Also, an Automotive-VS-Motorcycle oil comparison.

UPDATE: Sept 23, 2000: Well, forlks, the BIKE IS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! This is a LONG update about what I had to do to get to this point. Check it out!

UPDATE: Sept 17, 2000: Day 4 and 5. Even more cleaning up and using the "Kreem" on the rusted out gas tank.

UPDATE: Sept 14, 2000: Day 3. More cleanup of the bike. Oil change and gas tank work. Also, some problems are found. Click to read.

UPDATE: Sept 13, 2000: Day 2. I started work on the recovery process of the bike. There are lots of pictures and the gas tank is a REAL mess. Click to read more and see lots of pictures.

UPDATE: Sept 12, 2000: With the wonderful help of Eric (and some from Rob) we were able to move the bike from its resting place in Glendale to Eric's house here in LA. It wasn't easy. Click to read the whole story.

Me on my $200 Honda Nighthawk 700S

Well, on Sept 9, 2000, I bought my first motorcycle. It's a 1985 Honda Nighthawk 700SC. I paid a great price of $200 for it. Unfortunately, the bike has been neglected for over 6 years (read: never ridden or even turned on) so it's gonna need some work before I can even turn it on. You can only imagine, it was really ditry and dusty too. At least it was covered for that time though it does look like it's seen its share of outside parking too.

For the price, I figured it would be worth the experience to repair it anyway. The worst part of the neglect is simply there is come corrosion in the gas tank. That's my first step of repair. The carbs might need some attention too, but it should at least run one the gas tank is fixed.

Thanks to expert guidance by Rick Ramirez, I shold have no problems getting this bike on the road again. And hey, for the price, it will be worth it! Right now, the bike is still in the garage of it's last owner since I'm still trying to arrange transportation to a place where I can work on it.

This bike is a total kick-ass bike and many people think it's one fo the best bikes of its type EVER made. Honda motorcycles are well known for being the most reliable bikes around and this one is at the top of the list. After reading reviews of this bike, it was generally regarded as an amazing all around performer. Reliable, fast, great handling, comfortable, smooth and cheap.

Some features include:

Shaft drive
4 cylinder 695cc DOHC engine
Air cooled with oil cooler
Fuel gauge, digital gear indicator
6 speed tranny
80hp @ 10,000rpm
Dual front disc brakes
16" wheels
624lbs including me! (Only 7.8lbs per hp)
12.3sec 1/4mile in peak condition

UPDATE: Sept 12, 2000: With the wonderful help of Eric (and some from Rob) we were able to move the bike from its resting place in Glendale to Eric's house here in LA. It wasn't easy.

Here's the story....: We got to Glendale. The tires were pretty much flat. Interestingly, on a motorcycle the tires don't really look flat like on a car even though they had ZERO psi in 'em. I bought a $20 electric air pump at the store and it did it's thing on both tires.

Next, we had to get it out of the garage. It has a steep driveway (you can see it behind me in the picture at the top of this page.) Anyway the van we were using wouldn't fit in there. We brought rope thinking we would tow the bike out....

Well, once the tires were back to normal air pressure, it wasn't so hard to push it around anymore so we decided to try something crazy. Eric would push the bike up the driveway while I rode it!

Well, it worked!! It got a little dicey as momentum went away, and I put my feet down and pushed too. But we did it! Woohoo.

Well, mixing that stuff together -- Eric, myself and Robert (who had just arrived to help) got the darned thing in. "1-2-3 PUSH!" That kind of thing... Of course, on the last push, I did a "1-2-3 push" and said it in about 2 milliseconds.... Hahaha. As we pushed, I operated the front brake, keeping the bike from rolling back. I have to give props to the "Jack Mamos Plumbing" van. I can't tell you how many times the van has come to the rescue. Moving engines, moving furniture, and now .... moving motorcycles!

After it was over, we took a braek. Here's a picture:

Next, after getting the bike on the center stand, we tied it up to the sides of the van.

When we got back to Eric's house, unloading was EASY. We just backed the van into the driveway and all we had to use to get the bike out was a single car ramp. It was so easy (using the front brake to modulate the speed.)

And OH YEAH. Getting the bike onto the center stand on my own was a FEAT. At first, we were trying by standing next to the bike. This is IMPOSSIBLE unless you have two people. After looking at the thing, I figured it out.

I would have to be on the bike and use me weight on the center stand to leverage the bike onto it. Standing with one foot on the center stand and the other on the right peg, began my attempts. Eric was standing by in case things got out of hand, but I did it on my own. After about 10 tries and a LOT of SWEAT, I got it over. I think I did it in two parts. The first got it almost over, and I used the brakes to hold the bike in that position. Then another heave and it went all the way over. Man, that was HARD. I'm only 150lbs and it wasn't easy. I'm sure I'll get better at it, but I was proud for having no one show or tell me how to do it........

Day 2 -- Sept. 13, 2000:

After work, I stopped by Eric's house to get this bike closer to being a nice livable cycle. Step one was to begin dealing with the gas tank.

I stopped at the Honda dealer today and picked up some Kleen and a clear fuel filter. Coming from a car background, I don't understand why motorcycles don't use fuel filters all the time.... Strange. So, I'm gonna run one.

After giving up on the gas tank until the weekend, I turned my attention to cleaning the bike. Check out how dirty the bike was after I removed the fairings:

Now, when I took the fairings off, I found the bike had an alarm. The installation was the most horrible thing I have ever seen. Wires we just laying around, taped here and there, running all over the place. I had great satisfaction removing the thing and stomping on it! Yep, I stomped on it. One wire is still on the bike. It goes to the gauge cluster and I'm going to leave it until I can turn the bike on and make sure it's not needed (to start the bike or something.)

Day 3: Sept 14, 2000:

Problems in paradise. Haha. Well, not horrible. Today, I worked on the bike some more.... and found some problems.

First thing I did was change the oil. 6 or more year old oil was in there. YUUUUK. It came out not looking too horrible. Black, but what else could be expected. Put in some new castrol 20W-50 oil and a new Honda filter. So easy compared with a car!

Oh well. The front brake seems to be fine and seems firm when you press it, but it may need fixing too.

Since I was taking the handlebars apart, I just took the clutch lever off too.

Day 4 and 5: Sept 17, 2000:

Welcome to day 4 and 5 of me working on my CB700SC. I took a break from the bike on Friday and did other more relaxing things. But Saturday morning, I was right back at it.

My goal this weekend was to do everything. To get the bike running. The gas tank needed to be Kreem'ed and to do that right, you need at least a day and a half. I didn't want to risk anything, so I took it nice and slow.

On saturday morning, I headed out to get some parts. Rick hooked me up with a salvage shop over in North Hollywood (called Johnson Wood) and those guys were great. They had all sorts of great stuff. I picked up a new set of handlebars, a used seat (that was in perfect condition) and some new front brake pads. The guys there are really cool and if you live in LA and need moto parts, I would totally go see them. Email me if you need more info. They are on Lankershim in North Hollywood.

Anyway, after that I stopped by North Hollywood Honda to pick up a new battery for the bike. They charged it for me for free so I detoured to Target to do some shopping. (Since there are NO friggin Targets anywhere near me, I figured that since I was in the area...)

Anyway, once I got home I found the new handlebars didn't fit on my bike. They looked identical except they were too tall!! They defenitly came off a nighthawk of some kind since they looked exactly the same and even had a sticker about front shock airpressure that my bike has on the gas tank.... Anyway, there were too tall and none of the hoses/cables/wires reached when I mouted it with my controls. So, I had to figrue something out.

Eric's dad's van has a big vice mouted on the outside of it. It decided I was going to have to bend the handlebars that came with my bike into something a little more managable...... I mouted it and started wailing on them. Believe it or not, I did a pretty good job. When looking at the bars mounted on the bike, the left one is just a little too low. Other than that, they are great. I still want to replace them, though, since I don't like having bent metal on the bike... They are pretty damn important!!

One cool thing about the Nighthawk is the bars are totally adjustable. You can actually move the back and forth to give them more ..... what's the word ..... rake? In other words, you can make the angle between the two ends greater or less. Nice thinking Honda. Helped me make them even again!

After that, I put the new battery in and hooked up the cables. I did a quick check of the bike's electrical systems and everything looks good. Turn signals worked ... gear shift indicator worked ... tail light works ... indicator lights ... Anyway, the only thing not working was the horn. I'll have to check that out. I'm sure it's something simple.

Also, I hit the start button and the engine turned over, sounding totally fine. Woohoo! Now it just needs some gas.

So, I started working on the gas tank. I began by prepping the tank by washing it out with soapy water and throwing in some nuts and bolts for "fun" to help chip away any bike chunks of rust. Once I was done with that, I set the tank aside to dry. Eric and I went over to Home Depot to find some items to stop up the holes on the tank. What I ended up buying and using was a big rubber stopped for the top filler hole and a cork stopper for the fuel level hole. The small petcock hols was filled using a little rubber cap that I pushed into the hold using a screw driver. (But not enough so I could pull it back out!)

In went the step-A of the Kreem which dissolved and etches the rust and metal. It really works. Take one rusty tank, add this stuff and out comes a nice dull metal finish inside. My tank is big so it was only covering about half the tank. So I let that sit for about 12 hours and then Eric flipped it over before he went to bed.

Sorry, no pictures of all of this.

On Sunday, I went to Eric's house and checked on the tank. It looked pretty good. Unfortunately, some of the Prep-A has gotton on the already fading top of the tank and made it a little worse. Not to mention some new minor scratches on the top from us handling it. Oh well.... It's not that bad.

I emptied out the tank of Prep-A, washed it out with water, added Prep-B in there, drained it, then put in the Kreem coating. Please not, getting liquid out of the tank is VERY hard since the top opening has a big ridge inside. Each time, I used an electric pump. Yeah yeah .. I know you should use an electric pump with flammable stuff like this, but OH well. Unfortunately, the Prep-B seemed to kill the pump... it didn't turn any more. Luckily, I was done.

While the tank was doing it's thing, I just fiddled with the bike, cleaning it and putting some of the parts back on it. Basically getting it ready to ride once the tank goes back on and gas goes in. Hopefully, the machanical condition of the carbs and engine are good so I won't have any problems.

the BIG DAY: Sept 23, 2000:

This is my story. (Oh, that sounds so dramatic!!!)

Ok, I haven't made an update since last weekend, but believe me, I've been working on the bike this past week. I just haven't had enough energy at night to make updates. It's either update the page or watch Big Brother on TiVo. Big brother won!!

But in all that confusion, I did update my friends on the Honda Nighthawk list about what was happening, so I'll just post my messages here. I think they describe things pretty well. Note that I ask for help from the members of the list several times and the people there were so helpful and sent me plenty of great suggestions, tips and stories. Thanks everyone!!

Message One:

Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 09:27:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: More problems for me and my CB700SC... I need help!

Well, yesterday was the night of truth for the bike. Would it start?

The Kreem in the gas tank was dry and I assembled the bike and filled the
tank with gas. Plugged it all in, hooked the power up to a car battery
(didn't want to drain my new battery.)

Hit the start button. It turned over, but no gas was flowing. (I have a
clear fuel filter.. makes it easy to see.) So, I put vacuum on the petcock
with a pump and still no gas flowed. ARGH! Either the petcock was screwed
up or the hole inside the tank was clogged was Kreem. That would SUCK. I
used compressed air while the kreem was in the tank to keep it clear.

I think it's the petcock though. I turned it to on, hooked up a clear hose
to the gas outlet, put vacumn on the petcock and tried to suck or blow and
no go. There was no flow through that thing. Oh well. I'll take it off and
see what's up.

Anyway, this wasn't going to stop me. I just used a little can with a hose
in it to get gas into the bike without the tank. As soon as it started to
flow, the carbs ate up an entire cup of gas!! Wow... I guess the floats
were empty. Then I filled the cup again and it was ok.

I tried starting the bike and after a short time, it started. But there
was another problem. (Tell you in a sec....) Back to the carbs..... after
the bike started, they ate all the gas in
the cup in like 2 seconds!! Something was wrong.... that was at least a
cup of gas and they ate it in a second!!! But the bike ran and I hit the
throttle and it revved up quickly and smoothly. I had the choke @ about
3/4 of the way set......

Anyway, I hit the engine cut switch and shut her down.

Now, when I looked at the carbs, there was gas all over the
place. ARGH. It was dripping off the little drains on the bottoms, so I
checked the screws and all were closed properly. The carb near cyl 1
looked like gas was coming from around the seal that goes around the fuel
bowl... but it was hard to tell. It was dark outside and I was using a
flashlight.

Also, the bike was on the kickstand, so gas could have been coming from
one of the other carbs and flowing down that direction. The #4 carb looked
dry... I think. I can't remember now. So anyway, there is a defenite
problem here. Maybe the seals are bad ... maybe the fuel line itself was
leaking. I don't know. I just couldn't see. I'm going to have to repeat
this but with the gas tank removed and with some light!

Ok, the next problems. The missing bolt on the second primary is causing a
MAJOR exhaust leak there. You can only imagine...... And a quick check
using a screw driver reveals a broken bolt in there. ARGH.

And.... after running the engine for a few seconds, I felt each exhaust
primary.... and, this potentially SUCKS. The #3 one was cold while the
others were equally warm. Now, it could be the carb on that cylinder is
really messed (and leaking all its gas out) so that cylinder isn't firing
at all. Or maybe there is no spark. I'll do a compression test to see if a
valve is a problem. [[Hopeing it's a carb!!! Please....!!]]

So, the gas tank is messed, there is a major gas leak/bad seals in carbs,
and I have broken bolt and mega exhaust leak.

Now, do people have any suggestions on any of these subjects for me? I
don't have a my service manual yet and it's about 2 weeks away. :-( The
carbs don't look too hard to remove, but I just don't know how to
begin. (Remeber, this is my first bike.)

I think on the broken bolt, there is still some sticking out of the
head... it looks like it broke near the head of the bolt. Should I take of
the entire exhaust system of just that cap on that one running? Oh dear. I
don't even know how to get it out! I've never had to do this on my cars
before.

Thanks guys... I would really appreciate any help I can get.

-Adrian

Next messgae:

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 09:43:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: one of three fixed on my nighthawk... argh!

Hey guys... Well, I put up a big post yesterday. A short run down of the
current problems with my bike is:

1> Petcock messed up
2> Broken stud on #2 exhaust primary (and leak)
3> Carbs are gunked up and overloaded with gas

Oh these problems, I tried to attack all three, but I wasn't very
successful.

I fixed the petcock. I took it apart and the inner diaphram on the vacumn
thingy was just stuck closed. I pulled it apart and it worked. I then used
carb cleaner to clean it all out, but it was all very clean actually. All
the funky-gunked up gas was in the tank only... looks like all gas
touching parts after the petcock are nice and clean. But the sticky ness
of the diaphram makes me think things are the same in the carbs. Clean,
but stuck......

Anyway, I tried taking the carbs off so I could open 'em up. BUUUUT, I
couldn't get the damn things off!!! I loosed up the airbox bolts and moved
it back as far as it would go, and it disconnected from the carbs ok. But
it sure didn't leave much clearance... But I couldn't get the carbs off
the rubber intake manifolds. UGH! Please, does anyone have any
suggestions? I sprayed on so much WD-40 over all of it... Ugh. I have a
non california model which doesn't have the "so-called" maze of emmision
control hoses... As far as I could see, there was only one small hose
going to the petcock but it was from cyl 2 intake manifold. I actually
still had the throttle cables attached but I knew they weren't causing
them to not move.

Well, I gave up on it and moved to the stud. I dropped the exhaust system
(hey, that was easy) and luckily no other studs broke when removing the
nuts. I don't know why that one was broken, none of the other nuts
were overtightned. But anyway, get this:

The stud was already drilled out, as if getting ready for removal!!

ALSO, there was no copper gasket on that cylinder!! WTF!? For sure,
someone has already given that stud some attention... but I wonder why it
was half-done and not taken out!? Anyway, without a gasket at all, no
wonder why there was such a bad leak!

Anyway, with the headers gone, I tried grabbing it with vice grips. That
didn't work. There was a lot exposed -- like 1" or so! It had broken off
right at the threads, so it left plenty of shaft left to grab or drill....

Well, I bought a screw extractor and tried it out. 7/64" was the size of
the hole drilled. I went to work and it actually started working! (LIberal
amounts of WD-40 the whole time.) It actually turned it about 1/8 of a
turn!! (My vice grip marks were now facing upwards.) Anyway, what happened
was it stripped out the drilled hole because the drilled hole wasn't deep
enough. So I used a 7/64" drill bit (I had two) and tried deepening the
hole. Buuuuuuuuuut, I think a drill bit must be broken off in there
because I drilled for like 15 minutes and NOTHING happened. The drill bit
didn't dull out, but it also didn't do ANYTHING. So, either drill bit is
in there from the last person trying to drill it or the metal of the stud
is SOOOOO hard and my drill bits just can't drill into
it. Ideas? Anyone? I'm going to try a bigger pair of vice grips but space
is very tight in there since the frame and engine fins are right there.

I'm also thinking I need to try the one size up extractor now. The drilled
hole has been "expanded" when it bottomed out.

I sooooo hate this. It is really pissing me off and it aggravates me....

I'm just HOPING the carbs aren't too messed up when I take 'em apart. And
then I hope the engine actually works well when it does finally run, or
I'll be enev more pissed. And I hope the bike rides well.... I still have
to fix the front shock seals.

I guess I should have known what I was getting into... (well, I think I
did. I was just over-optimistic.) The thing was neglected and only $200,
so what can I ask.

Thanks guys.

Another message:

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 17:21:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: YES!!!!!! Step 2 done!

Hey guys, while I was at work today, my super-duper-best friend Eric
removed the broken stud from my engine for me!

My bike is at his house where I'm working on it. He helped me last night
and we just couldn't get it out.

Well, he went out and bought some nice strong vice-grips and took the
stupid stud out!

Luckily, Honda came through and I have a nice new one to install into the
engine right now.

Also, I LOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE Honda. THey are so damn smart. The studs are
made in such a way that IF they break, they will not break off flush with
the engine and will almost always break off at the threads, leaving lots
for one to grip using a vice grip.

I loooooooveee Honda. I can't say it enough. Sorry, It's just I'm so happy
to see their bikes are as good as their cars. (In that they are smartly
made.) My Toyota (Car) is pretty good, but just not as smartly made as
Honda.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me for a second. I was just happy.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna get those carbs off and I'm gonna get them fixed up. My
friend here at work gave me a quick rundown (using doodle-diagrams) of how
a carb work and how to clean 'em out. No problem!!

Thanks.

Wow, I wrote a lot of stuff here!!

Here's the next message:

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 10:35:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: Onto step 3 ... The Carbs

Hey guys ... last night, I put my exhaust system back together on my
bike. My friend (as I reported yesterday) took out the broken stud from me
engine for me. Yes!

So, when I came over, we put the new stud in and put the exhaust system
back on the bike. It was a pain, but it worked.

Next we moved to the carbs. It was SOOOOOO hard to get them off. What we
ended up doing was taking off the #1 and #4 rubber intake manifolds from
the engine. Then, we broke if loose from the #2 and #3 manifolds... One it
was off, then I poped #1 and #4 off the carbs.... Phew. Getting the
throttle cables off was hard too. They are deep in there.

Also, I couldn't remove the airbox or the rubber parts that go from the
airbox to the carbs. They are glued on and it would be hard to reglue
them.

But I got the darned things out.

Next, I took them apart. The floats on #2,3 and 4 were stuck to the bottom
of the bowls. Just taking off the bowls unstuck them... Otherwise, the
carbs were SOOOOOO clean. In fact, even the intake ports on the engine
looked brand new. I took out the top bellows (or whatever they are) and
they were good too. The needles were perfectly clean as was the float
needle. I'll blow some air through the jets and stuff to make sure they
are clean, but everything just looks clean.

So, I put the carbs back together... applied gas and it was working
better. But there were still gas leaks. Looks like the bowl gaskets are
bad... and also the TEE where the gas line connects to is leaking. (Or
maybe just the gas line there.) I'll have replace them all and see what
happens....

Anyway, it's kinda wierd the carbs are so nice inside, yet they gaskets
are messed.

Oh yeah, it also looks like my petcock is still messed up. It now flows
gas, but the Reserve setting seems to be clogged up still. That was the
setting the bike was on when I found the bike, and I guess it's gummed
up. I'll take it off and see what I can do, but that part of the petcock
can't be taken apart.........

Anyway, if anyone has more tips for the carbs, let me know.

Thanks guys!

Well, with LOTS of help from people on the Nighthawk Mailing list, Rick Ramirez and Eric Mamos, I got this thing running. Along the way, I took a few pictures (but my hands were too dirty most of the time to take pictures, hence the low number....)

To fix the damn broken stud, Eric and I dropped the exhaust system. It was so easy.

Of course, it was missing the copper gasket under the number 2 primary. ARGH! And someone had drilled it out before and broke the bit off inside. No wonder we couldn't drill it. Eric used vice-grips the next day to remove it for me. I was SOOOO happy he did that for me.

Next, my focus went to the crapped out carbs. They leaked gas EVERYWHERE. Getting them out was HARD as hell. We ended up unbolting the #1 and #4 intake manifolds from the engine so we would only have to break the carbs off of #2 and #3. That helped BIG TIME. Also, there is a bar above the engine where the throttle cables go under. Taking that off helps BIG TIME once you get the carbs off the engine as you can move the carbs out from the engine with the throttle and choke connected. I didn't learn this until I put it back on. This picture points it out.

(This work I'm doing it all today, by the way. The 23rd. We took the carbs out on Wed but I took a break from the bike on Thurs and Friday. I was too tired.)

Ok, so I cleaned out he floats and removed the old gaskets. Some (or all) of the floats were stuck to the bowls... I unstuck them earlier in the week. I used compressed air to blow out the jets and other holes in the carb. I checked the slides for smooth operation and all but one were good. I took that one out and cleaned it up and now it's working great. I put it back together with the new bowl gaskets and put gas to the thing to see what would happen. Oh yeah, I changed the fuel line too. The old one was way too old and hard.

Well, guess what, gas was still leaking. "From where," you ask? Mainly from the TEE where the gas line connects. ARGH. So, I was going to have to take the carbs apart. Good thing I had all these O-Rings!!

Loosening the choke rod on each carb, I was able to bend each one apart to pull the interconnects out. And let me tell you -- the O-Rings were SHOT. They were so hard and many were compeltely cracked and broken. (Esp. the one on the feed line TEE.) So I changed 'em all.

One gas line tee. 2 rings.
Two gas line interconnects. 2 rings each.
Two breather/overflow tees. 2 rings each.

Missing accomplished. Next, I did something dumb, but I was confident. I put the carbs back in without doing a bench test. Why? I was sure it was going to work. Luckily, I was right. When I put gas to 'em, they were PERFECT. No gas leaks or anything. WOOHOO.

Oh yeah,I replaced all 8 O-Rings that go between the engine and carbs too. The old ones needed replacing and I didn't want to risk any leaks there either.

Alright, the bike was back together. Eric and I tried like hell to get the airbox back onto the carbs, but we just couldn't do it. Cyl 1, 2 and 4 are on, but #3 just don't quite reach. Right now, it's half way on the carbs but I'm not sure what to do. I don't really care in the short term, I think they getting a pretty good seal as it sits.

Ok, I mouted the gas tank, applied some vacumn to the petcock to prime the engine (which worked -- YAY!) set the choke and let her rip. I had the bike connected to a car battery as to not drain my new battery.

Well, after a few tries, it started to run. It was REALLY rough and shaky, but it was running. After a few seconds I could let go of the throttle and it would idle on its own. (High idle with choke set.) It ran very funky for a while, sputtering and coughing. But nothing major. As it warmed, I lowered the choke until it was closed all the way. With this setting the engine would stall unless I held the gas a bit, but it was slowly getting better.

After like 10 minutes, it was idling somewhat normally. It was unstable and yelling at me that it was going to stall, but I just gassed it now and then to "help it out." Eventually, it was really calming down. So, I decided to ride it.

AHH yeah, this brings us to my next problem. The clutch. The clutch discs on the bike are stuck together. After running the engine for a while, they were a little less stuck, but they were still dragging with the clutch handle pulled. So, I ran the engine some more. Eventually, I just decided to take it out for a spin anyway.

I started it up in 1st gear and the bike pulled forward just slightly. I could hold it back with my own feet, so it wasn't that forceful. The clutch point it about half way out so I KNOW the master cylinder on the clutch is good and it's the discs that are stuck together. (As Rick and people on the list had thought.) Anyway, the FIRST FIRST ride on the bike was without helmet and was simply out of the driveway and back in. No pictures of that.

But the bike was really behaving nicely, so I decided to grab my helmet and make a real run.

While I was going up his street, the bike began to stall if I put in the clutch. LAME. I had to gas it to keep the engine running. I limped her home and let her sit. I have less than a gallon of gas in the tank, so maybe it's low?? I know the petcock is still messed up too. I don't think reserve setting even works.... ANYWAY, I decided to just raise the idle and try again.

So, I turned the idle stop started her up. Now it was idling again on its own. I also noticed, while the bike was parked, the throttle could only move through about 20% of normal travel. WTF!? Well, I had put a different clamp on the #1 cylinder as we lost the nut for the stock one. It had a longer screw and it was hitting the linkage, keeping it from opening. OOPS! So I fixed that too..... So, I took her out again. Each time I rode, the bike was running better and better.

This time, I was motoring around the block, actually got it into 2nd gear and back to 1st!! But when I came to a stop in neutral, I tried to shift into 1st and it ground lightly. So, I killed the engine and started in 1st again. The clutch was almost back to normal, though.

Anyway, I made one pass up Eric's street and decided to really gas it. All I can say is: OH MY GAWD. I only hit maybe 6500 rpm at MOST, and the thing was simply SCREAMING. I was no where near floored either. AMAZING. To think people say it has WEAK power under 7000rpm too. HA! When I made this run, the bike was feeling GREAT. The engine was much smoother and running GREAT. The idle was now OVER 2000rpm. I guess whatever was causing it to stall before was gone from the system and my "fake-fix" was making it idle high.

Anyway, I did some more pases and them something was amiss. Power was going away BIG TIME. At the worst, I could barely accelerate. The engine would just bog and sputter. So, I limped home. (About a block.) The idle was also low, about 900rpm. What the heck!? This was different than the stalling before too... the engine power was different this time.

But get this, by the time I got home, it was fine again. Idle was back to 2000rpm and the engine was smooth again. Probably more smooth than it had ever been... So, I lowered the idle back to 1000rpm and it was smooth. Initially at 1000rpm, the idle was very lopey and rough, but now it was nice and smooth. Really sounded like all 4 cylinder were working properly. I guess something has just been in the jets or something and just cleaned itself out. Cool!! The whole time this was happening, I kept checking the fuel filer for gas flow and it looked fine all the time. It was also nice and clean. I guess the KREEM was working. YEAAAAH.

So that's it. I parked it back in Eric's garage and called it a night. Mission complete. Before leaving it, I fired it back up just to hear it. It started right up in an instant and purred. I revved it up a few times just to enjoy the nice sound. So fast and nice. That's it. No GAS leaks. No odd smells. Seems to run smooth.... I'm a very happy man.

Tomorrow, I'm going to change the plugs and clean it up some more. Lots of WD-40 residue is on the engine along with some mud from Eric's street. And I'll see how it runs in the morning after a cold night. Teehee.

I want to thank EVERYONE who has helped me with this... and of course, this is just the beginning. I'm far from done. I'm just happy the major step has been taken and the bike is working.

Over and out -- Adrian.

Misc Updates: Nov 6, 2000:

My bike has been running great. I've been riding it all over the place and enjoying myself a lot. I still need to tune it up a bit, but it has been great. And, just like a Honda, is starts up instantly on the first press of the start button.

I have a few new pictures... some pretty cool.

First, I had recieved a sticker (diamond shaped) from the school where I learned how to ride. It's a "Retro-reflective" sticker made by 3M is the same kind of stuff firemen wear on their jackets and highway signs are made of. I stuck it on the back of the helmet and also cut small strips off of the sticker and placed them on the sides and front of the thing.

After searching the web, I found a place with a very cool reflector. It's an elastic strip that you can put around the base of the helmet and is ultra reflective.

Ah yes, some nice people on the Honda Nighthawk list sent me to a site featuring an Automtive vs Motocycle Oil test. Since I didn't believe all the BS about Motorcycle oils being so much better than car oils, this was an interesting read. I've mirrored the page here. Check it out...

Comparison

It's a bit dated, but seems relavant none the less. Just for the record, I'm not using Mobil-1 15W-50 oil in my Nighthawk!

Update: Mar 29, 2001

First update in a while! The bike's been great! Put a bunch of miles on it.

I was having a problem where it would run out of gas when there was still plety of gas left!! And setting it to reserve would do nothing. Well, the problem was a bunch of things...

The fuel petcock was shot.... no fixing it. I had to buy a new body. Pricey... I think $100 or so from the stealer. Then, I replaced all the o-rings... petcock-to-tank, petcock fuel strainer and fuel gauge. (After taking the petcock off and on a few times, it started leaking!! ARGH!)

The new petcock body was just that, the body. I moved over the knob, strainer and auto-fuel-shutoff diaphram. Oh, the diaphram was messed up and stuck together too ... so it would never shut off the fuel. But after consulting the maunal, I found out how it should look and mount and I just pulled it apart.... and it works fine. Seals well and shuts off automatically. (Tested it.)

So THE MAIN problem was the fuel strainer INSIDE the gas tank. Since I did all my initial work (and KREEMing the tank) before I had the manual, I had no idea there was a strainer in there!!!

After racking my brain as to why my new petcock body was still messed up and not letting me use reserve, I consulted the manual and noticed the damn filter.

I went to the stealer and bought all the bits I needed and waiting for the weekend. When the weekend came around, I grabbed the lip of the strainer that was exposed and pulled. It took a lot of work, but it came out and MAN!!!!! It was completely covered in Kreem. I HAVE NO IDEA how the bike was working at all!!!!!

I cleaned out all the crud and installed the new strainer and o-ring and put it all back together. Then I added like .2 gallons of gas and started her up. Running on "reserve" it was working! WOOHOO!

So I went to the gas station (two blocks away) and filled her up with nice Mobil 92. It's been about 35 miles now and everythings GREAT. No leaks. Auto shutoff works. Good gas flow.

Oh, my gas gauge was horribly innacurate too ... would read empty after only like 1 gallon of gas used!! So I spent a little time bending it trying to make it better. Of course, it kept flasking off a little ruse each time I reinstalled it so I decided to take it to the griding thingy in Eric's garage and use the bristled part ... wow, cleaned it right up.

Anyway, after 35 miles, it still reads totally full. I knew it would read full for a while... but what I'm really looking for is for it to start heading to empty as it actually gets near there...... Of course I use milage too, but it's just nice to have it there too ... You know, on a long trip, my milage might be much better than city driving so it would be nice to know.... Once I get the hang of the new gauge profile, I'll be able to corralatei to gallons left, etc etc.

I'm just so damn happy the tank is all fixed up. Several months later, the Kreem is holding up great. I think I did a good job on it. All the gas I took out of the tank while working on it was totally clean and nice. [[I hope it was!! We poured it all back into Eric's Mitsubishi Eclipse!!! Hehe]]

In other areas of the bike, I've lined up some used rotors from a guy on the net. $35 for both. Not bad! One on mine is badly warped. I'll get them on the bike soon and I hope it will cure my problem.

Also, the fork seals are dead. I have new parts already and just need to put them on. Rick from work will help me.

And lastly, handlebars. New ones are almost $200 !! HAHAHA! No one on the net had any laying around so I ordered some from Denniskirk.com. $35. I measured and bought some that were close to mine in all dimensions except these are a little less tall. Hope it will workout and they will be comfertable. We'll see!!

The bike is really coming together. I think once I get it mechanically all worked out, I need to repaint some it it. Far away looks ok, but close up it's a bit ratty still. But she drives good and that's what matters, huh?

Ok, here is some other info:

Kelly from the Nighthawk mailing list gave me sone numbers on the nighthawk that were published back in 1985:

Rev limiter kicks in somewhere between 11,700 and 12k.  I've hit mine on 3
occasions.  Twice in 2nd and once in 3rd.  According to Cycle Mag the S did
the following in a 1985 test.

Standing 1/4 mile:          12.35 seconds @ 107.46 mph
@ Reline in 1st:             49 mph
@ Reline in 2nd:             71 mph
@ Reline in 3rd:             89 mph
@ Reline in 4th:             106 mph
@ Reline in 5th:             127 mph
@ Reline in 6th:             147 mph

They are courtesey of Shawns Nighthawk Page. His bike is exactly (Same year, same model, same color) the same as the one I bought, except mine doesn't look quite so good.... BUT, I only paid $200!

Also, Different Angle 1
Different Angle 2