Purchase

March 24th, 2012

Picked up a 40 year old rusted motorcycle from my friends dad who had it sitting in his side yard for years.  Payed him $75 and took this thing home with the title, and original riders handbook. Even came with the original tools inside the tool box.

Later found out it is a 1972 Kawasaki G4 TR-B model, 100cc 2 stroke, with 5 high and 5 low range gears.  Its a classic vintage dual sport motorcycle, I love it!  Its got 8,400 miles on the clock.

This is the picture my friend sent me when offering the motorcycle

Work began immediately without much of a goal in mind, other than take some parts off and clean years of rust off them.  This proved to be a long process.

Here's a few scans of the Rider's Handbook...

1972 Kawasaki G4 TR - Left Side

1972 Kawasaki G4 TR - Right Side

Here is a cool Vintage brochure I found online...

I should mention that I know pretty much NOTHING about motorcycles, so this should be a nice learning experience.

Disassembly and clean-up

March 24 - April 16, 2012

First thing i did was take a million pictures of everything, so I would remember how to put it all back together.  Also took a lot of video of the wiring harness so i could figure out how to put all the wires back on.

Stuff started coming off pretty steady every day until I ran out of stuff to take off.

The fuel tank was in very rough shape.  Everything had rust on it, EVERYTHING!

After going over it and checking it out up close I found out it had been in some sort of crash.  The front wheel would point way off to the right when the handlebars were straight.  This explained why the forks would not compress properly, they were bent to hell.

I got new (used) forks on ebay for $30.
The lower triple clamp was also bent, got one on ebay for $12
The front fender was broken in half, i fixed that myself with a laser cut reinforcement plate under it i made at work.
Also damaged in the crash were the kill switch (completely gone) and the hi/low gear change lever. Those suckers were hard to find and expensive, $30 each.  ouch!
The handlebar is also slightly bent, but I will live with it.
Most importantly the frame, looked good and straight.

Carburator side cover gasket was torn up.  Removed and cleaned out carb

After some work on the handlebar rust

Check out that crooked wheel

Found some good use for that phone book

After "Metal Rescue"

Before "Metal Rescue"

Found a bunch of dead spiders.  This poor sucker grew to big to get out

 

This is how bad the lower triple clamp was bent

Rusty muffler

 After taking parts off I spent hours cleaning, sanding, buffing, grinding, and polishing to remove rust an restore to as close to original as possible.

I ordered a gallon of a product called "Metal Rescue" (rust remover bath) and it became my best friend.  I would soak parts, nuts, bolts, etc. in it every night, worked great.  

Frame - Sandblast & Powder

May 17 - May 21, 2012

When I ran out of stuff to take off I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the frame.  Cheap part of me wanted to rattle can paint it, but I decided to have it sandblasted and powder coated.  I'm glad I did, the finish looks excellent.  Cost was $200 for the frame and swing arm, hurts considering i payed $75 for the whole bike.

Sandblasted frame ready for powder

Designed and cut out a spanner wrench at my work

Maybe went a little crazy on the grease there.

Powder coated frame

Also had the muffler sandblasted because it had layers upon layers of rust.  I primered and painted that myself with high temp paint, hope it holds up.

PARTS - Where to find them

Most parts were actually easy to find.

1.)  ebay

• Search by part name or by part number.  Part number search was the best. 

How the hell do you find a part number?

2.)  http://www.motosport.com/dirtbike/oem-parts/KAWASAKI/1972/G4TR

• They have diagrams of all the parts, and a list that corresponds to the diagrams
• You can buy parts from them, or just copy and paste the part numbers into ebay.

I actually did order a few things off them, like a clutch lever, front brake light cable, and some bulbs for the speedometer.  Their shipping charge is outrageous, but their database really helped me out, so I thought I would contribute a little bit to them.

Assembly - Part I

My wife and I got married in June, so between last minute planning, out of town guests, wedding and honeymoon, I didn't touch the bike for about a month.

The day I got back from my honeymoon, I started working again.  Put the front fork bearings on, installed the triple clamps, and put the wiring harness on.  The pictures I took, and even the videos really helped when it came time to figure out how to route all the electrical wires.

I also bought a front wheel from the same model in much better shape than my rusty original one, which cleaned up even nicer and looks great with a new tire.

By the way, I have no garage, so most of the work was done in my living room, until I get the wheels and tires on and it can roll back outside in my car port parking spot.


Started off by getting new rim strips, tubes, and tires.

Front wheel with tire mounted for looks (no tube yet)

Shinko 244 Series Dual Sport "Golden Boy" Tires

Lower triple clamp - Powder coated, and greased for bearings

I had to remove the swing arm bushings in order to get it to powder, unfortunately I destroyed one of them trying to remove it, so I had to replace it.  Also a very hard part to find and once i found it it was more expensive than i would have thought. 

Frame with swing arm, suspension and electrical stuff

 

Battery box, and tool box bolted in.  Regular paint, no powder.

Replaced the brake pedal spring with a new old stock one

I took apart the rear wheel, because the spokes were a dark brown rusty color.  I found new (old stock) spokes on ebay, and sprung the money for them, they look awesome!  I laced the wheel myself, but took it to a grumpy old mechanic to true the wheel properly.

Assembly - Part II

July 19, 2012

My brother in law Phillip came over yesterday and we went to town on the bike.  Started slapping on everything we could, was a very happy day to see parts that had been sitting in boxes for months, go back where they belong.

Still got some work to do, but it looks like a motorcycle again.

Put on fenders, handlebars, lights, seat, rack, etc.

Cleaned up the shift lever, nice and shinny.

New (never used) kill switch that sat on shelves for 40 years.

First time working on a bike

Living room mechanics

Gas tank on there for looks...still needs work.

Pretty official stand there

Phillip and my wife Beth, and of course, Dustin Brown lifting the Stanley Cup

Up next I will work on the engine, I have all new gaskets for it, and will clean it up and paint it.  Engine looks good, turns over well.

Since the wheels are on now, I can finally get the bike outside to finish it off.

Gas Tank

July 24, 2012

My two biggest worries so far have been the engine and the gas tank.

The gas tank was a problem because it was rusty inside and out.  I took it to a guy to clean it out and he did some half ass repairs.  I would need to spend the money to paint it and do the graphics on the tank but I thought that would get too expensive.

I found a tank on ebay for the exact model I needed, my best find so far for only $30 shipped.  Its a little beat up with a small dent and the paint rubbed off in a few spots, but its in way better shape than my original, and its cheap.  I hope to get it in the mail this week.

And for comparison, here is my original gas tank...

UPDATE 7-26-12
My "new" tank arrived.  It looks great on the outside and great on the inside.  No rust at all.

Not bad for a $30 gas tank

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