Wasted Weekends Special

asphalt788

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I am starting to build my first little chop and here is my story. Since I was a kid I had always wanted a motorcycle of my own. However my mom had always said I would kill myself on it. Well two years ago my car got stolen while I was out of town on vacation. That was the point at which I decided to buy a piece of shit car and then use the extra money to buy a bike. I found a good beginner bike (2002 honda shadow spirit) for a good price. I rode it for a year before I purchased a new FZ-09. Then the cruiser sat in the garage collecting dust.
While I was crusing some internet forums I came across the Four Points Madison Cycle Show. I decided that some of the bikes looked cool and went and had a look. I was blown away by some of the bikes there. I knew that I wanted to build my own. So this spring I sold my shadow and used to money to buy a basket case(ish). It was tough to find something that was not finished but had the majority of the parts (and a title). But I finally found one and pulled the trigger for $1100. The guy I bought it from was super nice and wished me the best of luck. We strapped her down into the trailer and headed home. About half way home we stopped at this cool little bar we saw on the way. When we stopped I immediately noticed that the tank was now missing. Crap! Well i ran over to the bike and luckily the tank was in the trailer, along with a half dozen nuts, bolts, levers, and other parts. The first thing that I did was to build a platform to work on and hold the bike upright.
My goal for this bike is to be a bare bones bike. I plan on running no front fender or signals. I would like either a frisco style sporty tank or a wassal. A foot clutch and jockey shift A king and queen seat and tall sissy bar is also in the plan. A LED rear tail light and plate lamp are requirements. As for paint I have no clue. But I have seen some cool paint jobs with patterns and some of that flake/glitter.

The bike is a 1980. While I think the motor is a 79.

On with the pictures.
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Now below is a list of parts that I know I will need.
1) Sprocket (31t) Ordered
2) Chain
3) Fender Ordered
4) Fender tabs
5) Sissy Bar
6) King and Queen Seat
7) PMA (hughes) Ordered
8) PAMCO (do I want E-advance? Any help with numbers would be great) Ordered the 14-0910)
9) Capacitor
10) Throttle Ordered
11) Grips
12) Brake Lever
13) Master Cylinder
14) Brake Line
15) Brake switch
16) LED tail light Ordered
17) Plate holder and light Ordered
18) Spedo Delete Ordered
19) Starter plug
20) Solid Riser bushings Ordered
21) Zombie performance SQUID/WTF Bars
22) kickstand
23) Fake oil tank (electrical box)
24) Hi/low switch
25) Off/on switch
26) Clutch cable
27) carb re-build kit Ordered
28) Exhaust (Yo mama pipes or custom long pipes going up to the seat)
29) jets?
31) throttle cable

I plan on tearing apart the engine and seeing how it looks. I will attempt to write as many how tos with tons of pictures.
I welcome all comments/questions/help.
 
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Looks like you've got your work cut out for you!

Are you looking for stock stuff in terms of handlebar goodies and brakes or are you going aftermarket on that sort of thing?

I parted out an '80 Special and have pretty much all the brake parts, switch groups, throttle stuff, etc.
 
Downeaster: I had planned on buying the biltwell whiskey throttle. I also planned on making a tiny brace resivor for the front brake using a small piece of tubing per the How-To on chopcult. Would the stock master cylinder work for this? You basically remove the large buly master cylinder resivor and replace it with a smaller piece of tubing.
Is the stock throttle a single or dual cable setup?
 
Can't advise on the brake reservoir, suspect the stock unit would sort of defeat the purpose of creating a smaller overall look.

Throttle is single cable.
 
So last night I started tearing the motor apart. I plan on opening it up and checking everything over. I also plan on rebuilding the carbs. I will get the motor in top shape before I really get started on anything else.
Pics:
left side cover guts.jpg

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I am making sure to be very organized when I take everything apart. Although when i removed the right side cover the kick starter assembly instantly popped out at me. I will have to look up how to put that back together. It looks like someone already took the cases off and cleaned the inside of them. There was wipe marks clearly visibly on the inside of the right side cover. There is a little surface rust on some of the parts due to sitting without oil in the motor. Will this be a big problem? I would assume that some emery cloth would remove it quickly. But the amount that is on there I would be fine just starting the motor then changing the oil after a couple of miles.

I also ordered a ton of parts yesterday and they should be here on Tuesday.:D:D
 
Just out of curiosity do you have a repair manual? If not you should get one. biker.net has downloads. I like the factory books. The Clymer and Haynes are ok but both have some mistakes.
I have the factory books to cover from 70-80, I have the 81 up as downloads. I have the Clymer and Haynes books.
I like the books, something about having a book in your hand just feels right.
Leo
 
Hi asphalt and welcome,
I hope your build goes together well and produces the bike you want.
Your shopping list starts with a 31T sprocket.
Firstly, you should buy front and rear sprockets and chain as a set.
They wear in together and last a lot longer like that.
Secondly, a 31T sprocket is best suited to high speed riding.
I'd suggest that the stock 17T, 34T (or even 36T) sprockets will be better suited to your bike's rider ergonomics.
FYI, my '84 Heritage Special came from the factory wearing 17T & 36T sprockets.
And what type of chain to buy?
I buy good quality o-ring chain because it lasts far longer.
A rider I correspond with uses #50 Agricultural chain because it costs a lot less.
We are both right.
 
Fredintoon,

I do alot of highway crusing and a decent amount of interstate travel. I figured in order to reduce some of the vibrations on longer rides that going to a 17-31 would be a good combination. Also good point on buying a front sprocket as well. Most of my crusing is at 60 to 70 mph. Should I still think about going with the 17-34?
As far as chain goes there is a local shop here that I would buy it from. They have a bulk roll that they just cut off the length you need.
 
Fredintoon,

I do alot of highway crusing and a decent amount of interstate travel. I figured in order to reduce some of the vibrations on longer rides that going to a 17-31 would be a good combination. Also good point on buying a front sprocket as well. Most of my crusing is at 60 to 70 mph. Should I still think about going with the 17-34?
As far as chain goes there is a local shop here that I would buy it from. They have a bulk roll that they just cut off the length you need.

A 17-36 combo is a real fun gearing to use locally around town.................beat everybody from red light to red light. Not the best for expressways.......too high of rpms.

A 17-30 or 17-31 will be happy when on the interstates, but would be a bit of a dog around town.................accelerate like a 360 Honda.:eek:

I recommend 17-33 for you as a compromise. I'd call it a Goldylocks gear, not to hot and not to cold................ahhhh just right!
 
Fredintoon,

I do alot of highway crusing and a decent amount of interstate travel. I figured in order to reduce some of the vibrations on longer rides that going to a 17-31 would be a good combination. Also good point on buying a front sprocket as well. Most of my crusing is at 60 to 70 mph. Should I still think about going with the 17-34?
As far as chain goes there is a local shop here that I would buy it from. They have a bulk roll that they just cut off the length you need.

Hi asphalt,
I reckon that your proposed build configuration is not optimal for riding at high speeds or for traveling long distances.
I'd say it was more suited to in-town coffee bar hopping.
But that's entirely up to you.
Whatever, go with Retired Gent's sprocket choice for the type of riding you want to do.
And while ag. chain bought by the yard ain't my first choice, why not?
An option to make the chain last longer is to install a Scottoiler, those things are magic.
 
Well some parts arrived today so I figured I would stop degreasing and do some wrenching. The carbs were something that I had been wondering about since I bought The Komodo 3000. They looked like they were in rough shape on the outside, so I figured they would be gummed up on the inside. When I was removing the bowl it was nice to find that some moron had used two self tapping metal screws to replace the stock fasteners.
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Well once I opened the first one up I was not dissapointed. There was easily a half inch of stale gas sitting in the bowl. This gum layer took a while to clean out. The main jet was frozen in, so 20 min in the oven and I was able to break it free. It was nice to have every screw on the carb stripped out as well.:wtf: One side of the float is dented. See the pictures. Will this be a problem?
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More parts are supposed to show up tomorrow and thursday. I plan on splitting the case to check the insides after the carbs are rebuilt. Thinking about walnut blasting the outside of the motor to clean it up. Thoughts?
 
needs new float.
Ive been curious about walnut blasting. I have #25 of it. but the gun kept clogging. so I went with diy soda blaster from harbor freight. works good, as good as suspected from harbor freight. I had to shake it a lot.
 
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