OK, so I don't have to tell you that life's been... A bit out of whack the past 9 months or so. Those months reshaped what my free time looked like, and that took a toll on what this blog was supposed to be... But I'm back now.
SO, to sum up the last 9 months... I got the bike running, rode it for the first time on March 15th... And never looked back. The bike project ended up being a saving grace during COVID, even if this blog wasn't. I originally wanted to post here each time I fixed something, upgraded something... Added something... Or learned something. I guess I can still do that, it just won't be fresh. So where were we?
Mid January. Ah, yes. The passing of Neil Peart. It took a while after that before I really wanted to write, but it definitely didn't slow down my progress on the bike. The last thing i'd done was to pull off the front of the bike and replace the timing belts, refinish the covers, and flush the radiator... That was done by mid September 2019.1 After that (and finding out the previous owner had left the petcock open, causing a hydrolock), I felt a little more confident in trying to run the bike. It ran for the first time on September 18th, even though it ran rough as hell and spewed gas from the right side carb overflow. The previous owner had mentioned the gas leak and I figured it was dirty carbs...
So, it was on to the next task: pulling and rebuilding the carbs. I'd been reading up on this in several online forums such as Steve Saunders, and I knew that an outfit n town, Randakk's Cycle Shack, had about the best carb rebuild kits out there. Now, I'm handy, but i've never been the in-depth gearhead that rebuilding a quad-carb setup would entail... This was going to be another learning process. I ordered the full kit, along with their step-by-step manual.
Removing the carb rack was a learning experience, but THIS is specifically why I had planned to buy the bike and restore it myself over the course of a year---I could become intimately familial with almost every nut and bolt, in case I needed to fix something or assist down the road in the middle of the trip. Thank God for the internet, there's a lot of people keeping old GL1200 Goldwings alive out there.
Here's a couple of 'Before' pics as the carbs came out:
Once the carb rack was out, it landed on the workbench and I started pulling one carb at a time, according to the manual.
For cleaning, I ended up getting an ultrasonic cleaner off of Amazon, basically the 6 liter version of this one: https://www.amazon.com/Mophorn-Commercial-Ultrasonic-Eyeglasses-Cleaner%EF%BC%8815L/dp/B078KZT2W8/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2EAFZWU78AYEJ&dchild=1&keywords=mophorn+ultrasonic+cleaner&qid=1607978394&sprefix=mophorn+ultra%2Caps%2C191&sr=8-8
That, and Simple Green Aircraft cleaner worked like a charm.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VXU7OE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here's what was waiting for me. I've definitely seen worse, but... They're definitely in need of some TLC. I'd bought a couple of assortments of stainless metric allen-head screws, and even though Randakk's kit had all the o-rings I needed in Viton, I bought a couple of assortments of Viton O-rings too. Rusty, nasty, corroded or banged up screws were all replaced with stainless wherever possible, and I meticulously cleaned, polished, and/or painted every single part. I ended up replacing the Slow jets, which were so corroded it just made sense. Found OEM units at a great place called Jets-r-us, I highly recommend them: https://www.jetsrus.com/
In the end, I did all 4 carbs and only managed to break a couple of parts, which I replaced with pieces off of ebay. The hardest part was figuring out what the part name was by going over old parts diagrams, so I could find the right replacement.
Some progress, eh?
Anyway, long story short---It took a couple of weeks of puttering and being VERY methodical, but the carbs were done in due course.
While I was at it, I cleaned up the engine block and re-sprayed it as best I could. ANYTHING would be an improvement, at this point....
Braided stainless fuel line, new washable sintered fuel filter, and all new fittings were installed, since access was difficult otherwise, and it had to be done, anyway. In due course, I read up on how to set the float levels, and re-installed the carbs back into the bike. Finally back together and time to see how she'd run!
Through research I knew the carbs had to have their mix set and be synchronized, so I bought a 4-carb set of gauges for like $60 thru Amazon, after a bit of research: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MSJ7E6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They worked well enough. During the re-install, I also replaced both throttle cables and choke cable with brand-new cables from Motion Pro. This also involved buying cable lube and a lubing tool:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00230EAOW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012TYX9W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
