THE ERRENT BRAKE CLIP IS FOUND!

Get this. I had the goldwing in the garage to work on it, I wanted to get the goldwing out and the 2000 Sabre in to work on it. I have a ride to Skyline Drive this weekend with some friends and want to ride the Sabre. I mentioned the little brake clip went sproing. I've fashioned 5 iterations of clips from girls hair barrettes to re-forminng binder clips. The second binder clip held great promise. I used a digital micrometer to take measurements instead of eye balling like I did with the other models I made. I took the final product outside to try and heat it and get the spring back in the metal (I can't find anything on line that actually tells about this process). I quenched it (wrong process) and tested it by hand; it broke clean away, laying open the top of my thumb in the process. I decided that I'd just put the rear wheel and brake back together and work on the brakes later. This would let me get the Sabre in. I put everything back together, surprisingly, I had no extra parts. As I cleaned up, I looked down, right in front of the polishing wheel, and there it was! The little clip I'd lost was just sitting there. I swear we have poltergeist, I used to blame the cats, but they don't come in the garage.

 

An online friend emailed me to suggest I crack the drain plugs on the brake calipers to relieve the pressure on the system.

 

Yup, I did that. But I think the front brakes are suffering from the same as the rear brake, RUST. I found that the rear wheel moved freely after the brake was removed. When I finally got the caliper off, I found that one of the "plates" was frozen from rust inside the caliper. Since I haven't put the brake back together I don't know if the problem is solved. I intend to replace all the pads, but, right now the bike isn't going on the road and I want to put money elsewhere if there is a greater need.

The front brakes seemed to respond when I did the flush and fill. However, the bike was sitting where it is. I used the brake lever to assist in moving the old sludgy fluid through. I also used it for the new (was that a stupid move? I'm not sure I'm new to this.). When doing the rear brake I did read a forum post that said the return hose/port could be clogged, thus holding the brake closed? Could be. Maybe. I tried to work alot of fluid through the system. Rust I think is the problem. Afterall, the hydraulic pressure being exerted on the brake plates/pads must be very strong. From what I see the "return" or release is a passive force? if the plate or interior of the caliper was rusted around, or in front of the location of the plates/pads, the pistons would push them into a restricted, rusty location?

If I consider the source and circumstances of the bike, I think it may be a good bet. From what I understand the bike was sitting for 8 years before the PO passed away. I was told he often came to the garage (off site) and started all three of his bikes. The bike is in exceptional shape paint and cosmetically. I think he may have also washed and waxed it. However, due to age or infirmity I don't think he could do maintenance. I told my wife there are parts on the bike, the rear brake, that look like someone sat there and watered them weekly causing the rust but other parts are perfect.

I very much did the "gator" looking for that damn clip. I pulled furniture out, looked in boxes, searched two trash bags. I did leave stones unturned, as my garage is full, packed to the gills with stuff. I just don't know how it could have shown up where it was. I have three computers set up on my desk in the garage. The cables are ridiculous, they are everywhere, along with TV cables and network cables. I had moved and searched in and around the cables, but that's where I found it, amongst the cables in front of the grinder.

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: