Weekend accomplishments.

This weekend I got around to working on the bike.  The first thing I wanted to do it drain the gas tank since the POR-15 tank cleaner/coating is coming in tomorrow.  I started off by draining the carbs' float bowls, which is probably what I should have done when I first bought the bike in August.  I was worried that the gas would already be gummed up in there and/or there would be massive amount of rust in the exiting fuel.  It wasn't that bad actually.  I unscrewed the little bowl screws and released the gas into the packaging from my soldering iron.  The packaging worked perfectly as a nice fuel tray and none of the fuel spilled over the engine.

Float bowl drain screws.

My creative little fuel tray under the float bowls.  Fuel was slight browning.

Emptying the gas tank proved an arduous process.  I thought I would just be able to drain through the petcock, I was wrong.  I had to head back to autozone for a funnel and an adjustable wrench to get the petcock off.  I removed the petcock and drained most of the fuel...slowly.  However a large amount of fuel still remained in some of the cracks and crevices of the tank.  I tried a few different methods, including paper towels to soak it up and siphoning the fuel.  None of these could get the fuel out.  Finally I ran to the grocery store and bought a turkey baster.  This combined with a little tubing at the end worked quite well.  

After draining the tank, I moved on to the next step: the stator and R/R unit.  I tested both for continuity.  I was well pleased to find that the stator seems to be in functioning order (according to continuity tests).  I was ecstatic that the new R/R and my old one (the one that was burned up pretty well) were both fully functional by continuity tests.  

Continuity test on the stator...passed.

Now that the R/R's had passed the tests, I decided to invest a little time in cleaning them up.  I stripped the old R/R of all the burnt up wires and was able to salvage the old connector to the wiring harness. On the new R/R I was able to solder in some new yellow wires which will be insulated and directly soldered to the stator. Hopefully this will help avoid the connector burn outs that caused the original fire.

New wires on the R/R

Before I finished up I decided I would do a little cosmetic work as well. I removed the rear cowl, which had been burnt up and installed the new one.  It's hard to miss this piece.  

Action shot!

Red rear cowl looks good.  Maybe the tank needs a bright color too!

Updates! New parts, new objectives

I finally got my package in that I had ordered a few weeks ago on ebay.  I got my rear cowl, seat latch, coolant tank, and R/R.  Everything looks to be in good condition so I am pretty happy I'll have some stuff to play with this weekend.

At the end of last weekend I had done some research on how to spruce up the fuel tank and get all the rust out.  I had previously mentioned I was thinking about using the KBS de-rust and sealer product for motorcycles, but I wanted to do a little more research.  The two methods I broke it down to were the electrolysis method and the POR-15 rust remover/sealer for motorcycle method.  The electrolysis method looked interesting, but the hazard of leaving electrical charge from a battery tender into a solution of water and chemicals changed my mind.  The POR-15 method seemed to be proven with all the great reviews it got online.  Kreem was out of question, it seems like this product is outdated and causes more harm than actual rust particles (again, this is from reviews).  I am hoping that the rust in the tank is mainly surface rust and that I don't discover any pinholes when I do the etching of the tank, but the sealer should take care of this issue.  The tank will definitely take a whole weekend.  The process is a 3 step process and the tank must be completely dry between steps.

From the top, everything appears to be surface rust (fingers crossed!)

I was going to order the petcock seal kit from oldbikebarn.com, but I read alot of reviews saying that their service is horrible, so I may hold off on this and seal which seals are actually broken in the petcock.  This will probably be done the weekend I seal the tank.  It will be a good side project when waiting for the tank to dry.

Some gummed up gas on the petcock.

Lastly, I just wanted to show off my new parts.  After reading all the horror stories of connector malfunctions (fires) between the stator and the R/R, I will definitely be hardwiring the stator and the R/R.  By doing this I will also be able to reuse the old stator, so I'll save a few bucks and a little time from not having to change that out.  Apparently the 3 yellow wires that come from the stator do not have any specific order, so I can wire them however I want.  Please correct me if I am wrong.  I may also be able to salvage the old R/R if I rewire it, which I will try to do.

Left: New R/R, Right: Old R/R

New coolant tank, needed the sensor and hose.

So the rear cowl being red does not exactly match the black tank or side covers of the bike, but I just want to get it running so I'm not too concerned.  In the future I'll take black and white pictures and no one be able to tell the difference. The rear cowl is in good condition and only has one chip on it, which I have, so I will be able to epoxy it back on.

BRIGHT Red!

Small chip, this can be fixed.

New Seat!

So I've been pretty busy for the past few weeks, I haven't been doing much with the bike.  Mostly I have just been doing a little research into the stator and R/R issue.  I may be able to use both of them! I will at least be able to use the stator and will just hardwire it into whatever R/R I get.  Apparently the connection between the R/R and the stator has lead to many failures in this era of Honda motorcycle and can actually catch fire if there are flammable things nearby.

I picked up a new seat from a guy in the area for a decent price.  It is a stock-type seat that looks like it has been recovered recently.  It at least makes the bike more presentable.  The cruiser-style seat, although comfortable, was a bit of an eyesore (even if it wasn't burned through the passenger side).  

Looks so much better with the new seat.

After putting the seat on, I got a little encouragement to do some more stuff.  I cleaned off the grounding wires and the grounding points on the bike.  The battery tray was pretty rusty so this took some time.  After I get the bike running I will probably spray down the battery tray with a little rustoleum to keep it from rusting even worse in the future.

After that I looked around and decided I would tackle the wiring and put it back into the headlight bucket.  Last time I had a few wires that were left disconnected in the wiring bundle.  I looked at the wiring diagram and realized the the black and green were for an accessory and the brown was from the ignition to the accessory. Still had an extra green/ground, I'm not going to worry about it, I couldn't trace it on the wiring diagram at all.  Getting the wiring into the headlight bucket was a huge pain.  I got it in there fine, but I was having difficulty getting the headlight onto the bucket with all the wiring in there.  The wiring was just frustrating me, so at a certain point I thought it wasn't fun and gave it a rest.

The worst part so far.

Hopefully I will get back to it tomorrow when I get a little rest and have some more patience.  Now I am just waiting for a few more of my parts to come in and then all I need to do is treat the tank.  I tested out the seat to see how comfortable it is, about the same as the last.  It doesn't have the smell of burnt fiberglass, big plus.

Testing the new saddle.