A wedding gift build.

[tcoop]

My daughter is getting married in December and I wanted to giver her and her (future) husband something that they can have and use for years to come. I decided to take the 80 MNS that I have (it’s in pieces all over the garage) and put it back to running form. This is not a restore project as I will be trying to put forward controls on it and the gold will not be gold anymore. I will also try to fabricate side covers from fiberglass (that will be closer to the spring time). I do not expect this to be done by their wedding, I will be taking my time and hopefully get it done by the spring.

The bike only had about 15000 miles of use it was put out to pasture (literally). I picked it up as a spare bike when I got my 78. (Traded my XJ750 for both bikes) It has some rust, the warring will need to be completely replaced and all bearings (that need to be) will be replaced as I go. I will rebuild the brake system and the forks. I do not know the condition of the gears so while I have the engine out I may split it to check on the 1st and 2nd gears.


Well I had to start somewhere so I took the frame, head and final drive to the car wash to clean them up.



I then (after drying the parts) toke the head into the kitchen to rebuild it. It has 4 bent intake valves that I need to replace.


Luckily for me my wife is very understanding and let me take over most of the kitchen table. (Even with the massive cooking that she was doing) We were going to my brothers for thanksgiving so the table was not a big deal.

I pulled all the valves replaced the bent ones and lapped the valves to get good contact.

Next step is the brakes.

[tom clisham]

Side covers

Hey man!
Unless you just want to experiment for fun, I've got a pair of 80 special side covers that just need to be cleaned up ( no emblems,tho ).

They're yours for $10.00 + shipping

Happy Thanksgiving

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Coop,

With all 4 valves bent, you know that it means that the cam chain skipped some teeth on that cam to throw it out of time. You'll want to look closely at the cam chain tensioner to make sure that the locking bolt isn't stripped which would keep it from maintaining proper tension/lock on the plunger, and would then allow too much slack to occur leading to the chain skipping!

Or...the PO may have just never done the CCT adjustment procedure, or did it incorrectly, and that resulted in too much slack, etc.!? YMMV.

Thanks for the pictures, hopefully you'll post more as the rebuild continues?

T.C.

[tcoop]

Thats exactly what happened the tensioner slipped So I put that bike aside and got the 78 running. Now I have a tensioner from a Venture So once I get it set I wont have to mess with it again.

[tcoop]

Tom pm sent

[tcoop]

I picked up a new bike...Ok it's not so new and it's not really a bike just parts of one. This used to be a 79 xs11 special. The guy I got it from was told it's an 80 special.




(Sorry it was dark out when I took the pictures.)

It seems to have all the parts for the bike Seat, Tank, Forks and exhaust, The frame is all there...just in three pieces. one of the previous owners wanted to put the engine in a sand buggy or something.

Now I have an engine for my 78, and all the pices to build the 80 special for my daughter. Looks like I will be buisy for the next several weeks.

[tcoop]

Some progress made

Yesterday I finally had a chance to work on this bike. Things I’ve done so far; (Sorry for the poor picture quality I need to replace my camera)

Put the engine in the frame

Swapped the head

Hooked up the wire harness


Next steps;
Rebuild the master controls and the calipers
Attach the swing arm
Rebuild the forks
Clean the tank
Repair the side covers
Paint – tank, side covers, fenders, fairing and saddle bags and trunk
Replace wheel bearings
Media blast rims
Replace all fluids
Repair seat
And a few more things that I have not thought of yet

[3Phase]

We got sheets and towels...

That's going to be a very Special wedding present when you're done!

[tcoop]

I'm hoping they think so. Her husband is a Harley guy (he got that from his dad but he used to ride an XS11 special back in the day). He is trying to convince my daughter to sell the bike as soon as it is finished to put the money down on a Harley but she told him no way. Keep in mind that she loves Harley too it's just that I'm doing the work and she is such a daddy’s girl so anything that I do is like gold to her. I did try to explain to her that it's just a bike and if her family ever needed to get food or shelter then sell the bike!! Hopefully it will never come to that.

[crazy steve]

...He is trying to convince my daughter to sell the bike as soon as it is finished to put the money down on a Harley but she told him no way...

He's probably afraid of the fact she'll have the faster bike (unless his Harley has had some serious power upgrades) and will embarrass him...

[tcoop]

They don't have a bike yet (he was riding his dad until a certain mishap and is not allowed to touch them) and all his riding gear has Harley Davidson. He said he does not want to be a poser or something like that. He also said that he can't ride with his legs bent under him (even though the first bike he ever rode was my wife’s XJ750). I told them I would put forward controls on it (If I could find something inexpensive).

[crazy steve]

Ty, it sounds like he wants to be a 'poser' (all HD riding gear ), tell him not to worry, no HD rider will mistake him for one if he's on a Yamaha.. What he's afraid of is the heat he's going to take from the posers.

Sounds to me like it might be a good idea to put the title in your daughters name only.....

[tcoop]

Update

Well I finaly got around to doning some more on the bike. Striped and painted the tank, sidecovers and fenders.

Used a rattle can to paint the bottom side of the tank and fenders.




preped the side covers


basecoat of BlackCherry





Tried my hand at Goast image



The final producte was not bad for a first timer.



Now I need to put everything back togeather. I might get this done before their first aniversary.

[Laptop_geek]

Not sure how much you are into painting and how much you want to get into the paint job, but depending on the type of paint you used you can wet sand then buff and polish the paint and it will look better than it being from the factory. Do some Google searching on it to find out if the paint you used is okay to sand (normally doesn't work on a rattle can paint job if that's what you used).

[natemoen]

(normally doesn't work on a rattle can paint job if that's what you used).

Never had a problem wet sanding rattle can!