What a concept - A Girl Bringing Back Her 1966 Super Hawk

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 9:43 pm

Hi, all!

After many years, I'm about to finally get started on bringing back my 1966 CB77. She's a black 305 Super Hawk. I've owned her since 1971, and I took her off the road in 1975 when one cylinder went bad (18182 miles). She was my first motorcycle, and yes, I kept her all these years intending to get her running and on the road again. After sitting all that time, she's really rough, as expected. Some of the issues are: a bad cylinder (I don't know what's wrong - oil comes out from around the spark plug); broken speedometer glass; dented headlight bucket and bent headlight bezel; dent on the top of the gas tank; cracked and checked intake boots; rotted air filters; rusty rims; bad tires; rotted mufflers; etc, etc, etc. Despite all that, she's really not as bad as she sounds. The engine, except for the one cylinder, is sound, The transmission is (or was) good, the paint on the frame is good, the seat is good, the fenders are good (the front one was bobbed, but it's okay), the side panels are good, and most of the wiring and cables are good.

My game plan is to pull the engine, find out it's problems and address them, clean and rebuild the carburetors, replace the tires, go through the brakes, chassis, and running gear, replace bad cables, replace the hoses, repair and repaint the gas tank, repair the speedometer, repaint the headlight bucket, replace the fork seals, and then start riding her. I want to get her back on the road - sell my Suzuki SV650S - and make her my "daily rider". From there I'll do a "rolling restoration" - fixing and replacing as time and money permit.

I like my plan!

And yes, I am a very mechanical, very handy lady who does NOT mind getting dirt under her nails. No worries!

Thanks, fellas!!

Kigsby · Post by **Kigsby** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:16 am

Yea! Another female grease monkey!! Not many of us around. I restored my '62 Dream and had a blast doing it. Can't wait to see your before and after pics!

Hotshoe · Post by **Hotshoe** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:24 am

Great to hear about female bikers willing to dig into their bikes, good luck.
If you've never worked on a 305 before you should get a Honda shop manual and/or Bill Silver's manual, I use my CL shop manual all the time.

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:16 pm

Thanks, folks!

Yay, indeed - ANOTHER female grease monkey!!!

Thanks for the tips. I do have a shop manual, in fact it's an original that I bought back in the '70's. I used to do all of the regular services on the bike myself - cleaning out the oil filter, points, plugs, timing, carbs - all of it. I don't mind nor am I intimidated at all about taking her apart and fixing her.

I'm researching the instrument cluster right now. I'm going to figure out how to take it apart. I know about the restoration place down in San Diego (Foreign something Repair), but I'd like to avoid that expense if I can. Also, there's nothing but ratty looking gauges on eBay at the moment. Another avoid!

I'll post some pics of her hopefully this evening.

Thanks again, folks.

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:26 pm

Here's some photos of my old friend:

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:29 pm

Here's some engine closeups.

davomoto · Post by **davomoto** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:44 am

Looks like a good start for sure! Use a paint can opener to pry the chrome bezel up. I like to have my daughter hold the heat gun on the bezel as I'm prying. They are thin and crack very easily.

Davo