1980 GL1100 I, going to single carb

Turned my head and there was another bike in the shop. What the heck, well it did have to hop on my trailer and makes its way to my place.

The main issues, final drive blew the grease seal. Don't really have the tools on hand to do the work for that so ebay saved me. It was cheep enough and it is on the way.

I have worked on many different carbs in the past, HondaV65's, XJ's, inline 4's, V twins and even the mighty Valkyrie last yr was a nice change to work on. But there is something about the lack of room and tinkering area in the Gold Wing area that is just not fun. So I thought why not get a low cost bike and change it over to a single carb.

The intake manifold showed up today, I am hoping the carb is right behind it. I have been keeping busy with water leaks, valve specs and soon the timing belts and pulley updates. Looks to be more or less straight forward. Lots of vids on line too, that helps.

This bike will be flipped in the spring. I just wanted to do a Gold Wing and try the carb conversion to see how they work. I have pics coming, just have lots of other life things coming up too.

 

I’ve seen quite a few single carb conversions on those, popular swap that you should be able to find support on.

The carbs are worth some $$ too if you decide to part with them.

 

By reputation the carbs from the GL1100's were the worst of the many years of GL's. I had one for awhile and could not make it run on all 4 cylinders at once. It got traded off to someone who thought they could, no idea if they did. At the local Honda shop there used to be a GL guru there who would do anything to any GL except 1100 carbs. That told me something about them. Good luck.
John

 

One of the rataplan-ratbikemembers has this on his goldwing but I believe it's a 1000cc

 

Yamaat, that is very close to what I am going for. This is as close to a barn find as I have found.
20201218_160103 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
20201218_160053 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
20201218_160046 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
The mouse was happy for a while, he was all curled up under the carbs. But he took the time to chew away at the underside of the seat.
DSCN0012 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
Going to try to rebuild these as well. Hoping the air system on the bike still works.
DSCN0010 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
Timing belt looks to be factory install? Says Honda on it, new ones are in the mail. I will also upgrade the old rusty idle pulley as well.
DSCN0009 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
This electrical component seems to have heated up enough to melt the sealing compound off it.
DSCN0008 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
New "O" rings in the cross over water pipes, big area for that nice new manifold and the single carb in there.
DSCN0007 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
The final drive after I cleaned it up, for the cost and time, just found a new one off ebay.
3 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
What the back in looked like from the old shop, 90 wt oil all over the place. At least the spline on the wheel are in good shape.
DSCN0013 by Tim Brown, on Flickr

 

Be very carefull with the cambelts and timing.. first turn the cranck by hand before pushing the starterbutton.. some guys within the same club did it the otherway around and ruined the engine...
Perhaps needles but one can't be vigilant enough regarding these items.

A vetter fairing.. good but man are they heavy.

 

Yuck!

 

I agree.. but he says it functions better than the carbs even after revision/rebuilt of them.

 

Taking all the stuff stuff off the bike to try to even work on it takes time. If I was going to keep the bike it would all come off and I would go with a naked bike. But this bike is just to play with and then send down the road. I will keep the OEM carbs clean them up and send them off with the bike. I don't know if the next owner will want to be able to make it all original again or not.

All the carb conversion parts came in yesterday, I hope to get to it but have other things to do because of the weather.

 

Mail people have been very good to me that last two days. The final drive is one the bike and seems to be working fine. I might be missing a spacer on the left side, need to look at the parts list. Once all this Holiday stuff is over along with some family issues hope to get back to her. I will get some pics as the manifold and carb goes on.

The timing belt on the right side as you sit on bike, was off one tooth from factory or last person that changed them. Anyone know how to tell the dates of the belts? I think from the number, they were made on 6th month of 79. They look good no teeth missing but it is best to change them and upgrade those idle pulleys.

 

Some pics.
Here is the old belt, I am guessing by the number is is from the 6th month of 1979?
DSCN0012 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
One of the old pulleys coming out with the upgrade. 40 yrs of sitting of spinning, I think they need to go.
DSCN0011 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
New items
DSCN0008 by Tim Brown, on Flickr

 

This was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had a heck of a time with the right side. There is a little tap on the case that I filed down. The bolts I welded in place and ground them down a bit. Left side it fine, not the right. Once that was all done and the left belt was on, the right was just one tooth off. Lots of one and off but it finally worked out. So new upgraded idle pulleys and belts. Correct timing and yes I turned the engine by hand a few times to make sure all worked good and the engine didn't slap into the valves.
New belt by Tim Brown, on Flickr
New belt 1 by Tim Brown, on Flickr
Have a few things to get to before I attempt the single carb job. Hope to get to it this week. Enjoy the New Year fellow board members

 

That middle part is just a section of the part number. It has nothing to do with the date of manufacture.
Good call on changing them for new. They were dry-rotting and wouldn't have lasted very long. The tiny cracks on the surface are the telltale.

 

Like cracks in reinforced concrete.

 

Belt covers kinda cleaned up. I was going to try to shine them up, but this bike is 40 yrs old and that timing belt guard has seen better days. It is a lot better then what it was. Radiator back on and filled. Oil back in, back brake master taken apart, cleaned and installed. Flushed back brakes until fluid was clear. Cleaned OEM cylinder head intakes inside and out. Cleaned up rubber as much as possible, those things are tanks.

Fitted new intake manifold with some heat shrink on the ends to make sure the intake boots have a good air tight seal. Placed manifold on bike and ready for carb when I get a chance. Have to run a hot wire and a ground wire to the carb for the auto choke. Hope to have it running soon.

 

She runs and besides all the smoke from sitting for four plus yrs, she is running good. With the cool temps the manifolds are really cool as they take in the air for each cylinder. I think there will be some adjusting, not too sure how much but a little. Need to add the throttle cable and get a air filter for her, but besides that, starts right up.

No cooling leaks, fan works after temps activates the swx. Timing sounds good and if you give her wide open throttle the response is amazing. The PO has I think straight pipes on her, so too loud for a cruiser for me. I am sure someone will love the sound she makes. I might have to do fork seals, that and check out a few of the lighting issues. Putting her all back together with all that luggage on her will be a joy....lol

 

Awesome! A buddy of mine has a naked 1982, mint shape and he’s the second owner. I bug him once a year to sell but he’s nowhere close to ready.

 

I can see doing this again with a standard GL. This one is the interstate so all the luggage and other stuff will go back on it. It has heal toe and lard foot plates front and back. I have checked out many of the naked bikes over on NGW forum. They can be really cool bikes. This single carb conversion is really the way to go. I don't mind playing with our XJ carbs and even other CV carbs, but from all my research, getting the GL1100 carbs to work correctly is supper time consuming.

 

Look up Randakks site and single carb conversion if you haven't already, he has tested multiple types

 

You said you have it running decent, is that with the single carb or still with the 4 originals? Those new tensioner pulleys are sweet looking! I just did the belts on my '84 GL1200 last summer. Not nearly as hard as I expected it to be. My belt covers were not pretty either, I sanded and painted them. No, I don't have any pics available.
John