Scott's '82 Magna restoration project - start to finish

[grandpaul]

It's been a LONG week! Working to finally move to Austin, took a couple of big steps to solidify plans.

Meanwhile, got two major systems complete: carburetors & airbox, and radiator & cooling system components, hoses, etc.

Carbs are similar to any other CV units, EXCEPT when it comes to joining them back up in the intertwined "W" formation! So, I took a photo of the linkage arrangement before tearing them all apart; also labeled carb bodies, slides & floats-



Turns out the previous carb overhaul was a good one, they were quite clean inside-



Of course, it never hurts to go through them from top to botom, just in case. As it happens, the inlet screens were not replaced, and two of the low speed jets were slightly clogged. So, into 2 buckets of Berryman's Chem-Dip they went-

[grandpaul]

Some parts to be hand cleaned (chrome tops, slides, floats & choke plungers), plus the new carb kits-



Washed parts, rinsed, blast dried & ready for assembly-



Initial assembly done, now to align all the linkages & insert the super-fiddly syncronizing & thrust springs!



This took a good bit of time, ended up installing the lower half of the airbox to better align everything, then inserted the springs.

[grandpaul]

Carbs are an EXTREME bugger to re-install, had to install the 2 right side rubber boots onto the engine, 2 left side boots onto the carbs, then wiggle the cluster into position, then wedge forward 2 carbs fully home, then wrangle rear 2 carbs slowly down while working the boots with a thin screwdriver sort of like a shoehorn (sprayed with WD40)-



The "old" filter is a very nice UNI, in good shape. So, wash, dry & re-use-



Headaches done with, popped the UNI filter in and nipped everything up.

[grandpaul]

Radiator painted, fan removed, cleaned, and replaced-



New thermostat-



Radiator mounted with re-chromed front guard & original radiator cap with "patina"-



Coolant hoses all done. The outer spring cover actually looks decent in daylight, the camera flash brings out a bit of corrosion. It's a bugger to paint springs where they look good, I may give it a whirl; probably have to set up a jig that hold the spring expanded, paint & let dry-

[grandpaul]

For as tidy as this bike looked when Scott rode it up my driveway, it sure is grimy in the nooks and crannies!

Front brake caliper (R)-





Left side appears it's been toasted, and the pistons were well and truly varnished in place-

[grandpaul]

Brake master cylinder (clutch looked about the same)-



Had to drill one cover screw heads off to open it, then had to drill one clamp bolt head off, and then drill and re-thread it when the stump wouldn't budge and snapped clean off.

Shiny clean pistons-



Bare caliper and master cylinder bodies are at the painters, will have 'em back on Thursday.

[grandpaul]

Picking up some steam on bolting on the various bits & bobs:

Radiator & airbox trim bits, rider & passenger pegs (with new rubbers), shifter linkage with new rubber booties on the linkage joints & shifter), rear brake pedal & linkage, plastic engine cover over the clutch slave cylinder (and clutch hydraulic line)-



Front fender before & after de-rust and cold galvanizing the underside-



Front turn signals refurbished & installed. Headlight cleaned & polished, cold galvanized inside, and installed; 'before' photo was posted during the teardown-

[grandpaul]

Instrument cluster isn't too bad off, just very dusty and the aluminum cups are dull-



For some reason, the tach cup was really scaled & dirty, speedo cup was relatively cleaner than this-



Here you can see the significant difference between dull & polished, even though the bike photos pre-teardown looked pretty decent from 10 feet away...



At the rate it took to polish half of the bottom of one cup, it's going to take me all morning to polish both cups fully. THAT is why I typically send out all my polishing work!

[grandpaul]

By golly, it's almost recognizable!



Rear fender and front brake caliper mounts with new rubber grommets for the caliper floater bolts done.

Revised time log estimate puts it at 5 more days if I squeeze in as much as I got done today. Just in time for Scott to be able to shake it out and get in a couple of days of debugging if necessary before hitting the road for Barber's Vintage Festival in Birmingham. I believe this bike will turn a few heads at the VJMCC show.

[Jerry G Turner]

I beleive your right the bike should diffently turn some heads it looks fantastic.

[grandpaul]

Long day, lots got done.

Finished up the instrument cluster, but waiting on a replacement speedo (much more affordable than a rebuild to fix broken trip reset shaft). Hmmmmm... didn't take a close-up of the finished cluster. Oh well, here are the polished & coated (inside) cups-





Cleaned, re-taped and installed the wiring harness, then connected 90% of the electrical bits including the starter solenoid, turn signals, headlight, instruments, thumbswitches, sensors, and coils ('before') photo in the disassembly phase near the beginning)-

[grandpaul]

I had won an original exhaust system on e-bay that LOOKED decent, it arrived this morning and it had rust-through on the bottom; went back and looked at the e-bay listing and realized he hadn't posted any photos of the bottom!

Oh well, took some 0000 steel wool to the pipes and cleaned them up, then sprayed the collector box with high temp black Rust-O-Leum; looks pretty good-





I'll tell you, re-installing the rear exhaust pipes & heat shield is a real nightmare! I'm guessing aftermarket headers don't come with the heat shield. 3 hour's work just on the exaust-

[grandpaul]

License plate bracket was rusty underneath-



Stripped & sprayed with Rust-O-Leum metallic silver-



Rear end done-



Gotta love the MOOT patch - "Take the LONG Way Home"!

[grandpaul]

Rear section wiring done-



Mid-section wiring done, fuel lines done, gas tank connection in place-



New battery serviced with fresh acid, and taking a trickle charge-

[grandpaul]

"Go for the Gold"



I know, I know, it's not a V-Twin!

Trying to troubleshoot fuel pump not pumping; meanwhile, setup a thin funnel and connected it to the main fuel line-



VROOM! VROOM!



That's a major milestone at just over 106 shop hours to this point.

One small coolant leak, blinker wiring needs straightening out, and need to get the fuel pump sorted. Otherwise almost done. Painter has the brake calipers and master cylinders (brake & clutch) done, need to go collect them...