1976 GL1000 LTD

[ZanVooden]

Thanks for all the compliments. Yes they did come along ways.

Well I got the rack back on the bike, and filled the bike with oil and coolant, and filled the carb bowls and primed the fuel pump with fuel. One quick hit of the starter button and it fired right over.

That has got to be one of the best sounds ever!

It idled nicely, and had plenty of throttle response. Shifted through the gears while on the center stand just to make sure everything was ok on that front. Will need a little tuning, some popping out the exhaust. The mufflers appear to be riddled with holes, so thats not great.

One fairly major issue. I let the bike warm up watching the temp gauge to see if the fan would kick on, and it didnt. So I now need to diagnose why thats not happening.

[Fred Camper]

Well, a fan switch is not major. Cheap and available. Did you let it get close to the end of the gauge?, mine needs to be well past normal before the fan comes on.

[ZanVooden]

Did a little more running of the bike tonight. Sure enough, just needed to let it run a little more and get warmer. Turns out I need to make a new 7v regulator as the current one is putting out about 9v which is making my gauges read high.
So the fan did come on, and all is well.

Even took it around the parking lot. Had to keep it really slow as the bike currently has no brakes. but it was kinda fun.

I wiped the bottom of the bike off really well and next time I go work on the bike (probably Sunday as Saturday I'm going to the Badger's game. Go Badgers!) I'll check for any oil leaks.

Otherwise the bike is ready to be tore apart.

[ericheath]

You probably know this, but in case you don't, running the gauges at 9 volts will slowly destroy your gauges. You could unplug it until you get another. I used the cheapo digital from Digikey, about $1.29. It's been there for 5-6 years.

[ZanVooden]

Yeah, I know that it is detrimental running the gauges at 9v. I was only running it for a short time to test it and make sure everything was working.

Anyway, so now that I now the engine runs and runs decently well I started to disassemble everything. Almost an entire can of PB Blaster later and its mostly apart.

I'm going to start by cleaning up and painting the frame and that way I can clean/paint/rebuild parts and reassemble the bike.

Here are a couple of progress pictures.

[polkadot]

Now were talkin'!

[dbtroudy]

Down to the bare basics. Are you going to repaint the frame or have it powder coated?

Don

[ZanVooden]

I'm just planning on painting the frame.

[Hal]

I like painted frames too. I use a catalysed black which to me seems to be shinier than the PC I've seen.

It's definitely more difficult though.

[dbtroudy]

I've used a two part PPG urethane gloss black paint with success. The key is to use the right primer paint as the base coat. I've never powder coated a frame before but I'm thinking about it for a Honda CL200 I have sitting out back under a tarp. I know that the powder coat holds up to quite a bit of abuse. When i worked in the amusement park industry we powdered coated the ride queue rails and never had problem with chipping paint.

Don

[Fred Camper]

Those look like they may be 1100 headers, but that is certainly a early GL1000 muffler. Unless LTD's did not have cast headers like the rest of the early wings? Either way, they should function well.

[vzuden]

Could the original headers on the LTD be stainless?

[dbtroudy]

The headers on my LTD are not stainless. They are just like the headers on my '75 Blue-green and '76 yellow.

Don

[murrayf]

before running it much make sure the tank is clean and free of grit also make sure you have a good inline filter still installed so

you dont put crap in the carbs

[ZanVooden]

Well running it again is along way off, but after I pulled the fuel tank out, I poured in about a half quart of ATF and sloshed it around to coat the side.
I'm all too aware of what happens to a gas tank that's been sitting for too long empty. I de-rusted my CB750F tank on 3 different occasions.