My adventures in project bike land....

[cafeboy]

Sweet looks good. I want to do some thing like this very soon but that is looking good.

[The Buddha]

That is a savage bob ha ha ...
There is a savage chop in statesville BTW.
Cool.
Srianth.

[cafeboy]

That is a savage bob ha ha ...
There is a savage chop in statesville BTW.
Cool.
Srianth.

and i want one

[scratch]

+1  That is SWEET!

[jbeaber]

Got the starter motor brushes in on Tuesday and went to work.  Just a word of warning, if you ever have to replace the brushes on a 4-brush starter motor, be prepared to be frustrated a bit.  You have to push four small metal blockes into little holes with a spring pushing them out, then slide this, with all four in their little holes, on to the commutator.  If the blocks are not in the holes, they will not fit over the commutator.  Takes a bit of time and manual dexterity, but can be done...  With only a mild amount of swearing.....
So, got them all in place, mounted the starter motor back on to the bike, turned it on, pressed the starter button and....  the start motor turned over once then stopped.  Only clicking noises after that...
So, stopped for the night a bit out of frustration, a bit out of just being tired...
Yesterday, spoke to my mechanic a bit about the problem and got some ideas.  i made sure the starter gear in the motor turned and only turned in one direction.  I made sure the starter motor gear turned well.  i reassembled and tried again.  Clicking only.
I took the starter motor off and opened it up again to make sure no pieces had gone where they ought not to be.  Everything looked fine.
I put the starter motor back on and tried again.  It turned over!!!
Now, since I last tried to start the bike i have removed the gas tank and the carbs, draining them in the process.  I knew it wuld take a bit of trying before everything got going again.  I tried a few times to no avail.  Waited for the battery to get back up to charge, no change...  Sleep on it again...
Duh...
Gas...
Spare gas tank empty...
So, tonight I will get some fresh happy gas, give the bike all the choke it can handle and try again.  I think all will be happy after that.  Then it will likely be time to register and insure the beast.  So, more on this later, but I think I am creeping ever closer.....

[Jake D]

It will be time to rent a torch, bench grinder, and a welder.  Then you can go to town!

[jbeaber]

That will be the summer job.  I plan to use the bike daily through the winter here so it takes the rain instead of the 675.  Then, once the season changes, start taking it apart and playing!  Or sell it so I can buy something else to mod....

[jbeaber]

And the next and maybe final chapter for a bit.  Once refilling the gas tank I tried to start the bike up again.  No luck.  Didn't help at all.  I sat and I pondered, i posted o na nighthawk board, pondered some more, added some beer to the pondering, then, low and behold, a post on the Nighthawk board revealed it all!  I had a choke problem.  The post described the guy having the same issue and the fix was to adjust the choke.  Now, I hadn't done much of anything to the choke but I had moved the carbs around quite a bit in cleaning them up.  So, i went down and looked at the choke cable.  It was jammed.  Moving the choke lever did not move the plate holding the choke plugs.  So, i popped the carbs off again and made sure that the choke cable did something again.  It definitely moved the plugs again.  Remounted the carbs and tried to fire the bike up.  It came to life on the first shot!  Now, I did have to mess around with the bike a bit.  It wasn't 100% happy.  This morning I took it for a couple mile ride and it responded beautifully.  I think all four cylinders are working well.  It isn't sounding perfect yet, but it gets happier after it has been running a bit.  i think the cure for a bit of what ails it will be getting out on the road and getting used regularly.  So, I am trying to track down my insurance agent to get it insured and registered.  Then I will just start riding it consistenly and see how it does.  There are a few more issues to tackle in time, the fuel gauge and gear display are not working for example, but those can be dealt with later.  The project seems to have been resurrected.
I would recommend this sort of a project to those who are inclined.  You need a garage and the time to do the project, and you will learn so much, get a lot of mechanical experience and generally have fun.  At least i did.  also, your tool collection will likely grow rapidly.  You need to find a good forum of people who know the bike too.  The Nighthawk forum provided invaluable help in getting this bike running again.  I had to buy several parts new, fork seals, starter motor brushes, a cap for the shaft drive oil.  The best way to get them new is to ask your local dealership to order them for you.  Same wait as if you mail order, but no shipping charges.  All in all the bike will have cost me about $600 in parts ($250 of which is tires), registration, and consumables.  It was a great thing to do to learn about bikes.  I now approach projects on our other bikes with a lot more confidence....  And fork seals aren't that scary, just messy...

[jbeaber]

And maybe the final chapter of the project bike for now.  I got the bike insured and registered today.  Tonight I rode the bike to the gym, its first legal time on the road in a long time.  It started up a little slow.  I think it is still cleaning itself out a bit.  I have carb cleaner in the gasoline, hopefully this will help over time.  The bike started running and slowly warmed up.  Once it was warmed up, rode it to the gym.  The biggest problem I have encountered right now is that the idle is set WAY too high.  I definitely need to get that toned down.  Beyond that it was a pleasant ride, albeit on a bike that handles like a small tank.  I would not be surprised if other issues pop up as I get more miles on it.  I think the rear suspension needs some love. But I have to say I amvery excited, very happy to have this bike running.