83 VT750 Teardown & Rebuild Project (For "Educational" Purposes!)

[keb709]

Hey all,

So here's the deal. As I mentioned in my introductory thread, I recently acquired a 1983 VT750 Shadow for relatively cheap. The bike is not in great condition, it has some rust and what appears to be a leak in the front head. It takes some effort to get it started, although it does start (I made sure of that before I broke out my wallet), and after riding it around the block I determined that it does run well enough...

HOWEVER. I have always been very interested in motorcycles and how they work (which is a large part of why I have pursued a degree in mechanical engineering), and what I plan to do with this bike is completely tear it down, "restore" it (although I can't say that my skills will allow me to label the final product as "restored"), and put it back together. My primary goal for this project is to learn as much as I can about the internal workings of a motorcycle, but if I'm the proud owner of a running bike at the end of it, I would be more than happy.

Just to clarify, I am a complete NOOB. The most experience I have ever had with engines was taking apart a lawnmower in my first semester of Uni. However, I do have the Honda Manual, which will hopefully guide me a little. Besides, at 20 years old, I think that even attempting this puts me a few notches above most of my peers.

I will have lots and lots of questions. Some of them may be semi-intelligent, but a lot of them will be extremely basic. So, if you're the type of person who likes to pass on knowledge to someone who's ready to listen and learn(and there seems to be lots of you on this forum), then this thread is for you!

I will update as frequently as possible (I'll be honest, after the small amount of work I've done, I've become a little obsessed, so this shouldn't be difficult).

Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Pictures to follow.

Cheers,

Kieran

[93gc40]

First you have, by what I can tell, as much or more experience than MOST of the people in the world who have Rebuilt or restored a Bike, Car, Boat or Plane. They often just wanted to learn HOW. The experience is the Goal. Not the cool Vehicle at the end. That is the reward.

Second, if you are going to study engineering. The project should be helpful. You might as well start learning how to make the thing you build WORK. What better way to learn how to make something work, than to, first, take it apart.

Now the bike. I'll bet if get get right down to it. the only thing wrong with that bike is, that something is dirty or got dirty. real basic issues. Hears the deal whats is the best way to clean any machine???? Well, by completely dis-assembling it, and then cleaning/repairing each individual part, one at a time. I'll bet I could get that bike running in an afternoon. But I can't promise it will still be running the next. You spend a few weeks or months, whatever rebuilding that bike. When you are done you should have a bike you can trust.
I have a friend that got a rust bucket 1984 1100 Saber. When he was 16. He restored that bike over a summer, he said for UNDER $200, plus a set of tires. See it was just dirty from sitting, he took it apart and cleaned everything by hand and just put it back together. Said the only Parts he replaced were gaskets, seals, hoses and a few bolts. By the way he is still riding that same bike, today. Interesting thing about this guy and the bike, they both have the same birthday month, December 1983.

[keb709]

Your words perfectly describe my thoughts. The GOAL is to learn. And hopefully there's a REWARD at the end! I haven't put any money directly into the bike yet, although I've spent some money on things like a good socket/wrench set, an air compressor, etc. Seems I'm the only one in the family who's ever had a need for tools, and I'm glad to be the first.

I currently have the tank off, as well as the boot that connects the airbox (?) and the carbs. I also took of the ends of the exhaust, although I'm now slightly regretting that (after some reading I now know there's more connection between the exhaust and engine performance than I originally thought). Will this mess up the performance at all or can I simply reattach the exhaust without having to go on some crazy carb rejetting adventure? Again, totally new to this.

I also took off the carbs today and they're currently soaking in pine-sol (opinions?). They were filthy. Someone had lost one of the float bowl gaskets and decided to use a few liters of what looks like loctite to replace it. I'm hoping that will all come off tomorrow when I wash off the pine-sol.

I'll be taking lots of pictures tomorrow and I'll have them up ASAP

K

[mattyo]

WOO!! I'm glad to hear you're going for it. Don't worry about being a n00b! I'm in (or was in) the same boat for the past 9 months. Same motivation. A n00b learning experience that hopefully results in a working engine at the end! I had no experience with engines with the exception of taking my moped engine apart in college but I didn't really "learn" anything from that experience. Apparently I've graduated to "novice" now because my engine runs (by luck) and doesn't leak fluids. I have a lot a good pics that may or may not help you with your rebuild.

engine rebuild and more...

By no means is that thread a step-by-step process nor does it contain any very useful information, but it does have some good pics!

I'll be watching your thread and I'll try to give advice where I can.

[Tobias]

Yeah, go for it! I have a few suggestions to get you started and to help get you back together.

Learn to love your 8mm, 10mm, and 12mm wrenches/sockets. Most of the bolts on the bike are in that range, with a few 14mm and the occasional larger bolt.

Since you're new, take pictures with your phone. Sometimes I'll take a quick pic before or during a disassembly to have a reference when getting it back together.

RTFM. If it says to do something and you think it's unnecessary, do it anyway. Example: I removed the water pump. I am used to working on cars and nowhere will you get oil from a water pump so I skipped draining the oil. Lo and behold, the hole the water pump shaft goes through is not separated from the oil pan as I assumed it was and I ended up cleaning oil off the patio and the park style bench for an hour.

Make sure you have all the parts and tools you need before you start. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to get work done and halfway through realizing you have to stop and either figure out a way to get it done without the proper tool (generally a bad idea) or go GET the proper tool(s).

The biggest deal for you right now is observation. If it looks cracked, dirty, or WRONG, plan on cleaning it or replacing it. That air box you pulled off the top of the carbs.....mine had separated a bit between the one outlet and the main part of that box. I used "The Right Stuff" black gasket to re seal it and it's worked fine. Check everything you touch for cracks or breaks anything that could cause a problem. This means clean, clean, clean everything.

Hose clamps..... don't leave old, rusty, craptastic hose clamps on the bike. Don't leave the springy pressure clamps on, either. Use the ones that screw down tight. They're more reliable. Any hose that looks old, replace it. Some of the coolant hoses are STUPID expensive and special order. You can go to the auto parts store (take the old hose with you!) and find one of the pre molded hoses they have behind the counter (they'll generally let you back to pick through it and find what you need, especially if you're a regular there) that will fit and cost you much less. Two of my coolant hoses were between $5 and $15 instead of $35 a piece doing that.

There is an easy way and a hard way to do most things. You will learn the easy way by doing it the hard way the first time. Don't get too frustrated and don't give up! The exhaust kicked my arse the first time I took it off and reinstalled it. The second time it took me a quarter of the time and was pretty easy.

Bla bla bla, I'm tired and rambling so I'll stop here and try to remember to check in occasionally. Best of luck to you!!!!

Oh yeah, if you have extra time and want to read through my cooling system hell, my thread is - '83 shadow VT500c problems!!!! That's a decent example of how frustrating things can be sometimes and there are pictures closer to the end. Decent amount of cooling system information in there as well if you're interested.

[keb709]

Thanks for the support and advice. Matt, your thread was amongst those that inspired to start my own project. I hope that mine turns out as well as yours.

On to the pictures. I apologize, I didn't take any quality pictures of the bike as a whole. This is the best I have:



Day 1 of the teardown was yesterday. I removed the seats, tank, airbox, rear fender, mufflers(I think?), and the carbs. I also took off the handlebar controls so that i could remove the handlebars and fit the bike in my shed(my "workshop"). Here's a few pictures of what the bike looks like now:









I had seen a few threads about cleaning carbs using Pine-Sol, so after taking them off, I decided to say "what the hell" and go for it. I bought a few bottles and soaked the disassembled carbs (except for the jets; I'm not THAT brave) overnight in a 3:1 mixture of Pine-Sol and water. This morning I took them out, used a toothbrush to scrub them, rinsed them with the lightest setting on my pressure washer and dried them with compressed air. They look a whole lot cleaner than before. There was SOME flash rusting on exterior parts, although much less than some people have experienced. Any advice on how to deal with this? Or should I just leave it? I didn't think to take any "before" pictures, but here's a few of the "after":











I'm not exactly sure what I'll do next, maybe remove the electrical? Who knows. There's a leak on the front engine head which can be seen (kinda) in these two pictures:





So maybe I'll look into that in the near future.

Any comments/criticism/advise?

Cheers

K

[keb709]

And in case you were wondering...

YES, Hurricane Leslie hit Newfoundland today, And YES, that's two trees and two fences down in my garden...

[luisr320]

Been there. Still doing it.
I also disassembled my bike to restore it to mint condition. I'm not sure if that is your objective.

There are two things that kept me afloat in these months: this forum and a lot of picture for future reference. This question will come up many times: where does this bolt/part goes to? A pics is worth a thousand bla bla bla. Most of the pics I have were taken by my kid who went crazy on the trigger and shoot everything in sight. And I mean everything.

I didn't want to open the engine but when I removed the cylinder head to polish it I found that the valves were all messed up. So the cylinders removal were as far as I went on the engine, as well as the side covers, of course. I'm not as brave as Matt to crack the engine open. That is a rabbit hole all by itself. The deeper you go the harder it is to come back.

One the carbs had the rubber diaphragm ripped. So cleaning it on the outside wouldn't be enough.

Another thing you should do is to put every bolt/part in a zipbag, tag it with its location and put them inside boxes labeled with the content.

The fuel tank will be empty for a long time so be careful that it will not get rusty on the inside. Keep it inside the house, away from humidity.

I could be rambling for a long time about the dos and don'ts. So just ask away when you have any doubts.

Mind you, I'm a complete n00b.

You can check my project on the link on my signature. Lots of pics.

Happy biking.

[mattyo]

Originally Posted by luisr320

Another thing you should do is to put every bolt/part in a zipbag, tag it with its location and put them inside boxes labeled with the content.

+1 billion!

If you're going to split the case and do a full rebuild, then I strongly suggest bagging and tagging everything and having boxes to separate the different systems of the bike. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to organization but I also had two sets of parts that I wanted to keep separated and be able to identify later on.



I really like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale!



Definitely get a manual if you don't have one already. Personally I liked the Honda manual better than the Clymer (I have both). The Clymer is much more thorough but it had so much text that it got annoying. The Honda manual is straight to the point and I liked that better. But that's just a matter of opinion. In any case get a manual because it lays out a very systematic method for removing the engine and breaking it down.

So from where you are now, in no particular order you need to:
- if you haven't yet, drain the coolant and oil
- pull off the fuel pump and lines
- you have the "mufflers" off but you need to take the "pipes" off too
- pull the ignition coils and mounting bracket off
- pull the radiator and thermostat off
- pull the clutch slave off

This is not necessary but definitely makes getting the engine out go a little smoother:
- pull the left crankcover off and pull out the starter clutch and starter gears

Then you should be set to pull the engine!

[keb709]

As it turns out, the hurricane did a little more than knock down some trees, I've also been without internet up until about an hour ago. I did alot of work today, including the majority of what Matt suggested. I looked into the engine after taking off the pipes, and there is ALOT of carbon buildup. I understand the bike is 30 years old, but there sure seems to be quite a bit of that black soot. Is this normal?

Didn't take the time to snap any pics, I'll do that tomorrow morning and hopefully have them up here sometime during the day for everyone.

I'm also looking for some advice on taking off the idiot lights, speedo, tach, etc. I took a quick stab at it this evening but I ran out of light and left it. No, my shed does not have power (working on it!)

Cheers,

K