NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

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NotSoLilCrippseys
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#61

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

Nice. I bury some queries in a report from week 1 on the road, and lots of helpful feedback comes my way.

I feel better about ordering the beads now. (4oz., 2 wheels.) The bump in the butt is most noticable between about 35 and maybe 50. After that, it becomes a nonissue; before 30 or so, I don't notice it.

After work today, I looked closely with the bike on the stand and running in first gear. The rear is definitely a bit out of balance. Maybe it threw a weight on day 1. The tires had never been ridden when we bought the bike, but they were mounted and seemed balanced. PO said he had the local motorcycle/ADV/snowmobile shop mount and balance. Maybe he kept it on the side stand and the tire got a little flat spot.

Not sure what I'll do about the springs. I ordered the Progressives. Maybe I jumped the gun a bit. Maybe not I was able to tighten up the hoses a bit without getting that "overtorque" sensation this PM. The wrench is tiny, and I didn't force things. There was still air in them this AM, but I did inflate up to 21psi before riding to work this AM. I'll be watching that pressure over the coming days.

The fork seals are new. But I didn't go in and rebuild the forks. I also have not drained the oil and added new fork oil. It's possible the PO put in too little oil. If I keep having trouble, we'll probably do the Progressives, replace the oil, etc. It'll be good practice for my son, as we'll want to replace fluid in his bike forks before long. (We don't know when they were last done.) We might take that on when we do his valve cover gaskets this summer. We agreed we'd do each of our bikes - one at a time - after we got the GoldWing running. This way neither of us is without a ride in summer, and we can stop looking at oil seeping out of the gaskets and onto the heads.

Success on the brake pedal this PM. After work, I pulled out the MityVac and some fluid. I bled the right front caliper first, topped off the reservoir, then bled the rear. Much, much better. I guess I needed to vibrate some air bubbles through the lines and move more fluid. I'm so happy we won't be frustrated by a pedal with nearly 3" of travel.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
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CYBORG
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#62

Post by CYBORG »

On then
dyna bead front. Only problem I've heard about is be sure the air supply you use is moisture free. I have heard of moisture from an air supply getting into a tire. The beads don't like damp air, and tend to glob up. Causing an in balance. Got that from a dealer who uses them all the time. I use them, and have never had a problem.
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#63

Post by robin1731 »

CYBORG wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:25 pm On then
dyna bead front. Only problem I've heard about is be sure the air supply you use is moisture free. I have heard of moisture from an air supply getting into a tire. The beads don't like damp air, and tend to glob up. Causing an in balance. Got that from a dealer who uses them all the time. I use them, and have never had a problem.
Have to be careful installing the tire too. Not to get the beads wet with rim lube.

.
1976 Goldwing Super Sport
1985 Honda Elite
1976 KZ900 Dragbike
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#64

Post by CYBORG »

robin1731 wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:36 pm
CYBORG wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:25 pm On then
dyna bead front. Only problem I've heard about is be sure the air supply you use is moisture free. I have heard of moisture from an air supply getting into a tire. The beads don't like damp air, and tend to glob up. Causing an in balance. Got that from a dealer who uses them all the time. I use them, and have never had a problem.
Have to be careful installing the tire too. Not to get the beads wet with rim lube.

.
good point
1978 custom GL1000
1977 custom with 1200 engine
1985 gl1200
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NotSoLilCrippseys
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#65

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

Episode XII - Second Week on the Road

Last Sunday, my son and I got out for a nice hourlong tour of backroads in the surrounding towns, with lots of rolling, twisting country roads running around 40 mph - give or take. They're roads we ride pretty regularly. He rode the Wing. His report: a bit heavy but responsive at speed.

Photo of the Wing in the Ace Hardware lot. Looking right at home.
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As he's not really riding to school, with early AM chills and his need for lacrosse gear in the afternoon, I took the Wing to the office again this week. Since pulling her out of the shed, we've put about 600 miles on the bike. (Most of those are my miles.) We're working out the cobwebs. Thankfully, there don't seem to be many.

Fuel Economy
MPG on the first full tank since pulling the bike out: roughly 35, give or take.
MPG on the second tank: 38-9, roughly.
MPG on current tank: looking like just over 40, though I won't calculate until the next fill up, which will need to happen on the next ride.

Tank one had lots of throttle, as I was exploring the bike, though no sustained highway speeds. Tank two was more cruising around and sedate, with periods of higher-rev fun. On the current tank, I've mostly tried to keep things on a predictable, smooth acceleration curve, with limited higher rev riding.

For a 38 year old machine still needing a carb sync, I think that puts the bike somewhere around what one might expect in terms of economy. Of course, the bike is more than 100 lbs lighter than it was when new. Maybe there should be some economy bump. (By comparison, my '84 Honda 650 gets in the mid-50s on basically the same rides I've taken with the Wing.)

Dyna Beads a Bust - so far
Dyna Beads arrived late this week. Installation was a breeze, actually. 10 minutes, with no rush. But they didn't solve the bump in the rear end between 35 and about 50. It might be a bit less severe, but I'm not even going to assert that. There's a kind of bump-bump-bump in the rear, then I think the shocks sync up in some way to smooth it, then it starts again. I can see it in a little right mirror wobble, and my butt knows it's there.

My son didn't notice it last week. I asked him after the ride, and he said it wasn't something he felt. It's there. The ride is just not smooth like butter. Maine roads are just awful - frost heaves, cracks, potholes, truck impressions in the wheel tracks, and more. One could almost just accept the little bumpiness on most of those roads, as it's impossible to isolate the road effect from perhaps a wheel effect. But it's also there on new asphalt.

It doesn't feel dangerous, so I'm not especially concerned. The bike isn't jacking left/right in the rear, it doesn't wobble in the front at speed or on deceleration - even with hands off the bars coming down through the 35mph zone. And it's tracks reliably straight up to at least 80.

On the beads, I put 2oz. in the rear and 2oz in the front. I see that some go with 3oz in the rear. Big bike, big wheel, big bead quantity - maybe.

I'll order some more beads and try a smidge more of these ceramic beads. Though I bought, I'm not sold. (I didn't pull the weights that are on the rear wheel. Last night, I went down a rabbit hole on the matter of keeping/removing those balance weights when using Dyna Beads. From what I've read, the answer seems to be: keep 'em on.)

But perhaps the little hiccup in the seat is less balance and more something else.

Fork Air Update
The Progressive springs arrived this week as well.

Last weekend, we tightened up the air hose between the forks. The fittings were a smidge loose. We topped off the forks at 21psi and left them for the week. Last night, we were at about 16+psi - pressure gauge is hardly the most sensitive or accurate, but using the same gauge gets us the same sloppiness/error. I think there's not much of a leak.

Not sure we'll be swapping springs this summer, when we can top off the air periodically and have something that works well enough for now.

Carb Sync
I'm hoping my son and I can find an hour to synchronize the carbs with our new fangled Carbtune toy. I have figured out how to roll on the throttle so gingerly from a stop that I don't get the chain rattle that I had thought was engine lugging at first. But I cannot avoid the rattle when starting from a dead stop on an uphill. I have one of those stops on the way to work - and one on the way home. I cringe every time I come to the intersection, find traffic, and have to stop and put a foot down.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
digger
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#66

Post by digger »

That bump in the rear might be an out of round tire, have the bike on center stand and place a 2 x 4 perpendicular to the tire, slowly rotate the tire and check the run out by measuring when the tire contacts the board to when it reaches the maximum distance away from the board.
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NotSoLilCrippseys
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#67

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

digger wrote: Sat Apr 10, 2021 9:05 am That bump in the rear might be an out of round tire, have the bike on center stand and place a 2 x 4 perpendicular to the tire, slowly rotate the tire and check the run out by measuring when the tire contacts the board to when it reaches the maximum distance away from the board.
That's likely what it is. I can see a little blip out to the right each rotation when it's in 1st on the center stand and rolling. I figured it was an "out of balance" situation. It's subtle but there. I guess balance and out of round can really be different things. (What I don't know could fill volumes.)

Might out of round be from the bike sitting for a couple years on the side stand and creating a sort of deformation in the rubber? One can hope.

If so, perhaps it'll deform back to round over the next few thousand miles. The tire had 0 miles on it when we bought the bike - nibs all the way to the center, no sign of road wear, etc. And now, there's "wear" right out to about 1/2" of the tread edge - after about 600 miles or so.

We always put our bikes on the center stand at the house, so it won't be resting on the rear wheel for any serious length of time. One day I caught a neighbor's 9 year old sitting on my bike and playing "vroom vroom" - while it was on the side stand. (Accident begging to happen.) It doesn't take much to put a bike on the center stand, and it's far more stable.

And if that blip doesn't fade over time, well, tires don't last forever, whether or not we ride the bike.

We do have another '83 rear wheel and tire with decent rubber. No idea on the balance of the wheel, but if we get ambitious, perhaps we'll do a swap to see if that changes the feel. Most likely, we won't get that ambitious before we put the bikes away for snow-and-ice season.

Today is a day to ride: not a cloud in the sky; high 50s; no real wind; Saturday.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
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Liam
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#68

Post by Liam »

Just how old is that tyre? Rubber hardens with time as when the vulcanising process starts with rubber it never actually stops. The tyre may be unused but if it is more than 5 or 6 years old I would change it.
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#69

Post by Track T 2411 »

Liam wrote: Sat Apr 10, 2021 5:45 pm Just how old is that tyre? Rubber hardens with time as when the vulcanising process starts with rubber it never actually stops. The tyre may be unused but if it is more than 5 or 6 years old I would change it.
+1 Check the date code... a new tire is much cheaper than an ER visit or a destroyed bike. FWIW, I'd also lose the previous weights and let the beads do their work. Right now you may have two forms of balancing working against each other.
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

"He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail" - Abraham Maslow

"If you can't take the time to do it right the first time, how are you ever going to find the time to do it over?" -Unknown

Current Rides:
'Grumpy' - '81 Standard, now fully dressed.
'Layla' - '81 Standard w/dealer installed fairing and Hondaline bags.
'Scarlett' '76 'Survivor' nekkid as a j-bird!

Under Construction:
The 'Jalopy' '78-'79 Mash-up
'Quikie' '81 gl1100I back on the lift, project with the step-son!

In The Shed:
'81 gl1100I barn find aka "Josie, the farmer's daughter." (almost comatose build)
'77 gl1000, roller parts bike.
'82 gl1100I, 'Old Crusty' titled roller parts bike (free!)
'82 gl1100I, My first 'Wing, and an expensive lesson!
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#70

Post by Jonesz »

Liam wrote: Sat Apr 10, 2021 5:45 pm Just how old is that tyre? Rubber hardens with time as when the vulcanising process starts with rubber it never actually stops. The tyre may be unused but if it is more than 5 or 6 years old I would change it.
+1 on this. Can't believe the number of folks that will take a chance on their life and well being for the cost of a new tire. I have friends that thinks nothing of riding on a 10 or 12 year old tire but would never think about taking their bike out with shabby chrome or a scratch in the paint. Good tires are a must when you are relying on two wheels. Find out how to decipher tire age codes and change them due to age as well as wear.
Jonesz

1983 GL1100 Aspencade named "Freki" currently undergoing change to a standard. Sold
1999 Valkyrie CT 1500 goes by the moniker "Valerie"
1978 Gl1000 "Loki" new project going to be a Cafe Convertible
1979 Suzuki GS850. Sold
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NotSoLilCrippseys
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#71

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

Thanks for the notes of caution. Tires are, quite literally, where the rubber meets the road on a two wheeled vehicle.

Both tires are mid-2016, so coming on 5 years from date of manufacture. PO claimed to have had the bike for 3 years and put tires on after about a year, then he never rode the bike. That probably means they were on the shelf until about 2018 - or so. Speculation about the bike resting on the kickstand is just that.

I'm not sure I'm quite ready to pull off the rim weights, but it's a possible move.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
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NotSoLilCrippseys
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#72

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

Episode (lucky) XIII - Out and about a bit

My son will need to pry the keys from my hands, it almost seems. I'm loving this ride. He can take the bike whenever he wants. Fortunately for me, for now, he's burdened with hauling gear all over for lacrosse. (Hmm. Maybe bags and a trunk aren't so bad after all.)

I get a beautiful 12 mile ride through rolling, twisting, tree-lined backroads to work - and 12 miles back - each day. I do need to watch for the turkeys, squirrels, fox, and the occasional cat. Mostly, it's the turkeys that trouble me. 4-10 hens in a row, spread across the road. Or a tom out strutting his stuff while standing in the road.

Last weekend, I set off on what turned into a 2 hour mini-adventure north and west, up 35-50 mph windy roads I've never ridden, through towns I've never seen, and managed a bit of Maine elevation. I didn't turn around until I hit the end of the pavement.
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I managed to sort of get myself a little lost. But not so lost it was a problem. I missed a couple turns on the way back before intersecting with a state road I recognized. The bike performed admirably, save that little issue when starting off (carb sync?).

This weekend, I made some progress on paint while my son was at work - and hanging with the girlfriend.

It's 2 steps forward, 1 back on the paint. I used to paint houses back around the time our GoldWing rolled off the factory floor. I've painted bicycles on occasion. I think I've got things prepped well. Then I hit the panels with color. Too light. Too heavy. Wet sand to clean up. Go again the next weekend. I'm negotiating with myself - do I obsess over the "runs, drips, errors" (for those who remember Johnny Bench from those old Krylon commercials) or call it good enough for a backyard spray job.

My son is less concerned. His response when I report dissatisfaction: "Dad, I know you're not an auto painter. It's not going to be perfect." We're definitely in no danger of being perfect in the paint department.
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The blue color was his choice. (I was pretty sure he'd want a green build. What do I know?)

We were both a bit taken aback when I emerged from the spray "booth" with a Smurf or Blue Man Group fender. But it's grown on us quite a bit. It's not going to look like your standard Standard.

And we may have a name for the bike: The Blue Phoenix.

Left nearly for dead, she emerges from the ashes and rides again.

Our donor bike had a really odd aftermarket bag/trunk, seat setup on it. It was paint matched (including pinstripes) to the stock Brown of the '83, so it was probably a dealer add-on. I've seen the kit on eBay a couple times, but it's really odd. Anyway, it had a smaller-than-stock tail light assembly.

Since we stripped off the bling last Fall, I thought the stock GoldWing tail light looked huge. This morning, I spent an hour with some tools to see what that smaller assembly might look like on the bike.
Not sure why these get rotated when I upload and insert.
Not sure why these get rotated when I upload and insert.
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I'm not sure it'll last, but I like the scale a bit better. The issue is the largish gap between the light and the plate. If we stick with that light, I think we'll need to fabricate something to cover the opening and clean up the look a bit.

And we finally encased our snakeskin in a resin puck. Never having worked with that stuff before, I wasn't sure what results we'd get. I had to use some sea glass to keep our snakeskin from floating up, which frustrated me at the time. But the color is nice.
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The puck won't fit under the seat as we had hoped. It's in the tool bin for now - and perhaps forever.

In other really cool news, Rednaxs60 gifted us some gorgeous GL1000 emblems for the build, and they arrived about a week ago. No spoilers here. We've got a spot picked out for the big one. Not yet sure about the medium and small ones. All in good time.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
Paola Zago
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#73

Post by Paola Zago »

excellent idea to keep the snake skin under resin, so it will be eternal, otherwise it would crumble in a short time.
Congratulations for all the work on the motorcycle and for the continuous small progress
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Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#74

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

Episode XIV - 1000 miles and counting

We marked a 1000 mile mark on April 15.

I was warming up the bike before throwing a leg over to head home from work when I noticed we were probably near 1k. It was dead-on 1k. Before and after photos don't lie.
Winter shot from the shed
Winter shot from the shed
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Parking lot at work
Parking lot at work
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I don't have an odometer count in front of me, but we have to be close to 1500 miles by now. Put differently, we've put about 2% of the lifetime mileage on the bike since rolling it out of the shed this spring.

Here, in brief, is what's been happening.

Dynabeads.
I pulled the weights off the wheels, as suggested. No real change. Another ounce of beads in each wheel seemed to maybe - sort of - smooth things out a bit. But there's still a little bump that isn't much if any less than it was before. I'm being picky. I can see out the mirrors just fine at all speeds, and nothing ever gets squirrelly. I think that's the end of the line on trying to fix whatever it is - until we spring for new tires. That'll come before too long if we're racking up 1000+ miles a month.

Tach.
The tach on the bike always bounced around at idle. The bike idled fine; the tach was funky. We tried lube. It got better, and I thought use might improve things over time. It never really settled down. I wasn't sure if it was the cable or the unit. So we swapped the donor bike's tach one afternoon. Better. Much better. As in "fixed."

Carb Sync.
We did the sync a couple weekends ago. There's a notable improvement, but it takes a lot of finesse to avoid the chain rattle -which I'm developing- and it's not completely avoidable when starting on an uphill. I don't like the sound, my sense that it's a needless stress on the motor, and the work needed to avoid it. My son doesn't like it at all. We'll re-sync and play around a bit more. I worry a bit about other possible causes.

Paint.
Closer, but no cigar. I'm hoping one more trip to the booth with the blue, and then we can get with the clear. My son graduates in early June. I'd like for him to be able to ride the Blue Phoenix by then, but it's my ability - and time - that's holding it back. Given my work insanity, I can see that I'm running out of time. Soon after graduation, he's heading out for a six week cross-country road trip with his girlfriend. If I miss the window, I guess he'll return and find a different looking bike.

Saddle field report.
The recover is wearing well. There's no notable damage, sagging, etc. I guess we bought quality vinyl. 1000 miles at, say, an average of 35mph works out to about 30 hours in the saddle. It's not exactly a battle test, but I'd imagine a really sloppy job would show early signs of weakness by now.

Battery.
I never imagined this would happen, but we somehow rehabilitated the battery over winter. When we picked up the bike, we were told it was a new battery that had sat for a couple years in the bike - ground disconnected. It didn't work at all. We trickle charged and eventually could get one good crank with a full charge. Often, though, we needed the booster pack to get cranking amps. Over winter, in the shed, it seemed to get better and better. All the while, I knew we'd need a new battery for spring. But we've been good since pulling the bike out for spring, which is not bad.

Vacuum advance.
This was a "don't fix what ain't broke" issue. I was reading this winter about the vacuum advance test - draw vacuum and see if it holds. If not, just disconnect the vacuum advance and plug the vacuum line from the intake. Our bike failed that test, so we cut the hose and plugged it. A couple tanks of gas ago, I found the bike would occasionally lag or maybe sputter or miss in the acceleration curve. It was bugging me.

We pulled the vacuum line from the donor bike and put it on. I used the manual/oral vacuum technique while the motor was running. Suck on the vacuum advance, and the motor responds. It might leak down a bit, as we saw with the mityvac, but the vacuum advance does work. We hooked it back up, and the bike accelerates more smoothly - more reliably - from idle up to maybe 3k. Beyond that, there's never hesitation. We fixed what wasn't quite broken, and broke it in the process.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
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NotSoLilCrippseys
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Posts: 522
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:21 am
Location: York County, Maine

Re: NGW Project in Maine - 1983 Interstate

#75

Post by NotSoLilCrippseys »

Episode XV - First Serious Issue - Water in Oil after Rain (seemingly resolved, thankfully)

We learned the hard way last week that the GL1100 false tank does not prevent water intrusion into the carbs and the case. Holy smokes.

After riding the Wing home from work in the rain, I didn't cover it because the bike was hot and, well, it was raining. Then I didn't cover it overnight in a hard rain, or the next day. (Bad move, but it happens sometimes.)

Results: Battery drained. I pulled the air cleaner (wet), saw some water drops in the intake, and elsewhere in there.

I let it dry for 2 days. When I started it up, it ran horribly, even after another of rest. Right off, I found that #2 was misfiring on start, once the bike was running a hair better. My first thought was fried ignition components - wires, CDIs, coils.

I swapped in coils, plugs, CDIs from our donor bike. Not better, and not worse. I confirmed that all 4 wires were live and firing plugs.

Frustrated, I found myself bent over the right side of the bike. Then I saw it: Disaster in the oil sight glass - creamy oil. This was new.

Head gasket? How did water get into the crankcase? I thought physics - Water into air intake, trickles down into the crankcase through breather tube, ok. But I thought I might be making up reasons.
PXL_20210511_220951828.jpg
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NGW to the rescue, with Track T 2411 (Todd) having confronted this issue with his Wing some years back. He reported a similar problem with his bike after a really hard rain. His story helped calm me down a bit.

The next evening, I changed out the oil and filter and poured about a quart of fresh oil in and let it drain right out to quickly dilute the crap. I drained the carbs just to flush out any water in the gas. Then I ran the bike a bit on the stand. Nothing serious or too heavy, but I wanted to put fresh oil through the system. Immediately, it was more responsive and sounding good. Whew!

The next evening, I drained out the oil and put in another round of fresh oil - with another filter. I geared up, dropped her off the stand, and ran her down the road.

Woo Hoo.
Avatar is a summer '21 photo of the Blue Phoenix, our 1983 GL1100I rescue gone naked.

In the Stable and Ridable
1992 ST1100 - my longer haul tourer
1992 XJ600S - son's streetfighter
1987 VFR700 - son's latest, in blue/silver
1983 - GL1100I - naked Blue Phoenix (son's, really)
1982 GL1100I - naked bagger Cabernet
1979 GL1000 - Ginger Lynn, but not that Ginger Lynn (Wing and a Prayer)
1978 CB550K - son's cafe (carb issues still vex)

Active Project(s)
1979 GL1000 - Confirmed one owner, with original paperwork. Vetter fairing and bags, off the road in dry, heated storage for 35 years.

Sold
Not lookin' back to avoid regrets
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