TOPIC:

It ran last year. His nephew (who was going to work on it and then got cold feet, along with a fiance as well) had ridden it some about a year ago. It sat in the local John Deere shop for the past year, which probably didn't help matters too much.

I'll only have a project if he decides to go forward with it.

For the most part, I think it will clean up nicely, but the red paint is faded down to the undercoat on top of the tank and the top of the front fender.

He's had it for a number of years and would like to have it running for commuting a few miles each day. Right now he's borderline on whether it's worth it. Right now, I'm trying to evaluate the project's potential cost.

Well just tell him it's junk, and being the good friend you are, you'll be glad to get rid of it for him.

Looks like it's all there. Could use a good dusting before that brillo-pad session.

I finished taking the starter clutch out and apart last night. It didn't look obviously damaged in any way, but it would slip consistenly. When I took the "one way" off of the hub one bolt was not as tight as the other two. Further inspection revealed that one of the wedge slots was worn much more than the other two and the cover had more wear. Most likely adjaceant to the not-as-tight bolt.

So I priced the parts on RonAyers.com and it'll take $164 just to close the engine ($77 for the one-way and $32 for the rollers, pins, and springs). I'm not sure what he'll want to do. Based on what I know, it will need about $400 (between Ron Ayers and Z1 Enterprises) in parts just to get it going reliably and it'll still need a chain, sprockets, and tires. After that the front brakes may still be iffy and the valve clearances haven't been checked or a tune-up done.

To me, it would probably be worth it. To him, I don't know, but I will find out.

The good news is that he wants to do it! So now I'm going to budget things carefully to get as much done to it as possible.

Now the fun begins.

Well, the first parts arrived from Ron Ayers today and guess what, Kawasaki threw me for a loop. The starter "one-way" is listed as an assembly now and includes the rollers, pins, and springs. I, not knowing that, also ordered rollers, pins, and springs to the tune of about $35. I guess I'll eat that for now and find a home or use for them later.

Anyway, I got the starter clutch back together, the secondary shaft put it and it all turns nice and free with no binding or noises. Yaaaaayyyyy!!!

Last week I has spent a couple of evenings scraping old gaskets which was doubly fun because it appeared that the old style hardening shellac was used for the gasket sealer. So, I used non-hardening black Permatex to put the oil pan back on (yes, I remembered the oil pump ) with a new gasket and new O-rings.

Now an order has been placed with Z1 to get the rest of the stuff I need. There is still plenty to do before they get here.

Well, the weather was finally agreeable enough for me to go out to the garage this evening. With the aid of a radiant heater I tackled the valve clearances. As luck would have it, 5 of the 8 were a bit too narrow. I got lucky in that I had enough shim stock to make them all spec again.

After doing putting the cams back in place I checked the time and found the cams were retarded by one tooth. i.e. when the crank is at TDC the EX mark on the exhaust cam is one tooth above the head surface and the mark on the intake cam is one tooth below with the correct number of link pins between them. I had used tie-wraps to hold the chain in place on each sprocket so I didn't mis-time them. If I had checked them beforehand I wouldn't have to take them out again. D'oh!

Perhaps this is why the starter clutch was worn out and the kickstart spring out of place.

Two weeks ago I attempted to get the bike running as all the major repairs were done. So I rigged up my temporary tank and proceeded to run gas into the carbs. Immediately a leak developed at the tee between #2 and #3. That's easily solved with teflon tape, but required tearing the rack apart. Then I discovered three of the overflow tubes were leaking. The owner said they leaked previously so I suspected bad seats and ordered carb kits.

Last night I put the kits in, put the rack on the bike and ran gas into the carbs. Yay!!! No tee leak! Ughh!!! Gas was still spitting out of three overflow tubes, 1, 3, and 4. So I lowered the floats in those about a mm and tried again. No change. So I gave up until I could improvise a fuel level gauge.

I bought a piece of 1/8" ID clear tubing which itself was too small for the drain hole so I gave it several wraps of teflon tape and it screwed in and held nicely. The level was exactly where it was supposed to be, but the overflow tube was still spitting gas.

So I took the bowl off #1 and pulled the hose off the bottom and set it in the mouth of a salsa jar. Then I filled the bowl with gas and let it leak down. It ended up draining about halfway down. Very close inspection under good light revealed a hairline crack lengthwise in the tube. The tubes in bowls 3 and 4 had a similar crack.

I polished the tubes with 400 grit sand paper and mixed up some JB Quick to (hopefully) repair the cracks. To me they look like freeze damage.

Here is a pic from #3 after polishing it up.

And here is my fuel level gauge--15 cents per 1 foot length and some teflon tape!

Nate:
Great story. Great detective work on the overflow tube cracks. I had that happen with my first H2A project. I thought it was from all the notorious H2 vibration but you're probably right about frozen water in the bowls causing the cracks. I've tried unsuccessfully to obtain some brass tubing the right diameter but no luck. I have 3 or 4 bowls that are perfectly good EXCEPT for the cracked overflow tubes.
Good luck with your buddy's project. It certainly looks like it's worthwhile to get back on the road. Great commuter bike.

If JB Weld fails, could the cracks be filled with solder? Or if space allows, a thin-walled tightly fitting plastic or rubber tube pushed down around the overflow to the base and then cut off level with top of the overflow tube? Maybe a length of shrink-wrap would work if used to encase the overflow tube.

Having never attempted to remove an overflow tube from its fitting into the float bowl, am wondering about the type of connection holding it into the float bowl. If removable, seems as if a suitable brass tube replacement could be fabricated, provided a leak-free connection could be made at the float bowl. Might be wrong, but the orifice size doesn't seem critical for this application. But could plug the top end with solder and drill open with exact size desired.

i have seen them fixed by using a tight fitting rubber hose. the po of my 650 also "fixed" one carb from leaking by stuffing a ball bearing into the drain hose:sick: and hes a mechanic! wtf? of couser its the same guy that used duct tape on some of the electrical stuff.....
I would think solder would work, but the jb should be fine. not sure how shrink wrap reacts with gas, if at all....