98 SHawk Renovation
 

Hello Everyone! My name is Josh Nelson from Mountain Home, ID and I have a 1998 Honda Superhawk. I'll be sure to post pictures up as soon as I get my video card in my computer fixed but for now words on a thread will have to do. My bike is on the rebound due to a 15mph laydown that happened last year with the Previous Owner. He didn't have the time to fix it up so he sold it to me and I have been cranking a wrench on it ever since. I have a fair amount of time invested in this thing already and I can't wait to put a few more several thousand hours into it. Right now I am waiting on the fuel filter element inside the tank as the old one was never replaced and had all sorts of nasty stuff inside it. Unfortuanetly the tank also had rust in it so I ordered Kreem and will kreem the tank when it gets here which will be next monday (pictures of the process will be posted). At that time, I'll be able to fill it back up with gas, fire it up and hopefully be able to ride it for the summer. This winter (due to an extensive amount of research on this website) I will be doing a VFR800 sss, APE CCT's, a Hayabusa front end swap, a KOSO gauge swap (though I'd LOVE to put in a busa gauge), velocity stacks from Dr. Honda himself, a flow commander and a few more goodies. After all that is on order, I'll be stripping the bike completely down and doing a complete rebuild like 7Moore7 did with his. I loved the idea of powdercoating the frame, subframe, swingarm, and triple trees so I decided to take under the same project for myself. I'm fairly mechanically inclined so I'm not to worried about tearing the bike apart aside from the fact that my bike and I have an intimate relationship already.

I want to thank EVERYONE in advance for the advice that will be sure to follow for all of the small projects that I have planned in order to reach my ultimate goal (which is really just to have a fast capable Shawk) and I look forward to seeing this project truely come to light. :worthless: (Just thought I would beat the person who will post this) :cool:

Here are the pictures of the painting I have already done. Yes I know the clutch cover has some serious flaws in the paint but this winter I will be getting it sandblasted and will redo the entire thing. For now, I'm just REALLY itching to ride this thing!

When you use the kreem use the part that disolves the rust, then the bottle of alcohol to get all the water out but don't put in the white lining. Besides it being a PITA to get it all coated properly I have seen it come back out in chunks. Not fun! And if you get all the rust in there disolved anyway you really don't need it.

I used this same stuff on my buddies Vmax tank when he had a bunch of rust and caked in old gas (the bike sat for 15 years untouched!) and everything came out pretty good so I'm fairly confident I can do this tank without a hitch. However, I'm terrified of Part A leaking out and ruining the paint. My plan is to go to a machine shop and have block off plates made so that I don't run into that problem. The paint on the Vmax tank was NO MATCH for Part A of Kreem.

I'm sorry GTS. I just re-read your post and I understand what you were trying to say. You mean to say that if I put in the white lining in the Superhawk tank, it WILL or MIGHT come back out in chunks?

Correct. The first part works great for disolving the rust. We used it all the time at one of the bike shops I used to work at. But we would never put the white lining in. Then I got a tank that someone else had put the white lining in and it was all flaking back off. Was a total PITA. Really if you get all the rust out and fill the tank with gas you shouldn't need the white liner.

Welcome Josh. I'm glad to see you are finally able to post. Really looking forward to your build thread. Ian(7moore7) will be a tough act to follow. His VTR is one of the nicest nakeds on the board!

another good tank liner is one made by a company made KBS. we use their product at the bike shop i work at and it looks great! no uneven coating like the kream kits. the cleaners and rust removers in the KBS kit will not harm the paint. Look them up on the web and give them a try, i believe their kits are also less expensive.

That's interesting to read and see that you found it flaking off. I obviously don't want that to happen with mine so I will go ahead and just rinse it out and get the rust out.

Yesterday, I took some cardboard and made templates using the fuel sending unit, the gas cap, and the petcock as guides. I did this because I don't want any of the cleaner to leak out and ruin the paint. Anyone happen to know if the sending unit seal would hold up? If not, I'll just put temporary RTV in place of it. That's what I was going to do with the tank hole and the petcock hole.

Again, I'm really sorry I haven't put up any pictures. I need to get a new video card for my computer so as soon as that happens, I'll LOAD this thread with pictures.

I plan to rival his very closely. Although mine will be a different class. I don't plan to go naked. I am planning on keeping it full fairing as it sits now. I'm just waiting on my right side fairing and my belly pan to get back from paint.

Just a quick update (and hopefully some pictures soon) I got my plates back from the machine shop and have bolted those in place. Luckily I haven't needed to put down any RTV to help them seal. They seal just fine. I'm having a little trouble with the tank block off plate because it's miniscully (sp?) larger than what I expected though I guess I should have compensated for that. I did after all copy the diameter of the fuel tank cap. Ah well, nothing a little bench grinder won't fix. I also got my new fuel filter element in and that is really the last piece of the puzzle. The bike will be running like new by the end of the night.

Again, I apologize for not having any pictures. No one likes to just go to a thread and see nothing but words about something that is happeneing but no pictures to prove it. I realize it's boring and I appreciate you guys not tearing me apart for not posting them.

Another update for everyone.

I got the tank lined (yes I went ahead with the liner. After doing the stripping process and then cleaning it with the part B, I was afraid that maybe the gas would corrode the raw metal and I didn't want that to happen so I went ahead and actually lined it. It all turned out alright.) and dropped in the new fuel filter that rests on top of the petcock. It cranked over the first few cranks.

However, I have stuttering from the 4-5k rpm range. Not really to sure why, it could be that I didn't let it warm up enough and there's usually a lot of backfiring. Any help would be awesome. I'll post up pics as soon as possible.

Is the tank vent still functioning, or did you accidentally seal over it with the protective coating?

You know, I truthfully couldn't tell you right now as I didn't check, but I'll take a look tonight and see. It was stuttering like this before hand anyway.

Also check that you put the vacuum line to the petcock back to the proper place (the fitting on the side not the bottom)

Yeah I did that. I know I did that. I had labeled everything to make sure that everything was in the right place. Could it be that the carbs may need cleaned? There was rust inside the petcock too so I believe there may be rust in the carbs?

Ok so here are some pictures of the Hawk as it sits right now. Keep in mind that I've painted the covers, lined the tank, put in a new fuel filter and slapped on some new grips.
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These are the block off plates I ended up having made so the paint on the tank doesn't get ruined by the acetone in the cleaner I used for the liner.
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As you can see here, even the fuel sending unit had some rust on it so I dunked that in the cleaner too. Luckily (even though I know I took a gamble) the wires didn't get ruined by the acetone.
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Yeah with that much crap in the tank I would say they should be pulled and cleaned.

It also gives you a chance to see if anyone has done anything to them or if they are stock, so you know where you stand when trying to get them dialed in.

Yeah I'll have to pull them. I'm going to run seafoam through it just to see if that clears it up at all and if it doesn't I'll probably pull the carbs then.

Nice, sure looks like Base housing:) How's the views up there, I had it on my dream sheet at one point in time but happy I ended up with the assignments i did.

You a maintainer?

It looks like base housing but it's actually in town. Base housing (believe it or not) is actually a lot nicer than it is in town. I am a maintainer. I'm backshop avionics. The views are really lack there of but when you leave town towards Sun Valley, ID it gets really pretty up that way. Mt Home is so boring and flat and full of dead beats.

Just took the hawk out for a little whoop dee doo, and it's a mechanical mess. I need to tear out the carbs and clean them out. The bike keeps bogging out and dying north of 4k rpms. Suppose I'll do that tomorrow. I'll post up pictures of the progress. I installed my new flush mount turn signals and finished up the rear end with the brake light and right side turn signal. She's almost there!

Ok, so where would one go to find specialty parts for the VTR? It seems to have been faded out and is now the red headed step child of all the sport bikes. Mikstr has that FANTASTIC Arrow full exhaust. Where would one find another one of those? Surely there's got to be another one or another company out there that has made a full exhaust for our forgotten bike.

Thought I would put up some pictures of the finished product. Got the right side fairing and the belly pan back from paint yesterday. It looks alright for a 150 dollar paint job. It looks like orange peel up close but it looks a lot better than the huge gouges that were on it.
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These are the flush mounts I got. They're from PKM Kustoms. They look pretty clean if I do say so myself.

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I tore off the tank to do the carb cleaning job today and found that they are a B****h to get off so I was wondering if any one had any tips on how to get them off easier. I sprayed some wd-40 where they clamp on to the boots to try and loosen them up and that helped a little but I'm a little guy and I don't have much in the way in muscles. Hah, anyway, any help would be fantastic.
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It's ridiculously dirty and we were right. There is rust in the carbs. I've got the first part of the gasket kit for the carbs, but I think I'll go ahead and take the time to get a new jet kit and rejet the carbs.

A little wet sand paper in about the 1500 grit range on a sanding block, then a good buff will take care of the orange peel. Just be careful around the edges to not sand through.

All you really need to buy is a set of pilot jets and then look at the carb set up thread I wrote that is in the Tech section.

You can save a little $$ and have a good running bike by just a few esy mods to the stock bits. ;)


You might also look into setting the TPS while they are out.

Happen to know where I can get a set of pilot jets?

Well if you post up I know someone will answer.... the reason I say this is I know a member just picked up some extra ones but I just emptied my PM box and can't remember who it was right now.... its hell getting old....lol

So they should be getting 2 extra sets of them really soon....

If you try the "normal" sources the price has gone way up on #48 pilots for some reason. Though Hollister Honda and Ron Ayers can get them for you they are now around $17 each

I lucked out then because my local Honda shop is selling them for 5 bucks a piece.