Hey everybody. It appears that I'm staring down the barrel of catastrophic engine failure. I haven't completed a tear down yet, but I'll probably need a complete head (so far). Cams are scored pretty bad and they are expensive. In addition to scored cams, I'll have to replace at least some if not all of the rockers and those bad boys retail at about 40 bucks EACH from Honda. Even at cost, the price of parts for a rebuild will be just too much money. I'm considering finding another engine but even that makes me nervous. Most anything I'll find for a bike this old will have been sitting for an awful long time and will need some attention. Until I finish tearing down my motor, I won't know for sure what I'm looking at, but I am very seriously considering parting out the bike and putting that money towards a replacement.

The bike has 65k on it and was down at 3k in a gravel lot. I know that's what everybody says, but in this case it's true!!! The bike is stock silver/grey. Flaws in the body work include 1 long scratch (maybe 6") that looks like it was keyed on the upper near the headlight, 1 missing tab on the upper and one crack on one of the side panels that covers the airbox. It can't be seen unless you are up close and it hasn't grown any bigger over the past 20k. One side panel was repainted the stock color, but the guy who painted it didn't peel the sticker off. Instead, he masked over it and painted. You can't see that this is what he did but you can feel it with your fingernail. Other than that, there are only the usual rock dings and scrapes from excessive lean angles prior to reworking the suspension. For a bike this old, it looks pretty damn good. There is no rust in the tank.

The exhaust is all stock and doesn't have any rash on the mufflers.

I've got a 1.5 year old WP shock out back (a bit light for 2 up, but I weigh 270...). Up front, the forks have the stiffest springs Race Tech had (perfect for my 270lb frame) and new seals in the forks. I have 2 black boxes-one CA and one "49" state. I guarantee you won't notice a difference between the two.

The frame is straight, the clip ons are straight and in good shape and I have a new switch housing for the start/kill. Chain and sprockets have less than 1k on them. Carbs are stock aside from the mixture screw being dialed out 2.5 turns.

Hmm... I'm trying to think of any parts that might be of interest and I'm drawing a blank outside of bodywork/tank, the shock, various electronic parts and the seat (1 stock, 1 Corbin).

I am not ready to part it out just yet-what I'm looking for is an idea as to what I might get for any of this stuff. I don't like Ebay, but would consider posting some parts there if I had to.

Or, if anyone has a motor that is rebuildable, I'd be interested in talking to you. Right now, I'm bikeless and sad.

Thanks for reading. I'm hoping for a speedy repair or replacement.

 

hey i have a head and a set off stock cam
i would sell the head with cams if you want to rebuild

i have extra motor but it's in parts right now

let me know

 

What year is it, and if you do part it out I would like to talk about the shock.

 

hey i got a 1990 engine with 37,000 on it there are a few parts i swapped from that engine. i also have a brand new stock cam chain tensioner that the engine needs. thats alll that i was going to do with it because the motor is still very strong, but i got lucky and found one with 1000 miles believe it or not and swapped. i have alll the parts you are looking for. i also have the same color bike check out my pics under silverbird!!!! i also have the shock and swingarm

 

Hi there GM

Is the head complete with valves and rocker arms? What kind of shape is everything in? I'm curious as to wheather the hard coat has worn off of anything. My cams and rockers are in sad shape.

Why did you disassemble it?

Last but not least, how much would you like to get for it? When I finish my teardown, I'll have to weigh the needed parts to see what shipping might be like.

SB, will the 1990 engine fit?? I thought 1990 was the first year of a big change but I could be way off. Where are you located? Was the engine disassembled to pull parts from or was there something wrong with it?

Thanks a ton you guys, I would MUCH rather keep my bike alive than to go all summer on 4 wheels. That's just wrong. There is a limit as to how much money I'm going to throw back at an 18 year old bike though. I'll keep an eye on the board!!!

Hey, it could have been worse. I could have a perfectly fine motor and catastrophic chassis damage instead. []
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the head is ready to bolt on other than a little clean up it looks
as good as the one on my bike
the only reason i take the motor apart was it was going
to be a big bore project motor
but i'll never get it done just have to much
other stuff to do the motor only had like 22k
on it as far as price goes ??????????????
what it worth for ready to bolt on head and stock
cams with caps

 

nothing is wrong with the motor, the tensioner needed replaced so i ordered it and it was backordered, so in that time i found this other engine. and installed it in mine. im not sure if it willl yours though i thought you had a 90' im in chicago so let me know

 

hey Jason just out of curiosity how much difference did the WP rear shock and the front springs make?

Do you know what the srping rates are on both?

thanks
Rob

 

hey there a motor on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=35595

 

How much of a difference? Hmm. Well, it went from handling like a refridgerator full of bowling ***** to behaving as a sport touring bike ought to!!! It was without a doubt the best money I spent on the bike. The RaceTech springs are the stiffest they offer @ 1.0kg/mm. The WP shock I purchased through Lindemann. I don't remember how much it was but I do remember that it was a screaming cheap deal. WP offered every possible option for the shock and I opted only for rebound damping and manual preload. If I could do it again, I would get the hydraulic preload adjuster but I have no idea where I would run it. I don't remember what the spring rate is (they will get anything you want for it-no xtra charge) but it's just a hair light for me. I'm 270 right out of the shower and I have the preload maxed.

As far as my motor issues... I decided to take the bike to the shop that I used to work at and let my old boss take a look at it before I tore it down any further. He is without a doubt the most knowledgable mechanic I have ever known. He thinks the wear on the cams is normal and that I shouldn't be worried about it. He thinks that if the noise up top can be tracked down at all, it would likely be the cam chain tensioner. I was pretty sure that the tensioner was good before I talked to him. With the cover off, it always had tension and never gave the typical signs of going out. In the 7 years that I worked for him, I've never known him to misdiagnose anything-especially so simple.

For the bottom end noise, he doesn't think it's a rod, but thinks a piston skirt might have been damaged by heat or a slightly too large bore. Keep in mind that I'm running forged Wiseco pistons... He's sure that it won't get much worse and doesn't think it will hurt anything, so I really don't care about it.

I'm at a cross roads here. I'm tired of working on this bike and would like to get rid of it. However, I know the bike and it's history really well and everything else on it is in great shape. That makes me want to keep it. If a new tensioner fixes the problem, then I'm a very happy guy. If a new tensioner doesn't fix the problem, then I'm probably going to have a breakdown and throw the whole dam bike into the river and forget about it.

The bike is paid for and I can't afford to replace it with something else outright. I do NOT want to make payments right now, so buying another machine really isn't an option. I think I'll pull the tensioner one of these weekends and check it out. The shop manual has pretty good instructions on how to examine it. If it's bad or even suspect, I can get a new one at cost and have it back together pretty quick.

I just don't want to sell it yet. I'm attached to it through the work that I've done so far. Plus, it's fun to hang with or lead a group of new bikes when I'm on a dinosaur.

I'll keep this thread updated with my findings.

Thanks for all the responses-I do appreciate it.



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