'83 Magna V65 Project

[kfilla]

Today I picked up a 1983 Honda Magna V65 from my aunt. Her late husband had it for a few years. Its been sitting for about 20 years, untouched and unloved, under a tarp in a corner of her garage. Its in rough shape to say the least and should be a nice challenging project.

[RacinNinja]

You will learn to hate carbs working on that one.

Check the camshafts for flaking. They had oiling issues and were prone to it.

[kfilla]

Yeah would have been nice for fuel injection to be around. Thanks for the camshaft tip, hadn't found anything about that in my research yet

[RacinNinja]

This place will be your friend: http://www.v4market.com/

Highly recommend the top end oiling mod kits they sell. Get the 2 line kit if you can, if you plan on keeping this machine and riding it. Especially since you'll have it all apart anyway!

They have METAL carbb fuel tubes instead of the crappy plastic ones. Fuel tube o-rings, pretty much everything you'll need that's not necessarily available any more.

The oil kit is 200 bucks but worth it if you want to ride this for a while: http://www.v4market.com/Lube-Two-Lin...Mod_p_156.html

[ducatiman]

fairly complex carbs...note jetting differs carb to carb.....the rubber manifolds
will be rock hard, hampering both carb removal and replacement ...consider purchasing replacements prior to going in.

I did carbs on a 80's Sabre many years ago...had to resort to a wood stick used as a prybar to wrestle the carb set loose...V4 Honda carbs are a tough removal
and tricky once you're in them too.

Good luck with it, subscribed...I'll be eagerly following your posts here.

[kfilla]

Well today brought good and bad news. First the good...I took the battery from the ninjette and hooked it up to see it the motor was seized. I was happily awarded with the sound of the engine turning over. Now for the bad...I removed the calipers from the front discs. Couldn't pull the pistons out so I blew compressed air through the banjo bolt hole to push them out. Only one came at first.....whatever clean it up a bit and put it back in, using the pads to hold it in far enough so air couldn't leak around it (hopefully.) Unfortunately my plan didn't work, so I have one piston stuck in each caliper and I still haven't touched the rear.

Also I tried to remove the covers for both the brake and clutch master cylinders. One of the screws on the clutch side was previously stripped, but the other three came loose with minor persuasion. One of the pictures below show what I dug out of the brake side with a screwdriver.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't more than a little nervous about the carbs on this bike. Eventually I will have to take them apart and clean them, but I'm going to wait until the service manual arrives for that.

[kfilla]

I got bored today so I decided to "play" with the carbs today. After wrestling with them by hand for a while I decided to turn to the internet. One ratchet strap and a pry bar later and the carbs came loose from there home. The caps came off without any trouble, no wrecked screw heads. Then the bowls......those screws were TIGHT. Luckily I had 10 allen head screws that fit perfectly. While not enough to replace all I was able to replace the ones that were not accessible via plier and them some. The cleaning went well, found out that the problem I thought was caused by a seized cable was actually one of the butterfly valves sticking. A little penetrating oil and some elbow grease got it freed up nicely.

Time to put the carbs back onto the bike........ This was not as easy as I thought it would be. Once wrestled back into place the hardest part was reattaching the throttle cables (freshly lubed.)

Didn't get very many pictures of the days work for you guys.

[Ducati999]

Dont know if this will help but Harbor Freight has Vinton O-ring kits for cheap and the kit comes with multiple sizes. They are great for replacing the O-rings which will be hard to find and expensive from the dealer!

[kfilla]

Thanks for the tip. Everything looked really good for sitting as long as it did. All the rubber was still very pliable similar to what I saw when I did my 2010 ninjette. Only thing would maybe be the bowl seals, but nothing has leaked so far. However I still haven't tried starting it. Waiting for master cylinder rebuild kits and caliper pistons because I'm sure if I start I'll want to test ride it a little

[JohnnyBravo]

Sweet ride my uncle used to have one as well... He rode it to the myrtle beach bike rally and back then parked it till he sold it a few years ago

[kfilla]

Got a pile of parts in the mail today. Hopefully the rest of the parts arrive soon!

[kfilla]

Rebuilt the master cylinders for the front brake and clutch today. While doing so I noticed the levers were in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint. They turned out pretty good so I decided to start on the tank and side covers. They're only primed so far. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as productive as today.

[Alex]

[kfilla]

Got around to doing some more work over the long weekend. A little painting done; still have to sand some imperfections out, thought I took care of them when priming. Also got the new turn signals attached. They are considerably smaller than oem, so I might fabricate a bracket (front and back) to add a second set. The pic with the mirror in it is what I'm thinking of using at least for now. I won them on an ebay auction for $20 a pair and they don't work for my original plan for them. Better to use them then have them collecting dust in a corner somewhere. I have previously rebuilt the master cylinders for the clutch and front brake, turns out I screwed up the clutch and had to do it again. Then I tackled the rear today. What a pain in the a**!! The one pic shows the heat shield on the exhaust which needs to be removed to gain access to where the rod connects to the brake pedal. There's a screw on the far left that you can kind of see. It's a phillips head with about 1/2 inch of clearance over it. So I could drop half the exhaust system or find another way. I used a long needle nose plier to grip it and turn, needless to say, it's not going back in.

I was going to bleed the clutch as I have everything necessary replaced, or so I thought..... I should have guessed that original clutch and brake lines from 1983 weren't going to be any good. Oh well SS lines added to the list of parts yet to acquire.

Still need to find a way to free the stuck pistons from the calipers. Any advice???

[kfilla]

Brought the old girl out into the sunlight today to change the oil and install the 2 line oil mod that RacinNinja suggested. Instructions that came with the kit advised to remove the radiator and fan shroud..... I decided I didn't want to deal with all that even though I plan on changing the coolant tomorrow. I now understand that the radiator's removal is necessary to remain sane during the process. One of the pictures kind of shows how much room I had to work a 10mm wrench as a ratchet wouldn't fit. Also learned that tools do not appreciate being left out in the sun for a few hours.

Don't pay any attention to the electrical tape wrapped "highway peg." They are going to be either removed or replaced, haven't decided yet.

One final note - center stands are amazing!!!!!!! Though due to my precision placement both wheels are on the ground with it on the center stand. That's right 4 points of contact with the ground; not to worried about leaving her there overnight