Safety First

My new helmet has arrived.

Tire Changing

Holy crap, who new this was going to be so hard. I'm not sure if it was because the tires that were on there had gotten stiff with age, but they were impossible to get off. I ended up, after hours of wrestling, cutting off the back one with a saws-all and an angle grinder. And don't get me started about those bead lock devices in the rear tire. I forgot to take a picture of those, sorry.

Here are some pics of the process. As you will see, the first thing that I had to do was construct some devices to help hold the bike upright while I tried to lift one end. Coming up with a proper lifting scheme took some time. At one point I had the bike tied to the ceiling of the garage until a rope broke and it nearly fell over.

As there was no way to put anything wide and flat under the frame (the exhaust being the lowest part), I was left jacking the bike up by a single point at the bottom of the engine. This meant that I needed another way of keeping the bike upright. This contraption above is what I came up with. The pic below shows the bike on the jack, help upright with my rig, with the front wheel removed.

The wheels were rusty inside, underneath the tires. Before I put the new tires on I cleaned them up a bit with a sanding screen and wire brush. I then painted on some rust converter. I also added new rim strips (there was no rim strip in the rear). I modified the rear rim strip, adding extra holes for the two rim lock devices (not pictured). I considered omitting these devices since they were difficult to install and probably unnecessary for street riding. But I got them in eventually.

And here is the rig on the front with the back wheel removed. It was far more precarious this way since the front wheel can turn.

Here is the tube that came out of the back wheel. It had 8 patches on it! I guess Gary must be an expert at changing tires.

And here it is with the new tires on, finally.

Choke

So far, the posts I've made showing the bike running have been only with the choke on. The choke is simply a mechanical door that restricts airflow through the carburetor. I've had a running theory that the problem might be partially related to the fact that I have had the air cleaners off of the bike. The air cleaners on this bike are fairly restrictive, they are oil soaked foam elements. Today I reinstalled them and tested. It now idles fine with the choke off. So I guess there isn't a problem. Nice!

First Test Drive

OK, so it's only in 1st gear and only in the driveway. But hey, it's a start.

Oil Filter

Before I ran the bike any more, I wanted to make sure that the oil filter was clean. This motorcycle doesn't have a disposable paper filter like is typical on a car. Instead it has a centrifugal type inside the crankcase. I disassembled and cleaned it out. Here are a some cleaned-up pics.

Now, when I took the crankcase cover off, it had a gasket on it that immediately self-destructed. I looked through the manual that came with the bike, a repair manual that I purchased, and several online sources, none of which indicated that the bike originally had a gasket there. It looks as though an earlier bike, the CL350 had one, but this bike should have had an o-ring only. During reassembly I used a wet stone to improve the surface and put in a new o-ring. I am going to test and see if that provides a sufficient seal. Just in case it does not, I have cut my own gasket from some gasket material. I didn't put it in, but I am hanging on to it just in case.

Does She Breath Fire?

So I went back into the carburetors and tried to figure out what went wrong, what caused them to leak fuel all over last night. I tore them apart and did a more aggressive overhaul than last time. I removed the jets and did a more thorough cleaning. I adjusted one of the floats. When I reassembled them and turned the fuel back on, one of them started leaking again out of an overflow vent. I tried a trick I read about online described as a "trail-side repair". They mentioned knocking on the side of the float bowl with a piece of wood to unstick a stuck float. This worked like a charm. Then I tried again to start the bike.Remember, it hasn't been started in 25 years.

1st Attempt to Start It Up

With the fuel system fairly well restored and with a few other initial items done (Marvel Mystery Oil in the top of the cylinders, new plugs gapped and installed, fresh oil, etc.) I decided it was time to try and fire up the bike. Now, there are still a lot of reasons why she might not run. But this is just for diagnostic purposes.

Title and Registration

Changing over the title and registering the bike turned out to be a bit tricky. But I finally got it taken care of. Since the bike is of sufficient age (more than 30 years old), I was able to register it as a collector's vehicle. This carries with it a few stipulations, including that it can only be driven to shows, club events, or occasional Sunday drives. But the upside is that it is now registered for life and does not require re-registration.

Additionally, rather than purchasing new collector's plates, I was able to use "restored plates". Basically I cleaned up the old green Washington plates that were already on the bike and am allowed to display those. Here is a web-blurred pic of the plate so that you can see the style that I mean.

One interesting note, the guy at the DOL told me, "I have some instructions for you." He told me that, if I get pulled over, for any reason, and a police officer runs my plates, no record will be returned. He told me that the bike plate is registered as "equipment". He showed me the actual number (and symbol) on the registration that they will need to run. He explained that some officers will be familiar with this procedure, some will not. Huh, it sounded odd, but I took him at his word.