Call it a labor of love....I'd love to be done with this.
As some of you know, I've never been real happy with the engine that was in the bike, it ran but..... One benefit I got from it, I was never bothered with mosquitos, I just didn't want to either keep or eventually sell something like that. I had decided to get it roadworthy and put some miles on it in hopes of seating the rings better. Just running it in the garage doesn't really do the job since I had no way of putting a load on the motor. Acceleration places pressure on one side of the cylinder, deceleration on the opposite side....all of which helps seat rings. A couple weeks back on Ebay I happened across a 1985 FI motor for the 1200, starting price was $499.99(once you go to $500 I guess the fees go up a lot more). The other kicker.....free shipping, worth another $250 minimum. Out of curiosity I watched it and nobody bid, it closed that way. I really agonized over whether to spring for it since I had just put new rubber on the Highlander and you know that wasn't cheap. After it closed and was discussing it with Rita, she just told me to go for it and use her CC. So, I called and it was still available for the $499.99...shipped. Last Tuesday, Jeff Parker and I went down to a local truck terminal and picked it up. They did a great job crating it, took us close to an hour just to get the crate off and the engine onto my hydraulic table. Then the fun began. Keep in mind, this was advertised as a 23k mile engine with compression in the 160's. I talked to the mechanic, questioned if this was really 23k or maybe 123k miles, to which he was very emphatic...said he knows the bike and former owner and it's a real 23k. OK, so like anything else, you pays your money and takes your chances.
I spent a lot of time just pulling all the FI induction stuff off the top, the first picture shows what it looked like. Once off, I started item by item converting it to a carbed engine, and swapping out the new parts I had installed on the old engine to this newer one. The conversion included removing the pulse generators, one on the back end of the right head(see chrome covered box in the first pic below) and the single one under the belts, and the trigger wheel. I removed the old belts and while off, I installed the double pulse gens the carb version uses, the carb T/W, and my new belts. I pulled the front cover off the old motor which has a new water pump mounted in it, soon as the gaskets get here I'll install it on the newer motor....that pump feels solid so probably could have left it in, but mine is new. You have to pull that cover on the early boxers, with the 1500 and up you can change the water pump externally, making it a lot easier to do. The oil pressure connection was on the back of the new motor so I had to remove that and install a plug from the old motor, then remount the sender on top where it was on the old motor. It all involved a lot of little details so I made up a list of things needing done as I discovered them, crossed them off as completed. Changing the belts and timing the motor was rather quick, I used a homemade tool to move and hold the cam pulley(s) while setting the timing, then manually rolled it through 4-5 cycles checking for sounds not conducive to mechanical integrity.
This is what it looked like first out of the crate, what a load of crap sitting up there.
This is everything removed, will be selling it to Mike(Onawingandaprayer). He's also taking the heads and the block, couldn't fit that in the box however.
This is what it looks like now, a bit of cleaning then a couple coats of silver engine paint. I hooked it up to a battery, turns over real good and the alternator checks good as well. Whew!
The headers are blued badly so trying to decide a course of action. I'd like to take them to a local powder coating company, they do something called Ceramakrome(sp?). It comes out a bright shiny ceramic silver almost like chrome and doesn't blue.
http://performancekote.com/motorcycle-coatings.html If there is a more reasonable company for the job, I'd love to hear about it. One neat thing I discovered on the new motor....since it was from a Limited it had gear indicator wiring. I checked and my new speedo/tach combo gauge also has gear indicator readouts. The only thing not being used on that gauge is the fuel readout. With no connection it was constantly flashing, which it does when you're empty or getting close. I checked and a resistance of 6-10 ohms will duplicate a full reading so I picked up a couple 1 watt resistors and installed one in the circuit. Voila....I now show a full tank(albeit falsely) and the gauge no longer flashes. The gauge is all wired in except for the oil pressure idiot light and now the gear indicator. I did show Jeff how I can go 125mph sitting still in the garage....an electric drill with a screwdriver bit inserted in the I/S speedo pick up which I adapted the wiring on. It has been fun.....I keep telling myself.
