Another ‘80 - The Bitsa Bike

[heli_madken]

Wow better than anything on the Discovery channel in the last 5 years!!!

Thank you for sharing

[bobcat]

Awesome ! The "better than new" bike ! Can't wait to see it finished.

[jt]

Nice attention to details ! really nice Niles.

[Rick Pope]

Thank you gentlemen. It’s been a while since I contributed a project thread, hope it’s entertaining.

Entertaining? My wife asked why I was taking so long. I had to read through the entire sequence.

[NobleHops]

Thanks for the good morning chuckle Rick!

[NobleHops]

OK, we've got some progress to report.

We have this nice repro left switch, but it was made for the US non-sport bike, so the lead is too long, and will flop around untidily.



So we need to shorten it about 4 inches.



Ditto these turnsignal wires.







Got that sorted out, installed a couple of connectors onto two regulator/rectifiers we had laying around so those could be put back in service too:



...

[NobleHops]

...and finally I could stall or procrastinate no longer, and tore into the cleaning and prep and soda blasting of the engine in preparation for repainting it.



We assembled this set of covers and block-offs and fasteners and plugs just for this purpose - they are swapped onto the engine to seal it off while the ones we're going to use get prepped and refinished.





The cam and friends look great now, if bone dry, but that's after 45 min spent cleaning and flushing the entire area with WD40 that we then sucked back out with a shop vac necked down to a small hose. A few valve cover bolts were missing, and so some dust did find its way in there. So we wanted to just check a few of the cam caps and journals to see if there was indication of debris having snuck in there.



Nope, looking good. There is wear, but no scoring or debris. I will plastigauge these for fun, but they seem nominal.





Sprayed and chased out the valve cover threads, with the thread restorer taps...





Now getting organized to scrub this thing and then soda blast it. Gonna install our sacrificial clutch cover and crank end caps and also a dummy for the oil hose outlet below. Note the condition here.



Flip the engine stand over (thanks, awesome engine stand!), to remove the alternator and starter:



Typical condition of an un-serviced alternator drive. Who can say what's wrong with this picture, other than the scuffy surface and evidence of overheated oil?



...

[NobleHops]

Aieeeee! Evidence of RTV used on the left-side crank end cap where a gasket belongs. Thankfully this is the only place we have spied any evidence of this including in the oil pan and pickup screen, and it looks like it was not used excessively either. For those that have not experienced this first-hand, silicone sealants including RTV are soluble in hot oil, resulting in "silicone boogers" that can transit the oil system and plug it up, including the pickup screen. These sealants do not belong in contact with hot oil, and should be used sparingly wherever they are specified for use. And IMO that NEVER includes a motorcycle engine.

[NobleHops]

This is me getting a little clever, and it worked out! That blue thing to the right is our aqueous spray parts cabinet, and it features a sink on top with a brush and ball valve. Optionally you can use it to manually clean grungy parts and the solution drains down into the sump below. I swapped a 5-foot hose onto the brush, used that bus tray to catch the solution for reuse and used the hot detergent solution and brush to scrub the $*** out of this engine before it was blasted. It worked *great*.



Now we're out on the back deck and I have emptied several cans of spray brake cleaner into the really grimy areas and scrubbed them too. Next this gets rinsed and dried and then it's time for the soda blast.



Fast forward a dusty couple of hours and this thing has been soda blasted within an inch of its life,and then rinsed and it is CLEAN.



I, on the other hand, look like a powdered donut, and this is AFTER blasting myself off with the air hose:



And now we are nearly ready to do one final degrease with acetone, and then paint:





And that's what we got done this weekend folks!

[daves79x]

Your oil metering plug is missing from the primary shaft. Soda blasting - better you than me!! Awesome job!

Dave

[Syscrush]

Damn. There's something so satisfying about seeing experts do work with this level of care and craft. Thanks for sharing.

[bikeymikey748]

Bueno! Nicely done, and well worth the effort in terms of final result.

Typical condition of an un-serviced alternator drive. Who can say what's wrong with this picture, other than the scuffy surface and evidence of overheated oil?

Nils, I feel your pain, looks just like mine did. Is this a ‘thing’ now ?

[NobleHops]

Bueno! Nicely done, and well worth the effort in terms of final result.

Typical condition of an un-serviced alternator drive. Who can say what's wrong with this picture, other than the scuffy surface and evidence of overheated oil?

Nils, I feel your pain, looks just like mine did. Is this a ‘thing’ now ?

Heya Mike - by now most of these alternator springs are sacked, and need shimming at a minimum, or replacement. In this case however, the oil metering plug from the primary shaft is also missing and so this alternator was flooded with oil flow, which didn't help the alternator drive much. We'll swap both plates for ones that TrueDisk grinds and chamfers for us when we service the alternator, and tap in a spare plug in the primary shaft.

[NobleHops]

OK, let's party. Time to paint the engine.

I used the VHT Cast Aluminum 995, warmed it up in a pail while I masked some stuff.

Removed the head-to-cylinders bolts, taped off a couple of seals and the oil filler handle, removed the head oil pipe and oil pressure sensor, etc. Put on some gloves and swabbed it all down with acetone and blasted any dust off with clean compressed air.



I ended up with 4 coats on it, and I looks A-, not perfect, but very good. I could have sanded a few spots where there were nicks and stuff to make it A+, but it looks fine, that's just me being fussy.



Those are my "sacrificial" clutch and valve covers, crank end caps. Next up we'll dig into refinishing the ones we're using, and the alternator case too, as we rebuild that and the starter.



I rolled it out into the Arizona sunshine to cure for a few hours, and I'll do my best not to touch it at all for a week, to let the paint fully cure and get harder. I'd bake it if I could, might try the heat lamp again.



Next - refinish the covers!

[bikeymikey748]

Nils, my plates looked like mirror images of your own, and for the very same reason



My thinking was that with the plug displaced the oil pressure throughout that circuit would drop. Even though the pressure is from the low side of the pump, I had concerns the primary shaft (including its bearings and starter one-way clutch) as well as the transmission shafts might have been damaged. Certainly the primary chain had a rough go as it got less pressure to both the tensioner and the spray bar. If the burnt alternator plates (lacking as they were the higher pressure jet the plug is designed the provide) are any indicator, there was no joy in CBX Land.



You just might want to have a look-see at these affected components while your in there.
BTW, loving the paint colour choice/application on the motor