The bike now runs, and pretty good. It had a short on the stator that, although took about three weeks to find, was a fairly easy fix. Also, the float valve on the carb was completely gummed up and wouldn't let fuel flow...god bless whoever invented Gum-Out!. I think the carb still needs a good overhaul. The bike was eeeeasy to time. Check out the cool little trianglular access window on the left crankcase.

 

The tank is shot...boooo...there's a crack in the seam on the front peak, it's rusty and cracking. Inside the tank looks like it was Kreemed, so there's probably some other issues...FUBAR, not worth trying to fix.

 

Look...I stripped the engine with Aircraft stripper BEFORE taking the engine out. Gee..never thought of doing that before. I use stripper before sand blasting to reduce the mess from blasting. Short of the wiring and cables, which I protected, who cares what that gets on now!

 

Onward...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BELOW...ENGINE PICS...LOOK...Once the engine is pulled, it can be finished. Whether it's repainted or left bare, it still needs to be stripped down completely. As mentioned above, most of the paint comes off while the engine is still in the frame with paint stripper spray. The left pics below is the engine with most of the paint stipped off. Then then engine is bead blasted and polished. I prefer to keep these old engines bare, but it depends how it comes out. This one came out great.

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes I have the frame, swingarm and trees powder coated, but I'm not doing it with the MT. The bike's value doesn't really justify $450 in powder coating. Of course, it's a ton of work to paint a frame. First it's stripped with aircraft paint remover (takes about two coats to do a decent job). Second you just go after the stripped frame with wire wheels, steel wool, sand paper and whatever. I knocked out a few hard to get to areas with the sand blaster. Third the steel needs to be treated with etch or rust inhibitor of some sort. I use the rust inhibitor you buy in the spray can at AutoZone. Works great and leaves a gunmetal bluish finish. Wicked fumes-OMG! Fourth is a good prime coat, maybe two, but you don't want it too thick. Lastly, it needs about five coats of good enamel paint (you can buy PJ1 Frame Paint, but it sucks and takes a milenium to dry). You're looking at Gloss Black Rustoleum; yup. Don't try anything else...Krylon, Ace brand, etc...they suck...don't do it. They're all soft. Did I say they suck? Only Rustoleum works on the frame. Also, I never use my gravity sprayer on frames...you can try "once" like I did, and you'll find that you need to dilute the paint TOO much for the sprayer to work. I know it sounds cheap and easy but for the frame..use the the spray cans and take your time. One light coat out of the gate. Let it dry for 24 hours. Then four more good, medium coats...NOT heavy or the paint will ripple. Let each coat dry for 12 to 24 hours. When the final coat dries...put the frame out in the Florida sun and let the heat cure the paint. You're looking at the first coat...three more days to go!!!!!

 

HEY, NO LAUGHING AT MY PAINT STAND!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, the frame is  black. The trees, lower buckets and, when I get to it, fenders are going to be red. I'm going to have a Red Rider!

 

Another "just do it" thing is replace the fork oil seals. $20 at BikeBandit. WTF! They weren't leaking but, again, it was clear that they were original and that means 35 years old. I inspected the piston and spring in the lower buckets and they're in surprisinginly good shape (I don't think this bike has gotten that much use).

 

As mentioned, the tank is FUBAR...I've decided on a Universal Clarke Enduro Tank (red, too). There's a reseller on eBay that sells Clarke tanks for about $30 less when you buy directly from Clarke. The tank cost $188, and I don't have it quite yet, BUT I'm saving a ton. I could find another OE tank on eBay for maybe $50-$100...but my "restoration" tank guy (Custom World) would want another $350 to pull dents, treat and paint...YEAH, YEAH, YEAH...The Clarke tank isn't going to look as good. We'll see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the shock apart, I can do a better inspection. These shocks are in awesome shape. Definitely keepers. They just need to cbe cleaned and painted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OKAY, the shocks were checked...shafts are straight and the dampeners don't leak...good for rebuild. Also, the rubber bushine on the shafts are simply in perfect shape. That's extremely unusual. Bushings in the bolt holes were simply okay. They didn't need replacement; they'll last for a good long time.

 

Hey, check out those huge footpegs I got from an eBay vendor. They're huge! They're OEMs and the numbers match the diagram, but dang, I think they're off another bike. I like them though; no complaints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a set of Dunlop 773s from Cycle Gear. These are soft surface knobby tires; good for the sand up at Croom. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a dual purpose bike in Florida. Knobby tread will rip apart on the road and there's no way to get any traction in the sand with enduro tires.

 

I once ran into a guy at Croom riding a Suzuki 650 dual purpose something or other. Weird thing...it had a full dash board, but hardly any tread. I asked him how the monsterous thing did in the sand. He said he dumped it ten times...and had only been at it an hour. I was on my YZ250F and told him I dumped it almost as many times...but I was just being an asshole that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rewired the magneto to coil...no need for the harness.

NOTE-Battery is not needed without lighting.

Installed new crank and intake gaskets.

Replaced all crank case bolts with a polished kit  (www.stainlesscycle.com kit)

Rebuilt and reinstalled carb, UNI air filter.

Installed bars and levers. Bar is used off an earlier restorer. I painted and sealed it. Silver metalflake. Overall, okay. Prefer chrome.

Hooked up clutch cable and tested.

Hooked up front brake cable.

Painted and installed chain guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The seat took a ton of work, but it came out pretty well. The foam was solid but had three gashes on top. I repaired the gashes with fiber batting. I taped the batting in place although I know you're supposed to glue it down; too messy for me. The pan was rusted pretty bad on one side and the v-points all around broke off when I pulled off the old cover. It was clearly the original cover. Without the v-points, I riveted the new seat cover down with wide-head aluminum rivets. It came out pretty good. If it's taken care of it'll last the duration of this bike's life.

 

The seat is on hinges and flips up. There's supposed to be a latch on the other side that's missing and I'm not planning on tracking one down. You can see the rivet job in the pic. Under the seat used to be a tool bin that wasn't with the restorer bike. Under that was the air box and battery compartment. I've pulled that assembly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the bike obviously sat with premix fuel in the carb so there was a lot gummed up. It was particularly gummed in the float valve. It wasn't hardened, which I've seen before, but it was all gooey. Yuck! I've got some super tools...such as tiny vinyl and wire brushes for the Dremel tool to clean all that shit out. And of course I use a lot of Gumout Carb Cleaner fluid. The little white cup is my parts soaking bowl...HA! It works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a bunch of new chains laying around. This is a KMC Heavy Duty 520 with 104 links (non-roller) with a 12,000 tensile strength. I originally got it for my Yamaha SC500. Top tensile for a 250 cc "motocross" bike is 10,000, so this thing will never break. Really a good chain. I think it cost $60. The chain that came off the MT was a 520-106. The OEM manual said 104 links so I didn't add any links, but you can go 106 and maybe another two. It's right at mark three of seven.

 

That sprocket is the 44 tooth OEM sprocket. It was perfect...just needed a little scrubbing with steel wool.

 

Ugh...the chain guard didn't fit back on because of the knobby tire.

 

There's a good shot of the new Uni air filter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy crap! Ugh! ETC! What am I going to do with this? It's all sticky and yucky; I have an aversion to sticky and yucky. There are three parts to a seat...pan, foam and cover. As you can see, the cover needs replacement (no problemo=$38.95 from an eBay vendor). The pan is pretty bad in terms of rusty on one side; other side is fine. The pan has triangular metal points to which the cover attaches. They're gone on the rusty side. In addition, the edge spline is gone (need that to keep the cover from ripping). The foam is largely intact with gashes here and there. No problemo there...small gashes in foam can be repaired with this cool stuff called "quilted batt." It's loose fiber that I think goes in pillows, but works great with firm tape (even duct tape).

 

So that leaves the pan. I'm thinking that I can deal with it...but I'm still thinking.