Kent restores an '81

[FalldownPhil]

Kent,
What year wiring harness are you using? Does your red plug fit into your harness? It the red plug fits into your harness it is late model '81-'82 (it is a smaller plug) an early model switch with the white plug will not plug into your harness without changing the white connector and the pins to the smaller red connector and late model pins. I hope that this makes sense to you.
Best,
Phil

[kbart1]

yup. red connectors on both ends. they do plug into each other and it all works fine now however the problem is that when i put the fairing back on and have to route the wiring correctly i can not see how this wiring will reach? it has to go down to the fairing and route UNDER the junction box in the fairing and up around the front side of the box to plug into the main harness. when i bought this "project" the guy had opened up the harness at the fairing junction box and pulled the red connector out of the box and back toward the steering stem to make the connection??? not the end of the world yet as i am still a ways off from mounting the fairing (paint etc.) however i am trying to sort out a bunch of loose ends.

thanks
kent

[daves79x]

Kent:
You likely have a Euro Sport kit switch. They came with lower bars in Europe. You'll need a US version isf you are using the stock high bars.

Dave

[EMS]

Kent:
You likely have a Euro Sport kit switch. They came with lower bars in Europe. You'll need a US version isf you are using the stock high bars.

Dave

..or you have an "F" switch. Their cables were shorter and they had red plugs. If it is a Euro switch, the throtle cables come out at the top of the housing.
Looking at the pictures you have posted, the cables exit at the bottom. This is not a "Sport Kit" or "Euro" switch.
Maybe your junction box is not in the right place which would make the distance to the switch pod too long.

[kbart1]

hey guys

can anybody shed any light here. i am considering turning this pro-link into a "naked" bike. i know the early model headlights and brackets etc will go onto the pro-link as the triple trees are the same mounting method, i think? my question revolves around the wiring and the headlight bucket. i have never had a chance to look closely at an early model headlight but i believe there are a couple openings in the bucket in the rear to pass the wiring harness thru to make your connections to the harness. it looks as though there is no grommets or anything so i am a little concerned about water fouling the connections? is this the way the early models were? also, can i use my '81 wiring harness in this scenerio and rather than using the fairing junction box make all my connections in the headlight bucket? is there enough room? i am not worried about the new headlight and front signals as i could build a new harness for those items to plug into my '81 harness as the fairing harness does originally. any advise would be much appreciated.

thanks a lot!
kent

[daves79x]

Kent:
It gets pretty full in there, but all the connections can be made from the stock Pro-Link harness into the early headlight bucket. No water issues to worry about. You also have to drill out the threads in the top clamp gauge mounts and use a through-bolt to mount the headlight and gauges.

Dave

[kbart1]

thats great news dave, thanks for that. i really like the looks of the naked bikes as i personally feel all the fairing and related peices takes your attention away from the real reason we all love these bikes, THE MOTOR!!!! now the search starts for a bucket and brackets

kent

[kbart1]

so as you may or may not know i now basically have a spare motor i am going to clean up and re-assemble. the key here is its a SPARE so i am not going to spend a lot of money on it. i mainly want to get the cylinder head back on the motor and more or less seal it up and put it away in case its ever needed, which i hope not! the pics are of the valves from the right intake bank. i call them valves 18 on far right 23 in middle and 24 on the left of photos. the combustion chamber shots are pretty obvious. THESE THINGS LOOK NASTY. anybody have any idea what that wet rust like crud is on the valves? could it be RUST? keep in mind these are intake valves. i also have a stripped thread on cam cap # 14 forward side which i will need to heli-coil. this is a head i bought off e-bay after discovering the head my bike came with was junk do to cam surfaces shot. any suggestions on what to use to clean up the combustion chambers and the valves? ideally i will lap the valves and put on new valve seals and close this thing up. any thoughts?

thanks!
kent

right to left valves 24 23 and 18


cylinder # 6


cylinder # 3

[Will]

That looks like rust to me. It won't hurt much EXCEPT the valve seats. Hopefully it hasn't pitted the valve seats.

= Bill =

[CopperCollar]

Won't be able to tell what the seats look like until you get the head hot tanked then you'll be able to see the pits.

Not a gambler but I would wager those seats are pitted. Question is can they be cleaned up with a valve seat grind.

Just went through this with The Travesty.

Mike

[kbart1]

here's an interesting one for all of you. when i removed my alt. cover to put on my polished unit i noticed my oil looked a little strange in color? got me thinking so i drained my oil and this is what i found. the oil is obviously contaminated with something and as this is an air cooled bike it can't be water. i think it must be fuel???? all i can think of is that my auto petcock is not working properly and fuel is running into a cylinder(s) and draining through the rings and into the case? when i checked the oil level it was high. i have not had any vapor lock issues. i have never seen a fuel / oil cocktail so i don't know what it looks like? anybody else seen this type of thing? any ideas? this is a frustrating day!!! i have attached a photo of the oil removed from the bike below. the first is with flash on, the second is with flash off on camera.





thanks a lot!
kent

[daves79x]

Simple test for fuel contamination is to smell it. Any odor of gas and that's it. I suspect you'd have figured that out by now, though, as it would be a very strong gas smell with that much in it. Actually, it looks like water to me. Is this from a running bike or the project?

Dave

[Jeff Bennetts]

Put some of that cocktail in a clear container and see if it separates.

[kbart1]

thanks guys

it is from a project that i put a used motor into and have been running it periodically in the garage. i haven't actually had a chance to RIDE it yet as i have been rebuilding it to this point. i bought and installed a used motor that i am told was fine. i can't see how any water would get into this and there is not a huge smell of gas. i am stumped???

thanks
kent

[NobleHops]

Kent is this the same bike the rusty head came off of? I agree with Dave, this looks like water to me. Put a sample in a clean quart pasta sauce jar and see what happens overnight. I'd be very interested in what the oil pan and screen look like. If this thing has been running then I'd change out that filter pronto and run another batch of oil through it, getting it good and warm, inspect again, and then replace with one last clean batch.

I suspect some of what you're seeing in that cocktail is precipitated rust.

Maybe send a sample to Blackstone for testing?

N.