swapping parts- standard to special

[RUSH]

It looks like I will be getting a Special. Does anyone know what problems if any I might have if I put my Standard seat, tank, saddlebags, and fairing on the special?

[rover]

Seats are different. Special has the black box UNDER the seat, Standard has it BEHIND the seat, at least on the 79 and 80. If the fairing is frame mounted, should fit. Bags may need some mods to the mounts. Also, STD tank had a sending unit for the fuel guage, SPEC only has low fuel warning light, but I think the senders will interchange. Tank might be tight where the seat mounts.

[steelcat]

Lets see........
different tanks mean that you can remove the octopus from the standard. You WILL have to unhook it even if you choose to leave on. The standard uses a different petcock (vacuum regulated) than the special. Its a easy change over on the vacuum & fuel lines. I don't know if your gauge sending unit will plug into the wiring on the special. Wiring the fairing could get interesting depending on bike years, brands of fairings, after-effects of creative wiring etc.

[steelcat]

I just read Rover's reply.

The fuel gauge sending unit & low fuel sensor will not inter change on the tank.

[andreashweiss]

I agree on the seat and sending unit.Tanks will interchange.Standard tank is direct feed no octopus. Depending on what year special and what year standard the wiring harness plug ins may be different for some things. Eg right handlebar controls. You will need to use the standard fender to mount tci and be prepared to add some wire to the tci plugins (the wire will be short )

[RUSH]

Thanks everyone for all the insights. It almost sounds like it might be easier to yank the motor on the special and install it in my standard. any problems with that route?

[andreashweiss]

The motors are all the same except for 1981 which has different tci,and coils. What yr is the special you have what year standard.

[RUSH]

78e and 79sf

[andreashweiss]

Share same tci,coils,pickup coils etc. Motors are the same. Some would argue the 78 was the best motor in the production run.Changing the motors is a pain in the butt. I would suggest taking the bad motor out first to see what is involved.Make sure you take oil filter cannister off much easier to get out of frame. How is the left pickup coil sidecover on the bad motor I had someone looking for one I do not have any. If he is reading posts he might contact you if you have a good one.

[RUSH]

motor is out of the E and the shop says its lots of money to repair. Bad primary chain. It wasnt really hard to remove, just took me some time to get around to it.