My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#61

Post by robin1731 »

Notice he is talking about soaking.

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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#62

Post by bigburlybug »

robin1731 wrote:Notice he is talking about soaking.

.
Well that's good because I didn't soak them.
I'll admit to some anxiety on working on the carb rack since, "everything affects everything". As such, I'll be working on them real slow. Right now they are out of the bike.
Image


So I put them in the carb cleaner machine on thursday. And then got scared that the old carb cleaner might damage it after reading the tutorial. :cry:
Image While the outside looks pretty shiny now, the inside.....
Image
could use a little work. The #4 butterfly valve was stuck shut but the rest moved. My experience here is extremely limited so the carbs might be good, they might be bad and I'll only know once I try to start up the bike. More to learn :) .

I also tested out most of the electrical systems.
Image

I removed the starter from the bad engine and hooked it up by jumping to the frame and reattaching the hot wire. I pressed the start button and WHIRRRRR! The starter and solenoid works! party2 I also tried the highbeams. THEY LIT UP! dancr The turn signals, they light up! but don't blink :-? . I Also tried the horn, BEEEEEEEEEEEP! it works too lolol It made me feel good to hear some noise come from the bike :) All of the corresponding lights on the gauge cluster lit up as well. :showoff Now that I'm a little more optimistic I might go buy a battery. Since the engine was out, the coils, neutral, temperature, and fuel level gauges could all be bad. Only one way to figure that out though.

Carbs are the next item to complete along with getting an engine.
Last edited by bigburlybug on Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#63

Post by toolbox »

Yep, you won't hurt them hosing them down with carb cleaner. It will strip the clear coat off the caps (or whatever is left of it anyway), but other than that they should be fine. When I wanted to polish mine, I actually used carb cleaner to dissolve the clearcoat so I could do it. If it turns out your gauges are bad, I've got the internals that came from my junkyard gauge cluster...I don't know if they work, but I could probably wire them up and test them. The internals aren't that hard to swap into the housing. Glad to hear that even though it needs a heart transplant, she's still got some life in her :). And those carbs will probably clean up fine...an ultrasonic machine is really the way to go (HF sells one, but I don't know how well they work)...if you don't have access to one, you can boil them to get most of the crud out.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#64

Post by bigburlybug »

toolbox wrote:Yep, you won't hurt them hosing them down with carb cleaner. It will strip the clear coat off the caps (or whatever is left of it anyway), but other than that they should be fine... If it turns out your gauges are bad, I've got the internals that came from my junkyard gauge cluster.. Glad to hear that even though it needs a heart transplant, she's still got some life in her :). ...an ultrasonic machine is really the way to go (HF sells one, but I don't know how well they work)...if you don't have access to one, you can boil them to get most of the crud out.
Well the clear coat is crud anyways so that won't be bothering me. I'll keep you in mind if my gauges don't work, I'm guessing (hoping) they will since the rest of it worked. An ultrasonic machine would be nice.... but this is the only bike I plan on restoring so I'll stick with boiling.

And speaking of heart transplants, I took a little road trip car1 to pick up this big hunk of metal.
Image
It didn't come with the starter, oil filter housing, or timing covers but it did come with the surronding frame lolol . Since I have those and both work, $200 bucks seemed like an okay deal. He showed me a video of it running, I turned it over with a wrench fairly easily, intake headers were clean, the exhaust not quite so much. He also helped me finagle it into my car :showoff. I'll stick my starter on it, hook up the wiring, and watch it spin. Maybe even stick some WD-40 or seafoam into the spark plugs to hear it roar, if just for a second. So that'll be going on the bike here shortly.

Also started tearing down the carbs and soaking. Lots of little pieces.
Image
(The float actually floats!)

Gotta go, lots to do.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#65

Post by toolbox »

Nice score! Two hundred bones sounds like a great deal for a running long block :) . Heck, I'd gladly pay twice that if I really needed one...particularly if it was close enough to drive to pick it up. I think I'd probably take the truck though ;) .
At the rate you're going, you'll have it up and running in no time... Just make sure it's got oil and a filter before you start cranking on it, the bearings are probably pretty dry. Might also want to double check the timing and valve clearance while you're at it...it needs to be done anyway, and it would be good to make sure it's right before it spins too much.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#66

Post by Easter »

$200 for a solid engine is a very good price. That photo of the engine in the car seat makes my back hurt just looking at it!
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#67

Post by bigburlybug »

Easter wrote:$200 for a solid engine is a very good price. That photo of the engine in the car seat makes my back hurt just looking at it!
Lol. The other guy did most of the lifting so it didn't hurt me at all haha :) Getting it out was a little more stressful.

I should clarify that he showed me a video of an engine running and said it was that one. I'm inclined to believe him but who knows? Its also SUPER oily below the headers. Its all around the engine though so I don't think there is a mechanical issue. They also painted it an aluminum color (why?!). So all that crappy paint job will have to come off :( Cleaning is going to take a while :drunk .

The starter bolts that connects the starter to the block also had their heads chopped off leaving their bodies in the hole. I'll either have to try some tricks or re-tap in order to put my starter on. Re-tapping doesn't sound like a treat so anybody have some tricks?
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#68

Post by toolbox »

These engines were originally painted...could it be original paint, or did they spray over a bunch of grease and whatnot? The polished aluminum parts were clearcoated, but the regular aluminum parts were painted an aluminum color. I think the paint must be lacquer...carb cleaner will dissolve it almost instantly.
On the stuck bolts, if you have access to a welder, the best trick I've ever found is to weld another bolt to whatever is left of the original one...the heat breaks it loose, and the new bolt give you something to turn it out. It will even work on stubs that are recessed a little (depending on the diameter of it)...the weld only sticks to the steel and not to aluminum.
If there's enough of the stub left, you might be able to grind or file a couple of flats on it it, and then pound an undersize socket onto it (a cheap one you don't mind trashing), and then just back it out. I've had a few steel bolts stuck in aluminum because of corrosion that forms between the dissimilar metals. Heat goes a long way toward breaking that.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#69

Post by bigburlybug »

I'll try the welding trick, the guy cut it flush with the block. Thanks Toolbox.

The back half of the block/transmission is painted black so the paint might be primer or something. All I know is that it doesn't look like the broken engine which I'm quite sure is original and the paint looks bad. I'll get it off eventually though. Once I get the carbs looking good (need to start working on that I guess).
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#70

Post by Easter »

I hesitate to recommend it but I have had good luck getting the initial goo and grime off by first washing with gasoline, then power washing. Just be sure all the openings are plugged up good. I usually follow with solda blasting and some wire brushing. It is never easy but if you can wash off the worst of the goo first, the wire brushing is easier. I keep an old 4x8 plywood out behind the garage just for this purpose. All the junk stays on the plywood and dries up eventually.
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#71

Post by bigburlybug »

toolbox wrote: The polished aluminum parts were clearcoated, but the regular aluminum parts were painted an aluminum color. I think the paint must be lacquer...carb cleaner will dissolve it almost instantly. ...
Toolbox was right, I think its the original aluminum paint and laquer, it was just hard to see under all that grime. I have it cleaned up to the point where I can handle it without getting coated in grease so I'm going to leave it at that until I have the bike running crossy.gif . Then I'll tear it all down again, super clean it, and get what I want painted, painted (I don't trust my wrenching skills enough to have no issues the first time).

Finally bought some Yamaha Carb cleaner so the carbs will get a soak tonight and rebuild later. I've been slacking a bit on the build :(.

So how important is it that the exhaust headers / valve be free of carbon build up? The intake headers are pristine :) but the exhaust is coated black. It would be nice to do all the timing stuff and run it without taking the heads off to clean but if it needs done, I'll do it.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#72

Post by toolbox »

There's a couple routs you could go with this one... You could put the starter on it, and do a compression test to see where you're starting from. You could also use an air compressor to see if you can hear anything leaking past the valves (with the cylinder at TDC on the compression stroke), in which case it would make sense to pull the heads for a valve job. If there's no leakage, it's really up to you if you want to pull the heads and clean them up. A little carbon in the exhaust ports isn't a big deal, and I'd say it's up to you if it's worth the time and money to clean them. If there's big chunks in there, that might be another story :lol: . Or, you could just stab it in there and run it and see how it goes :mrgreen: . If it has problems you need to fix, the bike actually makes a pretty decent engine stand ;) .
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#73

Post by Easter »

I agree with toolbox. Heads can wait. They are easy to get to with the engine in the frame and it is nice to know what your compression is before you tear into it. I just redid the heads on my 78 and it isn't a big deal but unless you enjoy that sort of thing I would wait to see if it is needed.
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#74

Post by bigburlybug »

Easter wrote:I agree with toolbox. Heads can wait. They are easy to get to with the engine in the frame and it is nice to know what your compression is before you tear into it. I just redid the heads on my 78 and it isn't a big deal but unless you enjoy that sort of thing I would wait to see if it is needed.
Just what I wanted to hear anim-cheers1 . I went ahead adjusted the valves and changed the timing belts. I'll catch any other issues when I try to start it up lolol . It was a good time getting the the feeler gauges and going through the process of checking everything. I'm going to double check it before putting it in the frame just one more time though. Thanks again to Roady for that tutorial and the shoptalk page in general! Makes this stuff so much easier.

I did the timing belts before valve adjustment but I wanted to leave questions till last. I long ago read the shoptalk thread dealing with the timing belts and so figured I'd just follow along, line by line which lead to a deviation from that procedure. Lets see if you can spot it :)
So here's what I did. First I noticed the cam wheels from my old engine were less rusty than the ones on the newer one so I took off the rusty ones. Also cleaned up some more junk since it was convenient. Image
Then I replaced the good looking ones and started reading the tutorial to replace the belts. I put on the left side belt making sure the marks were aligned and loosely put on the tensioner and spring. So far so good and rather easy.
I stuck a wrench on the right side cam wheel bolt and used my feet to rotate it to its mark so I could have two hands free to put the timing belt on. I fretted over getting the top tight and the bottom as loose as possible and loosely installed the tensioner. Not so easy but still ok.
Then I rotated the crankshaft 360 clockwise and checked the timing marks. T1 looked good, the right side looked good Image
and the left side looked off by a tooth :(.
Image
So I loosed the left tensioner, took off the belt, after a little trial and error, got it rotated one tooth with the other marks aligned and the top portion of the belt not too slack. I loosed the right side tensioner, rotated 360, tightened tensioners, and checked the marks. The left was moved down one notch from the above picture and the rest looked the same. To me, that looked right dancr . I did a couple of rotations and didn't hear any strange noises or feel any bumps.

My minor question, is it important to have the same amount of slack on the belt opposite the tensioner? They seem different from the left and right and the tensioner doesn't really do anything about it.

So here's the deviation if you didn't catch it and the major question. I'm assuming Octane has a good reason to specifically mention not to loosen the cam wheel bolts in the shoptalk tutorial http://ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3544 I just don't know why though. The cams are keyed so its rather hard to put them on wrong. Maybe the possibility of the cam straying from perpendicularity and causing wear on the belts?

So that's the update, slowly getting there.
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Re: My New Old Bike - 1982 Gl 1100I Rebuild

#75

Post by Easter »

If I followed along, I think Octane was just saying it isn't necessary under normal situations to loosen or remove the cam wheels or bolts. As far as tension goes, my experience is that it is normal for some variation in tension which goes away under power. At least it hasn't been an issue on the five or six I have done. Glad to see you weren't fooled by that extra mark on the right wheel!
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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