Getting the 79 sorted out.

[Old Fogey]

Trying to get stuck into the 79 after it's been sitting there for over 10 years with only the odd jobs done.
Already done:
GL1100 front brakes with new master cylinder.
Drilled discs front and rear.
Rear calliper and master rebuilt.
Horrible looking fork sliders cleaned up, fork oil changed and front wheel mounted.
While the forks were off the steering head bearings were checked and regreased.
Had to do a 'bodge' repair to the front fender. The chrome is great, but it had rusted through at the bolts for the bottom stay.
Big repair washers inside and some epoxy filler inside the stay got that fixed and not really visible.
After the debacle with the brake callipers, now all fixed, mounted up and bled, I'm just working from front to back.
Radiator off for flushing, original plastic water pump appears to be ok with no side movement.
Belt covers and belts were already off due to the problem I had previously with the left head bolts stripping last year.
I have bearings on the shelf for the tensioners.
Carbs off and rebuilt some time back.

Now comes the hard bit!
The engine has not been turned over for........in fact, I don't remember when or even if it has ever been turned over.
Wrench on the crankshaft nut....about 1/4 turn, solid - before any one mentions it, the cams were off for new seals - turn it back maybe 1/2 turn, solid.. Checked, not in gear. So something is wrong, probably in the right cylinders since I know the left are perfect.
Right head off: OH NO, (supply your own string of expletives!). #3 pot perfect, #1 badly rusted!
Fairly heavy on the bottom around where the piston was sitting, light cleanable around the rest.
How did that happen? As far as I am aware, the open inlet ports have been blocked up since I took the carbs off but just maybe, the only explanation I have, they were still open when I removed the radiator and water got spilled from the header tank above.
So, what to do? I have Scotchbrited most of it off and will now run my cylinder hone down, but I think there will still be significant pitting.
At this stage, I only have the option of cleaning it up as much as possible and putting it all back together. With my back injuries and no-one around with even vaguely any interest in helping, pulling the motor is a non-starter.
Maybe I'll get lucky and the compression loss ( and oil burning!) will not be too bad once it had some miles.
We shall see.

[Fred Camper]

Since the piston was full down, it may not be such a big deal. Time will tell as you said. Do what you can and get her spinning again.

[Old Fogey]

I'm not exactly sure where the piston was sitting before I tried to turn it over. The rust pits extend for an area of about 2" down from the top and an 1" or a bit more at the widest part. Hopefully the piston was down, so that the rings are not rusted. There's no way to see that. Just have to keep fingers crossed!
Something interesting came up yesterday. Pulled the fuel tank (with a four litres of stinking fuel, not sure where I can get rid of that) to clean it out, check for rust and patch up the paint. I found some of the paint is flaking off what looks like a nickle plated tank!
Now, I have never heard that Honda dd this, but they did do that to the muffler on the LTD, so did they also do that on the LTD tank and this is a swapp-out at sometime? Whatever, something of a surprise and hopefully when I get it cleaned out the inside is also the same.

[redglbx]

Old, never seen or heard of that ! I’ve seen a lot of LTD’s from new and Honda did a lot of different things to them. But I’ve never seen that done to the mufflers or tanks. Hopefully that gives you a clean, non-rusted tank & muffler, gonna have to go take a look at the tank on my LTD today and see, I know the tank is OE, the muffler was new in a box when I bought the bike and I had it ceramic coated inside & out , same with the header pipes so that all shouldn’t rust and should out last me. Should!

[Old Fogey]

The LTD muffler that I sold to Liam was definitely plated under the paint. The only tiny bit of rust on it was right at the curved seam where all the road debris would have hit. The paint was flaking in the same was, like it couldn't get a grip.
This bike, being a 79 (supposedly) has the two separate mufflers and header covers, some of which have wrecked chrome and are beyond saving.

[Old Fogey]

Set to cleaning out the tank. The visible areas of it seem to mostly coated with lacquer from the old fuel with no signs of rust on the walls above the 'tide mark' from the fuel. Difficult to tell but the top, where I can get a finger to down the filler or sensor holes, has some granulation which could be rust but also could be fuel residue.
I threw some diesel in, in the hopes of removing some of the lacquer, but after sloshing it about there came a heavy rattling sound and there was a weird 'thing' in there! Something that was definitely not OEM.
You can see from the photo, a 6" long gauze tube, crimped at both ends, containing the 6 metal objects (I cleaned the lacquer off them). The metal appears to be lead. My best guess is some kind of after market 'lead additive' device for running on unleaded fuel. Not that that would work anyway, nor is it needed for the Goldwing, but there were several of these things on the market when we changed all petrol to unleaded.
Anyone got ideas on shifting the lacquer? Acetone will do it, but enough to do a tank would be very expensive, not to mention how difficult it would be to dispose of it afterwards.

IMG_20240719_221945.jpg

[Sidecar Bob]

Methyl hydrate (AKA methanol) usually dissolves dried fuel varnish pretty easily.

In case you haven't seen this before, I consider it to be one of the 4 basic solvents every shop should have:

Water: Cleans off dirt and, when used with detergent, some oil & grease and a few things the other solvents listed her won't touch (like coffee stains).

Methanol: (AKA methyl hydrate) an inexpensive, general purpose alcohol. Used to remove sticker glue, dried fuel deposits (carb varnish), magic marker and a host of other things. Can also be used as gas line anti-freeze, but it costs a lot less in the paint dept where it is sold for thinning shellac.

Mineral spirits: (AKA white spirit, paint thinner, Varsol)(note that Varsol costs more because of the brand name) Used to remove oil & grease that soap & water won't and to thin oil based paint & clean brushes used for it. Good for black heel marks on floors too. With the exception of some water soluble things, generally whatever methanol won't remove mineral spirits will & vise versa.

Lacquer thinner: Nasty stuff - if you leave your fingers in it too long it will dry the oil out of the skin and it will become dry & stiff. Removes any oil/grease residue left by mineral spirits or methanol so it is an ideal pre-painting final wipe. Removes fibreglass resin from your fingers and can be wiped onto the surface of old fibreglass to briefly soften it when preparing to add filler. Last chance solvent for whatever mineral spirits and methanol won't remove. Caution: will remove most paint so don't spill it on anything.

There are other useful solvents but these 4 are the most essential (& generally easiest to obtain) and can do almost everything you need.

BTW, I've never seen anything like that before so I looked it up and apparently such "devices" for putting lead back into the fuel were pretty common for a while. The problem is that, unlike tetraethyl lead and as your picture shows, the lead in the pellets is not soluble.

[redglbx]

One of the bikes I redid that needed the tank cleaned had something very similar. The bike was a former Carl Hinsey (President of the CWC) bike and after I found it that Carl was a vendor for these things, he was always thinking about things like this and like many thought that lead free fuel was the Bain of all things internal combustion, valve recession and all that.

The fuel companies used valve lubrication as the argument to keep adding the cheap lead in the fuel. And as it turns out they were actually adding around 100 times more lead than was actually needed to lube the valves, but lo & behold adding lead to the fuel was a cheap octane booster and the real reason they added the lead. Follow the money and you will find the truth !

This is also why they add the ethanol to our gas now because it’s a relatively inexpensive octane booster plus our tax’s help offset the cost of the ethanol to the oil companies. On the plus side it is much greener than lead and it is renewable and it helps keep our farmers in new shoe’s. The only real downside to the ethanol in the fuel is that it is hydroscopic (absorbs water) and is a big part of why our gas tanks rust out. It is wise to coat the inside of your tank with some kind of coating/liner while your tank is out & clean.

[Fred Camper]

If you remove that device, you power and fuel mileage will surely drop...

[Old Fogey]

A bit belated with the reply.
Thanks, Bob.
Soap and water usually needs a scrubbing brush too. Not sure how that works inside a tank, but still...
Cannot obtain methanol locally.
So I've bought white spirit. That will have to do; anything left after that will get leave to stay there!
Getting rid of all the contaminated fuel and cleaner is going to be royal PITA

[Sidecar Bob]

Re methanol, have you asked for shellac thinner at a paint store?
I think methylated spirits may be the same thing, or close enough to work. Methanol is just wood alcohol...

I don't think white spirit (what we call mineral spirits) will touch dried fuel.

[Old Fogey]

You are correct. The white spirit did as much as the diesel did...........nothing!

I can mail order methanol, that's the next step.

[redglbx]

Old, I have had really good results cleaning tanks using toilet bowl cleaner, but that is more about removing rust, but it leaves things squeaky clean.

But you have to neutralize the toilet bowl cleaner once you pour it out, I use water followed by some alcohol to dry things out,, but again this is more about cleaning rust out of the tank, probably overkill to just remove fuel varnish. Bob’s suggestion is probably the best path if you can find the methanol.

[Sidecar Bob]

This isn't methanol but it will probably do the job
https://www.smithandrodger.co.uk/shop/p ... 4ldl-b7z2n

[Old Fogey]

I can get that locally from the producer! Good find, Bob