 with 24,400 miles. It appeard to be very sun faded both brakes dragging and missing its carbs. A lot of people passed over this bike for some reason but I'm glad they did. Every thing else was pretty much untouchable. My dad was with me and we tried very hard to pick something up for him but people's pockets were jsut too deep and there wasn't a deal to be had.
Anyhow I had the chance to check the bike before the auction and noticed a couple of the intakes were filled with thick gooey varnish. I figured stuck floats is what got here there.
This is just one room of many and only a hand full of the people:

The bike at the auction actually photographed better than it looked in person:


Once home I quickly realized the sun fade was actually a thick coating of 32 year old wax. They waxed it before storing and it was on everything

Come to find out the bike had only been on the road for 3 years and was immaculatly maintained.

You could eat off this bike. It was as close to a showroom bike that I could ever get close to

So anyhow, after seeing how clean it was I had a hard time deciding its direction. I sat on it pretty much all winter. About a month ago I decided its diredtion. A horrible time for me to start a project because things starte getting real busy in the spring on my farm. Doesn't help that I have basically no extra cash, Hence the title :No Time, No Dime.
I have a 77 GL that I got running last year and put some miles on. At the end of the season it started giving me trouble. At a glance it didn't look bad but a closer look you could see the frame had been painted with undercoating and many other Previous Owner fixes and the old girl really showed her age. The new bike was to be her replacement

The bike would need to be able to be ridden every day and also able to do some long trips. Time for a little weight loss for around town convience and some upgrades. I'm more than willing to sacrafice a little comfort for handling and performance. I want something I can have come fun on once I get there so this is the plan: Lower bars, remove the couch and replace with something you can move around on the the corners, Upgraded suspension and ignition.This all had to be done on a very tight budget and as quickly as I can because I really need a bigger bike to ride for the sumer. I started about a month ago and posted some updates on facebook but quickly realized it logged my garage time and budget right were my wife would be reminded every single day. Not a good thing so it was time to do a proper log. Here I am

Congratulations on a beautiful score. Now put that hotwings seat on it so Maritime can see what he's missing out on.

Heck yeah Troy! That thing is a BBW!

Definitely signed up for this.

Thanks Rich Ard. yeah the seat is kick ass. I love it.! I'll be posting pics here in a bit to catch the thread up. Yes he missed out. Thanks again for such a great deal.

And Thanks Rich. Hopfully you fellas will like what Ive done so far

So
I got tired of pushing a 650# bike with stuck brakes around the garage so the brakes was first on the list. With the condition of the frame etc I knew even if the motor didn't pan out I'd still be using this chassis so dove right in. Both calipers on the front were froze and the master cyl was leaking and full of crap. The back was in the same condition so I rebuilt the calipers and master cylinders. Everything worked out well except for when I shot a stuck piston with compressed air right through a finger. Have no idea why I stuck my finger in there but don't think I'll ever do it again. Pretty sure the bone sticking out indicated it was broke and the gash called for some home stitching. Got out the crazy glue and a splint and I was good to go

Next was to do a compression test. The starter was dead and not to be revived.
That's ok because early last year I had purchased a knock off starter for the other wing so I'd simply use that one. Little did I know this his would come back to bite me. sometime during the summer the thing started freewheeling like the starter clutch wasn't engaging. I tried all the tricks of running with marvels mystery oil and some sea foam but nothing worked. I spent almost all summer kick starting the beast. Anyhow I come back to this.
I installed this starter and low and behold the thing wouldn't kick in. This old girls are infamous for the starter clutch to stop working. I decided to let her set with a mixture of kerosene and oil and try again later. No go so the only way to fix is to pull the motor and clean it.
This was
just getting started:





Starter clutch needle bearings, springs and followers. All look really good. The one keeper looks a little dogged but its actually oil and grease from my fingers. Amazing how clean the inside of this engine is

subscribed...

At this point I should apologize for the choppy post. Firefox clipboard refuses to work on DTT for some reason and I'm forced to use internet explore that, if I take too long on a post, it stops working and I lose everything. The only thing I can do is post quick and often ???

funny I just posted that because it just locked and crashed after a nice long post..
Anyhow, youll notice the pics are a little out of order because I was bable to do a little work here and there. You'll notice the frame has been modified a bit. I'll touch on that in a bit
So back to the starter clutch. One thing I notice was the motor was extremely clean. The clutch is known to hang up from sitting though. New ones are not available but new springs and followers are. I honestly could not see they were needed so I did a good clean and put her back together

I like it.

Thanks John. Hopefully I wont disappoint

A cool trick I learned to keep the needle bearings in place while installing the clutch is to use spray straws cut into short pieces. They are inserted into oiling holes and removed once installed

Once back together is where I found egg on my face. wizzing sound from the starter motor. No engagement. Funny thing is I even put the starter o nteh bench before installing it, hit with 12v and it spun the gear jsut like it should. But now I instantly knew something was wrong. The starter clutch is like new. Afer installing it I tested it by hand. Spun the chain in one dirction and it didn't budge. its engaged. Spin it in the other dir=ection and it spins free like it should. Gotta be the starter. Removed the starter and found this:

That is where the retainer pin for the ring gear goes. The starter would spin the gear like it should until it was under load. Once under load the ring gear itseld spun instead of the main shaft. Instant egg on face. I let this starter lead me to believe the starter clutch was hanging up on two motors. I'll touch base in a bit on why I think it had a such a catastropic event. Anyhow...
So I have three starters and none good. housing on this one is shot, gears on the others shot. whats a man to do? Clean em up and take three and make one.
Problem is worn gears is all I have and the gears didn't mesh like they should but it was enought to finally get compression test. So I ordered a NOS starter and temporarly installed my makeshift one.


First test I did was inconclusive because I put oil in the cylinders because I didn't want to turn her over dry.
Waited a day and got 155,165, 155, 145. Not too bad jsut wish the 145 was a little closer to the others. I'm hoping its a froze ring (Ive had a couple hotrodders tell me this) and it should free up after it gets hot. If not I think I'm still not that bad off. Edit: Spent some time with Doug on the phone taliking about rings. If anyone has any input or has seen a ring froze to a piston (that eventually broke free and incressed compression) Or even if the theory is hog wash, I'd love to hear about it. Please chime in.


So going to use this motor. Today I installed new timing belts. I was surprised to find that the belts on it were brand new. But brand new 32 years ago isnt going to fly. Had some help holding the cam from flying back because it's under load.
Miles keeping the cam from flying back. If you don't have a miles you can use a zip tie. But I had a Miles

So I noticed that the timing belts were off by one clog. They are factory belts and I have a feeling the worl was done by the dealer. Bike probably didn't run that great afterwards. Probably the start of it's demise.
Anyhow, I'm in the process now of switching in a dana ignition but I'll come back to that...

So I have two tanks. The one on the 78 has a bunch of rust from sitting 32 years with gas in it and the one off the 77 which intially, I thought was good. Not to be.
Turns out that's what I believe got my starter. Let me explain. At one point last year the 77 began to start super hard to the point the starter would hardly turn it over. I started kicking it and at times and at times it was like the engine was locking up. Finally the starter quit engaging and I thought for sure it was the stater clutch. I continued riding but was kicking it or push starting to get her going. The tall tale was at the end of riding season and huge puddle of gas was under the bike. The carbs had been flooding the motor and vapor locking it. I didn't realize it and am damn lucky I didnt blow the darn thing up,. What I did lose though was the starter. I'm pretty certain it finally gave up the ghost early one morning in complete protest to coming up against a very high compression motor with cylinders full of gas.
So the culprit...the gas tank. I didn't know the tank had been lined and it was starting to delaminate. The gas and the liner was building great pressure and blowing past the needle valves and flooding the engine.


Down the filler neck of the 77. Delaminating liner :'( :


The tanks. One full of rust, the other delaminating and building pressure

The tank from the 78 it is but its got a rust problem. But I 've got a solution and I know for a fact I can fix it


Its shown in the pic above filled with white vinager. I used vinager this winter on a tank that I thought was a gonner, The stuff is amazing

I'm in.


END OF LINE

glad you could make the party Flug

I put 5 gallons in and some nuts and bolts. I'll swish it everytime I'm out there and hopefully in about a week it will look brand new inside. At that point the plan is to coat it good with 2 cycle oil and keep it that way until I can fill it with gas.

So back to some of the modifications I've made. As Rich Ard indicated he sold me a cool tracker seat. While waiting on the seat to arrive I decided on the bars. The seat arrived the day I finished the bars but I'll show the bars first.
Anyhow, bars with a drop were going to be too low and i waffled on super bike bars however flat felt about right.
So I cut up the ape hangers that came on it and made my own.:

So the seat is pretty common but one thing I've notice a lot of people leave the frame alone and I really dont care for the look of having it stick out below the seat. I waffled back and froth between making new seat rails with improved shock mounts or just hacking the frame off.
The "wings below I don't care for":


I opted to trim and cap. They tell me "its in the details" I don't know but I'll say its not bad for a farm boy haha: