1962 Superhawk Restoration: Here I go

LOUD MOUSE · Post by **LOUD MOUSE** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:01 pm

It is a stock early issue spacer.
Not sure of the question 2. ............lm

mobilyte wrote:looking through the pics of your resto work, i have 2 questions:

1. is that a rear wheel spacer that's been turned down?

2. the top circle looks like the bushing that should be installed between the chrome fork rib and bottom fork cover, not between the fork bridge and top fork cover. the other circle...is that an o-ring on the fork tube?

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:53 am

Looks like the bike has the bottom triple tree that I am looking for. I believe the diameter of the fork tube holes could be 38mm or 1 1/2". Jerry

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:04 am

Jerry, you need me to measure something for you?

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:12 am

Just a quick update, I'm pretty confident I found the source of the right side oil leak. After leaking with the new seals, I replaced the clutch rod in hopes that would help. Still leaked. Long story short, I was able to replace the clutch rod lifter seal with an OEM seal Fast Fred had. That seemed to do the trick!

I don't want to call it too early, but everything's still bone dry after about 50 miles. It would have been leaking good at this point before.

I had a leak from the tach cover on the head as well. That was traced to a missing thrust washer the PO must have lost, and I never noticed. Fast Fred came through with that part as well.

Now that this leak is seemingly dealt with (thank god), I'll spend the rest of the week testing. If everything's good, I'll take a trip down to San Francisco then down the Highway 1 twists and turns through Big Sur.

Big thanks for all the help from everyone here on the forum, Fred for the parts, Teazer for long and informative brainstorming sessions on the phone, and Ed for the wealth of knowledge and patience. Lesson here; sometimes even if a part is brand new, that may still not be good enough for whatever misc tolerances you may be dealing with on a very old machine with it's own unique history. There's alot of variables at play for many mechanical issues. Even though everything was new and "should" have worked, this one took sitting down and going through each possibility ONE at time until it's nailed. I'm sure for many the new seal I got from Tim McDowell would have worked fine, for me it required an OEM Honda seal.

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 3:52 pm

I believe I spoke too soon. Updates to follow... have a few ideas.

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 4:36 pm

I may be wrong, but it is worth looking at the clutch actuating mechanism as I have found that a worn mechanism can cause the pushrod to deflect sideways when pulling in the clutch lever causing as you can imagine a very elusive oil leak. Jerry

Spargett · Post by **Spargett** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 6:16 pm

So last week I replaced all the seals with the exception of the mainshaft. I applied an almost comical, but understandable level of protection outside of the seals, considering the elusiveness of the leak.

I rode to San Francisco, then up along the coast down highway 1. About 8 straight hours of hard riding. Performed wonderfully, without a single leak. After about 300 miles, the leak seemed to come back the next day.

I also developed an odd squeaking sound emanated from the front tire, which evolved into an alarming scraping sound. I disassembled the front wheel in belly of Pier 40 in San Francisco only to have the sound further elude me. Turns out it was the inner rotating portion of the speedo bell. I couldn't get any lubrication to soak into the internal rotating disk, so it eventually took a silicon spray. Less than idea mixing two types of lubrication, but I was 150 miles away from my shop with only the toolkit under the seat.

After the ride back, the leak seemed to stop again. I'm gonna take a closer look again as soon as I get the chance tomorrow. But otherwise, the bike did great. Almost 500 miles in 36 hours. A steady 75-80mph on the freeways and handled well across the cliffside twisties. Even accidentally hit 90mph downhill on the way back. I stopped at a sunflower field to stretch my legs.

She was quite the star throughout the trip, stopping at towns for rest, watching MotoGP at a watching party in the SF Dianese store, and even returning to a red rose placed in the handlebars while I was gone. Eager to fix this leak, somehow. There's gotta be a way.