Progress Report:     January - June, 1999

Here is what's on my mind:

Today was the day for changing the clutch cable in the CP77. Since the right engine cover had to come off anyway, I decided to go whole hog and to seek out the source of an oil leak which developed shortly after I changed all right side oil seals, in December, 1997 (See entry for 12.12.97). You know when you do your damnedest to be careful; when you set out *not* to slack on any part of the project and everything goes just fine, for a while, until that one little situation. Well, when I was changing those seals, last year, the one behind the starter chain gear - the one for which you need to remove the stator and pull the the rotor off the crank with three jaws - that is the seal I butchered. I didn't mean to. I was careful as careful can be. I cleaned all surfaces and lubed the new seal, but the seal was a hair too close in size to the opening and the edges of the opening were a bit too sharp and I tried this way and that, all to no avail. Keeping it square, the seal would go in about 1mm and jam. Tilting it a bit immediately made the aluminum ridge bite into the seal's shoulder. After about a half hour of that, I knew that one way or another, the seal was going to loose some rubber. So I worked it in with more force, and sure enough, a rubber shaving sheared off somewhere along the shoulder. And as sure as sin, an oil leak ensued within days and persisted over about 6,000 miles, until now.

When I removed the seal in question today, I was very surprised at what I found. Let me say that from the outside the seal looked perfect. Perfect, except for the fact that it was clearly seeping oil at the point between its shoulder and the engine case. I soon found indications of its condition: the seal had some play along the axis of its seating. In other words, I pressed on it and it wanted to move further in, into its seat. Wanted to, but couldn't. It was seated completely and the extra play was the resulting flex because of shoulder deterioration, which became evident when the seal was removed. If you're still with me, here is what I find most interesting: The shoulder of the seal (and the shoulder is about 6.5mm wide) - the surface which is surrounded by perfectly round and smooth machined aluminum surfaces of the seat, that part of the seal was severely damaged. I could see the two spots where the unfortunate installation shaved some of the seal's rubber off, but those areas were insignificant when compared to the gouges and rough damage along most of the seal's shoulder.

With that kind of damage, leaking oil is understandable, but I am perplexed about how the damage progressed to this degree. I can only guess that once installed, the seal had settled in a bit and whatever material was lost at installation, it was enough to allow the vibration of the motor to bounce the seal around more and more, eventually almost taking chunks out of the shoulder. What do you think?

In looking ahead to the future installation of a new seal; I am thinking along the lines of freezer for the seal and heat lamp on the motor. High temp grease. Can anyone suggest any other methods for this?

Gathering parts and advice now....

OK, here are several solutions to old questions/problems:

Added 40ml more of Type F ATF to each fork. This makes the total in each fork of 220ml. The bike now feels a whole lot better. No more bottoming out and the dampening action is reassuring. This, with seals on one side clearly seeping some oil through. Anyway, you get the picture - 180ml is not enough.

Spoke to an erudite friend about the bulbs rating (see 05.11.99). Long story short: 12V 240mA is just about 3.4A. The flickering bulb must be a bad connection to ground.

• Cleaned Points
• New Spark Plugs

Still - Hard Starting: Upon examination I thought I noticed a weak spark on the left coil. Then I thought I lost the coil altogether. I panicked (since I had an important MC meet/cookout to attend the next day). Later that day, however, the problem was fixed. Here is how. To be honest I am still not 100% sure I know that it was a bad ground or a bad connection somewhere else, but the bike has been running super since then.

Both of the speedometer cluster light bulbs had burned out. One was dead for a long time, but the second died not long ago. Checked the manual, bulbs should be 12V 3.4A.

Radio Shack only had 14V 240mA bulbs with the correct bayonets base. Installed these and rode around. The bulbs seem to be holding up, although I noticed that several times when the RPMs went above 6K, the left bulb began to dim and flicker. Lower the RPM to normal range and the bulb would recover. Strange, but true.

Also:

* Readjusted the belated throttle cable. Retightened and lubed.
* Lubed the throttle cable
* Lubed all brake linkages, etc.

The bike bottoms out on very rough roads. I suspect the front coil springs need replacement. Meanwhile:

* Drained the fork oil
* Refilled with 180ml of Type F ATF

Noticed that the bike became more difficult to start. I suspect the spark plugs.

* Checked and regapped Spark Plugs
* Adjust Timing
* Adjust timing chain tensioner
* Topped off battery cells
* Adjusted & lubed the Drive Chain
* Greased all locations
* Synchronized the carbs

Noticed that carb bowls contain rust residue. Will need to treat the gas tank.

I've been putting this off for some time, but the shift pedal and the shift linkage has been a constant underperformer. More specifically, the problem was excessive play in several "high wear" areas:

a) The pivot bolt mounting eye on the shift pedal
b) The linkage arm pin eye on the shift pedal
c) The linkage arm pin eye on the output shaft bracket

The most severe wear developed in the shift pedal pivot bolt area. Decades of use resulted in enlarging the pivot bolt hole to the point where the pedal developed not only an additional 1/2" (or more) of play along its intended path of travel (in parallel with the bike), but had also developed horizontal play of about 1/2" as well as some increased lateral play. The linkage arm pivot pins had also developed some play due to wear around the link pin holes, exacerbating the problem further.

The end result was a sloppy shifting mechanism and the corresponding lack of precision in the "feel" of the whole shifting process. Undoubtedly there are other internal components that have developed wear, but the obvious external shift linkage wear was a prime candidate for repair. I have seen examples of this wear in further devolved, more extreme stages, where the shift pedal begins to rub against the side of the bracket attached to the output shaft and sometimes even the case itself. It is not a pretty sight. On my bike, the problem was about to get to the "terminal" stage, but timely intervention was still possible.

The solution was to seek the aid of a machine shop. My hope was to have all worn out holes drilled out and rebushed. This was a fairly straight forward plan, with the only additional step being the turning of the worn pivot bolt to make a good fit with the ID of the shift pedal bushing. I guess that a picture is in order just about now. Please note that the linkage arm pivot pin was available from Honda, except that the new one is anodized whereas the OE variety was chromed. Needless to say the bronze bushing inserts were fitted to the new pivot pins.

The machine shop did an OK job, but not a great job. The tolerance on the pivot bolt side is just a hair over what I would like to see, but I think the problem is largely solved. I will find out when I put everything back together and - pending the melting of the snow - go for a test ride. Check back for progress updates.