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1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 9:56 pm
by flyin900
I am posting a few of the take apart pictures of various parts of the bike, since I didn't take a picture of the whole bike initially. This bike has been an adventure in patience and frustration at every turn. I restored a 1980 GL1100 Standard about 5 years ago and while that too was somewhat of a challenge this bike the 1976 GL1000 has set a new record.

I had to replace the water pump with a new one after a failed rebuild of the original and more than a few attempts to find the problem with my rebuild work. Then chasing water leaks in the front transmission cover and thermostat housing and the temp sensor areas. The left cylinder head had a micro crack down in the oil drain back port that I missed initially leading to an oil leak, possibly when the head was decked at the machine shop that required a replacement head. The carb rebuild and starter clutch rebuild all were a learning experience, along with repairing the main wiring harness from PO's who added various accessories and butchered the harness and connectors. After reading about others adventures on the forums it seems with these 40+ year old Goldwings most of this is par for the course.

This bike had sat for 12+ years in a garage fortunately, yet was in terrible shape overall even if the motor was still free on the kickstarter. It sported a set of the LTD edition gold spoked DID rims which frankly became my main interest, since I thought that worse case senerio I could recover my initial purchase price on the rims alone if needed. It also came with a brand new starter clutch assembly and other Honda parts as the owner indicated the starter clutch was shot.



wiring harness
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gas tank area non stock seat mods by PO
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timing cover missing bolt
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headlight wiring-removed every scotch lock and soldered and heat shrinked every damaged wire
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starter clutch gear drive - needed replacing from rust pitting on roller contact surface
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 10:04 pm
by flyin900
The bike was in need of a complete teardown of both the motor and the frame and brakes to get it to a place where a rebuild and repaint could start to take place. I found a cylinder that had some pitting from an exhaust valve being open and these motors are more prone to moisture getting into the bores because of the flat engine design. The old starter clutch needed to be removed from the rotor housing and it took a bit of work and heat to get the old part free from the rotor and then a new starter clutch housing and new rollers, pins and springs were installed.
There was nothing in decent shape on the bike and the more I got into the teardown and restoration in hindsight the bike probably should have been parted out. The cylinder pitting damage was a case of hand sanding and reworking the area to get it decent enough to not damage the rings in the piston.

rear brake caliper-leaky seals and fluid damaged pads
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starter clutch- lots of rusty corrosion and roller pitting-a new part installed in overhaul
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cylinder damage- couldn't get it totally cleaned up
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rear end- some gouges that did polish out eventually
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shelter electrical- the 7 volt reg in bottom of pic was shot.
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 10:26 pm
by flyin900
After the teardown I was able to start with the cleaning and repainting of larger parts such as the frame and associated smaller parts that hold the bike together. I cleaned the swing arm bearings and seals as they were solid from old grease and I needed a replacement drive shaft, as the original had too much play in the U joints. The front forks were rebuilt, repolished lowers and all new wheel bearings in the wheels along with new tires.
I put in a new clutch pack with mother Honda metal and EBC fibre plates and new Honda springs and a complete new starter clutch assembly. I needed to replace the starter clutch gear assembly that the rollers grab onto as the surface was severely pitted on the original part. The starter itself was fully rebuilt with all new internal key parts. I did the clutch scavanger oil pump modification while in there too and replace the output bearing in the rear case that supports the output shaft where it exits the case. All rear case seals were replaced with new and the kick starter assembly was taken apart and cleaned up to get it working correctly again, as it wouldn't return after being kicked down.
The front of the motor had new tensioner rollers and new timing belts, water pump and all new sensors for the water temperature housings. New hoses and thermostat and all new seals in the front housing/transmission cover. The carbs were rebuilt with Randakk's kit plus the throttle shaft felts were replaced with new and that caused some further work to get the throttle plates back to factory settings.
The gas tank was a mess inside of really old gas that took ages to get clean, yet the payoff was a spotless rust free tank under all that "protective coating" :-D I rebuilt and refreshed all the switches by taking them apart and cleaning and repainting the housings, plus the speedo and tach were also taken apart and cleaned and lubed.

switch before
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switch after
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rear case rebuild progress
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awaiting heads return
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motor ready for install
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The heads were all redone with a valve job and new stem seals and as noted the heads were decked too. I later found one had an issue with a crack down in the oil return port when I got the bike running initially. I tried to fix the oil leak around the 6mm bolt with the putty style metal repair on both the outside and inside of the head. It didn't work and while a weld job may have repaired it; I opted for a replacement head as I was feeling snake bitten with this project. :( I did also do the rocker arm fix noted in the Tech section of the forum from Old Fogey and he was very helpful when I initally got the bike running in helping me correct the carb throttle plate issue that I had after replacing the throttle shaft felts when I did the carb rebuild.

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:02 pm
by flyin900
The brakes have all new parts inside the calipers including pistons, as there was some very minor pitting on the original pistons, just enough to start weepy leaks on the front calipers after just a seal replacement initially. I was able to find some NOS early style Vesrah brake pads here locally that a seller had for sale. I cleaned and polished every aluminum part on the bike including the scratched up part that holds the rear shock to the pumpkin drive. I used the "Sirus Consolidated" new OEM style rubber brake hose kit, since it includes all front and the rear pieces plus the speciality rear rubber caliper hose.
I used a DupliColor lacquer called "Molten Metallic Red" for the main colour on the bike panels and a stock graphics kit where I altered the pin stripes on the false tank to a single stripe. All new hardware was purchased to rebuild the side cover locking screws and I added/modified the footrests from a Honda VTX onto the GL1000 front peg mounts and GL1200 standard rear passenger pegs.
The headlight is from a 1979 CX500 which uses the same bucket as the 76 GL1000, yet the light fixture is a replaceable 55 watt H4 bulb instead of the sealed beam 40W original to the stock bike. I have a GL1000 LTD seat with the bike and there are a few other LTD parts on the bike itself, yet the serial numbers on the frame and motor indicate it isn't a LTD edition model. It actually was originally the Sulfur Yellow colour, which I now understand was a rare colour for the bike too. I have added a Corbin Touring saddle and the back rest that will be my starting riding gear once I get this on the road next spring. This required adding some era correct pull back pieces to the top bridge/handle bars to assist my arm reach to use the Corbin back rest correctly.

bike inside fall 2015
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gauge cluster after refresh
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bike in garage recently
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Some gold accents to highlight the LTD gold wheels.
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latest progress awaiting muffler install
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The stock Honda 'horseshoe' muffler required new front inlet pipes to be welded onto the old broken off stubs, so I used the short 4" exhaust flange adaptors available from auto parts stores. I found two that had the correct sizing to fit over the muffler section stubs for welding a solid repair and expanded larger on the front to accept the exhaust header and the sealing gasket.

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:11 pm
by flyin900
The bike is now finished for the year and I was able to get the appraisal on it a few days ago before the dusting of snow here recently. I have taken quite a few finished pictures of the bike showing a complete interior of the shelter work to start with and ending with various shots of the bike with both the stock Honda LTD seat that came with the bike and an aftermarket Corbin seat that I purchased locally with the back rest.
I am running a set of stock CB450 Black Bomber double sprung points with a really old set of Dyna 3 Ohm coils from 1978 before they were even called Dyna and a Hondaman electronic points box to assist the points in longivity and performance.

Shelter left shot - forgot fuse box cover
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Shelter right
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Middle shot
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Tool kit and reprint of owners manual
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 2:55 pm
by flyin900
The bike has finally come together after quite a few challenges that in hindsight were due to maybe cutting corners, yet I see where many on here also don't wish to spend for new parts for every piece replaced. I feel I have about $2400. in parts and machine shop work into the bike plus the purchase price of $300, so it really came out very reasonable overall. I did have some parts help where I can buy batteries, paint, seals and bearings at cost from from my PT job. : crossy.gif

Right front with corbin seat
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Left front
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Left rear
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Motor left
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Right rear
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 3:01 pm
by flyin900
The rest of these shots are just various angles and close ups of the finished work.

Right front
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Right front wheel
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Right switch
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Left switch
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Gauge cluster
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 3:06 pm
by flyin900
Left rear
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Right rear using GL1200 rear passenger pegs
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Honda VTX foot peg adapted to Goldwing bracket
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Stock Goldwing seat
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Right rear goldwing seat
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 3:07 pm
by flyin900
Right engine case close up
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Left engine case
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Front fender stripe treatment + matching on rear fender
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Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 4:13 pm
by Sugs
Wow, nice job on this. I'm always in awe of you guys that take a restoration to the most minute detail. I don't have the patience.

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 4:45 pm
by Oldboy
Great looking....really perfer the stock seat. Fantastic detail work. Sure to be BOTM....at the very least!

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 5:03 pm
by 5speed
beautiful job...

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 8:11 pm
by Patriccio
Yep, darn good job.

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 4:15 pm
by Dog Boy
Very nice! Well done!

AL

Re: 1976 GL1000 with LTD wheels- year long project

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 8:22 pm
by ericheath
Awesome work. Thanks for the pics and share.