My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#31

Post by aaronrecine »

Irishman1 wrote:Welcome to the world of gold wings and wrenching. I’ve restored all of my 7-1975 gl1000’s and 1-76 and one 77 gl1000 plus my 78 cb750 and both cbx’s back to stock coils ( some had dyna’s) and they all run wonderfully at idle and speed. But that’s just my 2cents worth. I like them restored to stock.
What a stable of wonderful toys! I agree with the "keep it stock" sentiment. I used to highly modify when I first started wrenching but now have a learned respect for the original intention of the engineers. The Dyna-S is more of a maintenance thing than performance for me, but I plan on holding onto every stock piece that comes off of my bike in case someone interested in it down the road wants it bone stock.

Thanks for the welcome and 2 cents :)
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desertrefugee
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#32

Post by desertrefugee »

Keep in mind that the Dyna (or Pamco or Prestolite or points) doesn't draw anything. It merely conducts the current traveling to the load - the coil primaries. That current may or may not be limited (by dropping voltage across a resistor) before it hits the load.
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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#33

Post by aaronrecine »

desertrefugee wrote:Keep in mind that the Dyna (or Pamco or Prestolite or points) doesn't draw anything. It merely conducts the current traveling to the load - the coil primaries. That current may or may not be limited (by dropping voltage across a resistor) before it hits the load.
yep! All just different forms of momentary switches. Thanks for your clear and concise comment :)
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#34

Post by desertrefugee »

I gotta say that I'm impressed with a few things on this build:

1) Your willingness to make something from almost nothing. In fact, I was surprised to see that much rust on a California bike. Must have spent time on the coast.

2) The velocity with which you're moving.

3) Your gift of narrative and photography skills. I particularly enjoyed the first shots in the industrial setting.

All are combining for a most entertaining thread to follow.

I'm not sure exactly what your goal is, but as you know, there are lots of options. And pretty much right now is where there are some forks in the road to be selected - each of which leads to a very different destination.

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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#35

Post by aaronrecine »

desertrefugee wrote:I gotta say that I'm impressed with a few things on this build:

1) Your willingness to make something from almost nothing. In fact, I was surprised to see that much rust on a California bike. Must have spent time on the coast.

2) The velocity with which you're moving.

3) Your gift of narrative and photography skills. I particularly enjoyed the first shots in the industrial setting.

All are combining for a most entertaining thread to follow.

I'm not sure exactly what your goal is, but as you know, there are lots of options. And pretty much right now is where there are some forks in the road to be selected - each of which leads to a very different destination.

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Thank you so much for your kind words. I have had a rough week and this means more than I can express.

1) I have always loved taking what many consider useless, worthless, junk, non-salvageable, garbage and getting it functional for near nothing. The learning process is invaluable to me and is truly where I find my joy in life. Also, it keeps me out of trouble haha. I can't get a ticket if i'm at home wrenching. You are also correct in your deduction that the bike lived by the coast. I picked it up about 30 minutes south from Santa Cruz, CA down highway 1. I should take the old battery and see if I can find a date code to get a rough idea of the last time someone attempted to get this thing running, or at least was running.

2) I have ADD which is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that anything I am interested in I attack with feverish energy, sometimes having 12 hour days without stopping. The curse is that anything I NEED to do which does not interest me is like pulling teeth. If I have no desire or passion for something its nearly impossible for me to make progress with it. I've gone to professionals for my mental health issues and am on medication which helps a lot, but it is still a day to day struggle. Lucky for me I LOVEEEEEEEE my Goldwing, so as long as I keep momentum and finances allow it I should be done in no time :)

3) Thank you very much! I spent a lot of time with my fathers old 35mm Canon T35 shooting vacations with my girlfriend at the time, my own personal rides and projects, etc. This gave me a real respect for where photography was and where it is now. With the phones we have, it is pretty much unacceptable to take poor / low quality pictures or video. As far as narrating goes, I was in musicals and plays up till 11th grade. After that I joined a punk band for 4-5 years playing guitar and singing backup. I got to tour the country from California as far as Texas and even played warped tour once. Without these experiences I'm not sure I'd be so clear, concise and well spoken as I am haha. I owe a lot to my various teachers / band mates etc for always encouraging me.

As far as a goal goes, I just want a very clean, very reliable, very stock (minus a few functional modifications like the Dyna-S, non sealed beam headlight so I can use H4 bulbs, etc) 1977 GL1000 that I can be proud to show off at local riding spots. I've always been around classic cars / motorcycles from my friends and family and knew one day, something would call out to me as MY classic. I believe this GL is it, but who knows. Life is so fickle and random its very likely I'll probably end up with something else. I'd LOVE a bone stock CX500 to fiddle with.

Thank you again for your kind words! Look for updates this weekend. I'm going to attempt to rebuild the brake calipers without seals / pistons etc just to take it on a low speed test ride up and down my street. If all goes well then it will be time to order a large batch of parts from Randakk / my shop and begin the tear down / beautification process.
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#36

Post by aaronrecine »

I have made much progress in the last few days.

First I decided to take my calipers to work since I don't have an air compressor at home. I knew if I tried using pliers i'd just mess them up.

The left caliper popped out the piston no problem, but it was much too pitted and rusted to be reused. The right caliper was really stuck. Using a rubber tip air nozzle just filled the caliper and thus would back pressure the old fluids out at me haha. I knew I was going to buy one already, so at this point, it was just about getting it out. They had soaked in some pb blaster for about 4 hours. I took a pair of vice grips to the piston, broke it free then it pushed out easily with compressed air.

I have full rebuild kits with pistons in the mail along with Randakk's stainless steel braided brake line kit and the caliper halves sealing o-ring. Very excited to get that all installed.

So, I thought to myself after placing my order... Do I really want to install my nice, new, clean brake lines on my still very dirty bike? No.

So, with an energy drink and determination I took the bike down to a little more than the frame. The engine, drive shaft and final drive are still attached as well as the triple tree's, forks and front wheel.

Overall the poor condition of the frame isn't really as poor as I thought it would be. It has some spots that are pretty rough, but nothing a few steel brushes, pb blaster and VHT rust converter can't handle. I'm going to try to preserve as much of the original paint as I can while stopping the rust I must.

Before taking it apart I took as many pictures of the original wiring and cable routing as I could. Even though I can look it up in the manual, I don't want to put any added strain to the wiring harness as it is very old.

Enjoy :)

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desertrefugee
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#37

Post by desertrefugee »

Wow. You have been busy. Keep up the good work. They are excellent mounts.
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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#38

Post by aaronrecine »

desertrefugee wrote:Wow. You have been busy. Keep up the good work. They are excellent mounts.
Thanks! Got even more done today. Look for a post in a few. Paint might be going on the frame tomorrow if all goes according to plan.
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#39

Post by aaronrecine »

AAAAANNDDDDDDD the engine is OUT!

It was a pain to remove it as I don't have a jack at my place, but with determination, a ratcheting strap, rope and a few pry bars to move everything around I got it done.

I coated the frame in PB Blaster and started scraping all the rust off with some steel brushes. I'm brushing up most of the paint too since so much of it is chipping off. Also scuffing the area should help the new paint adhere as well.

I will be cleaning it as much as I can for the remainder of the day and packing it in. Tomorrow will be the final clean and prep with blue tape, crap hardware to plug threads and what have you. If I get to paint it I will be elated, but if I only prep it, that is fine with me too. I'm making progress in record time so I am okay with waiting to paint till next weekend.

Here are a few more pictures :)

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desertrefugee
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#40

Post by desertrefugee »

Do yourself a favor and tape up those intake ports. As much fur as you have flying, I'd hate to see an intruder spoil your next startup...

(It happened to me once on a very nice 454).
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#41

Post by Track T 2411 »

Looking good! The frame is cleaning up nicely. Now you're going to want to clean and paint the engine...
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#42

Post by robin1731 »

While it's down look very closely at the removable frame section and the frame support that the center stand attaches to. Those are areas that can rust very badly and end up needing replaced.

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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#43

Post by aaronrecine »

desertrefugee wrote:Do yourself a favor and tape up those intake ports. As much fur as you have flying, I'd hate to see an intruder spoil your next startup...

(It happened to me once on a very nice 454).
Excellent advice. Tapped and happy! Thank you .
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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#44

Post by aaronrecine »

Track T 2411 wrote:Looking good! The frame is cleaning up nicely. Now you're going to want to clean and paint the engine...
Thank you! I'm pretty sure I have bad valve seals as it burns oil after warming up, so I'm going to thoroughly clean the engine when I put it back in, but I'm not going to paint it just yet. I want to get some miles on it first though as it could just be burning off all the residual oil / pb / marvel I used.
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aaronrecine
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Re: My very first 1977 Honda GL1000 =D

#45

Post by aaronrecine »

robin1731 wrote:While it's down look very closely at the removable frame section and the frame support that the center stand attaches to. Those are areas that can rust very badly and end up needing replaced.

.
thank you for the heads up :) I looked very closely and they have rust as everything does, but it looks totally salvageable to me.
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