Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

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MetricTon
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Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#1

Post by MetricTon »

So I decided to run a thread of my progress with my first GL
I gave a basic synopsis of whats been going on with me in my intro thread but I'll rehash here with some fancy pictures.

Most of my life I've been the victim of starting projects that never quite get to the point that I imagine. Most of the time it's because I get my self into situations where I didn't think long term about money or I just simply run out of motivation. A mixture of both is what lead me to my first wing. A few years ago I happened upon a 1986 F150 on craigslist. My first car was a Bullnose long bed F150 3 speed with overdrive, so when I saw this thing I fell in love immediately, even though this had the auto trans in. The guy had it listed for $500 so I got right on the phone with him and arranged to check it out. As I was driving to his house, he called me back to tell me he couldn't sell it anymore because it wouldn't start, that it was making some strange noise. I assured him I was still interested. When I got there I found the starter was loose and the gentleman was less than knowledgeable about auto maintenance. I offered $300 and asked to borrow a 13mm wrench. Paid the man and drove it home. Years passed, and after an axle flip and engine replacement, I lost interest. After only 3 days on craigslist, I had a trade offer for a Goldwing. I've wanted a Standard Goldwing since I was a kid and was immediately intrigued. We talked it over and even after he was aware that the truck wasn't driving he was still interested. The fact that he promised the Wing would fire right up kept me interested. I drove out to his house and checked it out and sure enough it did fire right up. We made a deal that he was responsible for getting the bike to my house and picking the truck up, he agreed and I became apart of the Goldwing brotherhood.
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He admitted to me before we made the trade that it lost power under load and that it was a salvage titled bike. He tried to convince me that the power issue was with the coils, but I knew better. I got started straight away on removing the damaged bags and windshield and knew that some carburetor hygiene was necessary.
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I employed the help of a friend who was working at local bike shop because I'd never done anything in the way of carb cleaning/maintenance.
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Turns out my anxiety over the issue was stronger than the actual work involved. We got everything cleaned, gaskets and filter replaced and I synchronized the carbs and she ran brilliantly... compared to how she did when I got her...
My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#2

Post by Rat »

Good story and it looks like you got a deal ....

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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#3

Post by MetricTon »

So I want to start this section with this. I went about all of this the wrong way. You should always perform a thorough inspection of a motorcycle before even thinking about taking it down the street. For everyone's safety, including yours.

So at this point the bike was running and driving really well. My rear tire was weather checked pretty hard and it was pretty obvious my fork seals were gone long ago, so I promised my self to keep it on local roads only at reasonable speeds. I also promised my self when I took this project on, I would never get more than a days worth of work away from it running and driving, otherwise I'm liable to give up. Being that I had her running nicely, I decided to proceed with aesthetic customization with the bike. I had it in my head that I wanted it a simple military green with no fancy striping or anything else. An industrial look. So I got right to work with the flat green from the rattle can.
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At this point in my life, I've owned (titled, insured and driven) 46 cars. Most of them under $2000, and a lot of them requiring the help of the cheapest paint job possible, so I got pretty decent with a rattle can over the years. After getting some color onto it, I was pleased with the direction it was going. The next biggest itch I had was custom exhaust. My brother is a fabricator so I knew I'd just have to come up with pipe and the idea I wanted and it could be done in the matter of hours. I let excitement get the best of me and pulled the muffler/cross pipe off bike, thinking this would push the process of getting exhaust done quicker.
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My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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MetricTon
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#4

Post by MetricTon »

Low and behold, my plan of motivation by excessive noise actually worked. Running short straight pipes was so ridiculously loud (and bad for the engine) that the only time I actually rode it like that, was the half mile to my brothers house. I got some stainless steel pipes and joints, handed them to my brother and he laughed me. "You know this is going to look ridiculous with these parts right? We can wait, get to a mandrel and do this the right way.." I told him I intended to wrap them anyway and I just need them even and welded right. So onward we went.
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I was pleased with how they turned out. Something I've never seen on a Goldwing before. Not ridiculously loud, but when I open it up, you know I'm there. Things were looking and feeling great. So instead of doing my due diligence and taking care of fork seals, and wheel bearings, and rear tire.. I made the risky decision of putting miles on her.
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I'm not going to lie, I was having the most fun I'd had in a long time. I was pleased with everything that was happening. I just had it in my head that come winter time when the snow flies, I have to get down to work and attend to the things I should have from the jump. Right near the end of the season, I noticed performance was starting to fall, and after a very risky top speed run, she quit out on me when I came to a stop. I had the feeling she was being starved for fuel the way she was acting. When I got her home, my suspicion was confirmed.
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Last edited by MetricTon on Sun Mar 12, 2017 8:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#5

Post by MetricTon »

So there I was. Thankfully my overpowering desire to ride was being killed off by 20 degree weather. I head checked my self that this was the best possible thing to happen, because I'd been running the edge for too long by ignoring other pressing matters with the bike. The biggest thing was that I did all that carb maintenance and never once thought to look inside the fuel cell, even from the jump, knowing the runability issue had nothing to do with the coil packs, I still some how failed to look into that tank with the flashlight. Replace your belts, check your tank for rust. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture for reference as to how bad my fuel cell was, but it's very bad. I took this time to reevaluate the direction I wanted to take. I started changing my mind with color schemes and deciding the best way to spend my limited budget on the wing. I borrowed a motocycle lift from my brother and made the decision that shes not coming down until everything is done the right way. I did get some header wrap and tried my hand for the first time at wrapping my pipes. Also started thinking about doing away with the green.
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I knew that whatever direction I was going, the fuel cell rust had to be remedied. This meant that I had to get it out of the bike. This turned out to be the biggest bite I've taken with this project, so I did my best to put all the nuts and bolts back where they came from, kept parts together as best as possible and labeling where necessary.
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I made the attempt at cleaning the rust out of my original tank, but quickly realized that it was far more cost effective to just order a used piece from a salvage. While waiting for parts to arrive, I started thinking about the idea of a black and gold color scheme.
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My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#6

Post by MetricTon »

So this is basically where I'm at today. After some research I've settled on the idea of going with a black and gold color scheme. I got my new used fuel cell, painted her up 5 nines fine as well as my battery box. Made a set of spark plug wires, which cost me $25 at the end, they just don't have any RFI suppression (it's cool, Im not putting a radio back in) Cleaned up surface rust areas on the frame and as of this week started piecing things back together.
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I've got a small budget built up which is going toward the items that really need attention first. Tire, timing, coolant, wheel bearing, speedo cable, fork seals, brake pads. There is a swap meet in Kalamazoo next week so I'm waiting to order stuff before that, in case I can find any deals.

I'll continue to update this thread as I move along.
My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#7

Post by MetricTon »

I almost forgot. The biggest issue I'm facing now, my rear wheel sits at a bit of an angle. I'm still not sure where the problem stems from. Bent frame or swingarm? This was another thing I didn't notice until after riding it around. I'm not sure how much of a safety hazard it is outside of wearing out my rear tire quicker than normal. I'm sure it's not good though. Here is a video of my exhaust sound. You can see what I mean about the wheel at the beginning of the video.

https://youtu.be/cMmxNXbjUWo
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"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#8

Post by Track T 2411 »

Looks like you've made some great progress! I see what you mean about the wheel, and although it goes by pretty fast, it looks as though the wheel itself isn't fully engaged into the final drive (it looks to have a gap on the bottom). There could be a couple of reasons for the misalignment besides a bent frame or swing arm. First, IIRC, some years of the 1200 had issues with the wheel hub wearing around the bearing. Second, when reassembling the wheel/final drive, the final drive needs to be loosely installed, then the wheel installed on the drive, the axle inserted and properly torqued, and last, the final drive tightened and torqued. My suggestion would be to carefully check over the wheel and bearings, as well as the drive flange (the part that goes between the drive and the wheel) and the final drive, especially the gear teeth. If it's been run with the flange and final drive misaligned, you're probably going to see lots of wear.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#9

Post by MetricTon »

Track T 2411 wrote:Looks like you've made some great progress! I see what you mean about the wheel, and although it goes by pretty fast, it looks as though the wheel itself isn't fully engaged into the final drive (it looks to have a gap on the bottom).
Awesome! Thank you! This is the kind of stuff I'm looking to learn from you guys. I'm the first in my small circle to get into metric bikes let alone Goldwings so anytime I present questions or problems like this, it's always arms in the air with shrugs and a "guess we'll figure this out together"

This gives me hope that there isn't something bent in the arm or the frame, because I've been staring at them both for a couple of months now, not seeing how this is happening. Thank you.
My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#10

Post by sunnbobb »

lots of fun stuff. That wheel is an issue. I dont see that it has anything to do with being engaged improperly with the final drive. This is perhaps the salvage part of the salvage title. It can be only one of two things, bent frame or bent swingarm. Check for stress cracks in both. As long as it doenst squirrel down the highway, some careful testing should tell you if it is ok to ride like that.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#11

Post by HOTT »

Good story. Keep at it. tumb2
I think you have a swing arm in your future (or putting a twist to the one you have).
Keep the pix coming.

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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#12

Post by Easter »

Hang in there. To finish a project, my rule is do at least one small thing every day.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#13

Post by ericheath »

Check the swingarm bearings? If they were shot, they might account for that much tilt in the rear wheel. They'd have to be really bad though. That is a fair amount of tilt. Used swingarms are cheap on eBay and some include bearings.
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#14

Post by MetricTon »

Alright, so update time. Since my last post a good share of tasks have been accomplished. With the help of a friend I went from many pieces yesterday morning to a trip around the block last night. In the between time I played around with color scheme ideas and tried some things out with loose pieces while waiting for parts to arrive, so as of this morning, her aesthetics are still in disarray, but I'm paying attention to that today. Next is my fork seals, front wheel bearings, wheel hygiene and modifying a GL1100 tank shell to fit when I strip away the fairing. I got my tire from Dennis Kirk, my timing belts and bearings from Old Bike Barn, and unfortunately my M77 assembly paste from Fox Powersports, because I didn't think ahead to order Moly 65 from Amazon and found my self ready to assemble on a Saturday. Here are some pics.
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My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
Instagram: andygovernment
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MetricTon
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Re: Metric Ton - 1986 GL1200

#15

Post by MetricTon »

More progress pics.
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My dad once told me
"It ain't no F'n Hotrod!"
Trying to prove otherwise ever since.
Instagram: andygovernment
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