FreeSky
11-16-2007, 11:27 AM
Someone mentioned the words "turd polisher" when I did my intro to the forums and I have yet to hear a more appropriate name for the monstrosity living in my garage.
The name, Ethyl. A 1983 Honda Magna V65.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/DSC00650.jpg
Ethyl has a turbulent history. No one quite knows who her original owner was. She was bought used by a 20-something college student and laid down on the highway after only 500 or so miles. He got scared and didn't ride her again. So she sat for about 6 months until I passed news of her on to my friend, aka NinjaMom. NinjaMom bought her for a mere $500. The battery was dead, but the owner assured us it would start.
NinjaMom took her home and promptly parked her outside...under a tree and a tarp. Not the best place for a bike to live. A few attempts were made during the next two years to turn the engine over. NinjaMom has a mechanic friend who fiddled with it. But no success.
I finally convinced her to bring it over to my nice cozy enclosed garage and I'd do what I could in my freetime...which, as a grad student, isn't much but I hated to see this beautiful machine rot away. She was in bad shape as evidenced in the pictures. Dented tank, a colony of ants making residence, turn signals rotting away, fork seal totally fragged, headlight ziptied on, handlebars askew, two flat tires...the list goes on and on.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/DSC00656.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/DSC00653.jpg
First order of business: Kill the freakin' ants! Much spraying and waiting resulted in lots of little corpses under the bike.
Second order of business: We're on a limited budget, so bare necessities...will it start? The first attempt made liberal use of starter fluid, new plugs, etc. (all the "easy" stuff) to no avail. A strip down was in order.
First the air filter. Turns out a small family of sparrows had decided this would make a great home. I have pics of the nest somewhere that I'll post when I get them loaded.
If anyone has ever worked on a Magna, it's cramped. The carbs took quite a bit of patience and cursing. Finally had to use carb cleaner to loosen the rubber boots between the engine and the carb and pry it out with the Harbor Freight tire bar tool. Success!
Of course as soon as I got it out, I dumped out several more little ant corpses. Bleh...it was pretty gunky on the exposed parts, but looked in decent shape. A little spritzing will probably clean it up enough to start things.
The problem came when gazing in the intake (via digital camera because there is no way in hell anyone over the age of 5 is going to be able to fit their head in there for a look-see).
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/rustysomething.jpg
Orange is never a good color inside an engine. Thankfully this is only in one cylinder. This is the back of the valve, probably from leftover fuel or possibly moisture. Heaven knows it saw enough of that.
I can't get the engine to turn with my own muscle, so I'm looking for somewhere to get some Marvel Mystery Oil and loosen things up again before I make another attempt. I figure this is why it wouldn't start before. The hope is that getting it to loosen up and finally turn will be enough...and then just run the hell out of the engine to clean it off.
So that's where Ethyl and I stand right now. I think there's hope, but then I'm an eternal optimist. If anyone knows where I can find some Marvel Mystery Oil, I'd be in your debt. I can't find any local auto parts stores that carry it.
The name, Ethyl. A 1983 Honda Magna V65.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/DSC00650.jpg
Ethyl has a turbulent history. No one quite knows who her original owner was. She was bought used by a 20-something college student and laid down on the highway after only 500 or so miles. He got scared and didn't ride her again. So she sat for about 6 months until I passed news of her on to my friend, aka NinjaMom. NinjaMom bought her for a mere $500. The battery was dead, but the owner assured us it would start.
NinjaMom took her home and promptly parked her outside...under a tree and a tarp. Not the best place for a bike to live. A few attempts were made during the next two years to turn the engine over. NinjaMom has a mechanic friend who fiddled with it. But no success.
I finally convinced her to bring it over to my nice cozy enclosed garage and I'd do what I could in my freetime...which, as a grad student, isn't much but I hated to see this beautiful machine rot away. She was in bad shape as evidenced in the pictures. Dented tank, a colony of ants making residence, turn signals rotting away, fork seal totally fragged, headlight ziptied on, handlebars askew, two flat tires...the list goes on and on.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/DSC00656.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/DSC00653.jpg
First order of business: Kill the freakin' ants! Much spraying and waiting resulted in lots of little corpses under the bike.
Second order of business: We're on a limited budget, so bare necessities...will it start? The first attempt made liberal use of starter fluid, new plugs, etc. (all the "easy" stuff) to no avail. A strip down was in order.
First the air filter. Turns out a small family of sparrows had decided this would make a great home. I have pics of the nest somewhere that I'll post when I get them loaded.
If anyone has ever worked on a Magna, it's cramped. The carbs took quite a bit of patience and cursing. Finally had to use carb cleaner to loosen the rubber boots between the engine and the carb and pry it out with the Harbor Freight tire bar tool. Success!
Of course as soon as I got it out, I dumped out several more little ant corpses. Bleh...it was pretty gunky on the exposed parts, but looked in decent shape. A little spritzing will probably clean it up enough to start things.
The problem came when gazing in the intake (via digital camera because there is no way in hell anyone over the age of 5 is going to be able to fit their head in there for a look-see).
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s292/carlagodzilla/Ethyl/rustysomething.jpg
Orange is never a good color inside an engine. Thankfully this is only in one cylinder. This is the back of the valve, probably from leftover fuel or possibly moisture. Heaven knows it saw enough of that.
I can't get the engine to turn with my own muscle, so I'm looking for somewhere to get some Marvel Mystery Oil and loosen things up again before I make another attempt. I figure this is why it wouldn't start before. The hope is that getting it to loosen up and finally turn will be enough...and then just run the hell out of the engine to clean it off.
So that's where Ethyl and I stand right now. I think there's hope, but then I'm an eternal optimist. If anyone knows where I can find some Marvel Mystery Oil, I'd be in your debt. I can't find any local auto parts stores that carry it.