My 79 Special project

[Kezrith]

Here are the photos I mentioned in my "Greetings" post...for reference from there:

headlight and front turn signals are square and black, should be round and chrome.

rear fender does not drape down over the tire, seems to stick out more like a dirt bike fender, not sure if the angle is adjustable or not.

surface rust on cam lobes, comes off when rubbed, can I clean these up?

and the seat, when it is on the bike it covers over the clips that would hold the side covers on so I am thinking this isn't the correct seat for it.

I don't think I am too bad off for my first project but getting insight from those who have been there before is always helpful.



















I suppose I could have taken a photo of the seat ON the bike but it never crossed my mind when I was snapping them

[John]

Can you show a pic of the back side of the seat? Is it open, and not enclosed? From what I see it is an 80-81 Special seat, and the sides of it are lower than that of the 79 Special seat, and the 79 seat is flatter than the one in the pic. Do your side covers mounts have slots or holes? 79 has slots, 80 has holes.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey John,

I'll pull a Hobbyman stunt and say..."I'm surprised at you"!

In a few of his pictures, you can see the straight slotted holders for the side covers!

But, yeah, that seat does look like the 80-81 series. He also didn't show/have a grab rail. With that seat, he could get an 80/81 fender and tail light...dual light that fits right under the rear seat...hence the rise in it's shape, and then the fender would just have the license plate holder/light near the end.

Yeah, that rear fender does look wonky?

As far as being able to use those cams, not sure?? they are a harder metal, and they ride on SHIMS in the valve buckets, so IF some wear does occur, it'll be done to the shims, not the actual buckets. Could cause the valve clearance to widen, but that's better than too close! Others with better knowledge about this area of mechanics and physics may chime in with more info on whether you may need to try to find other cams, or just run with these cleaned up, and just monitor your valve clearances!?

The headlight/turn signals are from a Standard, you can get aftermarket round buckets and the OEM styled round signals from MikesXS!!

And you may find those handlebars a bit rough on your wrists, they are the buckhorn style, and are a bit too angled for most folks comfort!! Again, MikesXS has a nice variety of bars to choose from!
T.C.

[DiverRay]

The rear fender look as if it's off the same STANDARD the headlight was on! Ebay or Andreas should solve the rear fender problem. The seat can be traded to someone here that needs the "newer" seat.
The cams should be fine! Just rub some of the rust off with your finger or something along that line. Crocus cloth will also work well, if you put motor oil on it BEFORE you use it. DO NOT use a cloth or paper towel!!! You WILL get lint into the oil system, and will probably have to pull the pan to clean the oil screen.

[Jeremy_Sells]

That rear fender is from a Special and is correct for that bike. I don't think that a rear fender from a Standard would even fit on a Special because the Standard uses a hinge mount to allow the fender to rotate up when changing a tire. What it looks like to me is that the rear section of the frame was broken off and welded back on at the wrong angle. Getting a new fender obviously won't fix the angle, but some cutting and rewelding will!

Good luck

[Dsxs11]

Right between the turn signal mount and that lower tab the frame on the 5th picture. has either been bent or broken and welded back together. I'll post pics of my frame after I get back from an appointment. But those rear tubes should be flat across and not angled up that pick shows. The standard and special rear's won't swap the bolt holes do not line up.

[BrianB]

That seat looks exactly like my '80 SG's.

[DJinNH]

Looking at those photos, I can pretty much think of just about every part that might be needed that I have seen on websites over the past few months either Ebay or other parts sites.

I'm not saying it won't be expensive overall but I think the potential to find just about everything you're looking for is pretty good. It can be like a Easter Egg hunt though.

The only thing I have yet to find is a rear fender for my XS1100SG. There was a nice one but painted black for a Midnight. I almost bought it figuring it would be easy enough to chrome, but then I figured, why not chrome the one I've already got instead? Maybe that's easier said than done as far as finding a place that will do it. The place in NH that I was hoping to take my exhaust said they couldn't do them....so I bought new ones, Jardine 4 into 1 even though I preferred 4 into 2. I just couldn't find any 4 into 2 that I liked.

Don

[Kezrith]

Well here are some photos of the seat on the bike and of the bottom, sounds like it's definitely not the correct seat so I will add it to the list of parts I will need to hunt down.

As for the rear fender, I will leave it be for now, get a season of riding out of it, once it's running, and have the frame issue taken care of this winter.

Thanks to everyone for the great advice so far.













Tim

[Kezrith]

Well it's been a little over a year since my last post, unfortunately I have not been riding the bike the PO must not have had a torque wrench and I found more then 1 cam cap stud that's been stripped, no quick easy fix to get it back up and running.

I did find a co-work that has a tig welder in his garage and he has graciously offered his services up to fix the frame end someone reangled to make this into a "street fighter" style bike. Spent the whole day yesterday stripping the bike, just down to pulling the engine, removing the wheels, pulling the brake system and removing the steering, figure I would put progressive springs in the forks while they are out along with more of the "upgrade/modifications" members have discovered during their times of rebuilding.

One question on the engine pulling...I searched the forum for tips on doing this solo, but for some reason the photos on some of the threads aren't showing for whatever reason. I do not have a ceilng mounted winch to assist in pulling the engine or frame from one another if I lay it on it's side, nor do I have "cherry picker" to do the same, so I will have to resort to sliding the engine out one side. My main issue is I do not have a center stand on this bike, the PO removed it when they installed the 4-1 supertrap exhaust, if I build a support for the frame to level the bike out and to make it more stable, should I slide the motor out the left side or the right? I have read both ways have been done but since I have not drawn blood yet nor had to resort to cussing and throwing tools, I thought I would ask which way would be easier and keep things rolling smoothly.

Thanks

Tim
79SF - in project mode.

[motoman]

Engine/tranny remove out right side of bike. Just remove spring holding boot on driveline, remove the four flange bolts from driveline yoke.Slide out on right side of bike. May get a helper, as it will be heavier than you think once you clear the frame,(bout 250lbs.+). Other than that, is very self explanatory.

[fredintoon]

Hi Tim,
yeah, "Bro with TIG welder" is an asset of great worth.
Especially as your rear fender has a hump where the chrome part meets the plastic part and it should be one smooth curve which is why your rear fender has that dirt-bike look to it.
The seat looks to be as you say, from an '80 Special but the reason it sits too low is that the 1" high rubber buffers that the seat is supposed to sit on ain't plugged into the seat pan no more. As I understand it, '80 seats fit '79s but '79 seats don't fit '80s because the '79 seats don't have a recess for the '80's repositioned ignition module.
BTW you crop your pics too close. I wanted to see the front wheel/fork area to see which fork your frankenbike was wearing and the one glimpse of the Special fork's distinctive brake caliper mount is easy to miss.

[Kezrith]

Thanks moto, I will slide it out the right side once I have some kind of support under the frame.

Fred, I will snap some photos of the lower forks when I get home from work and get them posted this evening. I think when I took the initial set of photos I was centering the "issue areas" , not really cropping them - anything else you would like to see while I am out there with the camera? I will have to download and upload to photobucket from SWMBO's laptop so I might as well do as much as possible when I get to use it.





Tim
79SF - in project mode

[fredintoon]

- - - Fred, I will snap some photos of the lower forks when I get home from work and get them posted this evening. I think when I took the initial set of photos I was centering the "issue areas" , not really cropping them - anything else you would like to see while I am out there with the camera? I will have to download and upload to photobucket from SWMBO's laptop so I might as well do as much as possible when I get to use it. Tim
79SF - in project mode

Hi Tim,
it's that some bikes have been seriously PO'd and full view photos help to determine what has been done to the poor things and suggest possible remedies
or even say "that's not stock but it will work good for you unless you are a rabid purist." (like the Standard gas tank on my Special)
About the seat and the ignition box placement, there your '79 is, with it's iggybox in the same place as the one on my XS11SG so either the plastic front half of your rear fender is from an '80 or I have misunderstood both where the iggybox is supposed to be on a '79 and the reason the '79 seat don't fit an '80.
And yes, some more shots from different angles of your bike's weird fender hump and deformed rear frame could help to recommend a fix or at least satisfy my curiosity.

[Kezrith]

Frame I can do, rear fender photos would be an issue since it is now off of the bike, however I can take some photos of it sitting on the work bench