'82 650L revival

[Spyder]

Figured I could start a rebuild thread on my '82 650L. I won't bore you all with pictures of cams and carbs as there are thousands of that here. I will post anything unusual or just plain silly as I find it. So far the silliest thing I found was that the float were set at about a 1/2 an inch. Could explain why the crank case had a 1/2 gallon of gas in it...

Anyway, I picked it up for $450. It's only got 14,000 miles on it, besides a few paint flaws it's pretty clean. Somebody has replaced the carb boots, and creamed the inside of the tank, , I hate that crap... another silly thing, the carb boots are on upside down and backwards... sync ports on the bottom... That can't be right...

The way I found her...

[Steve]

Sync ports on the bottom is the correct orientation.

As long as they are facing down and out, that is.

.

[Spyder]

Ok then. Seems a little silly. More difficult to get to them. They are on top on the 16v engines.
This is the first 8v I have had to dig into. The last one I had ran great, and didn't need to do anything to the engine. Went through the carbs tonight. Looking to get it to run down the road good enough to shake the bugs out. Then will cover it all over the winter. No surprises next spring.

[Beeone]

As Steve has noted, the sync ports are on the bottom, if you happen to have vacuum gauges they come with four small metal tubes that are in different lengths and screw into those ports for easy hook up of the rubber hoses to each gauge. I have the old school vacuum style, there are a couple different style of sync gauges. My first one I every had I made my own out of clear tubing, a wooden yard stick , it worked great til I bought a gauge set. Some guys are real good setting them by ear, I can say I'm not. Nice find, looks good in the picture, I just recently pick up the same year and model as you have , yours being in better shape, I saved the one I have from the salvage yard my neighbor works at.

[Spyder]

I have a sync tool. Will do it when the time comes. I just thought they should be on top. Glad I haven't switched them around yet, lol. It has newer boots on it, as they are very supple and rubbery. I will swap out the O-rings and call them good. She charges good, and has a good strong spark. Will likely do the coil relay anyway. Fork seal is leaking. Exhaust is mint, no rust even underneath. All in all, it's in very good shape.

Oh oh another stupid thing I found, was they stuck a Main jet on one of the spark plugs to make contact in the boot. Luckily I have spare coils and boots...

[Spyder]

Still waiting on a valve cover gasket. Z-1 was out of them with no projected shipping date. Had to go through BikeBandit. They had it in stock, but one of the other 2 apparently weren't. So I am waiting...

[Spyder]

Just an update on my procrastination. Haven't had any time for the bikes lately. So, my synch tool dried up, and also, the inserts for it don't fit in the ports on the 650... Can't win even when I do find a few moments to get out to the garage... If I had somebody close enough to me that I trusted to touch my bikes I would pay them to do the work, but I don't... Since I won't be heading down to Brown County this year, and still have the days off, I should be able to get out there and get something done...

[Spyder]

So, 3 years later... (LOL) I really didn't have a lot of motivation to get this bike on the road. Last year, my oldest son decided he wanted it, so he gave me what I have into the bike and new parts. He has since then rebuilt the carbs, with all of the tutorials I have printed and put into a nice bound book. He has the forks removed, and ready for a rebuild of them. He has bought a 2007 Honda VT-750 Shadow Spirit, and has learned to ride on it. Doesn't have a whole lot of seat time on it yet, but he's getting there. This the one son I have that actually listens to advice, and heeds it. The 650 has been (once again) placed on the back burner. I finally got a heat source for the garage this week, so work on all the bikes will commence very soon.