Gold Member

[sickradsean]

just read through your build. very nice! i couldnt find where the front faring came from tho. im looking into getting one, do you remember where you got it?

[guidowitz]

I am going to go out on a limb and say that the vinegar will not eliminate your gas tank rust issue.
Sure it will get it clean to a point, but I fear if that is all you do, rust will be back to bite your newly rebuilt carbs in the butt.
I understand you have resurrected older bikes before, so I may be speaking of line as you probably have other plans for the tank?
In any case, I have just done what you are doing. I removed the tank and used electrolysis twice to help remove rust followed by a denatured alcohol rinse.
I was going to stop there and used mystery oil or Marine Sta-bil in the tank to keep the rust away, but given the anal approach that I usually employ, decided to send the tank to a professional to have relined. This way I feel I have stopped any rust from reemerging and also keeping microscopic rust from getting past the fuel filter.
Bill over at Elizabeth Radiator did a fine job for me...

[sos]

So my last post was on July of 2014, just shy of 8 years ago. Funny how time flys.

I loved my 1976 GL1000 (Goldmember) and put many miles on it, but I had a family run motorcycle shop from 2007 until 2018 and had really lost interest in working on or even riding street bikes.

It about 2016 I sold my GL1000 and was considering not having any street bikes any more and especially not a vintage street bike. I closed the shop in 2018 and it has taken me several years to regain my interest in vintage bikes. I’ve been riding dirt and occasional street over the last few years, but I started missing my old GL.

Last weekend I started looking on Marketplace and by Tuesday I had two 1977 GL1000s in my garage.

So I’m starting a new project to build the 2nd generation Goldmember. I bought 2 full bikes for $525 so you can guess how much work it will take to get this project on the road. I’m looking forward to it.

So far the main bike has good compression and spark. I’ll get the valves adjusted, points set, new fluids and one of the carburetor sets cleaned and see about getting it started.

Today was just cleaning, but I’m still excited to get this going again!

[sos]

[sos]

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-85h ... C-1280.mp4[/Video]

[ritalz]

Welcome back.

[Whiskerfish]

[Fred Camper]

You did it once and have the skill, so it will be fun watching you get this girl back on the road. Shrewd purchasing for sure.

[sos]

Thanks for letting me back in

Valve clearances were all in spec, oil and coolant looked really good when I drained them, no sludge or shavings to be found.

I need to pull the carb rack off the parts bike and get to work cleaning them. Plan is to get the motor running and check for leaks, make sure it is charging, not smoking too much, etc. In the mean time I need to get a parts list ordered, timing belts, water pump seal kit, starter clutch kit, seals, gaskets etc.

That stuff takes longer to get than is used to.

[sos]

Is there a way to just upload images here or do we need to have the images on a server?

[sos]

Trying Flickr. Let's see what it looks like.

[Whiskerfish]

if you click on full editor there is a tab below for attachments.

[sos]

6583DCA0-594E-42A6-A5C7-D9B6869099F3.jpeg (377.89 KiB) Viewed 529 times

Thank you Whiskerfish

I pulled the carbs and the fuel pump from the parts bike. The carbs that came with the main bike had been removed and disassembled. There was definitely some damage caused by someone unfamiliar with these carbs.

I opened the carbs from the parts bike and was pretty happy with them. They are complete, but someone clearly had tried to clean the bowls.

6583DCA0-594E-42A6-A5C7-D9B6869099F3.jpeg (377.89 KiB) Viewed 529 times

1AE3B55D-D3DA-463C-92DC-5C6B6CC9B7CB.jpeg (377.91 KiB) Viewed 529 times

0CD43F30-351E-4F57-8683-9B7C0DCAD143.jpeg (387.01 KiB) Viewed 529 times

[sos]

I did a quick cleaning on the carbs, checked float height, new mid and main jets, found some old pilots that I had drilled out to #40s years ago (I can’t believe I found those and that I actually marked them), flushed the fuel pump from the parts bike and it worked without any debris coming out.

The store didn’t have D8EA plugs so I used the old champions that were in it and it actually fired up.

Ran okay, but didn’t smoke, motor sounded good and the charging system picked right up.

Carbs were leaking a bit at the fuel passages in the plenum, but that’s not a big deal. The bike came with 4 new carb kits and the plenum seal so when I pull it all apart to do the full rebuild.

Pretty happy so far. Next is to get the fuel tank out of the parts bike and get it drained, cleaned and soaking in vinegar.

[Fred Camper]

Great progress, perhaps today a lottery ticket is a reasonable purchase? Nice when a story comes together...