Before I turn a wrench.....

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Skyguyz
Posts: 145
Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2019 6:53 pm
Location: Las Vegas, NV. USA

Before I turn a wrench.....

Post by Skyguyz »

My 75 M series Kettle is a runner with some some small issues,

- Split in bottom of # 2 exhaust
-Hard starting when cold
-faulty petcock
-Tach drive "Wobbles" a bit where it attaches to the right case.
-Dent / scrape on outside right pipe, (OEM pipes.)
-Paint on Both cases & frame.

But all in all its a great example for a restoration. Before I turn a wrench I did check compression and its good. I will do a leak down test next. There are so many concerns before I tear down this bike. I will try and assess the auto-lube flow in some yet unknown technique. Now without first hand knowledge, what else should I check for when this bike when it is still whole?

*There are many checks along the way of course, forks, suspension, etc, but I am primarily interested in feedback of "Insider knowledge" before I disassemble, catalog every bit that comes off this bike.

Thanks in advance,


Sky

PS: "Insider knowledge" I am aware is volumes of posts, days, weeks months of reading posts. I will garner knowledge along the way for sure but what are the real basic "Gotchas" that I should be aware of?


*Video of PO starting my bike when it was already warmed up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XlAD31yQXw

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zapo
Posts: 691
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:07 pm
Location: Near Derby

Re: Before I turn a wrench.....

Post by zapo »

Take it for a ride of about 10 miles and use full rev range several times ( in other word hard acceleration).
Then check for gearbox oil seeping out of the hole at the bottom of the oil pump cover (its just above the kick starter shaft ).
If you see oil then crankshaft seals need renewing :(
If no oil seeping out then happy days :D
I had two stroke's and survived.
teebowbusablaster
Posts: 659
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:59 am

Re: Before I turn a wrench.....

Post by teebowbusablaster »

Ain't that the truth !
teazer
Posts: 1035
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:10 pm
Location: Chicago

Re: Before I turn a wrench.....

Post by teazer »

That's a lot of smoke from the left pot and that suggests a stuck or leaky check valve on that side.

When you take the pipes off to do a leakdown test, you may want to remove the SRIS brass valves on the front of the crankcase one at a time and see how much oil is in the bottom end. If the left side has significantly more than the others, remove the oil pump and feed system commonly called the octopus or spider and gent;y flush the lines with kerosene. Do not use compressed air.

http://pinkpossum.com/GT750/Oilpump.htm for more info than you ever wanted on pumps.

Ian Sandy up in Canukstan or Canadia as it's also known :? has built a test rig for oil pumps. His website OldJapaneseBikes is treasure trove of information on these bikes.
barney01
Posts: 3118
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:33 pm
Location: Prestatyn.Wales

Re: Before I turn a wrench.....

Post by barney01 »

Easy way to test if oil flows. Drain oil tank (I would anyway to be sure of contents) put different colour oil in and then when engine runs you can see the progress of oil down the pump feed tubes. Just one word of caution don't mix mineral engine oil with synthetic as it can cause "glooping" which is a form of clotting.
NO SMOKE .......NO POKE
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