More Progress On The LS Today

[Bob_Roller]

I got the complete front brake system swapped over from the '84 LS, to the 82 LS, and the front forks rebuilt in the last two days .

The brake system and front forks were in quite poor condition .

Took around 10 hours of work to disassemble, clean and re- assemble the front forks, more work than I've ever put into the forks on my '81 R65 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awaiting parts from Motobins to continue the work next week, trans input spline is the next big job .

The rubber boot between the trans and swing arm is leaking, as well as the rubber boot over the clutch input rod, both have cracks in them . 

For the time being, I'm going to swap the speedometer from the '84 LS to the '82 .

I'll get the speedometer out to the repair shop in a week or so .

[Barry]

Good to see a technical post Bob.  

Did you have to replace anything in the forks or were they just gunged up and in need of a good clean ?

[Bob_Roller]

Just the rubber parts required replacement, though the left fork which was the one that was leaking, had rust on most of the steel parts .

I put them in a shallow pan of muriatic acid (swimming pool acid at 34% concentration), they cleaned up quite well overnight .

This bike wasn't well cared for, a lot of less than desirable work was done on it, now it's just a matter of taking the time to do everything correctly .

A complete dis assembly to paint (or powder-coat) the frame is going to be needed in the future, it looks good at 20 feet, but up close it shows it's age and neglect .

I bought the bike sight unseen, a coworker was at a family members funeral in Clovis, New Mexico .

A neighbor next to his relatives home had the bike in the front lawn with a for sale sign on it .

He sent me 10 pictures, the bike looked to be in really good condition, but an in person inspection would have been enlightening .

But for $2500US I don't think I did too bad .

It has a fresh paint job, Staintune exhaust with a black ceramic type coating, white powder coated wheels a refurbished seat, new covering and foam, new unused but 3 year old tires .

[nhmaf]

Bikes always look better in pictures than they do in person, I've found..  But, as long as it is mostly your time and not too many big $$$ items than need replacing to have a safe, fully-roadworthy ride I'd say you've done pretty well.

[Bob_Roller]

So far only having the drive shaft fill plug threads repaired on the final drive housing for $120US has been the biggest single expense .

Next most costly part was a Dyna 'brown' coil, as the original grey coil was still installed (numerous cracks in the case) as well as the original ignition leads .

The speedometer needs repair, from the looks of the crimped ring on the bezel, some-one's already been in there, so that could turn out to be a bit pricey, but I've got the speedometer from the '84 LS if it's not worth repairing .

Next week, when ever the parts from Motobins show up, the transmission is coming off for a spline lube, if I get away without having to get the transmission overhauled due to worn splines, I'll feel lucky, but with what I've seen so far, I'm not overly optimistic .

I've got a throttle tube, throttle cam and chain assembly, throttle top cover on the way from Motobins .

After getting the fairings off, it appears that the all of the throttle cables, clutch cable and speedometer drive cables require replacement in the not too distant future .

All of the numerous parts that I've gotten so far, seals gaskets, nuts bolts etc. have cost about $500, so I'm not doing too bad so far .

If I didn't have a completely rebuilt front brake system I'd be looking at around another $600 for that .