What a concept - A Girl Bringing Back Her 1966 Super Hawk

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:22 am

Davo, thank you! It requires heat, does it? Okay, I'll be careful there.

Kigsby · Post by **Kigsby** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:44 am

Looks nice! Do a search in the forum for "speedo rebuild". There are a bunch of posts and instructions.

jensey · Post by **jensey** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:55 pm

Hi,

Always nice to see a woman working on bikes.

I looked at the pictures and what catches my eyes is that you have two different spark plug caps. A early grey one, which is standard for the bike and period correct, and on the left side it seems a very early black one. the black ones were used on 1961 bikes ( and some say also early 1962).

Normally these plug caps do not mix, because the electrical resistance is different, resulting in poor or bad spark in one or both cylinders. Both plugs caps should be the same, always.

I advice you strongly to replace both with modern plug caps.

You never can take enough pictures of the bike before taking it apart.

btw, what is wrong with one cylinder ? It wouldn't be that cap isn't it ?

Don't throw away those caps, because in good state, these are worth $$

Jensen

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 6:14 pm

Hi, jensey!

Those are the plug caps that came with the bike oh so long ago. It always ran just fine with them. I WILL replace them, yes, and it's pretty cool to know they might be worth something (!).

As for the bad cylinder, I don't know what's wrong with it. My guess is broken rings. I was tooling along at 70MPH on the LI Expressway (in 1974 or 1975) on her when the engine suddenly seized (no warning). I managed to get into the center divide (upright) and stopped. After she cooled off, she started (and a nice NY State Trooper helped me out). I rode her to my parents house, another 35 miles or so (as I remember she ran normally), and she's only been started once since. She fouled the plug on that cylinder right away, and oil was pushed out from around the spark plug washer on that side. I guessed then the cylinder had ring problems, and I swore to her then I'd "bring her back to life". Here it is, what, 37 years later (and California, not New York) and I'm finally getting around to working on her. I hope to have the head off soon, and I'll report what I find.

By the way, she wasn't anywhere near as rough as she is now when she stopped running. My dad had her next to a wood pile in his garage (before I rescued her and took her to California with me) and, yeup, a log (or several) fell on her. The tank was dented, the glass on the speedo was broken, and the headlight bucket was dented. Just before she quit on me, my dad was fooling around on her and crashed her, breaking the headlight and denting up the headlight trim ring (grrr). He replaced the headlight for me, and the clutch lever, but not the trim ring or the muffler that had been damaged. Oh, well... I still love him!

Thanks for the compliments on being a chick who works on my bikes. :~) I always have worked on my stuff! I'm quite mechanical, and I rather enjoy using my hands in a fashion other than sewing (ha!). No one ever told me I couldn't, and even if they had, I'd still be doing my own thing. And no, I'm not a mechanic by trade.

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Thu Jun 28, 2012 8:18 am

I've been reading Spargett's wonderful journal on his restoration of his Super hawk. beautifully written, photographed and just wonderful detail! It's extraordinarily inspiring.

Then, I came across this quote from davomoto:

davomoto wrote:My approach to restoring a bike. First thing I do is a complete teardown, inpection, and rebuild of engine, carbs, and electrical. It all goes back in the bike, and the bike gets running as well as possible, no oil leaks, carbs tuned , lights working etc. Then it all comes back apart, and the rest of the bike gets paint, plating, polishing, etc etc etc. When it all goes back together, problems are minimal, and it already is a known good runner without any issues that require disassembly. and scratching up the nicely painted parts. As much as Ilove riding these old bikes, truthfully I spend more time wrenching on them. I guess that's what I really enjoy the most!

That makes great sense.

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Thu Jun 28, 2012 9:47 am

I'm thinking again. Look out!

I've decided I'll take the bike apart and do a thorough assessment of it - what it needs, etc. I'm starting to lean towards doing a full restoration on her, not just a "rolling good enough" job. She deserves to be totally right, something she never has been since I've owned her.

To that end, if she is restore-able, I'm leaning towards selling my SV-650S (which I almost NEVER ride) to finance the restoration.

I told you thinking was dangerous!

sarals · Post by **sarals** » Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:15 am

Here's a "running group" of photos. I've been going over the bike, documenting things.

The plug caps - black ND, and a gray one.

Engine and frame numbers. If someone would care to interpret those for me, I'd appreciate it!

This is the general condition of the rims. I might end up buying new ones as opposed to having them rechromed.

The speedo face looks okay, with just a few dents. The gasket is absolutely deteriorated!