I picked up this 1989 mc19 as a parts bike for another mc19 build, but after getting it home I decided it probably wasnt a bad bike to fix up instead of parting it out for another project. When I went and looked at the bike he said he couldn't start it because the fuel pump had died the day before trying to start it for another potential buyer but he assured me it startered and was a solid runner that he used as a daily. The fairings weren't in great shape having a few cracks and a small piece missing around a bolt hole in the front fairing the rear indicators were missing along with the lower part of the inner gaurd that holds the licence plate and reflector. Apart from that the bike was complete, so I handed over the cash and loaded it in the back of I'm ute for trip home. A week later after deciding it was going to be my new project I started stripping it down so I could get a good look at it and see if I could get it to turn over. Very quickly did I see the bike was In much worse shape then I could have imagined and the bike had been in an a accident at some stage and had some of the worst repairs I had ever seen. First I had noticed the rear sub frame was bent and on closer inspection it had been cut and had another subframe very very very poorly welded on. Instead of removing the inner gaurd to do that classy repair they just cut a 100mm section out to Weld it Hahahahah. The next thing was the wiring, it had been hacked to bits the indicators had been removed and it looked like he had tried to put a led set on it as the harness had been cut into and had dodgy connectors all over the place he obviously couldn't get it working so I'm assuming he took the indicators off and left the wires behind. There was also a pilot switch wired into the thermo fan so it could be manually turned on. (For traffic use he told me). After removing the rear subframe and tossing it straight in the bin it was time to have a look at the engine, at this stage I don't have high hopes that it's going to start. While checking the usual stuff prior to trying to kick it over I noticed the reason the fuel pump had stopped working was because it wasn't there.....He had the main fuel line from the carbs plumbed straight into the tank, no pump no fuel filter nothing hahaha. So instead of trying to start it I pull the carbs off and put them in the ultrasonic parts cleaner. It was my first time I've used it and I was actually really impressed with how well it worked for an elcheapo eBay I put the carbs in for 3 20min cycles twice in heavy duty degreaser and once in water this was from the second run I forgot to take a pic of how much stuff came out on the first go. Next will be a clean up of the whole bike and put the carbs back together and back on with a new fuel pump and filter. Needless to say I overpaid for this bike and I should have been a lot more thorough before handing over the cash but lesson learnt, however it will be well worth it when it's done.
Hmmm, that is a woefull weld job , I have a subframe if you need one, I probably have a harness too, I am in Brisbane How is the inside of the tank ?
Cheers mate but I've already picked one up along with new inner wheel gaurds, indicators, and pretty much everything else that was missing/unusable from the sub frame. I'll do another post tomorrow with a bit more progress
Wow, a motorcycle seller lying to make a sale and rip someone off... ...you're taking it a lot better than I would @trax
Don't get me wrong I'm pretty pissed about it because a quick fix has now turned into somewhat of a full rebuild and has taken my focus away from another project, but I'm a pretty easy going guy and it looked like old mate was doing it pretty tough so at the end of the day I don't mind to much plus I like a challenge. Might be a different story if the engine is shagged. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Lol
So got a bit done today gave it a bit of a clean because the engine was filthy it's not micky mouse but it's a lot better then it was Sandblasted and gave the new rear sub frame coat of paint. Carbs went back together and gave the vacuum cover a coat of squiggle paint which I'm not sure if I like it not but it's on now. New carb boots, fuel pump (eBay special so I will see how that goes) new fuel hose and a oem filter which is from a cbr600 which is compatible according to honda. I installed it all and kicked it over and I couldn't beleive my eyes it started first go no trouble at all the engine surprisingly sounds really good but I havnt done a comp test yet so see how that goes.
Now I'm not actually sure of what this filter going to the top of the carbs is but when I opened it up to clean it the filter literally disintegrated at the slightest touch, I couldn't find anything online to replace it with but I had this filter medium laying around so I doubled it up and have used it. Can any foresee this being an issue at all? Next the new inner gaurds went in the subframe and the loom was put back in place along with a new battery. I still havnt fixed the hacked part of the loom which goes back to the indicators but I'll sort that when the fairings go back on. Now to the front of the cbr, the front wheel was removed so I can have them Powder coated, the wheel bearings are flogged so I'll order a new set for the front and back and I'll do the headstock bearings while I'm at it. While the front wheel was off I removed the forks which probably need to be rechromed and have new seals put in, but might just be worth trying to source another set that is in better nik but see what happens. The radiator needs a new coat of paint so it came off along with the shroud. I flushed it and coated the tanks in paint stripper to get it ready for paint. When I flushed the radiator some of this stuff came out I have no idea what it is some type of glue maybe? It was Softish and broke easily enough. Also while the radiator was off I replaced the o rings on the radiator hoses where they bolt into the block as they were hard and cracked. The exhaust came off next, I gave it a hit with a wire wheel in the drill and it git a coat of heat proof black. The can had also been wrapped with a stainless cover I assumed it had been dropped and was damaged underneath but when I drill the rivets out it was in better shape then the cover was. Im back at work now for a couple of weeks now but should have the bearings and a few other buts and pieces ready to go for when I am back at the workshop.
Its a bit hard to tell how good/bad those forks are from a pic but try polishing them with a bit of crumpled aluminium foil and WD40 or Inox liberally sprayed on beforehand
That little box is the air breather for the carb diaphrams. What you've done there will be fine. The fork legs may clean up ok as Grey suggested, just needs lots of rubbing. What comes out of a 30 year old radiator is anybody's guess. New rad and hoses available pretty cheap on aliexpress.
Ok cool I'll give it a go you can't really see the pitting in the pic. In hind site it's probably not that bad but there is putting there I don't think will come out. But I'll give it a red hot crack. Cheers
Aliexpress I never though to check there for parts I'll check it out cheers is there much other mc19 parts on there?
I havent had as much time to work on the cbr as i would have liked lately but I've got a few things done. All my bearings came in so got started on that. I removed the crusty old wheel bearings from the front wheel and they were stuffed The new bearings and seals will go back in once I get the wheels powder coated Next was the headstock bearings. They were also pretty sad. The clamps got a fresh coat of paint before going out back in. More fresh bearings everything was all greased up and loosely installed waiting for the forks which was the next thing on the list and ended up being a pain in the arse. I probably would have gotten away with using the original forks that were in the bike, they were pitted but probably weren't that bad after I gave them a clean up with some wd40 and tin foil but I decided to just get a better pair to save the hassle of having to re do it later if it leaked. So the lower hex head bolt in the bottom of one of the forks was half flogged out and when I tried to remove it........ it completely flogged out haha. So I though no big deal I'll just drill it out, Once I drilled a pilot hole I thought hang on I'll try an easy out first that will work, wellllll it didn't and I snapped it in the hole long story short I ended up having to use a die grinder to finish the job which was a pain in the arse. I stripped all the paint and cleaned all the sludge from inside the forks installed the fresh seal and filled it up with 10w oil. I had a lot of dramah finding the correct air gap measurement for the fork everything I read had a different height measurement even the manual wasn't clear on the correct air gap for my model but in the end I found this chart and went with 95mm from the top of the stanchion. Then gave them a coat of paint and and new stickers. Pretty happy with how they turned out. I'm a bigger guy so will see how they feel and if they are still to soft I'll do the 20 cent mod.