Last week I bought a bike.  It has been in storage for a few years.  The owner suffered a brain injury and can no longer ride, and it took a few years for him to recover and get his life back in order.  The bike was in storage in a garden shed, and got really dirty and did get some surface rust.  The fuel tank is incredibly clean in side....the fuel looked a bit like Maple Syrup but did not smell bad.  The battery is dead, the tires were flat - but held air once pumped up.  The bike is a 2002 and has 3,989 miles on it.  It has the original tires and they look fine for 13 year old tires.  It appears to have a bit of an oil leak from the head plug.

I intend to provide a step by step process of bringing this bike back, as an example for folks to follow if they have to do the same thing on a bike.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Never rub your hands or a rag over the dirty paint or chrome to see what is under the dirt.  The dirt will act like sand paper and scratch what is underneath.  It is better to just wait until you can get it washed.......and then whatever is underneath won't have scratches you need to polish out.

This morning I got the Raptor petcock and the battery ordered.  Tonight after cutting firewood I worked for about 20 minutes on the bike and I got a bit of mechanical work done (no polishing tonight).

I removed the petcock, then removed the seat, fuel tank and left side chrome head cover cap.  I carefully checked that there was no dirt around the spark plug cavity (so Jog wouldn't be unhappy with me), and removed the spark plug.  It looked good, and shows the bike was healthy the last time it ran.  I then sprayed Sta-Bil fogging oil into the cylinder - so that when I turn the engine over (still haven't done that yet), the piston and cylinder will be lubricated.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/sta-bil-fogging-oil-12-oz




The cylinder head has some congealed oil around the left front cylinder head stud......I think this thing may be oozing oil a bit.  I just recently learned that the front left cylinder stud has the oil return from the head going down around the stud, and it can ooze oil if not sealed.  I will clean this are up a bit, remove the nut and washer and clean them, and then place some sealer on the washer and torque everything back down.




I also discovered that one header bolt is missing.  The good news is that there is a nice threaded hole in the cylinder head.....and not a broken off stud!

Well the title issue has worked out far more successful than I had hoped for.  Last Thursday I got an email from the original owner who still has the bike in her name, and she said she was going to the DMV on Friday and apply for the lost title....and would check on the taxes.  Kentucky assess a tax on motor vehicles as personal property - and even if you don't license it you have to pay yearly taxes on it.  (My current bike is assessed at $ 2,880 and I paid $ 37.50 in taxes on it last year).  This could well mean that this project bike could have 10 years of taxes owed on it....which coud potentially have been $ 300 - $ 400!

The lady called me on Friday....and had incredible news.  She said that when she went to the DMV she got a very nice and helpful clerk, and she showed her my email, the photos of the dirty bike, and explained what had happened and how the man she sold it to had been injured and could no longer ride, and had been injured even before he could transfer the title into his name.  The clerk went to another office for a bit, and came back and said that under the circumstances they where going to cancel all the taxes due on the bike, and would get her a replacement title so she could transfer the bike to me.  That is absolutely amazing that she was able to pull that off.......she must be some kind of magician!

The papers have been filed, and in a few days the replacement title should arrive in the mail, then I will go an meet this very nice lady and get the title transferred into my name!

I haven't been able to work on the bike lately - I was down at the Dragon riding with Oldfeller, MMRanch, old_rider and his wife, met Don, and just had a good time riding for about 1,500 miles!

 

Well a few things have happened the last couple of days.

Last night my wife and I drove down to Louisville to have dinner with the original owner of the bike and her spouse.  She had received the duplicate title and was signing it over to me.....and I promised to buy them a nice dinner for all their trouble.  We hit it off really well, and have a lot in common......we have some new friends and are going to keep in touch.  They play music, and we do to...so we will get together and jam on occasion!


I have been pondering the next step in this process.  I know there is an oil leak just above the spark plug, and the head cover has to come off to fix that.  The engine turns over and seems to have good compression, and it only has 3,949 miles on it......not much chance of anything being wrong in that low of mileage - right?

Tonight I decided I was going to take the head cover off and fix the oil leak, and also put in a Verslagen head plug.  I took the valve adjustment caps off, and rotated the engine to TDC - and to confirm that I am at TDC I always wiggle the rocker arms to make sure there is a bit of play......so I can confirm I am in the correct TDC.  The intake rocker moved back and forth - but there was no play in the exhaust rocker.  There is good compression so I know the valves are seating properly - but the adjustment seemed overly tight.  I removed the head cap, and found that there was no sealant in the area where the oil leak was.....and very little in the other areas.  I don't know what kind of gasket sealant was used the last time it was off....it was black and looked like factory stuff - but it appeared that it all squeezed out and left none in the joint that is supposed to seal.

The even worse news is that the exhaust rocker is badly worn, and the cam lobe for the exhaust is equally worn and the lobe is flattened.  There has been a large amount of wear in very few miles.....and this is why we are always hammering on you Noobs to use an oil with a high ZDDP content.






The good news is that I have a spare cam and rockers that are in good condition - so I can install them and not have to buy anything.  I will have to take off the clutch cover to release the cam chain tension - and I can measure the tensioner extension while I am in there.  I might also take the clutch plates out and clean them and scuff them up a bit, as they may be contaminated with some "Friction Modifiers"...as it appears that the last owner was using a low ZDDP car oil in the bike.

So once this is corrected....the next question is do I try and start it without cleaning the carb?  The fuel tank was clean....but who knows about the carb.....and should I do the white spacer mod and change jets without even riding it first?  So many tough decisions!

Over the last few days I got the head cover back on and the valves adjusted, got the muffler and header shined up and installed.....I didn't want the header or muffler getting hot with all that corrosion on it, as I thought that might bake the crud on.

This morning I dropped the float bowl with the carb still on the bike, and found the float bowl full of junk.  The main jet was clear....the pilot jet was plugged.



I cleaned up the float bowl and jets in the ultra sonic cleaner, and put it back together.



Time will tell if this is enough cleaning - but if anyone is bringing a bike out of storage like this one, I would suggest that dropping the float bowl and cleaning the jets is the minimum that should be done.  The bike would not have run with the pilot jet clogged.....and who knows where the gunk in the float bowl would have ended up if I had tried to start the bike without cleaning the float bowl.

Tonight I was ready for the final work before I went for a ride.  I just couldn't convince myself that I should ride the bike - without taking the rear wheel off and cleaning up the brake drum.  As corroded as everything else was, I just new the steel brake lining would be rusty.



I first used some coarse steel wool to get the flaky rust off, and used the steel wool on the brake shoes.  I then switched to a coarse emery cloth and then medium on the steel lining.  I then sprayed it all down with brake cleaner.




I then put it back together, adjusted the belt tension and brake pedal, and went for a ride.  The bike is really quiet compared to my Cafe' conversion with the hopped up engine and exhaust (and noticeably less power).  It ran well...although there is a slight hesitation just off idle that would be improved is I take another washer off the top of the needle.  I will clean the original carb, put a #50 pilot and #150 main and only 2 washers....and I believe it will be just fine.

The bike rolled over 4,000 miles on the ride.  Other than cleaning and putting the original carb back on - the only thing left to do is put the chrome covers back on the cylinder head, spend a full day polishing chrome.....and then enjoy the bike for what is left of the riding season!




The Thread is no longer locked.

Just wondering.... Why just the exhaust rocker? How did the intake rocker survive?

Oh, gotcha!