Restoring the Hand Controls

The last time I operated the bike, the old hand controls were still functional, but the paint is well worn and just look beat. Surprisingly, the decals all look pretty good, with the exception of the Off/Run/Off sticker, which is has been completely rubbed out. I looked around online for new decals and they can be bought for a very reasonable price from DiabloCycle.com (formerly Reproduction Decals). It's not that I don't want to spend an extra $7 on stickers, but I really want to try and keep as much original stuff from the bike as possible and these old original stickers are certainly worth keeping.

I spent some time sprawled out across my kitchen table disassembling all the parts for a deep cleaning. I stole a Run switch from a lot of hand controls I bought a while back and swapped it out with the deeply gouged existing one. A couple of wires did come unsoldered when I took the parts apart, but that was easily fixed. All the parts were otherwise in very good shape- nothing broken or worn.

I carefully masked off all the stickers and gave the parts some new coats of satin black paint. I was able to find a Off/Run/Off decal from one of the other spare hand controls and applied it to the part. A little spit shine on the wires and the buttons and we're good as new!

When I put the clutch perch and hand control on the bar, I was so excited that I texted my old housemate this picture. I purchased this polished clutch lever off of eBay back in 1999, when we were living in Castro Valley together. I have literally been waiting 20 years to put this lever back on my bike again! :D

Time For Brakes

It's finally time to work on the brakes. Since I had an epiphany and change of wheel plans on my recent vacation, I had to order some rear disc brake parts, namely the master cylinder and another caliper rebuild kit. I opted to buy both OEM NOS parts through EconomyCycle.com (as I did with the front brake system)- nothing fits quite like the real thing. Sure, it was twice the price of reproduction parts, but I would rather have piece of mind knowing that the stuff is going to work like it should.

When I think back on the days when I was a wee young lad and I just first got the bike, I didn't know a goddamned thing about working on motorcycles. Cars for that matter either. I think the most I ever did with that bike was change the oil. I did have to get the rectifier and the clutch cable replaced, but other than that, I did very little maintenance. Repairs were made over the next few years- the generator had to be rebuilt, new tires and the carbs rejetted, since I installed air filter pods and ditched the air box.

In the end, it was my lack of maintenance that led to the bike trying to kill me. The rear shock shafts were bent, the front forks were bent back an inch or two, due to me crashing into the back of a car, due to my brakes not really doing much to stop me. I never even checked the brakes for fluid. So I guess that I really deserved that. So when I decided to rebuild the brake system, I'm going to do it right and give them a little more performance.

Some 10 years ago, I bought a second used front master with the intentions of marrying the two to rebuild my original one. I started to disassemble them on a dinner plate, and there they sat for the next 10 years. Lol.

Taking apart the master cylinders wasn't much of a problem, but I did have to buy some new c-clip needle nose pliers to get the piston out. Funny thing though- as I was working on the disassembly process, I realized that the two master cylinders were different! The one that came with my bike was marked Nissin 14 on the underside, while the used one I bought said Asco 12. After doing some research, I discovered that my bike should have come with the Asco 12  m/c. Interesting... Some time ago, I also bought a NOS front master cylinder cap and that too fit the spare m/c. So I will surmise that a owner previous to me swapped it out. I am trying to build the bike to be closer to OEM, so I'm going to use the Asco m/c, plus the rebuild kit I bought probably won't fin the 14 anyway. The kit went in without a hitch. There was a slight bit of corrosion inside the cylinder, but it was so minor that I don't think it's going to make any difference. The rear m/c was rebuilt with equal ease. There was a little more cleaning and polishing to do, since there was the copper connector that had to be shined up. I just so happened to have a brand new NOS pressure switch, so I just swapped it out with the gross old one. (I have no idea why I have these random NOS parts just sitting around in my bins.) I masked off all the holes and gave them a nice new coat of paint. They look spectacular!

The calipers were a different story. Now remember, these brakes have not moved in over 20 years. I knew that getting the pistons out was going to be a bitch. I looked for the solution online for days! I worked on the front caliper first. I did find a helpful tutorial from HVCcycle.com. I used it loosely as a road map to work with. I also found some other hints online for using a grease gun, if compressed air doesn't work. (The grease gun threads will fit the front caliper.) One piston came out with air. The other piston came out with the grease gun.

The rear brake caliper was more of a problem. The grease gun fitting will not fit properly in the caliper, but it will fit just good enough if you're careful. For the bleeder side, the grease gun would not thread into that side, so I tried my darnedest with compressed air. After that, I tried to get the grease gun to squeeze through the bleed nipple. No bueno. But it did give me an idea. I eventually figured out that zerk grease fittings have the same thread pitch as the bleed nipple if you get the metric ones. (And no, I could not find anything online that would suggest this as a solution to pushing out the caliper piston. Go figure! I can't be the only one who's ever had this problem.) It worked like a charm! Both calipers got painted and look fantastic!

I cleaned up the rear brake mount and bar, then painted them. I'm very close to finishing up both brake systems. Both front and rear are receiving Galfer stainless steel brake lines. I'm still waiting for the rear ones to arrive, since it was back ordered. I bought a bottle of Motul RBF 600 and waiting eagerly to get everything filled up! One more thing- the front brake caliper will need a new banjo bolt to accommodate the new brake line, since the original system was a hard line.

Some REAL Progress!!

It's been a while since I last checked in. A lot of progress has been made. Although it took a lot of trips to the hardware and the auto parts stores, the forks did get stripped, cleaned, gutted, parts replaced and upgraded, then reassembled. I was also able to pick up some fine used parts deals along the way, like a set of Woodcraft clip-ons and a bent HVC kickstarter lever.

The fork sliders weren't all that hard to strip and polish- they came out very nice indeed. But in order to reassemble the forks back together again, I had to install the triple-tree and it was getting some work done, so they had to wait. A long while back, a friend did some fab work for me, taking a RD400 top yolk, grinding off the handlebar mount supports and filling them in, then repainting them silver, so they would look like vintage style TD3 top triples. Although the general shape of the yolk looked fantastic, the finishing work wasn't as perfect as I would have wanted it to be, so I stripped it, dug out the old filler and filled the holes again with JB Weld SteelStik (thinking that this filler would be harder). It took some work to get it to fill just right and it took many cycles of paint and sanding to get to where I was comfortable with it. In the end, I was extremely satisfied with the work that I had done- this time the top triple was painted black.

I also installed the All Balls steer roller bearings and races. If you ever do this job, please note that the races do not fit in tight with precision- both the upper and lower races rattle just a little bit when installed. They barely even needed to be "pressed" in. Also the top race will stick above the frame by about 2mm, which is normal according to the support tech I spoke to at All Balls. I popped them back out and used some Loc-Tite red 271 to keep them in place, greased the shit out of the bearings, then buttoned everything back up.

Just for yucks, I installed the clip-ons and did a mock up of the gauges as well. I'm feeling so happy that this thing is really starting to come together!

 

I just took a little vacation overseas. While away, I did some thinking and I'm going to change my design of the bike, once again. I'm feeling that I'm going to reuse the same original cast mag wheels and ditch the idea of wired wheels. The good news is that I can save a bundle not having to build up new wheels (rims, spokes, etc.), but the downside is that now I have a bunch of RD350 wheel bearings in my possession and now I need to buy some RD400 stuff! Also I will have to rebuild the RD400 rear disc brake system. But then now getting rearsets will be much more straight forward!

It's funny. The longer I take to build this bike, the more it keeps going back to the factory design. Remember, when I first set out on this build, I was going to build up a full blown TD3 replica with fairings and all. Now it's going to look very OEM, except for me chopping up the front fender and the seat/tail will be modified. I'm okay with that :)

Tool Fabrication...Ugh!

This morning I spent some time, again, fabricating a necessary tool. I was reminiscing back to a day, when I was working on my Suzuki SV650 where I would have to keep making tools in order to complete projects. I thought that one day, I would have enough money that I didn't have to keep making these stupid tools anymore! Well, here we are some 10 years later. And yet, I am still making tools!

If you've ever had to remove damper rods from a fork, you'll feel my pain. Sometimes you can get lucky by shoving a broomstick handle (or some wooden dowel) into your fork tube, and you might have success in getting your bottom allen bolt out, which was the case with the Suzuki. For the RD, not so much..... Mind you, this bolt has been in there for probably 42 years (translation = forever ). There is a bean shaped nut on the top of the damper rod and a broomstick handle wasn't about to help me out. I looked online and of course this tool from Yamaha is no longer available. (These are the perils of working on a really old bike.) After scouring the Internet, I found some (but little) help. And I came to the realization that I would, yet again, have to fabricate another tool, especially since I was going to have to remove 4 damper rods and I didn't want to leave the extraction method to luck.

First I wanted to get a real idea of what I was dealing with, so I found an old can of Play-doh from another tool-making time, stuck it on the end of a socket and shoved up against the damper rod nut to get an impression. It turned out pretty nicely :)  From there, I could see that I needed a 12mm socket, so I ran down to Home Depot and bought one of their cheapie house brand sockets for under $3. I took an angle grinder to the sides of the socket and relieved two walls and presto! we have a tool!! It worked like a charm! So it only took me two days to get the damper rods out.

Now I just have to run these down to the machine shop to have the tops lathed off and I can start building up the forks. In the meanwhile, I'll strip the paint off the lowers and give them a quick polish. I'm going to try and use as many of the original parts as I can- lowers, damper rods, etc., only swapping out the bent fork tubes. Busy with work, it may take me a while to get this stage done, but I've been dreaming about this for so long, a couple more weeks won't kill me.

Status Update

Over this week, I got a couple of goodies in the mail! First with the bad. I received one of my OEM pistons from an eBay purchase, but they sent me the wrong size piston in the correct box. I'm still dealing with the clunky return on this item. I won't feel settled until I get all my money back- shipping both ways and the cost of the part.

Now for the good stuff! The piston rings arrived from Germany, I got Taylor 8mm spark plug wires, a new (not OEM) condenser and stainless steel bolts for the engine case cover- all were good. But the best things that came in the mail were the Ikon shocks! These things are beauties! I can't wait to get them on the frame!

I've also been shopping like crazy for a decent set of rearsets for the bike- easier said than done. Basically there are two different design approaches for drum brakes-  1) You can keep the stock system or  2) you can covert to a cleaner cable activated system, that way you can rid yourself of that ugly heavy passenger peg bracket. For option 1, there's Tarozzi for about $370, an old pair of Raask rearsets if you can get Gary from Spec II to call you back, or a used set of MotoCarrera rearsets if you can find some. For option 2, there's Slipstream (Jim will never call you back) or there's Vintage Smoke and you might as well sell a kidney for that system. Or...you can design your own. There are many good peg and lever manufacturers out there, but they don't make mounting plates.

I think I'm going to make my own mounting plates. I can buy some aluminum from eBay for about $20, then grind them down to my configurations and mount whatever I want on them. In the end, it's going to cost about $350, but I can do a cable pull and it will look (and function) more elegantly than the stock system.

I Love the DMV!!!

Over the past few days, I was able to give the frame an initial scrub down to remove most of the grease and grime from it. More work still needs to be done, as some of that dirtiness just won't come off that readily. But I did get it cleaned up enough to actually give the swing arm an initial fit test. Man! I've literally been waiting 10 years just to do that! I know it's not much, but it really made me smile!

I was able to spend a little bit more time with my tool wall getting frequently used tools up where I can grab them. This will also help me to be able to keep track of the commonly tools more easily. Of course I still have a shit ton of more tools that are in drawers unorganized- wood working tools, motorcycle and bicycle specific tools, odds and ends tools that I can't actually hang, etc.

Additionally, I'm finally trying to get my motorcycle "closets" more organized too. I probably have 4 or so riding suits of different kinds- the Alpinestars track suit, my neon yellow winter/rain suit, and my everyday cordura and leather wears. Then there's the boots and the gloves too! I bought some metal closet rods from Target that I'll get mounted, so I can actually hang the pants and jackets.

The biggest triumph of the week happened today, as I had my first official trip to the DMV. I was expecting some big runaround like what happened with my classic BMW car (it took me 5 trips back and forth to the DMV). I had a 2:10p appointment, so I showed up early. I was told to sit down and come back to the window, when my appointment time came up. Hmmph! When it was 2:10, I stepped up to the window and was scolded because I didn't fill out the application! (The one she snuck in behind all the paperwork that I brought to the appointment.) So I filled out the paperwork and returned to the window a third time! But then she realized that she had already given me a number and told me to sit and wait for my number to come up. I only had to wait about 5 minutes to see the registration clerk. After going over my paperwork and forms, she told me that I owed $140 and that I would have to bring in my old license plate.! Wow! It was really just that simple!! But I would have to have the VIN verified. But since I was the owner, I wouldn't even have to go through the CHP- I could do it with no appointment with that same DMV! Wow! My day just kept getting better! The only caviat was that the bike had to be assembled. But I was just ecstatic to know that my bike was now 100% for sure going to be able to get registered on the street! That brought me true peace of mind!

The Calm Before the Storm

I am considering this to be the build of my life. I have built and modified other cars and motorcycles before, but never as a frame-up restoration. I purchased this bike back in 1986, so I've literally been carrying this bike around for the past 33 years in one shape or form. I've been buying parts like mad and have my engine builder totally on board for my specs, so we're really nearing the time to build.

With all that in mind, I thought that a little reorganizing of my garage spaces would be in order. I had all my RD parts in the big garage on the shelves with the Harley and Miata parts. But I'm pretty much going to dedicate the smaller garage to 2-wheel vehicles now- my Harley, the mountain bike and the Yamaha. So I moved all the boxes of RD parts to the small garage, renamed the Pit.

I did a little shuffling around with the work equipment- I have an old hospital cabinet dolly that I absconded with from one of my former places of work that I basically use to store BMW parts and other shit, which now acts as a platform for my portable parts washer. (I found this awesome plastic parts washer online that usually retails for $145, but I was lucky enough to bump into a website that was selling it for $90!! What a steal!!) I bought another inexpensive shelf from Costco to house the boxes of RD parts and shoved it in the corner. And I have a Black & Decker Workmate 425 that I positioned against the wall across from the main work bench.

I've been living in this house for over 3 years, and I'm finally getting around to putting up a pegboard to hang my tools! The old house used to have a small pegboard, installed by the previous owner, so I already had some hangers ready to go. I stopped by Home Depot on my way home from work a couple of days ago and bought some supplies, all of which cost me just a hair over $30! Then I spent yesterday afternoon cutting, hammering and screwing till the board was in place.

I'm still putting up the tools, finding out that some of the hangers aren't sufficient for some of the tools I want to hang. Looks like another trip to HD is in line.

I had a chance to check out the new parts washer and it's pretty awesome! (I filled it with a gallon of the purple Simple Green. After adding water to dilute, it came out to 4 gallons.)

Some time this week, I'll probably start working on the bike again. I would really like to get the frame cleaned up, so I can put the swingarm and triple tree on it- that way I can actually remove the fork caps!