Project BAMSFH™ - Part 2

Where am I now? Oh yeah... Lots of small things have been done on the Project BadAssMotorScooterFromHELL!!!!™ bike.

The main tank has been cleaned out with EvapoRust but still needs a water flush and another soak of the EvapoRust to get it where I want it. I ended up using a cut up latex glove to plug the various exit ports, there being three on the bottom of the tank as well as the main fill port on top. I rigged up a plastic bottle and latex glove plug for the filler port, but it wasn't the tightest seal so I was unable to let the tank sit upside down. I did slosh it as much of an angle to all sides as I could to try to get the EvapoRust all around. Before I do the final rinse and such on the main tank, I will have to solve this problem. I'm sure I'll find something on the interwebs showing a good way to do it.

I pulled the coolant overflow and was able to get down into the petcock and filter. The petcock has a nice sticky residue from old fuel, but surprisingly the reserve tank seems to be mostly clean. I was unable to fully remove it (everything I read online tells me I have to pull the rear fender which is a pain in the ass.) so I'm hoping a flush with seafoam and EvapoRust will do the trick. There was also almost a full tank of gas sitting in it, which initially had me worried. However, after siphoning off most of it into a container, it looked fairly clean and not sludgy. I then added a full can of seafoam to the remaining ~20oz of gas in the tank and sloshed it around a bit and then went inside to let it soak. After about an hour I came out and connected a fuel line to the petcock output and let that go into another container. Opening the petcock at first had me worried as nothing came out. I sloshed the reserve tank and opened and closed the petcock multiple times and the flow started coming out. I drained it all, then took that contained and dumped it back into the tank making sure to not let sludge on the bottom go back in. I did this a couple of times, then let it soak again for a few hours and repeated the cycle. At this point it is looking pretty good and flowing nicely. I left the seafoam in the tank overnight to finish ungunking things and I will drain it tonight and plug the holes as best I can to prevent rusting. 

I need to replace the fuel filter, which actually looks in pretty good shape, as in no sticky gunk and only a little bit of solid particles in the input side. The filter membrane looks clean as well. I cannot get to the fuel pump just yet, but have a couple of ways of testing it and even flushing it out. I am hoping to get to that tonight as well. 

Spark plugs have been purchased and I will be putting in the rear two first. To get the front two in, I need to remove or at least disconnect a bunch of stuff from the radiator to lift it out of the way. Pain in the ass, but hopefully I can do this without having to drain the radiator which, as I said last time, still looks good. 

I am going to have to replace more of the fuel line as it warped and hardened and even torn in a few places while I was trying to get stuff off. This is fine as it gives me a chance to add an inch or three to the lines to/from the filter and pump to give me more room to work in the future. Most of the fuel line is standard black 1/4 ID line, but I will have to buy at least the main line from Tank to reserve as it is a tight curve and molded, it seems. The part is easy to buy and not too pricey, so that's a plus. 

I also took some time to check out the front fork brace. This is a lightweight aluminum plate that ties the left and right front forks together to help with control. Apparently, because they underestimated the stress on this part, it tends to crack on people. Thankfully, I can pickup a reinforcing brace for $20 from the same place that sells other things I need. This will save on the shipping. 

Things to do still besides whats listed above? 

Drain/Flush the Clutch system fluids and refill/bleed the system.

Drain/Flush the Front Brake system, rebuild the Brake Master cylinder and refill/bleed the system

Plug the battery in and begin testing the electronics - This will wait until the gas tank stuff is complete. I really don't want a spark blowing me or the bike apart. 

That's all for now, I will add photos later once I take some. 

Project BAMSFH™ - Part 1

Greetings fellow geeks and greasemonkeys!

I have begun project BadAssMotorScooterFromHELL™ otherwise known as the restoration of a 1984 Honda Magna V30. I traded the bike for a higher end weight bench to a buddy of mine who was just sitting on the Magna. He picked it up cheap as well, but also got his hands on a Harley 1200 Sportster and decided that it needed his attentions more.

I got the bike home and started reading up on the task ahead of me. Lots of good info out there on the V30s and i'm already signed up on a forum specifically for these types of bikes. Of course this lead to lots of information and horror stories of the possible bad things I have to look forward to. Lots of good info and support as well, so I'm not terribly concerned about finding an answer. Mostly I'm just worried about the cost outlay to get it running again. From the initial story, this bike sat for at least 3 years in my buddies garage with nothing done to it at all. He says that he knew the tank was rusty and that it had been sitting even longer somewhere else. For a basically free bike (I got the weight bench from another friend for free), I am still sure I can get it running for well under the $1000 it would cost to get something similar/comparable already running.

Now... onto the show!

I started with a quick once over of the externals. Chrome is pitted with rust in a couple of places, but nothing I can't buff and shine out. Front brakes were weak pulling it down off the truck, but they mostly held. I'm sure a big part of that is the brake fluid being old from sitting, plus any rust in the brake pads. Throttle rolls on and snaps off pretty cleanly and clutch lever seems to operate smoothly although I can't tell if it is disengaging the clutch just yet. I need to do some roll tests here soon on that as well as to make sure the engine hasn't seized up. It rolls in neutral pretty smooth, but the wheel bearings will get replaced soon and for sure before I ride it regularly.

Next step was to pull the gas tank and reserve and start checking internal fluids. The main tank came off easy except for the gas lines themselves. They are in good shape, but I might replace them just to cover that base. As expected, the main tank does have rust in it, but what I can see isn't all that bad. I have a gallon of Evapo-Rust at the ready to take care of what I can't see. The reserve tank will be a pain in the ass to get out, but I'm hoping to have that done tonight or this weekend. I opened the radiator (yes it is a water cooled engine) and the coolant looked nice and bright green. I may not have to flush that system as expected. This is a good thing. I also checked the oil through the dipstick and it looked nice and amber fresh like the oil got changed before it was stored. Again, a good thing as that much less I may have to clean up. Air filter is pretty clean and is a K&N style, so that is a plus. I also pulled the rear two spark plugs which, while obviously used, did not look dirty or show any oil or discoloration. The front two plugs are a pain in the ass to get to, but i'm hoping they are in the same shape.

At this point I am looking at cleaning and relining the gas tanks, replace all four spark plugs on principle, clean and reoil the chain, replace the front fork dust covers and possibly replace the fork oil, repack and possibly replace the front and rear wheel bearings also on principle. Then flush out the brake and clutch lines to get fresh fluid in there.

Overall a lot less than I had originally been worried about. I still have the full electrical system to run through once I pick up a bettery, but the mechanical stuff so far is looking promising.

Pictures below