Fiddlin' with Brakes and Cleaning the Carbs...

Well, as you may recall, I mentioned that the front brakes came with the bike, except they came in a plastic bag instead of on the bike.

I guess the previous owner had tried to fix them on several occasions. Well, I took them all apart and discovered a possible reason for them not working. The piston was rusted, pitted and seized to the caliper.

I mean, I'm no brake expert, but I'm pretty sure it's kinda bad for your piston to be seized cause then it doesn't work. That's bad right? I had to hook the caliper up to a grease gun and pump grease into it until the pressure built up enough to force the seized piston and it popped out. I ordered up new some brakes parts and a nice new shiny piston.

I'm still now sure if I am going to run front brakes. Although, I kinda don't want to die either so the odds are I will put them back on.

Next I was onto the carbs. I was having some trouble pulling them off since it is such a tight fit in there. But then I realized my real problem. THERE WAS A FREAKIN KID stuck in there!!!! No wonder the last guy was having so much trouble.

The kid turned out to be pretty awesome so I decided to keep her and we named her Gabrielle. Once she was outta there I had no problem pulling the Carburetors.

The carbs were so dirty. Definitely NOT cleaned anytime in the past 10 or 15 years, and from the sponge wear marks I would say maybe they were only washed 4 times since the bike came off the line in 1983. It's actually one of my many talents to be able to look at a vehicle and tell you how many times it has been washed since the time it was bought up till the present, give or take 2 washes of course.
Being that the bike is 27 years old, some of the screws didn't want to come out, so I ended up stripping a couple. Wouldn't be the last ones from the bike either. Something about having metal on metal for a quarter of a century that makes it not want to come apart.

I spent over 3 hours trying all the tricks I garnered from the interweb to get the stupid screw out, including buying the stripped screw extractor kit from Canadian Tire that was guaranteed to work, but did not, and I mean did not as in not even close. Then I brought it over to my father in-laws and he got it out in about 5 seconds with an old chisel and a hammer. I guess my 3 hour fail and his 5 second triumph is the difference between my being an expert from reading something on the interweb verse his actual ability from experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going toss the interweb just yet, I need it for other things...you know...alone time things.

Eventually all the screws were out and I started taking the carbs apart. I cleaned and labelled everything in little baggies as I went.

Well, low and behold, no wonder the bike had been running so rough for the last dude. One thing I do know is you gotta be getting the exact mixture of gas and air through your carbs to the engine or it ain't gonna run worth a shit. You would not believe the freakin CRAP I found in the carbs. And I don't mean a little dirty gummed up old gas crap, I mean crap like some wee little miniature person actually climbed into the carbs, ate a couple of burritos, and then took a shit in there! EVERY hole that was suppose to have gas or air flowing through them was jammed full of garbage. This could possibly be due to the fact pointed out in a previous post that both air filters were riddled with holes, therefore filtering about...hhmmmm, I don't know, how about NONE of the air entering the carbs. I pulled out everything from branches and leaves to soot and tar! How the hell was any gas and air suppose to be getting through there?

Well, after cleaning everything out nice nice with poisonous/toxic carb cleaner, that splashed in my face twice, I had some pretty clean looking carbs. The outsides still had to be cleaned up of course, but for now all the important inside-a-mig things were nice and clean and ready to send just the perfect mixture of gas and air to the engine. I just hope I get it all back together right. Thank god for digital cameras.

The bike is now headin' over to my friend Pete's new house where he has a nice big garage and I'll be able to work on it out of the elements. Thanks for reading.