Free at Last!

Finally got the motor out. Wasn't too bad, just removing a bunch of bolts. But darn that thing is heavy. 200 lbs is my guess. After all the mounting bolts were off, I thought I could lift it out of there. The engine is aluminum- right? But the gears and whatnot are steel so it was a lot heavier than I hoped.

I grabbed a couch cushion from the living room (our couches are trashed anyway from our 4 rambunctious boys) and laid it down next to the bike. Then I tipped it over, the engine plopped out and I tipped the bike back up.

With the motor out, I had to take a peak under the cylinder head cover. Everything looked good as far as I could tell. No noticable wear and tear on the camshaft lobes. Evrything looked very clean. Sweet.

Funny to think that this might be the first time in 32 years the camshaft has seen the light of day.

Unchained

The shop manual said to remove the sprocket as part of the engine removal process so that's what I started doing. But the nut holding the sprocket wouldn't give. I thought about just slipping the chain off and removing the nut later, but there's a little chain guard butting almost right against the sprocket making chain removal impossible. I don't have an impact wrench or a cheater pipe so I started to cut the nut with a dremel- slow going because I obviously didn't want to cut into anything else.

After taking a break from dremeling, I noticed that there are three bolts holding that little chain guard on! I didn't see them because they were covered with grime and dirt. So off it comes, but the chain still wouldn't slip off. There was a bolt mount sticking out pinning the chain in just like the guard. I noticed one of the bolt mounts was broken off too. Nice.

Damn- nut won't budge, chain won't slip off. Now what? Why not  unlink the chain? Duh! I probably would have done that earlier, but my mind was focus on that stuck nut.

Bagged & Tagged

My first two parts baggies!

The one on the left has bolts from the sprocket cover plus a spring from the end of the clutch cable. Later in the day after removing the cable, I was wondering how in the hell the clutch cable did anything. The end was connected to a lever on the inside of the sprocket engine cover. That's it. There was nothing connected to the inside of the engine. Since I know zip about engines, I had to look into this mystery further.

The part I saw connected to the inside sprocket cover (circled in red) is called a clutch release. When the clutch cable is pulled, the release pushes against a rod (part# 12). This rod in turn opens up all the stuff in the clutch basket which is normally pressed together with springs. When the rod is pushed in, there is no longer friction holding all the plates together and keeping them from slipping. At least that's how I understand it. I'm learning stuff every minute with this project. Awesome.

The parts baggie on the right has the exhaust collars.

So I'm still trying to get the engine removed. Next up according to the shop manual is the sprocket. The darn thing spins freely so its very hard to get the nut off. I tried various ways of holding it into place to get the nut off but with little success. I was able to keep it from spinning, but the nut is really stuck. My crescent wrench slipped a few times, and the back of my left hand smashed into the cylinder.

I read on the internet that these things can be a real pain in the ass to get off. I don't have a 27mm socket or a long cheater pipe to pry this little bugger off so I'm probably going to Dremel it.

Black Gold, Texas Tea

I'm reading the shop manual now for engine removal. It says to drain the oil first. I'm 40 years old and this will be the first time I've drained oil from an engine. So off comes the plug and the oil runs out into my little tupperware container. It filled up in 30 seconds, and the oil showed no signs of slowing down. I had to run into the kitchen to grab more "oil pans" twice. Some did spill onto the floor, but those free give away Lambeau Field Packer towels wiped it up well enough. Go Pack.

Is the oil supposed to be so dark? I mean, it looked almost black. I wonder how many miles were run before the last oil change. My fingers are crossed that the engine guts are in good shape.

The Tear Down Part 1

Not much to say really. If I saw a bolt, I took it off. Pretty soon parts like seats, fenders & lights were falling off the bike. I was worried about the wires at first, but they are in such bad shape that I decided to just cut, yank and pull when needed. They've been sliced, spliced and taped up a bunch of times already. I can't imagine I would ever use the stock wires again.

I'll be a bit more careful when I get to the engine. Getting the two carb assembly off was fun. I plan on using a single carb system- can't wait until I get to that point!

The Bike

Here's what I needed to start with:
-cheap stock bike (I'm not rich)
-at least in running condition (I'm no mechanic)
-something appealing to the eye

Here's what fit the bill:
-older metric (Harleys cost too much)
-single or vertical twin (4's are ugly & v-twins cost too much)

Given these requirements, several metric bikes (mostly from the late '70s and early '80s) were possible such as the Yamaha XS650, Suzuki Savage, Honda CB450, Kawasaki KZ440 and many more.

I hit craigslist every day waiting to get the best possible deal. After a few weeks I had it down to a Suzuki GS450, Kawasaki KZ440 and a Kawasaki KZ750 twin. They were all in the $400 range. The first two were in much better condition, but the KZ750 was larger and had only 9,000 miles according to the owner. Since I was going to tear down the bike and rebuild it, I went ahead with the KZ750 even though it wasn't currently running. The owner said it did run over a year ago, but then had some electrical issues.

Here's she is in all of her glory:

She's in bad shape. Worse than I thought. The previous owners beat the hell out of it and must have dropped it a number of times.

The bad:
-side panels are broke
-both rear turn signal assembly bent & held on with bungee cords
-tank spray painted flat black
-old gas in the tank
-wires are a total mess
-lots of rust
-it doesn't run
-parts just hanging by a wire
-looks like it sat in the elements for a long while
-I'm in way over my head.

The good:
-only $300
-the bad stuff is mostly cosmetic
-the previous owner claimed that it did run ok a year ago
-clean title
-9,000 miles according to odometer
-its big
-I've got time on my hands

The Genesis

I never owned a bike, and the last time I road one was some 25 years ago in high school. But every once in awhile I wondered what it would be like to have one. Obviously it never progressed past that until now.

If I ever did get one, I didn't want it to be a generic metric bike or even a Harley. Harleys are just as corporate and mainstream as any other bike manufacturer. To me, bikes are an extension of the rider's personality. You're more directly connected to the machine than say an automobile, and you're exposed to the elements with the whole world to see you. I wanted a bike unique to me and my tastes. You can't get that from a mass producer.

Fast forward to a few months ago when I got hooked on the TV show Sons of Anarchy. As with motorcycles, I knew little of the motorcycle club culture and was intrigued with what the program portrayed: a tight knit group of men living free of societal norms. I don't believe in pure lawlessness, drug trafficking and killing. Nonetheless, the idea of breaking free from how we are supposed to live as directed by outside influences is something that always appealed to me.

So I began researching motorcycles and eventually came across this:

Holy sh*t. Now THIS is a bike for me. The hardtail bobber. Simple, unique, hand crafted and minimalistic by definition.

After another month of researching, I decided to go all in: a complete top to bottom custom hardtail bobber built by me (unless I reach a point where professional help is needed). As mentioned at the top of this blog, I don't know a thing about bikes or engines. But I'm gonna learn on the fly.