Wheels, brakes, handle bars, and engine love.

Lots of work done today. I took the leap and removed the front and rear wheels. This was a daunting task for me because of the brakes. The book was clear and the work was simple. I got to inspect the rims and I am happy to report that I saw no rust on them! The brake pads are rotten, so I will be ordering a new set, $33 bucks off the interwebz for all 3 brakes for a 33 year old bike is a great deal. The enclosed drive was also a big concern for me, I really was afraid to see what condition the teeth were in; fortunately, they are well within spec according to the manual.

I also took the opportunity to replace my handlebars, it was really easy and took perhaps 15 mins total. I love the new look! I also installed my timing belts and made sure the engine was ready for my new solenoid that should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get the engine to run.

Whats up with my engine?

Last year I did a top end rebuild. New gaskets, polished the piston heads, repainted the headers, and put it all back together. After all that work, I tried to start the bike and my hard work was rewarded with 2 seconds of the engine turning over and then nothing. Hitting the starter again, all I got was a loud metallic "thunk" (or heavy click). Frustrated and out of bike money (gaskets are not cheap), I left the bike sit for a year. After talking with my father-in-law over this weekend and sharing a rousing discussion as to what could have possibly gone wrong, I got some motivation to revisit the issue. This particular engine is an interference engine, meaning the valves and piston heads can make contact when out of sync. Typically, the valves are no match and end up getting bent, which is a bad thing. So last night I tore into the bike, released the cams from the timing belt, and made sure both cams and the engine could freely by hand. It seems that the valves might not have hit the pistons. Before putting the belts back on, I decided to hook the battery up and make sure the starter could turn the block over and possibly eliminate any questions that might arise if the engine jammed up as I reassemble it. To my surprise, all I got was the same audible "thunk" when I hit the starter button; it should have turned the engine over with ease. It was at this time that I thought the starter was bad. The interwebz confirmed my fear that the starter would be over $200 bucks. Aside from that, the process of pulling the starter was no simple task. 


Deflated, I talked it over with the wife and I decided that this might be the end for the project (at least for this summer). However, tonight I received a call from my father who asked about how the bike project was going. Surprised, I explained to him my unfortunate luck and expressed how upset I was over the situation. The old man pulled through for me and gave me a trick to test if the starter was indeed dead (listen to the video for the tip). It turns out that the starter isn't dead, but rather, the solenoid went bad. Even better news, the solenoid is an easy pull and replace job! My fantastic wife gave me the go-ahead to order the new part off of ebay. $30 bucks well spent if this gets my engine to finally fire up. Check back later this week for an update!