Biting the Bullet

[icerigger]

AAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!

Finally tired of patching "one more thing" on the Behemoth! Time for a teardown and rebuild.

Bought it as a ride away and made it to within 2 km of home when it died. Turn out it was a shorted alternator rotor (which probably took down the regulator etc.). Fixing that I discovered PO (not actually the PO, the one before him, PPO?) hadn't a clue about wrenching, there were loose chassis bolts, missing hardware & generally p-poor assembly. Then discovered that removing & replacing the fuel line a few times disturbed the seal on the fuel tee between 1&2 carbs. Replacing the 0-rings on the tee discovered disintegrating boots on the airbox & not seated etc. AND screwed up the rest of the cross tubes. Fixed them and the float bowls over flow. Ordered the Randaxx kit, new float needles & new boots so I can rebuild the carbs and get it running for what`s left of the summer. Praying this will work.

Oh yeah, replacing the rotor uncovered a bit of clutch slip. Had to use a pipe wrench to remove the old one.

Looks like I bought a project bike after all. Going to do a complete teardown this winter (sooner if the carb rebuild doesn`t get it on the road) , engine overhaul, new clutch, blast & paint the frame, wiring harness renewal, new windshield for the Windjammer, bearing repack, new swing arm bearings and a bunch of small $/!+.

I think that about covers it. Sorry for the rant, thanks for letting me vent.

Anything I have forgotten to plan for?

Thanks, bob

[pat english]

oh im sure you will run into a million lil things that will nickle and dime you to death

[Truck]

A line of credit at the local ABC store... You'll need it!  But good luck.

[shinyribs]

Sorry to hear it didn't go according to plan. I'm used to that,my stuff never works like I want it to. On the bearing repack,are you talking about the wheel bearings? Reason I ask is there are pretty tough to get out. You might wanna consider just putting new bearings in there if budget allows.Its alot of work with how they have those cross spacers in there. I skimped and reused my old bearings as long as I could.Too long actually. I was coming home one night when I felt a twitch in the handlebars. It did it a couple times.I finally realized it was one of my front wheel bearings trying to lock up on me. That woulda sucked at freeway speeds.I had a set for the new bike on the shelf,so i replaced them that night. Front wheel bearing/seal kits run about $17 shipped and rears ( with all 3 bearings) run around $35 shipped. Just a suggestion.That is,if we are even on the same page

[icerigger]

Hell, why not?

Just added new bearings, wheel and steering stem to the list.

Lucky I have a a couple of friends who restore vintage cars to help.

Also gonna blast & clear coat the engine cases. Want to black paint the cylinders & head & expose the ends of the fins. Sure that's got a fancy name, but I don't know it.

bob, on the farside of a pint of SoCo.

[LukeM]

Go ahead and vent.  Just don't make it personal. :-)

Yeah, sometimes these older bikes are just like boats: holes in the water, surrounded by wood, into which you throw money.  Only in our cases, they are oil spots on the driveway, surrounded by steel/aluminum/rubber, at which we throw money, sweat, blood, curses, tools, knuckles, and all manner of colorful language.

Then when they get into riding shape, and we take them on the inaugural trip, and it's running good, we remember why we do these things.

One step at a time, one systems at a time, and before you know it, you'll have a running bike again.
Luke M

[Lucky 1]

Sorry to hear you did not make it that last two KM's.

Think about these people buying those "vintage bikes that are 33 years old with 10,000 miles or so on them. All the same problems. And they paid a huge price too!!!

Makes it a better deal to just get the 20,000 mile 33 year old bike and completely restore it.
Unless you have the cash for a new bike. When you restore a motorcycle you own it. No payments.
You can work on it a little at a time.

Even used car prices in the USA are through the roof. A new japanese car is $39,000 now!!!

[icerigger]

Thanks guys. When I get to the point of jumping in I'll probably start a thread in the member's build section.

Luckily I still have the Rebel to move my soul.

It is strange though, how often I'm quoting Piute while working on this beast - "Where's my 10mm?"

[seestheday]

I bought a 31 year old bike with 80K km's on it for very cheap.  I haven't had any major problems with it so far.  Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.