Restoring a classic '83 Honda Magna VF750C Motorcycle

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A lot changes in ten or so years...

After I discovered the upper crankcase to the 750 was missing, Jay, Nick and I made a trip to Jack's Cycle & Salvage where I bought another 750 engine. We also picked up some other parts, like a spare wire harness. I got to talking with the owner and related the saga to him. Turns out HE was the motorcycle salvage dealer on the way with his trailer! Also turns out he is out of business - sort of - he now deals exclusively in Rebels in Eustis (2018)
($200 + $100 in parts and tax = $342.39). Total cost for two bikes at this point (Jan 2005): $642.39.

Now I needed gasket sets for both engines, but where to find them? Dennis Kirk to the rescue. That is, if you call $150 + $170 for the Vesrah sets a rescue. I needed them, so I bought them (28 Feb 2005). Now I could start taking apart the 750 engine from Jack's. I quickly realized I would need some specialty tools (like a flywheel puller) to get any further. Engine rebuild on hold, start working on the rolling frame...

So what else is missing?

Again, Jay was there almost everyday. Sometimes he helped me figure out how things fit together on the "mock-up", sometimes just watched me wrench away. I could tell he was excited about the project. For helping me with it, I offered to "give" him the 750 for what I had into it when it was done. I think all he heard was the give it to him part, but that's another story.

For the most part, Jay and I were at odds as to which of the interchangable parts went with which bike. I wanted to use the better parts on the 1100 whereas Jay wanted to put them on the 750. He really wanted to get that 750 together so he could ride it. After fitting all the parts we could find a place for on both the 750 and 1100 rolling frames, I found I needed a speedometer cable and carburetor, clutch and brake master cylinder rebuild kits, AND a flywheel puller. Dennis Kirk to the rescue again to the tune of $160 (16 Mar 2005).

Thank goodness for those new benches because now I had parts from two 750 engines EVERYWHERE! I was busy measuring EVERYTHING! Piston pin clearances, rod bearing clearances, piston ring end gap clearances, cylinder bore...DOH! Now how am I going to measure the cylinder bore diameter? Engine rebuild on hold again, so go back to work on the rolling frame...DOH! Now how am I going to bleed the brakes?

Now I needed a cylinder bore gauge, dial indicator (with magnetic base) and a mighty vac pump. Eastwood to the rescue to the tune of $180 (11 Apr 2005). Wait a minute, this is starting to get expensive, but at least it's fun. Okay, I guess it depends on what your idea of fun is. What can I work on while I'm waiting? Cool, let's see how well I can polish these covers and parts and stuff. Okay...the dremel tool with the red rouge isn't even doing a sucky job, and the wire wheels just make (more) scratches. Damn!

Rebuilding the Engine

Finally! I never thought the second day air delivery would get here! Now I can finish rebuilding that 750 engine. After measuring the engine, head, valve, cam and transmission dimensions, I selected the best parts from both engines, heads, valves and cams and put one together. I kept notes while in the garage and later transferred these measurements to a spreadsheet to keep a rebuild record for future reference.

I worried alot about finding new piston rings to finish the rebuild. The issue was how to remove them from the pistons as they were binding in the ring grooves and not cooperating. They are quite expensive from Honda and after extensive searching I wasn't able to find another source. So I soaked the pistons in penetrating oil and some gentle coercion with a jewelers screwdriver prompted them out.

After measuring the cylinder bores and ring end gap clearances, I found only the #2 cylinder was anywhere near close to the wear limits. So I just honed the cylinders with a ball type hone and put the engine back together hoping that #2 cylinder wouldn't let me down.

Oiling modification or an amusing distraction?

About that same time in my research, I found there was a camshaft oiling problem with these first generation (1982-1986) Magnas. Everyone has an oil modification to keep from grinding the heads and camshafts into mincemeat! All of them cost hundreds of dollars! Damn! Now I'm worried (again). No wonder both sets of heads and cams looked like someone had poured sand into the engine. What happens if the engine heads slowly grind themselves to nothing after all this work?

So I decided to chuck the oil pump shaft into my battery drill and, with the head covers off, proceed to pump oil...DOH!...right out of the oil filter opening and onto new my bench! Okay, let's just put a filter on that. Great. Now, let's pump oil up into the heads. Okay, looking good...I'm seeing oil escape from the cam bearings and...DOH!..right out the main gallery and onto me, my bench and my garage floor!

Who knew the engine clutch cover holds the main gallery plug in place when oil pressure builds up? I blew it right out, like a cork from a bottle of champagne. It took me a LONG time to find it too. Experiment over. As I cleaned up the mess I thought the scratching and scoring I'm worried about had occurred over the course of tens of thousands of miles and tens of years. If it lasts another ten thousand miles and ten years, I'll be happy. Some perfectionist I am!

Polish and Buff EVERYTHING

Great! Now I've got a rebuilt engine and...some REALLY NASTY looking corroded aluminum head and side covers. The other set was painted where they should be polished, and deeply scratched and gouged to boot. I already knew the dremel method wasn't going to work, now what? Eastwood to the rescue again (July 2005) with a complete buffing set - motor, buffs, compounds, the works! Now I'm in business...

Sanding. The business of sanding. Each and every part to be polished must be sanded with 150 grit in one direction, then 220 grit in the perpendicular direction, then 320 grit again in the original direction. Then buffing follows. Buffing every aluminum part with a spiral sewn buff using tripoli compound then a loose cotton buff using white rouge -and- every stainless part with a sisal buff using emery compound then a spiral sewn buff using stainless compound then the loose cotton buff using white rouge.

Whew! It's definitely a LOT of work, but that "see yourself" shine is well worth it! I started with the engine and head covers. I had some filing and painting to do on them as well. They came out alright, but could have been better. My first few pieces I had to go back and sand with finer grit until the scratches were small enough to be buffed out and buff them again. I thought I could cut corners. I was wrong.

And I thought a springer front end was complicated...

Next were the front forks. These first generation Magnas employed an anti-dive mechanism in the front fork, which has an adjustable restriction in the fork oil passage controlled by the application of the front brake. It's contained in a small case on the bottom of the left front fork slider, with an actuator connected to the (floating) brake caliper mount. Brake application applies pressure to the actuator, allowing full flow (no anti-dive) to no flow (no dive, fork is effectively locked), via progressively smaller restriction passages selected on the dial.

In any case, the forks needed rebuilt, polished and buffed. It took me an entire weekend sitting out on the patio at the bar, hand sanding each fork slider with 150 grit, then 220 grit, then 320 grit. The anti-dive case was a real pain with all the nooks and crannies and features that made it difficult to sand and even more difficult to buff. Since the anti-dive only operates on one fork slider, the other has to be mechanically connected to it via a fork brace.

These fork braces are very weak and notorious for cracking, being only cast aluminum. Luckily, I had three of them for the 750, so it was just a matter of choosing the best one to start with. Unfortunately, the 1100 was a different story. I had the triple trees apart, so I polished and buffed the top bridge and meter covers nice and shiney too.

So what else is (still) missing?

I still needed a lot of parts. The original OEM kind of parts. Fork seals, special bolts, O-rings and other odd types, but most of all, the exhaust system pieces. That's where I was stuck. The only parts I had for the exhaust system were the down pipes and heat shield for the rear cylinders, and they were badly rusted and looked like crap.

The front exhaust pipes, which I didn't have, are all one piece on these models. Basically, two down-swept pipes from the front cylinders, welded to a volume expanding "power chamber". The two down pipes coming from the rear cylinders are wrapped by the heat shield and connect to the top of the exhaust chamber. The megaphone style mufflers then connect to the chamber outputs, one on each side.

Parts, Parts, Parts. Parts is Parts. I needed parts! Since eBay seemed to be the place that had most everything I was looking for, I decided I would get over my online-buying phobia and sign up. Got a PayPal account and everything. Of course, the first thing I bid on was sniped from me at literally the last second! It really pissed me off! I had the high bid for days, then some last minute moron 'steals' it from me.

At least at a real auction, you have a last chance to bid. Not eBay! Live and learn. I figured if that type of behavior was possible and acceptable, why shouldn't I do it too? I've lost track of how many parts auctions I've sniped, but have come to find the reputable sellers (and even some not so reputable ones) usually have an eBay store with many of the commonly needed parts. I look for the buy it now prices that aren't too outrageous and compare to new parts. Just seems silly to wait a week for the auction to end just to see someone try to snipe you at the last minute.

I don't think most people realize how much time is spent searching for, ordering and tracking parts. Even trying to find suppliers, either on-line or store-front, takes a long time. Maybe not all at once, but the span of time between looking for and finding a reliable supplier. From the time I found the first on-line supplier, Bike Bandit, and the time I found the last one, Service Honda, was probably at least half a year.

I say the last one because I stopped looking after Service Honda. I haven't found a better one. And once I found them, I spent hours, if not days, agonizing over my orders. Comparing prices, making sure I had everything, only to forget something and have to order it the next day. Beyond that, some parts get discontinued, some parts go on back-order. I waited and waited on Bike Bandit only to have the order cancelled. It was a pretty important part too, the front disk rotor for the 700.

I have maintained, or at least tried to maintain, a parts spreadsheet of everything I put into these classics.

(Feb 2006?)
Another trip to Jack's Cycle & Salvage found us pulling another 750 and 1100 engine. Jay worked on the 1100 removal while I worked on the 750. The 750 was from a Sabre. I had to remove the engine to get at the exhaust pieces we needed. The 1100 for a parts engine. I had since discovered two of the pistons along with the connecting rods, caps, bolts and wrist pins were missing from the 1100 along with some pieces from the transmission countershaft, like the first gear roller bearing and thrust washers.

The 750 exhaust unit from the junkyard was in pretty bad shape but at least it wasn't rusted through. The pipes were either painted or coated black (Sabre) and covered with rust where they weren't. Not anymore! I polished and buffed those pipes until they shone like chrome! I also removed the rust, prepared and sprayed the collector with black heat paint. I mounted the rear pipes and heat shield to the engine, mounted the engine in the frame and then put the exhaust system together.

It turned out the mufflers I had, albeit megaphones, weren't for this bike and they were both for the same side of whatever bike they did fit. One new set of Mac Mufflers later and the exhaust system shines like brand new (April 2006).

Crank it up!

I bought a battery and cranked it over. And over. And over. It wouldn't start. I pulled a plug wire, put another plug in it, laid it on the engine and watched for spark. It had spark. I checked for fuel at the carburetors by loosening a bowl drain screw. Dry. Fuel pump? I checked for power at the fuel pump's electrical connector. Had power but no ground? Buzzed out the wiring, no ground?

I hard wired the ground, still no fuel. Fuel pump relay? It had power to it, but wasn't supplying power to fuel pump. I hard wired power to fuel pump. Nothing. So I tried to take apart fuel pump. The fuel end looked good, but I couldn't get it all the way apart. The mechanism looked strange since I was looking for a rotary style pump. I hit it with power and what appeared to be a plunger pulled in a little.

Once I saw it was a plunger style pump where the armature went up and down, not round and round, I realized it had a contactor to break the circuit once a stroke. The spring arm of the contactor worked, but only once the armature had moved to its full travel position, which it wasn't doing. I lubricated the shaft of the mechanism and it started chugging along up and down. So I put it back together and tried starting it again.

Fuel is leaking everywhere!

Now I had fuel everywhere. The fuel pump housing on the fuel end was cracked and leaking fuel. I turned off the fuel supply petcock but still had fuel leaking from a small hole rusted through the auxiliary fuel tank. Swapping all that out would take time. I had a spare fuel tank, but I still needed a new fuel pump anyway.

I rigged a temporary fuel supply using a long neck funnel and some fuel line and hose clamps. I connected the other end of the fuel line to the supply "tee" by the carburetors. I poured some gasoline into the funnel, suspended over the bike, hanging from the garage door. Now fuel was dripping onto the engine from between the front cylinder carburetors. Great.

I thought maybe the fuel tube that connects the carbs wasn't fully seated. I tried to "manipulate" the fuel tube to seat the new o-rings at either end to no avail. The brittle, time and fuel worn plastic tube finally ended up cracking into pieces. Nice. Now I get to pull those carburetors back off the engine. Considering what a pain it was getting them on the engine, I was worried the engine needed to come back out for access.

Instead I just pulled off the air cleaner, cover, and filter to gain access to the screws that held the carburetors to the air box. After loosening the #2 and #4 carburetors enough to "wiggle" the rest of the tube pieces out, I inserted a replacement with new o-rings and "wiggled" all the linkages, connections and synchronization springs back into place and tightened the whole mess down again.

Now where's it leaking?

Here we go again. As I added gasoline to the funnel, I saw a slow drip from the replaced fuel tube. I gave it a slight twist to seat the o-rings and it stopped. Thank goodness. Okay, let's crank this beast up! Choke on, ignition on, it's trying to catch but stalls as soon as I leave off the start button. Figuring the idle speed was set too low, I gave the idle speed adjuster a couple turns and tried again. It roared to life!

Literally. I didn't have the mufflers installed, mainly because I was still waiting on the new ones to arrive. As I twisted the throttle, the engine would respond, but was sluggish getting to the RPM I was asking for. At first I thought it just needed to warm up. Wrong! Once the engine warmed up it ran away, to about 5000 - 6000 RPM. Now WTF?

I shut it off immediately and tried to diagnose the problem. I checked for binding throttle, loose wires, loose carb boots, but found nothing wrong. I started it back up, and it ran fine at first, then ZOOM, off to the races. I tried snapping the throttle and it responded, albeit much better than before, but it wouldn't go back to idle.

Now what's wrong?

Now I was really losing it. What could this possibly be? I had set the initial idle speed as recommended when the carbs were rebuilt. So why did I have to adjust it a couple turns up? Better yet, why was the throttle response so sluggish until the engine wanted to run away? I pondered it for awhile, and it finally dawned on me the next day that it must be the ignition system acting up.

It made sense, but why only when the engine was hot? Was a spark unit on the fringe, heating up internally or being heated externally from the engine? I got out the timing light and connected to each plug wire, one at a time. Ah Hah! There's my problem. Only one bank of cylinders was firing. As I was watching the bank that wasn't firing, the engine ran away and guess what? NOW it was firing!

I'm on to something now. I checked the spark generators and found only one of them would fire until the engine ran away, even after I swapped them for each other. If it was a spark generator, the problem would have followed the bad one. It didn't. Now it makes perfect sense. It has to be the pulser coils inside the engine case that send the signals to the spark generators. I buzzed them out and sure enough, until the engine ran away, one of them was an open circuit!

So I drained the oil, removed the clutch cover, replaced the pulser coils and cover, and added oil. It started right up and ran up to 5600 RPM until I turned down the idle speed. Now it purrs like a kitten, nice steady idle and VERY responsive throttle. I let it warm up and tested the radiator fan operation. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The connector is flaky and must be moved to just the right position on the temperature sensor.

Purrs like a kitten, let's get this thing polished and painted

I was itching to try out the new flex shaft and miniature buff wheels with the greaseless compounds I bought from Eastwood. They made quick work of polishing the wheels and did a better job where I would have hand sanded in the past. I managed to get the rear tire mounted, but it was so much trouble without the proper tools, I decided to take it to the Honda shop to have the front tire mounted and both wheels balanced.

It was relatively expensive, $35 a wheel, so I started reading up on it. I probably wouldn't have needed the balance weights on the rear wheel had I known to line up the little yellow paint dot on the tire with the valve stem on the rim. The dot marks the lightest part of the tire. Match that with the heaviest part of the rim, at the valve stem, and it should balance. I wondered why that dot was there, thinking they were close-out tires or something. Obviously I didn't line up the dot with the stem. Live and learn.

While I was polishing the wheels, I had Jay working on feathering out the defects in the fuel tank, which was part primer and part original finish. Well, I don't know if I had him using the wrong grit sandpaper or he didn't know what I meant by "feather". In any case, I ended up with some not so nice looking "bulls-eyes" in the rustoleum enamel primer coat I had given it.

So I used some single stage glazing putty and and filled in the low spots. After more coats of primer and putty and primer, I had it relatively smooth. When I bought the rustoleum primer I saw they had some nice looking blue metal flake AND clear coat rustoleum and bought it too. For no spray booth and a spray bomb can job, it was looking pretty good. Right up until my last clear coat when a big mosquito flew into the finish. F...!

Right away I freaked out. I grabbed my exacto knife and attempted to CAREFULLY remove the mosquito. Got most of it the the first try but left a couple legs. Got the first one...almost got the second...DAMN! Scratched it right down to the primer! Oh well, maybe I can wet sand it smooth once it's cured and it won't be noticed.

Patience is a virtue (I don't have)

Wait until it's cured is the keyword here. I had some sag at first from spraying it on too heavily that went away by the next morning. The can said recoat anytime, but I should have allowed at least some flash time. I figured by the next day it would be good. Wrong. I put the tank on the frame with Jay's help, but the paint was still too soft. I started leaving fingerprints in the paint as I man-handled it to attach the primary and vent fuel lines. DAMN!

Then the control lines on the handlebars left deep imprints on both sides of the tank front. DAMN! DAMN! The final insult was the HUGE impression the seat made at the bottom of the tank. Then the seat stuck to the tank when the paint finally cured. I should have waited. Guess I was just as excited as Jay about getting this thing running and now it showed. The results of that lack of patience were enough to make me think about a more professional paint job.

I had already bought the 4 DVD Paintucation video series from Eastwood (note that it is now a 6 DVD set as of 2018). That had me off to a good start, but after watching it I knew it would take some work to get a spray booth together and the compressed air system up to snuff to do paint work. That was the main reason I chose to go with the spray bomb approach. I had a bike ready to go. All it needed was paint and a spray bomb job was the quicker way there.

I painted only the tank. The side covers still needed paint, something other than the black they were. It looked good enough from a distance. At least I could ride it, and ride it I did. Around the neighborhood. I didn't quite trust it for riding any distance with that fuel pump rigged the way it was. Nick and I would hop on it and take a ride every night when I got home from work.

It was around this time (August 2006) I started riding the 700 back and forth to work. I put the 750 on the back burner, knowing I needed to sand down the tank to bare metal and start over again on the paint job the right way. This time the side covers would need done and the 1100 was looming too. And Biketoberfest 2006 was fast approaching.

I highly recommend Autobody101 and AutoBodyStore (see Paint Saga). I read the forums for two weeks solid trying to learn from the experience of others. I had a working knowledge of terms and what to expect, but no practical experience though. I went to the local PPG distributor, Ben's Paints. Bought just about everything else I needed to paint the bikes, fix the plastic covers and all.

Decisions, decisions...

I concentrated on rebuilding the 1100 since the 750 was now running and just needed a better paint job. I took the 750 off the road and sanded the tank down to bare metal while waiting on the 1100 pistons. I ground out the old bondo and replaced it with my own. I had it ready for primer, but no way of applying it until I finished the paint booth and the compressed air system upgrades. So there the 750 tank sat (23 September 2006).

Ann decided to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation basic rider course to get her motorcycle endorsement. It's the same course I took and I highly recommend it. Granted, you may not be able to sign up for the one here in Orlando, but there's probably a motorcycle dealership near you that offers something similar. It used to mean a discount off the insurance, but not since they repealed the helmet law here in Florida.

So now she needed a bike to practice on before the class. We figured if she had her endorsement before Biketoberfest, we could ride up together. We would also need two running bikes. This meant the 1100 rebuild went to the back burner and the spray booth and paint job took precedence. Although it would take longer, I decided to paint both the 750 and the 1100 at the same time.

I had already started hand sanding the plastic side covers for both the 750 and 1100 as well as the 1100 rear cowl. Talk about work. Layer after layer after layer of thick, soft, clog the sandpaper black enamel covering primer covering another layer of paint over primer over the original factory paint over primer over a skim coat of filler.

When I finally finished sanding them, I made some two part plastic repairs on the 1100 parts. I reinforced the patches with some fiber tape, like the drywall tape. The one 750 side cover had a crack on the surface, right on top of one of the mounting posts. That got fixed too, so it wouldn't show up in the paint later.

That left me with the 1100 main fuel tank to sand down to bare metal. I ground all the old bondo out of it and redid it like the 750 tank, except this time I had a spray booth and some PPG black epoxy primer. I really like that primer because it is fairly glossy and black, which shows every imperfection. I had already made three tries at getting it smooth and level, but it still had some bullseyes and looked terrible.

Can I be done now?

From my online research I learned about "icing", a thin, polyester based two part glazing putty that goes on as a final smooth skim coat and sands easily. I didn't have any and hadn't seen it at any parts stores or I would have bought it. I called my local PPG dealer, Ben's Paints, and they had some so Ann picked it up on her way home from picking up Nick after school.

I scuffed the epoxy primer with 150 grit and applied what I thought was a thin skim coat. It took a lot of sanding, but I finally got it smoothed out pretty good. I repeated the same process using an even thinner skim coat on the 750 tank. Both were looking good too. I had a couple pin holes between the tanks and was thinking about one last glaze over those spots. Instead, I just smoothed those areas when I 400 grit wet sanded the tanks in preparation for the pearl base coat.

I had to figure out a way to manipulate all those pieces to be painted. Looking back, I should have probably done the 750 stuff, then then 1100 stuff. Because I did it all at once, I had to move the side covers and cowling out of the booth once they were painted and move the fuel tanks to be painted in. I taped some wooden 'handles' to the back of the plastic pieces. It looked tacky, but it worked.

The base coat went on with a bit of orange peel, but nowhere near the amount I was getting with the primer. I think I still need to lower my air pressure, but I'm no expert. It was my first try and I didn't practice on scrap as recommended by the experts. I don't know where I went wrong with the 1100 tank, but I ended up with sags and runs on the front. I let everything set up overnight and used a razor blade to "shave" the runs and sags off. I followed this up with a 400 grit wet sand to smooth and a couple of touch-up coats to cover.

Now the moment of truth. Would my forced fresh air system keep me from being "cooked" by the isocyanates? It worked better than my chemical mask for the touch up base coats over the sags. I couldn't smell the reducer at all. I donned my "bunny suit" this time along with socks, shoes and heavy nitrile gloves. Just contact with the skin is enough even if I wasn't breathing it. I mixed up the clear coat with the activator and started spraying.

Motorcycle on a stick...

I finished the first coat and stepped out of the booth, removed my hood, and started to take a breath. Mistake. I held my breath and walked out the open garage door to fresh air. Just that one inhale of an air diluted mixture was enough to feel a burning in my throat. Next time I would know better. After the last coat of clear, the plastic parts looked like giant candy lollipops. "Look, motorcycle on a stick", I told Ann.

The main problem with having to move the parts in and out of the booth was all the dust they picked up. I have little dust nubs here and there on every part. Next time I'll know better. The 'downdraft' system I have seems to keep the dust down in the booth, but I think the going in and out stirs up some settled dust and debris, both inside and outside. I could minimize this by waiting in the booth for the recommended flash time, but don't really want to stand around for 10 - 15 minutes 'watching the paint dry'.

I've since made some adjustments to the forced fresh air system to fix the issues I ran into, like my hood inflating like a balloon, trying to lift off my head. Actually, it was Nick's idea. He pulled a shop vac attachment out of the bin, the one with the adjustable vacuum port, and said "Here Dad, here's what you need". And he was right! With the sliding port all the way open, I still get plenty of fresh air and the hood still balloons a bit, but it stays on.

Still fuel issues...

I still needed to do something about the fuel pump/fuel pump relay situation. It still didn't work quite right. I poured over the original wiring diagram and the addendum version, and neither made sense. The original version shows a different fuel pump relay with a fourth connection for ground! The addendum shows the three connection version I have, without the ground.

I was still scratching my head as to where the ground came from unless I hard wired it. The low fuel sensor via the auxiliary fuel tank maybe? But the the auxiliary tank is rubber shock mounted, isolated from metal contact and therefore, ground. I'm not sure what the fuel pump relay actually does, other than shut off the fuel pump if the engine isn't running since it does have a connection from one of the spark units.

I hard wired the fuel pump without the relay and it seemed to be okay. I built a jumper plug from a cotter pin and some heat shrink tubing to fit the relay connector. It ran well. Very well. Most of the time that is. I rode it to work Tuesday (3 Oct 2006) and it ran perfectly until I started up the overpass by work, when it reverted to its tempermental self. It didn't know if it wanted to run on two or four cylinders.

I was worried about the ride home. Would it make it without destroying itself? I figured I'd chance it and made it home okay, but it was a white knuckle ride. I had to constantly worry about the throttle and not letting it stall. Sucked when it did stall trying to get it started again. By the time I got it home, I knew I needed another spark unit.

After some searching on eBay, I found a couple of sellers listed them for both the 750 and the 1100. So I looked up the part numbers and sure enough, the ones without the rev limiter were interchangeable! And the Sabre ones with the Magna ones too. It opened up the search to find more auctions, but the 'Buy It Now' prices were about double what I paid for the 1100 set a few months back. I had to wait for the auctions to end.

I was bummed. For at least a few minutes anyway, until Ann asked why I didn't just 'borrow' one from the 1100 since it wouldn't need it anytime soon. Why not? I practically ran out to the garage to try it. It swapped one at a time to find which of the old ones was bad and labelled it as such. I buttoned it back up and took it for a spin around the neighborhood. Good to go. Rode it to work the next day, no problem.

And still fuel issues...

I managed to find an auction for a Sabre set with a description that must not have shown up in others' searches for the more common igniters or CDI keywords, because only two other bidders showed up, again at the last minute. I got them for about the same price I paid for the 1100 ones, so I was happy. That is until I filled up the fuel tank.

I didn't notice it at first, since I had just filled the tank, but after the second or third trip out to the garage for a smoke, there was still a strong gasoline smell. And again I wondered... where is it leaking now? I was looking around the main tank to auxiliary tank connections since I had been running it primarily off what fuel would fit in the auxiliary tank until then, but didn't see anything.

So I went to loosen the main tank bolts to lift it up and noticed the paint was bubbling up from beneath and gasoline slowly dripping off the left side rib of the tank near the mounting ear. I pressed my finger to the bubble and gasoline squirted out. Great! I knew I should have coated this tank too! Shoulda, woulda, coulda... the issue now was to empty the tank below the leak.

I rode it that way for awhile, but ended up parking it and riding the 700 again. Between that and the funny 'clunking' noise coming from the front I didn't want to push my luck. It sat there until I got the new 'igniter' spark units. Since these were the Hitachi versions and not the Nippondenso versions like I had, I put them both in and returned the 1100 unit. Now I had a spare.

Beyond that, I had been looking at the 750 and 1100 wiring diagrams to gauge the igniter differences. None. I did notice the connection to the tachometer on one igniter was the corresponding connection to the fuel pump relay on the other. I also noticed a ground to the fuel pump and the low fuel reserve sensor on the 1100 diagram that I knew had to be there and wasn't on the 750 diagram. I wonder... with the bad spark unit maybe the relay wasn't getting an on signal.

I went back to the garage to try the fuel pump relay one last time. I removed the jumper plug and plugged in the fuel pump relay. I started up the bike and the fuel pump plugged away just like it did with the jumper! I don't know if it was the new low fuel reserve sensor supplying the ground or it was there the whole time and the fuel pump relay just wasn't on. All that mattered was it worked.

I figured it wouldn't hurt to have another spare set of igniters, so another eBay auction later, I had them. I figured I should test them out but I was too busy with the 1100 restoration to try them right away. When I did, it was late at night. I took a quick trip around the neighborhood, got about five blocks away and it started gasping for fuel.

I had to pull up on the sidewalk. I took the seat off, swapped the igniter connections and fired it back up. After I wiggled the fuel pump relay connector, I heard the familiar 'clunk' of the fuel pump, so I put the seat back on and rode home. I just made it around the corner of my street when it started gasping for fuel again. I should have waited until I had more time and more light, because now I had a doubt about these igniters until I could do more with them.

I finally got to it last weekend (25 November 2006). I tried to start it, but it still wasn't pumping fuel. I put my jumper back in to 'prime' it and heard the familiar clunk,clunk,clunk,clunk..clunk...clunk.......clunk................clunk from the fuel pump I was used to. I replaced the jumper with the relay and noticed as I moved the connector around, the fuel pump would stop working, then start working again.

So I tightened up the fuel pump relay connections, started it up and made sure the fuel pump was working consistently. I put the seat back on and took it for a spin around the neighborhood. It ran better than ever, about twice the power of the 700 so I knew the 700 needed some more tweaking. The 700 is just a daily rider for now, waiting for the 750 or 1100 to be reliable enough to ride daily.

I'm getting closer on both of them, especially the 750. While I was at it, I replaced the turn signal stems and the clutch diode. I had to loosen the fuel tank bolts and raise it up on its prop to get at the diode. I wanted to flush and coat the leaking fuel tank since it was running again, so I loosened the fuel connections between it and the auxiliary tank and removed it.

I didn't plan on doing it right away at first, but as good as it was running and as warm as it was, I went ahead and did it while I could. It sat and cured the recommended 48 hours, so I put it on the bike the night before last. I filled it with gasoline and it's held since then. Finally! No leaks!

I need to touch-up where the gasoline got under the paint, making it brittle enough to flake off. It will give me a chance to see whether wet sanding the clear with 600 grit to level the orange peel and hitting it with a couple of 'glass' coats works like experts say. First I need to run the fuel out of it though.

Now if I could only figure out what's making that clunking sound up front and fix it, I'm there!

Peabody Here With The Wayback Machine...

(20 October 2008)
And run the fuel out of it I did! It's been over a year since Ann, and now Courtney, began to ride this bike. I did ride it to work for a short while, but once Ann rode it, she wouldn't give it back! She finally bought herself a Sportster, but then Courtney decided she wanted the 750 and wouldn't give it back! So for me it was the 700 or nothing for the longest time. I didn't mind a bit though...

Quite a bit has happened since I last wrote of it here. I quit smoking last Thanksgiving (2007). I have since added forward controls to AND blown the head gasket on the 700. I finally managed to get the carbs working and put the 1100 back on the street as my daily rider. Nick has a dirt bike, actually two, to put together. As I said, quite a bit has happened...

I planned our 25^th Wedding Anniversary trip, the Heritage 441 Run, for the two of us to ride based on what I had read on the Galaxieland site. About 2 hours into our trip, the head gasket on my 700 blew. Ann called Courtney and told her she was granting one of her all time wishes, she gets to drive Dad's truck... to Ocala... to pick us up. We left the next morning in Ann's Miata convertible instead of on the bikes, but it was still fun. That was back in mid August 2008...

So I'm just trying to catch up on all that has happened, but unfortunately I'm in that looking back mode. I originally started ranting about all the silly and stupid things that have happened. And while it made me feel better at first, I realized it was at the expense of making others feel worse. Suffice it to say Courtney is having some growing pains related to motor vehicle that I'm sure we've all had to work through.

Growing Pains...

Most of us are not a master mechanic, myself included, but that does not excuse us from our responsibilities when riding or driving a vehicle. The state tests and licenses operators and sometimes even inspects vehicles to ensure they are both safe and reliable. The argument I keep hearing is how a new vehicle is somehow better than an old one, mainly as an excuse for insufficient or imprudent care being taken prior to a generally costly failure.

I have to say these days the only difference I see is the new one is covered under warranty just long enough for something major to fail the day after the warranty expires. I tell Courtney if she doesn't check the oil and runs it dry it's going to seize up on her, regardless of how old the vehicle is. One has to accept responsibility for understanding at least the basics of one's vehicle(s), what to check and how often. That is, unless you can afford to make your mechanic rich or buy a new vechicle every year or two.

When someone else has to pay for your mistakes, you don't learn from them, which is why I've decided to make Courtney pay for her mistakes. As I said before, I don't want to dwell on this, but after numerous avoidable mishaps, one as recent as last week, I'm hoping she pays better attention to what she's doing. If not, maybe reinforcing it with the repair bill will help. I told her the best way to treat the 750 is to pretend it's made of gold, that will give her an idea of how much it will cost to fix it.

I still need to sand and paint the tank and that blasted main stand so I can take the final 'after' pictures and post them. It still makes that clunking noise up front and until I can convince Courtney to start saving the fuel receipts I can't tell if it still needs tuned or not. I don't think it would sit long enough for me to do anything to it anyway, but then again, that's a good thing.

Here's my "vanity" pic of the finished product at the CMSNL site. The saga continues with the Magna 1100 and even the late comer second generation Super Magna 700.

Back to Summary

Next Saga

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Things done...

• Assembled 750 rolling chassis
  • Assembled front trees, forks, disk rotors, disk calipers, wheel and axle.
  • Assembled instrument cluster and ignition switch.
  • Mounted rider and passenger pegs.
  • Assembled sub-frame to frame.
  • Assembled main and auxiliary fuel tanks.
  • Assembled battery box and coolant overflow tank.
  • Assembled rear swing arm, shaft drive, drum brake, brake lever, wheel, shocks and axle.
  • Assembled rear fender, fender liner, tail light, sissy bar, holds and seat.
  • Mounted handlebars, left and right electrical controls.
  • Swapped radiator fan mounts.
  • Rebuilt brake hydraulics and bled system
  • Rebuilt carburetors
  • Assembled carburetors
  • Bench synchronized carburetors
  • Installed wire harness
  • Tested electrical, replaced faulty bulbs and parts
  • Rebuilt engine
  • Rebuilt clutch hydraulics
  • Polished/Painted engine/head covers
  • Polished/Painted exhaust
  • Installed engine
  • Installed carbs, airbox and filter, throttle and choke cables and adjusted
  • Installed exhaust collector and new MAC mufflers
  • Tested mechanical
  • Tested brakes
  • Started moter, test rode and tried to tune idle mixture
  • Synchronized carbs
  • Replaced faulty igniter unit.
  • Repaired fuel pump relay connector and replaced jumper with actual relay.
  • Replaced the turn signal stays and clutch diode.
  • Sanded, patched and (re)painted the fuel tank and side covers.
  • Flushed and coated the main fuel tank.
  • Installed the coated fuel tank and tested its 'fuel worthiness'.
  • Installed new grips.
  • Installed new saddlebags.
  • Removed new saddlebags and replaced the new rear turn signal stay Courtney broke with an old one.
  • Bought replacement clutch master cylinder after Courtney broke the mirror mount off the old one.
  • Bought replacement powder coated mainstand to replace the old, rusted one, so I can get the true after pictures.

Things left to do...

• 750 Assembled
  • Rebuild and install clutch master cylinder and bleed system.
  • Swap powder coated mainstand with rusted one that needs paint so I can get the true after pictures.
  • Tune idle mixture (again) now that the fuel pump and igniters work.
  • If (when) that fails, adjust carburetor float levels to Sabre values and try to tune idle mixture (again).
  • FIND THE CLUNKING IN THE FRONT AND FIX IT!!! Has it finally gone away (high spot in rotor)?