some of you guys may know this as walker’s old bike…Kyle’s been having major issues with it leaking various fluids so he brought it to me to see what could be done. What I found was there were some serious cracks in the head around the left side spark plug that had previously been “repaired” with some sort of RTV or JB weld or similar product. Also, he let me know that at one point a tappet jam nut had once come loose and somehow got through the vavletrain and kicked around in the cylinder and spit out the exhaust…seriously fearing for the integrity of the motor, I went in search of a replacement lump…which I luckily found of all places at M&M u-pull-it and we nabbed it for $70!
So kyle decided that since he dropped it and dented the tank and he hated the seat and missing signals, that we were gonna make a project out of it. Here’s the build!
I trimmed the fiberglass pan but didnt take a pic yet. Gonna put the replacement motor in over the weekend most likely and start upolstering the seat. We also rebuild the carbs and petcock but didnt take pics of that. I’ll post new pics as we make more progress, this was about 8hrs worth of work.
didn’t you get kyle’s FB message? we bumped into some dude that had a running complete 80-something for $250…it just had some wierd extended front forks with a 16" front wheel…but the bike we got the motor out of at the junkyard had a complete front end on it that would likely cost $20 or so…
Yeah, my garage is LOADED with bike parts and projects lol. I need to clean it up BAD lol.
I told him that after all the work I put into it he better not sell it for a long time lol, and if he does I’ll be bidding against any interested parties haha.
It’s gonna be SO RAD when we finish it. It’s actually coming together really really fast in my opinion. To finish the seat, get the motor in, and fine tune everything is like 1 or 2 days work really…
Eventually I would also like to put a modern front end on the bike and some beefy tires on it. Here’s the bike I fell in love with and that inspired me to start the build.
decided to try to surprise kyle and have it together and running by the time he stopped by after work today…got close lol. I had to devise a way to install the motor all by myself so this is what I came up with
hung the rear from the rafters so I could manipulate the front until I could set it to get two mount bolts in and flip it back upright. Got everything buttoned up but I couldnt get it to run by the time he got here. He was super surprised nonetheless but now I have to troubleshoot why it wont run, It just backfires and spits fire lol. I suspect it has something to do with kyle’s bike was equipped with what I have reserched and figured out is TCI ignition, while the junkyard motor was points. I swapped over all the TCI stuff but I didnt know if I had to align the cage that holds the TCI unit anyplace special on the magnet so I think maybe our ignition timing is just off. Gonna do some research and take another crack at it tomorrow.
So I just figured out why it wouldnt run with an off-the-cuff idea…I realized that I swapped over the rotor, but not the magnet and thought to myself “maybe those are supposed to be paired” So I popped off the covers on both motors and sure enough they had different casting numbers in them so I got out the 3-jaw puller and switched them. Bike fired RIGHT THE FUCK UP, it runs phenominal, incredible compression for a junkyard sourced motor with no history. so far, no leaks. Pretty stoked with the results. Kyle doesnt know it runs yet, hes on his way over lol.
I took it for a quick spin Down the street in the rain. The big runs strong and new motor just seems so much stronger and louder too :). It definently needs some fine tuning and the footpads need to be mounted ( I kicked the right side one off while trying to kick start the motor). But it should be ready to ride In a few days. Now the project isn’t finished because I am dying to just get out there and ride. Over winter I plan on a front end swap, stripping the bike down to the frame and getting it powder coated or just painted , also I want a rear disc brake and a real set of rear sets with fully working linkages.
Well I can’t wait to ride soon hopefully there’s enough bikes finished for a classic bike meet before summer is over. I had an idea of a cafe cruise and maybe stop at a few coffee shops and get some cool pictures.
Big thanks to nick for putting my bike together and just sharing his knowledge and teaching me so much I owe you one.
