My 85' 1150E - project.

[Slowhand]

I agree, I changed those too and Dremeled the brass shinny. Cleaned the crap out of the screens as well. My float levels were fine before the crash and I put the same floats back in each carb so they are still adjusted ok.

[Slowhand]

ok, so I got the carbs back on her. Next I drained the oil which was actually still clean. I left the drain plug and filter cap off over night so most of it would drip out. After I put the new filter in I took each valve cap off and squirted a bunch of Valvoline and Marvel Mystery oil in there. Why. I dunno, just figured it would be good to soak the top with oil. My gas tank still had about a gallon or more of the nastiest smelling fuel you could imagine, but no rust thank goodness. The petcock was clogged and rather than rebuild it I just bought a new one for 42 dollars as apposed to about 25 for the rebuild kit. I drained the old smelly fuel into a clear container and only a few specks of crap came out with it. Ran a small mirror in the petcock opening and it looked fine in there, when I take my gas cap off the tank still looks new from above. I put the old petcock back on and put a gallon of gas in it along with a bottle of Textron and a bottle of Seafoam, why, I dunno. I swished it all around the tank for a week or so. I drained that back out and it came out discolored but clean so I'm guessing it helped clean the walls but I really haven't a clue. I had also been pouring small amounts of MM oil in the cylinders and turning the crank by hand for about a month so I knew everything was turning freely.
I found a place called Batteries Plus that actually had mine on the shelf for 90 dollars, then they took 10 bucks off because they had just opened for business so it only cost me 80. I installed it, took the plugs out and cranked the engine a bunch to get some of the oil moving around in there.
Put the plugs back in , turned the key on and pushed the button.....
...and she fired right up. Coughed and farted a few time but she did run.

http://s928.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=fd74a0a1.mp4

I only ran it twice that night and not for long, I basically just wanted to heat it up a bit to get the oil all through her.

http://s928.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=b9d69237.mp4

I still have a long way to go, but she's alive !!!

[7981GS]

I absolutely LOVED the chuckle of joy at the end of the first video!
And she purrs like a content kitten in the second.



Congrats on a job well done!

Eric

[Slowhand]

Thanks Eric. Thank goodness I shut the camera off so as not to record my Snoopy like happy dance around the bike after she first started.
That was about a month ago, I'm already into the front end work. I'll post more on it soon. It truly was a joy so see her fire right up after all these years.

John

[Baatfam]

I found a set of cheap forks and trees last September from a guy in Oklahoma on ebay, he had "DragBike" in his name. I would come to realize that explained why the forks were 2 inches shorter ! Drag forks.

Have you looked inside the forks yet?
My 1100E was raced before I bought it and the forks had been shorted about the same, 2 inches.
Turns out they had cut the springs and added a spacer to limit up travel.
Once I compared how they were put together to the manual, I realized that all I had to do was get a set of correct springs, (I got progressives), and reassemble them normally.
I now have a normal length fork.

Worth a look before you buy another set...

[Slowhand]

I never would have thought of that Bob, I just assumed the forks were cut. After I had mounted them, just so I could get a rolling chassis, I took off one of the fork caps out of curiosity. The damn spring was so compress in there that the cap nearly blew a whole in my garage roof when it flew off ! I had to use a 6 foot woodworking clamp from the bottom of the tube to the cap so I could compress the spring and cap back down into the tube and re-tighten it back on. I did found another set and bought them, they are clean with no pitting at all on the tubes and they already have progressive springs in them. But I still have those shorty tubes, I will open them, "carefully" and check if they are like yours with the spacers.

So , I found the forks I needed plus new upper and lowers trees as both of my trees twisted out of shape from the accident. Next up , disassemble the front end.



Even though the wiring is simple and coded and I've had the service manual since I bought the bike in 85' , I still used masking tape and numbered each wire behind the headlight. Better to be safe than sorry.



New forks and trees in, I also installed handlebars from an ES model I found on e-bay. I don't know if I'll like the lower position but I'm not worried about that now. They were all I could find for a 'normal' price.



It's getting there !!

[Slowhand]

I got lucky with the front rim. I had already bought two , three if I include the yellow crappy one I first bought to get the thing rolling. They both came with the rotors but the rims were pretty beat up. One of them was actually out of round, however I was able to get my money back for that one, and I kept the rim too. The pickings were slim on ebay at the time so I bought the couple that I saw for sale. They weren't expensive.
The guy I bought the forks from had other things for sale as well, I ended up buying a gas tank and all the body panels plus the front fender. They are painted a Brandy Wine color which I'm not thrilled with but he wasn't asking a lot of money so I took them for the hell of it. Then he emailed me back that he had a brand new front rim too. 50 bucks and he'd include rotors also. I paypal-ed him instantly for it ! He had said that he was going to restore an 1150 but then found out the engine case had a crack in it so he was just reselling things he had bought . Whether that was true or not doesn't matter, what does matter, to me, is that brand new front rim !



I pounded out a bearing on my old busted front rim to get the spacer out and bought a new set of bearings. I don't have a press, I have lots of pullers but no press, so I went to Home Depot and got an 8-inch long 1/2 size bolt with a 3/4 size nut and a few big washers, I used a cap from one of my puller sets that was just a hair smaller than the bearing. Greased them up and they pressed on nicely.



Bearings in.



Ready for a tire.

[Slowhand]

The crash had broken all three mounting posts inside the instrument cluster. I haven't seen a full cluster in great shape for a reasonable price on ebay yet, and I only want the mounting case anyway, which I can get for around 65 dollar new. So I did a temporary Rube job on mine for the time being. It might only last once around the block, or a week or a month. It should at least hold together for test riding the bike when I get to that point.

Some Gorilla glue around all the cracks. The center mounting post was broken completely off so I drilled a small pilot hole in the plastic case and screwed a sheet metal down in to hold it in place, with some more glue. The right side stud broke off down to a nub, I was lucky to get a speed nut on the few remaining threads. Rube job 101 ! It is just a temp fix.





It should hold for a short time.

[cableguy]

Your Maguyverness is awesome. Keep up the good progress!

[Slowhand]

" Maguyverness " ...lol, that's funny CG. "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome" USMC

Tires. Other than being good for holding air mine were useless, age cracks all over the side walls. I had Metzler VBS tires on it. So I just went and bought a set of Metzler Lasertec V rated tires. Go with what you know I guess. And I went with the stock sizes 110/90 16 and 130/90 17. The price was right and the shipping was free.
Had the front one mounted and balanced.



Good to go !!

[Slowhand]

Next up, the front brakes. Both my calipers, surprisingly , were not that bad for sitting as long as they did, 17 years. I broke them in half and popped out the pistons with my air hose. I found no pitting on the pistons or the cylinder walls. Just a little built up crap in the grooves where the o-rings go. The Dremel with the wire brush cleaned that out nicely. There was a little more crap around the outer rim of the cylinders and I just dremeled that off as well, they are as smooth as a babys butt. I then washed the hell out of them and blew them dry a bunch of times. Installed new K&L rubber and torqued them back together.

[Slowhand]

Since I used the lower ES style handlebars I couldn't use my master cylinder because of the angle on the bars so I got an angled MC on e-bay. Don't remember what I paid but it wasn't much. I took it apart and cleaned the hell out of it. Even got the dremel bit down the bore. All the rubber was in fine shape so I reused it. If I find it has a leak anywhere or feels mushy at all then I'll buy the kit and redo the rubber. But, it seems to be fine.
I also reused my brake lines. I took them off my old stem and ran a lot of fluid through them and gently pushed a small rod through them. They seem fine for now as well.

[Slowhand]

Next it was put the front back together. I had already installed a new/used right side blinker, then I re-connected everything back into the headlight. Hooked the brake lines back on. Also reconnected and mounted the cluster gauge.
Then installed the new tire/rim and torqued it all in place.

[Slowhand]

And now, the brakes. I installed the rebuilt calipers and hooked the lines up. Then bleed them. No leaks anywhere, it took about a day for the pistons to get fully out past the new o-rings. They feel tight and firm now, just the way we like em !!!!

The really good thing is that everything seems and looks straight, I'm feeling better about this now.

[SOCKinside]

looking really good, keep it up, are u gonna replace the header pipes ?