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Greetings forum members. New member here. I just bought a 98 Superhawk (33K miles!) that has some issues. It was a good price and I took a chance on just how broken it is. I will be taking the winter to bring this lovely bike back to running condition and I'll be documenting the journey here and leaning on the collective for help and advice. I'm not sure if this will be a flip or a keep, but I do love these bikes. I rode a friends brand new one back in late 97 in Socal and fell in love with it from the start. I have owned a couple of RC51s and a slew of Ducatis since then (I still have a Duc 749R).
The information I got at the time of sale was "the timing slipped" which I know is fairly common for these bikes.
Progress so far:
Removed the tank. Not real rust to speak of, but gas was OLD. Drained and put aside for later. I'll spray some WD40 in these to keep it from rusting. I'll get a petcock rebuild kit also.
Removed the airbox. Stock air filer is in nasty condition. New filter needed.
Removed the spark plugs. They actually look ok, but of course will be replaced.
Carbs are gummed up. I couldn't even move the slides as they are stuck. Carbs will need a rebuild.
Tried turning the motor over with the crankshaft bolt. Lots of camchain slip noise and some binding. Feels/sounds like front cylinder. Motor will be coming out I guess.
There are some very strange marks on the rear header and the chain guard is snapped in 2. Looks like she threw a drive chain at some point in her life. I'll be looking out for some new headers. The bike has Jardine slip-ons but I would stay with stock headers so I don't have to re-jet.
I'll be perusing this forum for answers to my questions before I start asking any. I'm hoping to find a service manual download here somewhere also.
Tried turning the motor over with the crankshaft bolt. Lots of camchain slip noise and some binding. Feels/sounds like front cylinder. Motor will be coming out I guess
Failed cam chain tensions are common, mostly the front.. resulting in valve crash.. Motor does not have to come out to replace head
If the sound volume of the Jardine cans is acceptable to you, keep them. Most don't re-jet for slip-ons. The bikes run well enough left alone.
If your going to re-jet read this. https://www.superhawkforum.com/forum...-set-up-24769/
When you get it back on the road you might want to look at how the forks. It looks like the PO has them pulled up quite a bit.
