If it any consillation this is what the bike looked like at one stage and it took a total of 5 months to get together.

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There will be moments when you dont think that you will finish it but you will get there in the end.

 

Maybe you and audiodan37 can car pool over to Gill’s place.

https://cbrforum.com/m_521133/tm.htm

As stated before, a good battery is a must. turn the jumping vechicle off.

It is better to use a charger on a newer battery and then start the bike. You need to put as little stress on the R/R as possible. A low battery needs a lot of juice passing through the R/R to charge it. Smaller amps pass through the R/R when it is full or near full charged. You don't want to make more trouble for yourself by trashing the R/R.

 

[quote]ORIGINAL: collector

Hi and welcome to the forum. I totally restored my 87 fh and found it a real pleasure and apart from a couple of teething problems she has been a real pleasure to ride. I have posted some pics of before and after. If I can help you in any way I will, at the moment I am working away so dont get much time on the forum. Oh and if you are going to strip the bike, you might want to also drop the engine out as the loom is best worked on off the frame, but dont try and straighten it out as some wires will be brittle, more so around the back of the tank where it goes round the underside of the frame. You can use electrical cleaner, but I found that some connections had to be replaced. Good luck

GOOD GOD, That is a GREAT Looking BIKE.

 

I have a pic of Collector's bike as a screensaver, to remind me what a really great 87/8 should look like.......
Great Job, Collector.!!

 

thanks guys. There will be a more upto date pics soon, as I am waiting for the exhuast guards to come from Japan along with the wind shield. Needs to be here soon as the bike is at a charity rally on the 20th April in cambridge, and I would like to get some much needed *** time in this year.

As for the issues that I have been having, an oil leak appeared about jan and now we have discovered that because an aftermarket gasket set was used, two of the rubber valve stem seals have failed, so when accellerating, oil was being draged through to the pots. Pain in the rear, but honda parts will have to be used this time to sort this out.





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Unless you are planning to do a full rebuild of the motor when it's out, I would strongly suggest getting it running before you do anything else. I've had no end of trouble with these motors after they have been left unrunning for years. One was noisy and smoked, the other now appears to have a bad head gasket. Of course that could just be my luck. Don't forget to replace all rubber fuel parts. All of mine leaked after a couple years not running.

 

Gents!!! [sm=groupwave.gif]

Appreciate all the feedback so far. Want to thank all of you, namely "Big Smooth, Shadow1, Pahurricane, VeryMotley, MarkR, Collector, TimBucTwo, meatpopsicle"... I say all of you cuz I'm sure other will pipe up, so excuse my lack of clairvoyance and take my "thank all of you" in advance!!

Bike is coming along slowly... as expected. I don't have the $2700 to insure it at the moment any ways so there's no hurry... Have all the body/cowling's/fairings off, most of the electrical end-points (i.e. switches, relays, etc...) disconnected, and am almost to the point of givin' her a good shakedown in terms of a nice de-greasing bath and rinse/dry/wipe...

Carbs are well on their way to being squeaky clean and hopefully will function as per manufacturer specs...

Inspection so far has revealed no glaring problems... however, I am slightly concerned with the amount of sludge accumulated toward the front valve cover, and in the valley between the jugs and tranny where the starter and alt. are located... but a good clean and subsequent run (when I get there) may help to reveal whether this will be a problem or not...

Big thanks for the info and suggestions so far... hope I didn't fry the R/R as I did have wifies car running for about 10-15 mins while initially inspecting the bike, diagnosing and guesstimating the amount of work required to resurrect the bike.

Have a couple Q's though.

Collector: That nice silver w/red coil shock you have on a table in one of your pictures... was that original? Replacement? Or modification? I'd be interested to hear how/where you got it from, and if it was a mod, what impact it had on driveability...

meatpopsicle: I have similar luck. Seems everything I do/buy/acquire ends up needing something... Then I usually cheap out, cause myself way more headaches, and cost myself more in the end when I end up just buying everything (parts-wise, machine-work-wise) new knowing full well I should have just done that in the first place... Case-in-point: bought a boat, first night out, within 2 hours, leaned out on one cylinder and burnt a hole in it... tried to rebuild it myself... cost ~$2000... Shop rebuild would have cost ~$1500 w/ warranty!!! lol... my luck...


Cheers!!