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Poked around tonight. Thought I grabbed it on the first try only start crawling down the ladder with the horn/turn signal side. I looked for twenty minutes, no luck. I look again when it’s cooler.

Thanks Eric, appreciate it!

I took my switch housing apart last night to see if I could clean and salvage the switch. But the mounting tab is broken and the whole switch rattles around in there. No wonder it was binding. There is no good way to repair it. The plastic body is very brittle as well.

In the event I can't source a stock replacement, I ordered a momentary SPDT switch off DigiKey which should emulate the stock button functions. I can convert the system to use relays as well in order to run the headlight directly off the battery for some additional light output. I was thinking the high/low beam switch would trigger one relay (sending input power to either the high/low filaments), and the start button would trigger a different relay (normally closed position being power to headlight, open sending power to starter solenoid). ......or something like that.



In other news, I picked up a Vetter IV windjammer with lowers and a stereo last night

It's in great shape, black, matches the bags. I'm gonna give it a try, just for fun... can't believe I'm saying that after making fun of windjammers forever. Getting old??

Also picked up a spare set of valve covers to polish up, a drive shaft, and Clymer manual. Good spare parts day.

Looked again tonight-/no dice.

Ericheath - thanks for looking. I really do appreciate it. I'll proceed with the aftermarket DIY switch in that case.

Recap of last night's long shop session:

First up, I went over to my buddy's house to scrounge up the drive-shaft I mentioned buying recently. It's off a '79 and in excellent shape. Splines were covered in lube and the u-joint has zero play. I'm going to be swapping this shaft in once my moly-lube comes in.

Next up, on to the clutch. I read the nice write-up 'Octane' made on removing the clutch with the engine in the frame. He wasn't joking when he said you need a wide assortment of 10mm tools to get in there! I think I had seven of them on hand and used most of 'em.

Removal is actually quite straight forward. I have the Honda clutch nut tool. It took a long time to carefully back out the pressure plate bolts 1/2 turn at a time to prevent it from cracking, and then re-installing all the springs with washers to keep the clutch locked up from moving when spinning off the centre-nut. It was tricky to get my big 1/2" ratchet in there, but using a flex-head and a 6" extension I was able to make it happen.

I could tell someone had been in here before. The centre-nut was deformed from someone using a punch instead of the proper tool. When I removed the clutch basket I was surprised to find what seems to be a pretty new clutch!

I measured the springs, steel plates, and friction plates. Everything measured very close to the 'new' spec. I still have to check for flatness tonight.

Biggest surprise was that I found the newer B-plate, with teeth on both rings! It had me wondering why the previous owner had done all this work... obviously he was trying to solve a clutch issue as well I guess. Then again, with only 30,000 miles, this could be the original clutch and only the B-plate was replaced as a precaution.

No way to know, so I'm ordering an EBC friction kit, and will re-use the steels provided they check out as flat.

The basket and carrier look excellent. I can see where the friction tabs engaged, but can't actually feel any notches or divots. Really the whole assembly appears quite good...

While I was 'in there' I decided to pull the oil pump mesh screen on the right side. Honda is supposed to be known for great engineering but someone was asleep at the wheel here. That last bolt behind the frame was nearly impossible to get out. In the end I managed, and replaced it with a 10mm hex bolt 1mm shorter, which made all the difference when re-installing.

Mesh screen was nearly 100% clean, FYI.

So... clutch gasket, friction plates, Motion Pro cable, and tab washer are in the mail. But what about my rough engagement at the end of the lever travel? Still not sure about that.

By the time I'm assembled I'll have eliminated a lot of possibilities - cable, clutch discs, adjustment, drive-shaft u-joint, spline lube. The only thing left would be cush rubbers (in the rear wheel and inside the cases). I'll report back once assembled and test riding.

Few more pics of the process. Here's a collection of most of the tools I used on this job.

I can't help but organize stuff when it's on this grid-cutting mat

Been slow going while waiting on my parts to arrive. So while I wait for the clutch parts, I decided to take a look at my turn signals.

I had mentioned the were acting strange - no running lights in the front, sometimes I'd get running lights in the rear, which should never happen. Irregular flashing etc.

I started by pulling the rear lenses off - bingo, I have dual filament bulbs and sockets in there. These are front signals, not rears! They matched the fronts exactly.

The wiring was all over the place. BOTH front and rear had the running light circuit wired to the flasher wires. And then the hot flasher circuits were tied together and sent to ground, of all places. So I had grounded sockets, and grounded flasher circuits. Weird.

I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I"m suspecting my double ground issue contributed to my irregular flashing. In addition, I found some of the wires had been spliced in three to four locations, each time just bare copper wire twisted together with electrical tape over it. No solder!

All that garbage was cut out. I had a pair of late 70's rear signals which I gutted for the single filament sockets and managed to fit them into the '75 housing. So now i have proper 1157 bulbs up front, 1156 in the rear, with fresh wires running from the socket to the wiring harness.

I ran out of 3.5mm brass bullet connectors though, so I have some arriving later today. Then I'll run the wiring in a sheath and finish up this job.

While inspecting inside the headlight bucket, I found evidence of melted plastic or something. It looks to me that either the previous owner used a liquid electrical tape product to patch up some bad insulator housing, OR there was a minor short circuit event which did some damage. I have a lot of cracked insulation and some exposed hot copper wire, so all of that is getting cut out and new connectors crimped on tonight.

I'm out of the dual-female connectors though, so I may have to solder those three-way's for now until they arrive.

I also replaced my starter switch! This went quite well. I don't have radio shack in Canada so I found a suitable, maybe better even, switch on DigiKey. It is rated to 6amps vs the 3amp radio shack switch. Three terminal momentary switch. So I could install it as a direct replacement for stock. However I used this as an opportunity to add a relay kit to my headlight. Now the headlight is powered directly off a fused line from the battery, through a relay. The first relay is tied to the starter switch so the headlight shuts off when you press it in. The second relay is tied to the hi/lo switch. I now have very low current running through the handlebar controls, and my headlight is much brighter. A repair that is also an upgrade!

Few more pics.

This is the switch I used. It works great!

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... -ND/483932

Digi-Key Part Number CKN1655-ND
Manufacturer C&K
Manufacturer Part Number 8168SHZQE2
Description SWITCH PUSHBUTTON SPDT 6A 120V

Nice work on the switch install. I keep telling myself I should study up on all things electrical because I get lost just swapping a bulb, lol!

Someone has used the liquid electrical tape to heal wounds made by those gawd-aweful Scotchlok connectors supplied with a Vetter fairing. I've done it myself on three GoldWings so far.

pidjones wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 7:22 pm Someone has used the liquid electrical tape to heal wounds made by those gawd-aweful Scotchlok connectors supplied with a Vetter fairing. I've done it myself on three GoldWings so far.

Ahh, of course, that is totally what happened. I never thought of that! The bike did have a fairing included when I got it, though it wasn't installed at the time.

I finished up my turn signal wiring project tonight. The wire routing around the fork tubes/headlight 'ears' was a challenge. I'm missing the little rubber grommets to protect the wires from the sharp 'ears', so I need to make up a little rubber bumper there.

It was a challenge fitting the relays into the headlight bucket, but I got it all squished in there. Now I have running lights in the front, turn signals all around, and a nice bright hi/low beam.

My clutch friction plates should be delivered on Tuesday, along with a new cable. The gasket is lost in the mail it seems, so I got a roll of Karropak to make my own gasket for now.

In only slightly-related news, a set of very self-indulgent wrenches arrived in the mail from Germany this week. I bought them as the 10mm clutch spring bolts are hard to access and I thought some deep offset wrenches would help. But also, rotating the 'wing engine via the stator bolt is next to impossible without offset wrenches as well. That was all the justification I needed

You do some excellent work!

I'm amazed how organized your shop is, as well. Not trying to be nosy (well, maybe a little, lol), but I'd love to see some pics of your layout, how you store things like your motorcycle lift, etc. I'm hoping to build a small garage and I'm very limited in how large I can build.
Can you tell me the size of your garage?
What brand is your larger lift, and do you like it?

I rotate mine with a 12mm socket in a ratchet. Works well for me. But, negates an excuse for new tools! That's Okm though - '76 RD400 project is requiring lots of new tools like clutch holder, 24, 29, and 34 mm impact sockets.

Track T 2411 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 9:39 am You do some excellent work!

I'm amazed how organized your shop is, as well. Not trying to be nosy (well, maybe a little, lol), but I'd love to see some pics of your layout, how you store things like your motorcycle lift, etc. I'm hoping to build a small garage and I'm very limited in how large I can build.
Can you tell me the size of your garage?
What brand is your larger lift, and do you like it?

Thank you for saying so! I spend a lot of time thinking and experimenting with organization to make my little shop functional.

The shop is 11'x18' inside. It was in royally bad shape when we bought the house 2.5 years ago. I have a whole build thread on Garage Journal if you're interested - https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/sho ... p?t=393264


The lift is made by "Red Rock" and is a copy of the Kendon lifts, basically. I got it from Princess Auto, the Canadian equivalent to Harbor Freight. It was on sale, plus I had a friend working there who used their employee discount, so I walked out with it for $200 or so. It's one of the best 'tools' I've ever bought. It handles the 'wing just fine. It can be lifted via air-assist or with a foot pedal. It is really solid and well built, rock steady. If I had a full-dressed 'wing I'd probably modify the feet to be a bit wider for stability. Even just run a pipe through the bottom frame or something.
I also have a small screw jack style lift that fits on top of it, so you can do rear end work without a rear wheel. Also Princess Auto, but they're everywhere. I've made a wooden shelf that fits over it between the two wheels to keep tools. This is where a full size lift would be better... but my shop is so small that I have work surfaces within reach most times anyway.

One of the really nice things about the lift is that it collapses flat, then stands up 'on end' against the wall. When I'm not using it, I would estimate it takes up 1 sq/ft of floor space. I'll post a picture of it collapsed after the wing gets off.


Speaking of which.

Today I finished up the wiring job - got the front and rear signals hooked up, then stuffed all the repaired wiring and relays into the headlight bucket. It was a tight fit, but it works.

Then onto a job I was not looking forward to...removing the clutch cover gasket. The clutch plates arrive in two days, so in preparation I started going at the old gasket. Easily the hardest part of the job I'd say. Using a variety of scrapers, razors, etc, I finally got it all cleaned off without gouging the surface or loosing gasket chunks into the engine.

I had a four-day weekend and got a lot done on the ‘wing.

My clutch kit arrived earlier than expected so I was eager to get that project buttoned up. I had the clutch apart, gasket surfaces clean, new EBC plates, and Motion Pro cable. However my gasket was nowhere to be found.
I picked up a roll of Karropak from the local auto supply store. I’ve never used this stuff before, but it’s made by Felpro and feels good quality, so took a chance. I traced out the clutch cover and cut it was a razor, then used knock-out punches to make the bolt holes.

As an aside, I love using knock out punches. I picked these up on sale a few weeks back and they’re so useful for projects like this.

My first attempt was almost perfect, but my hand slipped while cutting out the inside circumference, resulting in a bit of a thin gasket right at the bottom of the clutch. I figured this is where it would be most likely to leak, so may as well do it again. Second time around it came out perfect.
I used Randakk’s clutch installation tip to make things easier:
First install the clutch pressure plate into the basket, followed by a friction plate, steel, and second friction plate. Make sure to line up the steel tangs with the notches in the pressure plate.

Then it’s a simple matter of taking the clutch centre with all remaining plates installed, and tipping it over the frame cross member into the clutch basket.
It took a bit of wiggling and rotating to get all the tangs lined up before the centre dropped in to full depth. You know it’s good once the centre is flush with the basket.
From here I installed all the springs with washers over them, but with OUT lifter plate. This essentially locks the clutch together. When you put the bike in gear, you can now torque the special centre-nut to spec.

I have the special Honda clutch tool, but it’s 1/2” drive. I realized that I had a tiny 1/2” to 3/8” step-down adaptor, which meant I could use a narrower 3/8” extension and my 3/8” torque wrench, which allowed me to get the ratchet perfectly lined up and engaged with the nut. When I had removed the nut, I used a thicker 1/2” extension and ratchet, which prevented me from getting full purchase on the nut due to the fact the thick 1/2” extension hit the frame cross member. So there’s a little tip for you all.
Torqued the nut, installed the 6 springs and lifter plate, then tightened the springs down 1/3 turn at a time in sequence till snug. Torqued the springs, installed the gasket and cover plate.

New cable installed and I was off to the races. Test ride time!!

Drum roll?

WOW!! What an improvement. I now have silky smooth clutch action when leaving from a stop to full engagement. There is zero lurch/clunk at the end of my clutch lever travel. It just transitions seamlessly from clutch slip/friction zone to full clutch engagement. I was even able to start in 2nd smoothly as a test. I am very pleased with this repair. It’s made the bike go from feeling quite rough, even junky... to a refined piece of machinery

One issue I did have was my new clutch cable created a firmer lever. Quite a bit actually. I re-routed the cable per the manual and that helped a good amount. Picking up some cable lube tonight as I didn’t notice the packaging instructed to lube the cable prior to first use. That should solve that I figure.

Next up - install my new drive shaft with moly lube, and go on a camping trip with the wife this weekend!

Couple extra pictures as I don't think I can post more than 5 at a time:

Test ride, 35 miles or so. It's getting cold out now! Clutch cable routing as per manual: And here's a picture of my motorcycle lift stored against the wall for member Track T 2411. It stands up on its own, but I use a strap to keep it tight to the wall in case I bump it while walking around. Another view of the lift storage - it's hidden behind the two bicycles