Slow but steady

Moving along...slow, but moving along.

The proper O-rings finally arrived from Honda, so I was ready to assemble the rear cover. With the new mechanical seal, oil seal, shifter oil seal, and shaft drive oil seal in place, there was only one left thing to do: replace the old, pitted collars that allow the coolant to pass to the water pump.  I returned to my local machine shop (since these are NLA from Honda) and $5 later, I had a brand new set of the exact size.

Once the cover was on, and torqued to spec (in addition to the new OEM gasket, I used some black RTV), I installed the water pump impeller (with a new crush washer) and a new water pump gasket, which is essentially an odd-shaped O-ring. Then it was time to reinstall the thermostat housing and coolant transfer pipes.

Instead of using a simple nipple and hose system, on this bike Honda decided to go for steel pipes, pressed into aluminum housing, and rely on a series of O-rings to keep the coolant where it is supposed to be. Thirty years of reaction between the two different metals submerged in a liquid did a number on all the connections. Fortunately, the pipes cleaned up nicely, as did the aluminum parts. An hour with a dremmel did the trick on removing all the scaly deposits and rust, and the pipes themselves received a wire wheel treatment, along with some VHT high temperature paint, followed by slow baking on top of the woodstove. Obviously, new O-rings were in order, but this time I found the right sizes in my O-ring box. Here is the thermostat housing assembled and back on the engine.

I also received my 'new-to-me' low mileage shocks that will work as a nice replacement for the old, rusty shocks the bike came with.

 I still have to do clutch inspection and valve clearance before moving the engine back to the frame, but while the paint was baking, I started playing with some resin and fiberglass cloth. Nothing to show yet, but I'll be making a new seat pan, which will actually follow the frame lines, and a rear cowl.