CAFE RACER PROJECT - UNBUILD DAY 1 & 2

Unbuild Day 1: 

Taking apart the entire bike didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would.  Even though I had a limited amount of tools (and space), I was able to make due with what I had.  Considering I'd never done this before I was proud of myself for getting the whole thing disassembled in 12-15 hours.  In the service manual I bought it listed a bunch of special Honda Tools that I was supposed to buy, but I won't be buying anything until I know for sure it will be something I'll need.  The socket wrench and phillips screwdriver were used most commonly along with the allen wrench key.  There were several screws that were giving me a hard time because they had some rust and I didn't have enough leverage with the wrench handle I was using, but I kept at them and eventually I won.  I did spray a couple of them with that W-D40 liquid wrench but I'm pretty certain it did NOTHING at all...    

I started at the back of the bike by first removing the seat, then the exhaust pipes, the rear taillight assembly and license plate holder followed by the rear turn signals.  The rear frame hoop came out pretty easily and it won't be going back on the bike because I am going to have a new custom rear end made to fit the seat I want.  That won't happen until it's time to send the frame to be powder coated.  Lot's to do before I get to that point...

Once I removed as much as I could from the rear of the bike, I moved to the front forks.  I took off the throttle sleeve and cables,  front brake lever/cable, clutch lever/cable, tachometer, headlight, turn signal assembly and then the handlebars.  I didn't want to get into taking off the wheels on the first day because I was exhausted by this point.  The gas tank was another item I wanted to wait until I had an extra hand for because it wasn't completely drained and I'd need someone to hold a pan under it as I removed the petcock.  It was nearly 3 or 4 am by the time I reached this point, so I called it a night.

Unbuild Day 2:

Before my girlfriend headed to work I had her assist with holding the drop bucket underneath the gas tank as I removed it.  There was a lot more gasoline inside it then I thought.  After it was good and dry, I took it out to the patio to air out a bit since the apartment was now fumed up.  Once the tank was removed it made it a lot easier to get to the wiring harness and figure out how everything is connected electrically.  Even though I knew I would be having a brand new custom wire harness made, I still labeled all the cables so I could get a feel for it.  Although this did take some time to wrap each wire with some masking tape and label it, my understanding did improve.  

I decided to pull the front wheel off frankly because it was an easy step and one that would need to happen eventually.  It actually made it easier to get to the brackets on the front of the engine so I could get that removed next.  However, if I could do it again, I'd leave the front wheel on till the engine is off completely.  I used my tool box to support the front of the bike, otherwise it would have fallen forward.  To my dismay there were a lot of stripped bolts on the engine, but luckily I still got the chain guard off so I could access the sprocket and rear drive chain.  Once the chain and all brackets were unbolted to what held the engine in place, I pulled it out.  After watching some other tutorials on YouTube, I learned that one side of the frame is slightly more open and accessible to slip the engine out of.  I made sure to take it out on the right side, and sure it enough that baby came right out with no problem.  As far as the stripped bolts on the engine casing go, I'm going to have to have them removed professionally with a drill because they are really stripped.  I tried buying an impact tool and hammering in better grooves, but was unsuccessful.  It would've been nice if that tool worked because I spent around $40 dollars on it.  Oh well, it's still nice to have around.

By the end of Day 2, I'd gotten the bike down to the bare bones with the exception of the front forks and the triple tree.  I didn't have a socket big enough to pull the main steering nut off so I left it alone so I wouldn't scratch it up with a wrench.  The back wheel came off pretty quickly along with the shocks but the back brake springs did give me a little bit of a hassle.  In the picture below, on the bottom right-hand side you can see some of the zip-lock baggies that I used to seal up and label any bolts or small pieces so that I could easily locate them again when it came time for reassembly.  I would suggest doing this if you plan to do a similar project.  There are just too many bolts, nuts and screws to keep track of.  Organization and cleanliness are two valuable assets to have in a project like this.

Now that the bike had been completely disassembled I could take an inventory of the parts that I'd need to replace, ones I could sell and the ones I'd be able to reuse.  Some of these decisions couldn't be made until I'd cleaned them or removed the paint.  There were quite a few things on my wish list, but I was having the time of my life, so it didn't bother me much.  If I was going to build a bike I could stand behind, I wanted to make sure it was the best job possible.