The High Speed Easy Chair (how Cousin_Eddie learned to embrace getting old)

Dr. Hess said:

I've been looking for those on ebay, Eddie, with no luck.  They have the small ones, but not the 3.6 gallon one you have.  At least not in the two bill range.  There's a Chinese one of about that size for a good price, but I'd rather have one like you have.

I figure surely more will pop up on ebay periodically. Mine was a pretty stale ad and the company took my lower offer so they seemed motivated to sell. It would be quite a precedent if I scored an unusual deal. That's just how the cards ever fall for me. 

Carburetor work is progressing. I need to round up a couple of little things and get them assembled back as a single rack. Then do a bench synchronization and they will be ready to reinstall.

I'm currently rebuilding the petcock. It's a little annoying since the factory riveted it together so I'm having to tap the holes. Finding a 3mm tap is proving annoying. I dug into my RC car hardware supply for this job. I'll get there.

They came out like brand new!

How do you bench synchronize carbs? When I cleaned the ones in my R1, I did it with the bike running and it was a pita to reach the screws. If I can do it on a bench next time it would be great. 

Slippery said:

They came out like brand new!

How do you bench synchronize carbs? When I cleaned the ones in my R1, I did it with the bike running and it was a pita to reach the screws. If I can do it on a bench next time it would be great. 

I'll have your answer in a few days. I haven't researched that far yet. I have the factory manual and I have a Goldwing 1100 carburetor specific manual. The smart guys on the internet say you can get them so close on the bench that a running synch is not needed or noticeable. 

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

On the Goldwingdocs site, there used to be a synchronizer someone had, and would loan it out. As far as mounting the tire machine, I sank some Hilti anchors into the garage floor to mount mine. When it was not in use, I just would screw in some bolts into the anchors to keep crap from filling up the holes. It worked great and I never tripped on them-or even stubbed a toe.I've been using ceramic beads for balancing motorcycle and scooter tires for years, and they are the cats meow! They even eliminated the typical left side of the front tire cupping issue that is so common. Keep up the awesome work,

It's been a handful of years, but I remember using one of those DIY carb sync boards(that are basically tubing and ATF) and it actually worked okay for as cheap as it was. 

I'm not sure what method I'll use to synch the carbs but I will figure out some method of doing it. I have only synched multiple carbs (Webers and Dellortos) on my old air cooled VWs. This should be something fun to learn on. 

I was just kicking around today trying to avoid putting the carbs back on the bike. So I chose to focus on the intake manifolds. 

This bike had a mouse nest up in the frame above the engine when I got it. I have fixed the wiring damage from that, but the mouse urine also took its toll on surfaced below the mouse nest. 

The intake manifolds were quite corroded and pitted from the urine on them.

So I taped up the rubber donuts and used paint stripper to remove the remaining clearcoat from the manifolds.

Then spent some time polishing them.

Much better.

Below the intake manifolds was even mouse mouse pee damage. The chrome was sheeting off of the right side valve cover.

Moral of the story, mouse urine is powerful stuff.

Now, I haven't been putting much effort into cosmetics on this bike, but I do have my limits of vanity of what I can tolerate. So, rather than buy another set of valve covers like these, I found a set of earlier model valve covers. I like the shape of them much better than the valve covers this bike was factory equipped with. 

I lowballed the guy on ebay. He was asking 30, I offered 20 and he took it.

I dig the finned look of them. I'll put some beauty on them when I get home from work Saturday.

Those valve covers look much better!

While you've got everything apart, an electrical update to replace the hard to find dogbone fuse is a must.

https://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28610

minimac said:

While you've got everything apart, an electrical update to replace the hard to find dogbone fuse is a must.

https://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28610

I'm ahead of the game on that one. Early on I swapped a later model starter solenoid with the built in fuse to keep from having to modify my wiring . I don't remember what I got it off of. Some late 80s era sportbike Honda. It was a direct swap and uses a blade fuse. The previous owner had bragged about it having a new solenoid on it when I bought it. It was some crappy 8 dollar Chinese hunk of E36 M3 from Amazon or someplace so I sought out a factory Honda to replace it with.

Those finned covers will look great on there.  Gonna leave em bare? Maybe do some sort of highlight of the fins?

I really don't like chrome plated aluminum for just that reason.  In my experience and observations, it will all eventually turn to E36 M3.  Polished bare aluminum takes more maintenance, but can alway be brought back.

I'm not sure exactly how I will proceed on the valve cover finish. The gaskets aren't shipping till tomorrow so I have a week or so to get them prettier. I'll probably just polish them up somewhat. I had to drill the screws out that held the Honda nameplate to one of the covers and get a little hateful with it to get it off. I'll need to straighten that out and get some new screws also.

I got a little time today for a couple of short projects.

First, I completed the rebuild of the fuel petcock. These bikes had a riveted together petcock from the factory so I had to grind the rivets out and tap the holes to 3mm and use some RC car stainless hardware to hold it together. Nothing really noteworthy really.

Then I threw a quick polish onto the replacement valve covers. They really needed a little wet sanding before polishing, but I didn't want to go down that rabbit hole.

Valve cover gaskets and grommets are currently inbound.

I spent a few minutes detail painting the valve cover emblems. I didn't get too mental on them.

I've used small drill bits or wire gates as a way to sync the carbs on the bench.
 

Set a drill bit in the carb with the butterfly resting on it, then work out from there adjust each one so the same size drill bit can be inserted with slight drag. 

Today I got some good progress accomplished.

First, I removed and replaced the seals and gaskets on the coolant manifold on top of the engine, under the carburetor rack. Cheap and easy to do now with the carbs out of the way.

Then I reassembled the carburetors onto the plenum and reinstalled the whole mess. I was able to score new throttle cables on ebay for 7 bucks each. They are new but obviously had been in stock for a long time. The seller was liquidating a closed down motorcycle shop and I just got lucky that he had the proper part numbers this bike called for. 

I still need to round up some fuel hose and clamps. The bike had 1/4" fuel hose on it which isn't correct. I will be using 5.5mm hose which will fit the hose bibs better. 

I also got a carb sych tool ordered. I ordered the Morgan Tune out of England.  It seems to enjoy the best reviews on the various  internets.

Where do you source metric hose? It's a massive pain to find in my experience, which is odd because it's so commonly used.

Today was a good day, just not too many pictures.

First, I ran down and grabbed some 1/4 fuel hose to plumb up the system. Now, original is 5.5mm and 1/4 is measurably larger than that. But the internets say that snug clamps make everything work well and that's what everybody does. Like the jackass I am, I believed them. Fail. You have to tighten the clamps up entirely too tight to get them to seal and I had one that weeped no matter how tight I snugged it. I came inside and just quit being a wuss and paid the money to mail order the proper OEM Honda line of the right  5.5mm size. It should be here in a few days.

But, the mailman did deliver my valve cover stuff. I had ordered a pair of new gaskets and new grommets. I think the grommets are more critical than most people realize because their compression is what exerts clamping force on the gasket. I believe many gasket leaks can be alleviated by new grommets on the bolts. Nevertheless, I got it all in one swoop and installed everything. I went aftermarket on these and hope it doesn't bite me. The gasket profile does not seem as robust as the OEM gaskets were. They seem kind of wiggly in the grooves of the valve covers. Time will tell. If they leak I'll get OEM Honda gaskets and burn these.

Trash. Ugly. I can hardly wait to hear the metallic clang sound they make when they bounce off the dumpster.

Be sure and tune in next episode when I post pictures of fuel hose and maybe even nerd out on factory OEM Honda hose clamps if you're lucky  !

All of my fuel system supplies have arrived and have been installed. 

Yes, I went to too much trouble and expense but I fixate on sanitary details.

Size comparison between the 5.5mm Honda hose and 1/4" parts store generic hose.

Also, the previous owner had removed the baffles from the mufflers so I ordered a pair. I don't want this thing noisy. I do still need to decide on muffler packing material to wrap the baffles with.

I'm still waiting on my carb synch tool to arrive from Ireland.

Cousin_Eddie said:

I saw a meme the other day that reminds me of my project builds.

 

Still worth it for the victory and the therapy. And fun to follow along. 

OHSCrifle said:

Cousin_Eddie said:

I saw a meme the other day that reminds me of my project builds.

 

Still worth it for the victory and the therapy. And fun to follow along. 

Agreed. I enjoy the journey more than the destination on these projects.

Slow news day today on the Goldwing, but progress nevertheless.

I'm nutty about brake hoses. Anything I build, new brake hoses. I feel they are overlooked way too often on builds.

As you have seen, I spent a lot of time and effort to rebuild all brake calipers and really bring this thing back to 100 percent. But, I cannot find new brake hoses anywhere. I suppose I could have them made at a hose shop, but my experience is that the local shops usually refuse to fabricate any brake hose out of liability concerns. 

To top it off, when I was bleeding my rear brakes which consist of fresh rebuilt caliper and master cylinder, I got a few little boogers of black flotsam in the fluid. It had to be coming from the old hose. Everything else was fresh.

So, I finally bit the bullet and got a full set of braided steel hoses for the bike. I'd have preferred OEM rubber due to the routing configuration of this system. There are quite a few bends in the routing array. But, new hoses were needed and compromises were made.

The old hoses.

I'm heading off to work in the morning and will be gone until Thursday, but parts are inbound so I should have some more stuff to do when I get home from work.

I've been away working a 96 hour shift at the fire station.

But the delivery people have been doing their work while I'm away.

Looking forward to getting home tomorrow.

First thing today I wrapped the baffles in exhaust packing wrap and installed them. That quited the bike right down.

Next I synched my carbs using the newly arrived Carb Tune tool. Holy E36 M3, what a tool. You just hook up the four vacuum hoses and tweak the carb screws until all four gauges read the same. No mercury or liquids to leak. Money very wll spent.

It's really amazing how well this old bike is picking up now that I have it running evenly on all four cylinders. It really seems to be right on the money. A test ride will be the acid test though. I'm very confident.

Then I started on the very last piece of the brake puzzle. The previous owner had installed a cheap Chinese generic front master cylinder.

Well, I can't have that so I found a nice original one on the eBay and submitted a lower offer. Score.

Now to disassemble, clean, and rebuild.

Ahh, what a soothing break from the other things I've been reading on the internet lately. 

Always love the threads sir. I'm not into these from an aesthetic standpoint but boy I bet it will be a great unit for your October trip. Keep up the good work!