Rear brake retaining clip spring, Iteration #5, Hair Barrettes

This is a video kind of explaining what needs to be done.

Wheel, hub, splines, greased.... But, Brake troubles

I bought some moly60 from Pete's Kawasaki on Rout 2. It is generally agreed that this is the best stuff, I was somewhat surprised that they had it at the Kaw dealer, but Pete's sells Hondas in Baltimore and Bel Air. They also had the Honda OEM oil filter I needed for my Sabre.

Never having had experience with grease, I opened the 3 ounce tube and reached in with a little popcicle stick I got from an arts and crafts store. They are much cheaper than buying a 3 pack at the boat store, branded for epoxy. I just started coating the spline and hub surfaces. I might be heavy on the coating, but I figure it will just squish out.

I hit Harbor Freight for a grease gun. I got one that takes 3 ounce tubes since the Moly is a three ounce tube. I read the directions 4 times. I didn't get a flow. I took it apart and the back of the tube was a bit torn up. The directions on the tube said it could be directly into the gun, it didn't. I'd pried the rear cap off and left the little foil covering on. It seemed that the foil was tougher than I expected I used pliers to pull bits of the foil out. I put everything back together again, nothing. they had directions for clearing air out; I pulled it apart, this time there was grease up to the top of the tube and in the cap. I tried pumping a few times and finally got a, for the lack of a better term, "fart". The next pump brought a juicy fart, that had brown grease, which the Moly isn't. The next pump brought brown grease and Moly. The next pump brought just Moly. The directions didn't say anything about the nozzle being pre loaded with grease, which I think had hardened on it's way from China. I then put about 6 pumps into the Zirk fitting on the joint between the shaft and final drive.

I doesn't show well, this is the Zirk fitting

The rear brake fitting cleaned up a bit

 The hub greased, note the grease on the splines

 The greased final drive splines

This is the rear brake, note the rust on top

The Rear Brake

I thought that the stiffness in the rear wheel was the final drive, it wasn't, or that wasn't a great part of it. The biggest problem is that the rear brake was frozen on one side.

I removed the caliper, actually the caliper came off with the rear wheel. I had trouble getting the caliper off the disk. Finally after opening the pistons I go them separated. The actual amount of pad on the brakes looks good. However, when I took off the inspection plate and got the brakes out they looked trashed. The looked they sat for 8 years, they did; but it also looked like they got soaked with water on a regular basis. They were rusty and the one pad was rusted to the caliper. I took the brakes out and polished the frames them with some emory paper. I don't intend to use these brakes, I just want the bike to operate. To test the brake calipers and the system, I need pads in there to test everything.

The real problem came when I was polishing the little clip that retains the two posts that the brakes travel on as they're used. The spring clip went sproing! I heard it hit the first time but didn't hear it hit the second or final time. This has happened often with nuts bolts and screws. They simply go to the floor, this didn't. Or, if it did it went to a silent place on the floor.

The retaining clip can be seen in this diagram as #8

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 The retaining clip clips over the two rods #10

I first tried making a clip out of coat hanger, nope. Next I cut one out of an Altoids box, nope to flimsy. After that I went to the store and bought $5 worth of binder clips. I took one outside and heated up with a torch. I bent it flat, and before putting the shaping work into it I tried to bring the spring back, nope. I looked up videos. There is annealing, tempering, oil quenching, water quenching. Nothing I did brought it back to the spring it originally was. The problem I may have is that with the torch I can't get a constant heat to all parts of the metal. It feels like I may have brought some parts of the metal back but overall it was a failure. I could try to cut the piece and use a fire to heat it, but I don't want to start a fire in the fireplace while the temperature is 90 degrees outside.

Lastly, I've fallen back on another stand by for spring material, BARRETTES, the little spring clips that girls use in their hair! I had to make a second stop at WallyWorld to get some wider styles. One of these will have to be shaved down to fit in the notch on the retaining shaft. I had a pack of thinner ones that I tried to use on another project.

I did a video here:

Clean Final Drive, Rear Brake Work

To put it fairly short and sweet, I thought the rear brake was working, it half way was, but I didn't find that until later. Because I was getting braking action, I decided the rear drive was probably gunked up. I removed the final drive, the rear brake has to come off also.

After removing the rear wheel the drive splines didn't seem to be stuck. I mounted the wheel on the axle without the brake. The wheel seemed to turn just fine. I decided that I never got a full flush out of the brake.

I found that only one side of the brake was working. It took me a while to get the brake apart and remove the pads. I then decided to polish on the wheel the one piece that was critical to the brake, a flat spring clip. The clip went sproing, during the polishing, I can't find it. My only alternative is to make one out of a coat hanger or buy an old caliper on ebay for $25. I'll try the coat hanger for now.

After I cleaned up the pads, they weren't as bad as I first thought. For now I'm going to put everything back together and see how the wheel turns.

I'm using Honda Moly 60 for the final drive grease. I need to get a grease gun and pump some into the Zerk fitting that goes in between the final drive and shaft.

Concern for the rear drive

I finally checked the rear brake. It seems like there is braking action and it seems to release. Which means that the sluggish rear wheel is something else. I've changed the final drive oil, that shouldn't be the problem. On the 76 there is a grease fitting where the shaft meets the final drive. I did some research on that; the general concensus is that the fitting is useless. The rear wheel should be removed, the splines should be cleaned and replaced with Moly 60. Theoretically, grease through the fitting should do the job, but most people of the forums said it was useless and was removed on later bikes.

Cleaned and adjusted points

Dad came down to direct the adjustment of the points. I'm really glad he did. I probably would have removed the points, which might have been a bad thing.

As it was we took a look at the points and he showed me the interaction of the low and high lobe. As may seem obvious to the mechanics out there, we measured the gap on the points as they were set. We didn't have a feeler thin emough to measure the gap. I ended up using a digital micrometer to measure a single sided razor blade at .22mm, even this wouldn't fit in the current gap. The proper gap is between .3 and .4mm.

Kind of a funny story. I had to run some early morning errands, my final stop was at Advance Auto Parts to look for a "Points File". I asked the girl at the counter for a Points File. Her eyes shot wide open and said "a what?". There was a guy walking behind me with a ladder and a drill, he had the uniform of an electrical company. He said, "I haven't even heard that term in 20 years, that's only for very old cars". I went on to tell him it was for a 1976 Honda Goldwing. He said, "I had a 75". I told him that I paid $300, he immediately asked me if I wanted to make my money back. That was the second offer I've had for the bike, sight unseen.

No new file for the points. Luckily I had an old file that would do the job.

After we measured the points Dad showed me how to file them down without taking them off. I cleaned them with a business card by simply turning the crankshaft until they were closed and slid the card through a couple of times. We then set the gap using a feeler gauge. After putting the cap back on, I cleaned most everything up and made ready to start the bike.

I got the hot shot, clipped the leads on, put the key in and turned it, pulled the choke, turned the hot shot on and...nothing. The oil light was on but nothing happened? I giggled the leads, took them off and put them back on, nothing.

Dad asked if we were getting juice I said yea, the red oil light was on. Then it hit me. The oil light was on but not the Neutral light. I touched the clutch up turned the key, the neutral light was on. I hit the starter and she popped right off.

The bike ran great it idled nicely at about 1100 rpm's, still a bit high but nice. It would hold at 2000 which it wouldn't do before. It revved like a bike should. It had a slight hesitation on a power rev at most all rpm's; that may be how the bike accelerates. Since I've never ridden a known "good bike" it may be how the carbs respond.

After heating up it seemed to want to idle at 2000 rpm. I could get it lower if I pushed the throttle down. It could be the idle setting. But, the bike doesn't have an air filter in it so I don't think it would be good to mess with the idle. I thought the throttle might be a little tight or sticky. I tried some adjustments but that didn't seem to make a difference.

Just to make sure that things weren't too gloppy, I broke out the Dawn dishwashing soap and the toothbrush and proceeded to scrub the springs, throttle cable and (damn I can't think of the name of the part that holds the cable on a boat steering mechanism).  The cable itself my need lubricating or replacement, for now I'm holding off on all that stuff, simply because I'm broke.

After the cleaning it still wanted to idle at 2000 when warm.

I stopped and started the bike a few times during the day. By the last start at around 6pm it was running a little rough. But, the gas is getting low. I'm thinking that the Magical Mystery Oil my be in higher concentrations at the bottom of the tank. I'll add some more fuel and see what happens.

Points Adjustment

I was contemplating the adjustment of the points. I do alot of contemplating, if you contemplate rather than actually doing something you don't break anything, you also don't get much done. 

First I read the book, that's the Hayene's manual it seems relatively straight forward. Next I looked for points adjustment on youtube. There were a few videos on points but none on the Goldwing. After consulting all the easily available sources, I decided to call in an expert. I called my father.

Dad worked in his dad's garage in high school and college. I never saw him work on a car, other than when I tried to tune up my car and screwed it up. But, he loved to work on his boats.

I once tried to start my single screw sailboat, it had an Atomic (sometimes said Anemic) 4 gas engine. It backfired and water sucked up through the carburetor, even I knew that was bad. He came down and started tearing the engine apart and dumping the parts into a bucket of cleaner. When I take things abpart I take photographs and video. I put everything into the blogs just so I remember how I did everything.

Dad's coming down to Annapolis to take a look at the points and hopefully clean them up and adjust them. If that helps to clean up the running of the bike, the only thing left is to take a look at the carburetors. Actually, dad remembered a trick they used to do "back in the olden days". He said by swiching the spark plug wires it causes the bike to backfire, this backfire shoots the gases back though the carburetor and might possibly clear it!

Here are some pictures of the points:

Oil Change, Radiator Flush, Final Drive Oil

Last evening as the day cooled down I started to go to work on the bike. The big three were oil, coolant and drive oil.

I did the coolant first as it's neccesary to have the bike cool. The coolant didn't actually look too bad. Rather than putting coolant back in I chose to a Prestone 10 minute flush. Although, I could have just done the 10 minutes they have an option to let it "stew" for a few days. I put the stuff in and started the bike up to heat up the oil. Once I had it running I put it in gear to heat the final drive oil a bit. I waited until the heat indicator got up to the point where the fan kicked on; that way I was sure that the thermostat would have opened and started circulating the coolant/flush.

I've chosen to hold off on titling the bike for a bit because with all the work I'm doing on varius bikes I'm flat broke; tags and titling fees will run about $200, I don't have it. Not to mention that even if I get the bike running superbly it needs tires and I might be tempted to ride it on bad tires.

After the heating I attacked the final drive oil first because I thought it probably didn't get all that hot in the first place. I tested the fill hole (17mm) for sticking and then the drain plug (10mm). It wasn't as bad as I thought. It was liquid but it was ebony in color, bad enough. I put some new oil (API GL5 Hypoid SAE 90, in my case I used SAE 80W90, I'm not sure you can find straight 90 any more) in and turned the rear wheel back and forth by hand to "rinse" the gears. I opened the drain back up and let the oil drain again. It was a mixture of old black and new honey colored oil. I don't think it was clean by any means but it was better. The bike isn't being ridden so I don't think I'm doing too much more harm. After the bike gets rolling I'll do another final drive oil change.

Reading about final drive oil changes in the forums there were cases of filler and drain bolts being welded shut. In these cases some people did oil changes through the vent bolt. There is no vent bolt on the 1976 bike, or, I know there is no vent on my bike.

I then started on the crankcase oil. Again, I tested both the drain and oil filter bolts for removal. I of course did the drain first and then opened the oil filter bolt and casing. The GL1000 uses an enclosed oil filter (Fram CH 6009) which I was lucky enough to find at Advance Auto Parts which came with both the outer and inner O rings. I saved the old O rings just in case. I put in the perscribed 10W40 oil and "measured" about 3.5 quarts. I hate the Mickey Mouse window on the GL's I can't see the oil in the window.

Better burning spark plugs. Goldwing Docs, "The racers Secret"

I was perusing Goldwing Docs.com and found an article on better burning plugs.

The article is here: http://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=12297

In essence the top wire (anode/cathode?), is cut back to the edge of the tip to allow a greater spark arc. I'm going to look for a cheap set of plugs and do this for the "FireFly". My thought is that while burning the bad gas and the carbs semi-clogged this could help the burning of the fuel. Also, I want to try a cheaper set of plugs to see how they perform. Trying to keep four bikes running and on the road is expensive. Saving every penny helps.

Burning Sea Foam Through, Adding Coolant

Granted the bike needs all of it's liquids changed. It seems to have no braking action at all, my guess, no brake fluid at all.

It seems to move very sluggishly. At first I thought it was because the tires were low on air, as was the case with the K100. I put air in the rear tire, the worst of the two. When I rolled it down the ramp off the truck it still moved sluggishly. I'm only guessing but I think the rear drive oil has probably turned to sludge and inhibiting the movement of the wheel.

Adding Coolant

Yesterday evening, I wanted to burn some Sea Foam through the carbs when the bike started warming up I saw the temp gauge heading to the warm area, my mind clicked, "what if there's no coolant in the radiator?". I turned the engine off and came in to search the service manual for how to check the coolant level. OK, remove the faux tank and check the reservoir. Hmmm, how to remove the faux tank? Goldwing Docs.com is good for this. Except, their instructions are for 1980 and newer; this tells you to remove the seat etc. I remember doing this a few years ago when I had an 82 Interstate (I never got it running and sold it for what I paid for it).

For the 1976 and probably the 1975-1979 bikes, you simply open the tool tray/fuel filler cover with the key. On the left and right side their are small thumbwheel screws/bolts. For the coolant overflow tank simply unscrew the thumbwheel in the right side, the right side cover flips down on a hinge and has a little wire stop that keep it from going too far. Viola! The overflow coolant tank is right there! This of course is much easier than later bikes that require the removal of half the bike.

The coolant wasn't showing, or if it was showing I couldn't see it, it was now dark and I was working with outdoor lights and a flashlight. I added some water. I didn't see a problem  since I'll be buying coolant today to do a flush and fill.

I started the bike and started to let it warm. The Sea Foam seemed to work immediately, it was running smoother with less loud popping, it was still popping but very lightly.

OOOOPS! Another wild thought. What about the engine oil level? I went in to check the manual (a PDF version). Yup, same as the older models, check the stupid little window, a bad system. I had looked for the window earlier, I didn't look low enough and in between the pipes.

The window was greasy with road dirt. I wiped it down with a Qtip. I used the little screw wiper, I still couldn't see diddly. The Sea Foam burn through will hold until the oil is changed.

On the boards for today. Change the oil, get another set of plugs, and change the coolant.

The "FireFly" is home

I had to pick the bike up in York PA. The weather was warm, mid to high 80's. The executor, the owners brother, (the owner had passed away last year) and I met at a Tag and Title place in north York to have the title notarized. In PA they issue some sort of "short sheet", it's like a power of attorney for the transfer of title. God, knows if this will be good enough for "Peoples Republic of Maryland" MVA. I also had a MD Bill of Sale, because the price I paid, $300, and the book price are vastly different. After the title was transferred and I paid for the bike in front of the notary we went to the garage to load the bike on my truck.

I've got this procedure down pat. However, I didn't count on a few things. The first was that the bike was sitting kind of in a hole in the dirt floor of the garage. Secondly, I'd brought a battery, to start the bike and run it up the ramps, the battery didn't fit in the very tight battery box, damn.

I put the old battery back in the space and found that one of the bolts was missing, I used one from my battery. I'd brought a "hot shot box" which got the bike started. Now the problem was that the bike wasn't running as smooth as when I looked at it on Saturday. With the help of the guys from the garage across the alley, we pushed the bike into the alley. I connected the hot shot again and someone held it up and went with me as I slipped the clutch and revved the throttle to get the bike up the little hill and behind the truck. The bike conked out again and I drifted it onto the ramp with a little help with the spectators pushing. I strapped the bike down and took off.

All in all this turned out to be a great experience, other than the heat and sweating like I worked in a steel mill. I got to speak with the owners sister-in-law. I found out that he was the first and only owner of the bike, that's 38 years! Actually it's only 37 he died last year. The bikes last inspection was in 2002, in PA they inspect on a yearly basis. I'm the second owner of a 1976 GL1000 Goldwing in Sulfur Yellow! He bought it new at a Honda dealership near Harrisburg. I have two original Honda keys. The one key is attached to a "76" key fob with the dealership name on it. The paint is nearly perfect. There is some rust but it's not as bad as most bikes I see of that age.

When I got the bike home I was hot, tired and hungry. I covered the bike, still in the truck, and went in for lunch. Since it was hot I didn't go back out until just before my wife got home around 6. I was amazed when I pulled the cover off. As I said the paint is nearly perfect. If you squint a little It almost looks like it's on the show room floor.

I wanted my wife Kari hear the bike run so I pulled the plugs to replace them. I'd purchased a set of NGK D8EA plugs for the K that I had tried but didn't use. I gave them a little brushing with a brass brush and put them in the Wing. The old plugs were gunky and rusty. I started the bike up for Kari and it ran like a top, it started to sputter after a minute; I think it's old gas and crud. Actually, it didn't go quite that smoothly. It wouldn't start at first, it would sputter but wouldn't kick over. What the hell? I checked the petcock, it was OK. For some reason I looked down the right side of the bike. I'd forgotten to replace the spark plug wires. Once they were on, the bike started right up.

Kari loves the bike she calls it "Yellow Bird". She wants to keep it and ride it.

A new bike! 1976 GL 1000 Goldwing

Well I've gone and done it, I've bought another motorcycle. She's a 1976 GL 1000 Goldwing. This isn't one of those 2013 fancy tourers with a radio and airbag. This is a down and dirty MOTORCYCLE; the second year of production for the Goldwing. She does have 3 disk brakes and 4 carburetors.

She is BRIGHT YELLOW. I haven't decided what to call her yet. I thought about the Bee, but that's not very flattering.

Here are some pics the lighting is bad but you can see nearly perfect paint:

 

 


 

I was told that the bike sat for eight years. That it's a one owner bike and was taken care of throughout. She shows her age especially on the aluminum, but, the chrome looks good. Generally, she needs to be cleaned up and polished. All the fluids need to be changed, as well as the spark plugs. I'll most likely check the cam belt and replace that.

The big question is whether to keep her or fix her up and sell her. There is another 76 listed locally for $5900. That's alot of money, but there are crazy people out there who want a bike for their collection.

Here are some shot's from the net:




 The one below has a corbin seat, which are still available for $29 more than I paid for the bike!