Hi all,
New to the forum but thought i might be able to take advantage of all the great knowledge on here. I currently ride a Moto Guzzi V7 but really enjoyed doing up my GZ125 and CBR125 for sale so decided to buy a project bike. All my experience comes from single cylinder 125's - carb cleaning, fork cleaning and rebuild, caliper rebuild, valve clearance (v7), oil and filter changes etc... Not messed with engines at all so should be an experience! Don't have access to a workshop, just me and my garage. I own a welder and dremel, socket set, torque wrench and some other bits and bobs, hoping this will be enough.
Live in the UK and found a very ratty looking GS for £600 near Torquay. The frame has been chopped and some sheet metal has been used as rear fender. The description stated the high miles (64,000!) and a 'small' hole in the exhaust. Upon arrival I noticed the following issues... Tach not working, MANY holes in the exhaust and some pretty poor welding, MOT stated slightly rusted swing arm, compression test came back as 100psi on the right and 30psi on the left!
Not sure if I just love a challenge but I offered the bloke £300 and off I went. After x3 breakdown's and 90 miles I was home. The battery is either not charging or not holding power so required a few jump starts. The electrics seem to have been redone with the transformer acting as a seat heater in a small compartment near the battery (this concerns me as I've never touched electrics before!). Front brakes seem pretty damn weak.
This was about a week and a half ago. Since then I have stripped it down to engine, frame and wheels. Carbs have been stripped and I'm in the process of cleaning them (have a carb rebuild kit in the post although the jets seem okay). Calipers removed and the front calipers slider pin has completely seized so will be buying a propane torch over the next few days to try and get that out. I just about managed to remove the exhaust with only one bolt snapping in the head, the rest were extremely rusted. I had a very quick look at the valve clearances last night and could get a 0.1mm in there so will need to work out what shimms I need over the next few days. I noticed a pretty big gouge out of the front left exhaust lobe, will upload a pic later to see what you guys think.
My plan is to check timing chain tension, adjust valves and check out the compression then go from there. Any notes, suggestions or idea's would be greatly welcome! You may have to bare with me as I mentioned, I have not worked on an engine before. I'm hoping because of the popularity of the bike it should be relatively easy to find solutions, guides etc. I'm going for more of a repair than replace approach with this, purely to teach myself.
Many thanks!
A little progress made last night.
Checked the valve clearances. Both intake and the right exhaust were reading somewhere between .1 and .14 so Im hoping a new set of shims will bring the right cylinders compression back into spec (was reading 100psi before). The left exhaust on the other hand would not allow me to get a .04 feeler inside.
Any ideas? Possibly valve springs?
Just for reference, this cylinder was reading 30psi and had a slight oil leak from the rocker cover bolt above the exhaust valve. There's was also some scoring on the exhaust cam lobe... Doesn't look like a big problem but may have been the result of one.
The site wont let me upload pics as they are too big. I will include a link to a google doc where I will upload pics.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rVSgGW9B3AsRqJMbZ1u_7-uqaGRz1oogRYiR2cUbjYA/edit?usp=sharing