1979 GL1000 Newb

[Katz1002]

Hello everyone this is my first post on here and I had a few questions regarding my first motorcycle I got about a month ago a 79 gl1000.

Brief history of what ive done.

New tires, rebuilt carbs, rad fan switch, master cylinder, any adjustments chilton recommends.
Coated tank, electric fuel pump, all fluids changed. Rear spline lubed with 60% moly paste. Steel brake lines, timing belts, bulbs, h4 headlamp, lubricated anything that moved. Plugs, caps, points, timing.



1. When i pull the clutch it slips but doesnt fully disengage it makes finding neutral difficult because the motor is trying to turn the wheel slightly binding everything up. Ive ran some seafoam in the oil but it makes starting in anything but neutral difficult as well. Gets better as the motor warms up fully but is progressively sticking more and more. At about 300 miles since all the works been done.



2. Whining from front wheel below 50- rebuilt brakes lubed speedo drive and inspected front bearings all seemed well but slight whirr whine when driving slower.



Minor stuff

3. literally one miss right below 3 grand when opening the throttle not that concerning. Synced rebuilt and tuned carbs to the best of my ability. Waiting on valve cover gaskets to do the valve tolerances and a resync now that its ran for a few hundred miles


4. Does anyone make just the switch for the starter. I can solder no problem and would love to just drop a switch in and not have to replace the whole right handle bar assembly.

5. If anyone has two even one helmet locks laying around id love to have them keyed or not.

6. I can find tons of dinosaur shocks on ebay but that doesnt help there all leaky by now. Whats yalls recommended shock without death to my wallet.


Answer one answer all 6 doesnt matter to me. Thanks and yall have a good morning and blessed riding.

[DenverWinger]

3. Gearing- shes a bit picky on 4th gear she likes to fall out of it on the highway if too much throttle is applied not slipping but just straight pops out.

5. Temp gauge- she doesn't ever fully warm up into the acceptable zone when its below say 50 outside. She sits right below it and when you idle for a long time she will warm all the way up and the rad fan will come on and itll cool right back down till the fan kicks off and if you ride it after that the temp will return to slightly below the acceptable zone. Maybe a open thermostat or is this normal behavior.

7. Very dim lamps on speedo and tach- how do you get to those bulbs?

8. Does anyone make just the switch for the starter. I can solder no problem and would love to just drop a switch in and not have to replace the whole right handle bar assembly.

Hi Katz, and Welcome to the forum!

3 - Be sure when shifting you aren't doing a "lazy" shift, get it "smartly" into the next gear. Quite possible you have worn shift forks and gear engagement dogs, if that's the case you may just have to live with this. Not worth the expense/effort to split the case on these to repair, another good used engine is cheaper.

5 - If it's chilly outside my bikes rarely get above 1/4 scale on temp gauge, I think that is likely the point the t-stat starts to open. Won't hurt anything to run a little on the cool side....

7 - The tach and speedo bulb sockets are in a rubber mounts, look at the underside of the gauges and you'll see where wires are going into rubber plugs. Just pull the rubber plug out of the underside of the gauge and there's your bulb.

8 - You should be able to clean and repair the starter switch, carefully disassemble the switch housing halves, you can dismantle and clean the switch and contacts. Beware of flying little springs and other small pieces when you take it apart.....

Happy Holidays!

[Katz1002]

Thank you for the response. I noticed it will work better for 4th with a firm shift so ill just have to deal with that one. Im not splitting the case for that either ha ha,

Ive cleaned the contacts till they were bright gold it just seems the plastic is physically worn down allowing the button not to be pressed upward fully against the contacts internally. Ive been thinking of a solution to this but haven't implemented anything. You gotta hold the button just right to get it to start and it works as slightly a theft deterrent ha ha. But dont want to be stranded either ya know.

[dingdong]

Your clutch symptoms are probably caused by the cable not being adjusted properly. Follow these procedures exactly.
https://www.randakksblog.com/clutch-adj ... procedure/