Teardown and Rebuild
 

I know I've started several posts recently, but they were all leading up to this. My first major mechanical project and ratbike rebuild (hopefully more of a conversion of a rat into a streetfighter). No idea how fast things will go... definitely not Truckinduc speed!

Today I mainly just cleaned up as much space as I could and took off the tail plastics. Some of the bolts and fittings are not stock, as they do not even fit right. And one was even a standard. Tacky. I'm keeping them all, but will replace most with alan head metrics when this all goes back together.

What I learned: Superhawks need several ambiguous black boxes to run. I am not an electronics guy so plan on so I will have to translate these strange writings called "wiring diagrams" into some form of readable language at some point.

Do most 'Hawk tails have and underside of fiberglass? Seems custom... Also, how do I get the pictures to show up in the middle of the thread?

Well, the good thing about those ambiguous black boxes is they all have they're own respective plug, so you can't get it wrong when you go to plug them all back up. Superchickens have cheesy plastic undertails so you've probably got some aftermarket business going on.

Easiest way to get full size pics to appear in the thread is to use a photo hosting site like photobucket and just copy and paste their provided IMG link.

If you don't have one, I recommend a Haynes Manual. They are pretty decent as far as tear-down info goes, but their bestest feature is wiring diagrams in COLOR!! Much easier to decipher than the OEM diagrams.


Rex

Made some progress today. This bike has all kinds of character. You know, character like grandma's house; Some stairs are missing and the gas stove has a slow leak but somehow she still lives in it.

Here's what she looks like now:
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8270289.jpg

The one and only shiny part, CCT that I replaced a couple of weeks ago.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8270291.jpg

Bugger! Not necessarily a good sign. And now I'll have to find someone who can weld.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8270287.jpg

And here's the big one. Front fairing stay removed and the weld is a bad one. Any advice on whether this may still be usable or not? There is a hole in front, and I understand that I'll need to media blast and check for cracks, but seeing inside the head tube is weird for me... Am I in need of a new frame at this point, or is there still hope?
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8270288.jpg

Next: figuring out how to get the wheels and fork off, swingarm detached, and motor out of the frame. I figure I'll have a buddie hold up the bike while I unbolt the swingarm. Maybe it'll take two of them... haha.

I believe I'd be going for trinc's frame about now....

+1 Since he is parting the whole bike out..

Forgot about mentioning that I don't need the fairing stays as I am going to make this a fighter. So I don't need to really "repair" this, just need to make sure that the head tube isn't compromised. I actually would like to remove the mounts if it is possible. trink's fairing stays aren't in the best condition either...

Airborne! It kind of reminds me of those little baby seats that you crank and then it rocks back and forth. I'm excited to start cleaning parts and making this thing mine. Things go a lot slower when I have to work during the day. Any suggestions on things I should do/clean/inspect once I get the twins out of the cage?

http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8290295.jpg

Well first find something to hang the calipers on so they are not hanging on the brake lines....;)

After that, strip the paint off the frame and have a good look. From there it should be rather easy sailing.

calipers are still bolted to the forks- i'm good for tonight, right?

Yeah, sorry.... it looked like they were just hanging there.....getting old and the eyes are going.....lol ;)

haha! my forks are painted black, and against the black carpet so they're playing the disguise game

while you got all that off,check all the hoses that are very hard to get to for dry rot.
check the water tank for dry rot,i just took mine apart to get my coolant tank out,its a biggggg pain to get to,so inspect and replace all that while you got that all off.dont forget your thermostat and gasket for it.

This is more of a question for later, but I plan on an undertail radiator with manual on/off fans. Thermostat still needed or no...? Another way of asking this is, is the thermostat good to have even though I won't be using it to trigger the fans on?

I think you are confusing the thermostat with the thermoswitch.. There is also a thermosensor..

The thermostat is a wax valve that allows coolant to flow to the radiator after it has reached a certain temperature. This you need.

The Thermoswitch turns on the fans after the coolant reaches an even higher temperature. I'd keep it just so that your fans can turn off when not needed, but I don't know if you NEED it..

The thermosensor sends a temperature reading to the ECU (I think) and to the gauge cluster so that you get a temperature reading on your dash. You also need at least the part that goes to the ECU.

I should have known that is was not as simple as that :). I haven't studied the manuals much yet as I am still taking this thing apart, so I'll keep my thoughts to a minimum until I get the jargon down.

That being said, thermoswitch is the one I was talking about. Doing the streetfighter, I will be probably be getting digital gauges. Trailtech Vapor has it's own coolant temperature reader so I was thinking about switching on manually (I plan on having the fans on all the time, and turn them off when the Vapor indicates that I'm cold enough). From my research, it will be hard to get this thing too cold in Phoenix but I'm sure someone will discount that :) ... Also, being undertail I have a feeling the fans will need to be on more anyway. Is this at all a reasonable approach? I'm basing it off of things that members have already done...

Well even on my ride last weekend (104 temp here IIRC) the stock fans only came on when in stop and go traffic for more than a few lights, and not at all on the highway. It isn't like it'd be hard to run the wires back (and hide them) to the new location and that way you can't accidentally forget to turn them back on once and end up overheating your bike. (personally I don't like to have something I can forget to do be able to destroy my bike in normal riding conditions)

Oh, on a side note, Bob's Used Motorcycle Parts off of 16th st and Elwood has the remains of a superhawk in their west lot, not much left of it, but the frame looks better than yours.

Or Indierocker (moderator here) up in Prescott sometimes gets SH's in to tear down and ebay, you could try contacting him to see if he has a decent frame for sale. He is a great guy, I've met up with him for lunch a few times when I ride through Prescott.

Lazn, thanks for the heads up on the frame! Actually, I'm kind of curious about how bad of shape mine really is in... there are layers of chipped paint that make it suspicious, but it could be a gorgeous girl in ugly clothing.

I don't know why I was so set on manual fans... On second thought why not have the Honda computer decide?

Starting to get limited by my tools- I need some sort of new drive to get the swingarm axle thing off. Not to mention a larger socket in general. I've just been unbolting at this point, but something tells me there is a specific order to take the swingarm off and motor out! The manual seems to have good instructions, so more reading to go I guess. Is the rear spring pre-loaded at all?

Ok, small things I found:

Definite crack in the coolant overflow bottle. Not sure why I didn't notice this when I was filling it.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8310305.jpg

I didn't see these in the OEM manual: Some kind of fuel filter?
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/P8310299.jpg

Took the carbs off and that big vee is SAWWEEEEETT. I hope it works when I'm done! I give it a 5% chance on first try...

there is some bottles on ebay,there pretty cheap.
those fuel filters dont belong on there.thats a add on.
even tho they look to be of good size i dont think it flows it at 100%.
origanal hoses go from petcock to carbs.

You should be becoming very familiar with your bike now.

Dude, I don't know why I was so hesitant to do this because I'm getting way more out of it than my bike is!

From what I can tell, I don't need to do anything very special to take the swingarm off... seeing the spring/shock in there has me all worried for some reason, but the manual indicates that I just take the shock to link arm off. Seems too good to be true.

Also, I couldn't find a lock nut wrench at any auto parts store, and will need to get a torque wrench soon. Does anyone have recommendations for these or should I just enter the world of amazon and find something with free shipping?

Are you talking about the Castle Nuts? If so a search on here will show a few people's solutions for that (usually modifying a cheap socket).

As for a torque wrench, I'd not want a Chinese one.. I got mine off Craigslist and was able to find a good deal on some Craftsman ones.

FYI it used to be that the Husky ones (home depot) were made at the same factory as the Craftsman ones, neither is high end (snap-on armstrong etc) but should be good enough and made in the USA at least.

Tools made in the USA - Europe - Japan or even Taiwan (but be careful with that) tend to be higher quality than their Chinese counterparts. (not 100% true, but good rule of thumb)

The only thing you need to do to take of the swingarm is to get either a good workstand (I have linked manuals on how to make one in other threads) or rope to a rafter or similar... Then remove the wheel, unbolt the lower link and unbolt the pivot axle... It really is that simple... Apart from various little annoyances like the rear caliper and brake line and such details...

For the caste nut, if you have a welder and angle grinder, all you need is two sockets, a piece of flat metal and some skills and you have a tool for it... Otherwise start bying expensive tools...

Tweety, no welder yet! I'm still building my repertoire of tools and that one is a few items down the list. Keep in mind, I've started from scratch about a year ago with the whole moving out /going to college/living is small spaces thing so am somewhat limited in my metalworking abilities. I do have the frame hung from scaffolding so the rear linkage should be easy to undo.

Looks like the castle nut for the frame should be easy enough to make, and maybe I can find a long enough socket that I don't need a welder- it's worth a shot at least!

Thanks for the help so far... I ended up buying trink's old frame, so will possibly look into going for the polishing route rather than the powdercoating one. Gonna have to think about how this thing should look when I'm done....

To remove them, you can get around the welding part... For setting them once you are assembling the bike again, you will probably need it...
Attachment 10254

With a tool like this you can use the other socket for the torque wrench while sticking a allen key inside the hole in the one on the castle nut...

Ah, thanks for the pic. There's a castle nut sitting on top of that, right? If not, I may be a little confused about how it works...

Correct... And with the torque wrench in the other socket, you get an open hole for the insex...

So, ixnay the filters on re-assembly?

I'd do without them yeah... They aren't adding any performance...