I posted this picture in the motorcycle trekking thread. I'm going to start this thread with it. The second picture will show why.
What have I done? Well it's a progress that will last a few months for sure
After pulling the rear wheel to replace the tire I found the brake shoes had fallen off the backing plate. I had suspicions that the pads were wore down and bought replacements. Good thing too. I had to clean the bore and shaft of the pivot. It was tight and corroded. I put 2000 grit in a slotted dowel in my drill and honed the bore. then hand sanded the shaft. Added a little grease and all good for another 45 years!
With the wheel off I decided to remove and clean the rear fender. I found the two metal support brackets to be very rusted. I didn't want to do a restore on this but I couldn't put it back together with that much rust.
Evapo-rust is an amazing product. 10 hours soaking and the rust was gone. You can see some pitting from the rust damage but there is no rust to return. I gave it a quick paint from left over purple that we used on the hillbilly hotrod. These two parts are not easily seen once it's back together. I just wanted it to be protected from future rusting.
Now The new tire and brakes are done. once the paint dries the fender will go back together along with the wheel.
With anything that's 45 years old there will be things unsuspected popping up. Again I sort of new before starting there was an issue. It would stall in water/puddles. This is going to be an expensive fix but thankfully still available as most parts are not. The spark plug wire is separated from the coil right at the coil body. It might be hard to decipher from this close up. Yeah there's a lot of cleaning to do too.
All the wiring looks good. The lights all work. The next real big deal is the reason for this whole thing starting in the first place. The head is leaking some oil and compression at the gasket. I know it was off once before because they used some sort of sealer on it. That should never happen, it always needs to be replaced. I have all the gaskets and "O" rings to rebuild the head and put it back on.
Knowing it was apart once, I am debating pulling the cylinder. It would involve removing the engine from the frame. I do have another piston with rings and the cylinder it came from. connecting rod and crank too.
I strongly believe the head gasket to be the main problem. It just ran too good before. It has always started on the first or second kick. Very little smoke, which I think is the valve guides and I will be replacing those too while rebuilding the head. I think I'll do the head then do a compression check. If it's low I can pull the engine and do a more thorough cleaning of that area.
It's an easy bike to work on and I'm so close to a full tear down I should probably take the time to do a full rebuild. I don't say restore because most restored bikes are trailer queens. This one is going to be ridden hard for another 45 years or the parts and worn beyond usage.
