Clutch Spline Lube 1

Ready for the clutch spline lube. There are plenty of articles out there on the subject, so I'll just go over the few important points I've learned. Number one, notice the beer in the background. Important. Equally important is number two, the gearbox. Make sure that all mating surfaces (basically any of the flat surfaces you see in the photo) are cleaned with solvent. These surfaces must sit tight against their counterparts. There is no gasket between the gearbox and the engine housing. Next, apply a fairly thin coat of grease to the splines (the teeth in the center). Don't pack the "valleys" full of grease, just coat the outer splines. Do the same on the clutch plate splines. I use straight Honda Moly 60 Paste for this. Make sure there is no grease on the front of the hub, only on the splines. At this point, you can also place a drop of regular moly grease on the tip of the clutch rod you see in the center of the hub.

Center Stand Springs 2

The right hand side shackle is smaller and only has the one hole for mounting the right center stand spring.

The most important thing is to make sure the springs attach to the underside of the posts on the center stand, as you can see in the lower left of the photo. If you attach the spring over the top of this post, the spring will not retract properly when the bike is off the stand.

Center Stand Springs 1

Now that I have the engine back in the frame, I've attached the center stand springs. The front engine mount bolt has a shackle on either side separating the engine from the frame. Shown here is the left side shackle, which has holes for both the side stand (below) and center stand springs. My original side stand is shot, so I won't be reinstalling that. However, the shackle gets installed like before since it's also used for holding the center stand spring.

The right hand side shackle is smaller and only has the top hole for the center stand spring.

Engine Back In the Frame

Mounting the front tire back on finally gave the bike more stability again. And since I had done a preliminary cleaning of the engine block, I decided to put the engine back onto the bike at this point. Unless you're really going to tear into the engine, it's just as easy if not easier to get at any necessary parts with the engine in the frame. For now, I just lifted it back into position (sounds easy, huh?) and slipped the two engine mount bolts through the frame.

Front Fork Reinstalled!

Here's the front fork assembly reinstalled into the frame, along with the headlamp bucket. The fork springs are sticking out of the tubes until I place the front tire and fender mount bracket on and am ready to put in the new fork oil.

New parts to note here: polished top fork nut (31 42 1 230 478); rubber front tank support (16 11 1 230 031); upper (31 42 1 230 696) and lower (31 42 2 000 385) rubber headlamp bracket gaskets; chrome turn signal brackets (31 42 1 233 941) and fork boot clamps (07 12 9 952 121). The fork boots themselves were in great shape, just needed a little cleaning.

Headlamp Bracket Spacers

After almost 40 years of wear, the rubber spacers between the bolts, headlamp brackets and bucket were in sad shape. A trip to a local supplier scored me several pieces of 1/16" and 1/8" thick rubber sheeting, which I've been cutting up to use for various parts of the restoration.

For these spacers, I just traced the actual washer, cut the rubber with scissors and cut a hole (no need to be too exact here) in the middle. Looks great and is enough to protect the headlamp bucket from getting scratched!

Steering Head Bearings

Time to reinstall the front fork assembly into the frame. I read a bunch of information regarding this procedure. The important thing (besides the obvious prep cleaning of parts) is to use the proper grease for the top and bottom bearings and the bearing races inside the frame. You need to use a grease that doesn't contain moly, such as Chevron NLG2 Super Duty (this product spec came from Snowbum's article). Personally, I went to my local auto parts store and found their generic brand (Carquest Extreme Pressure Premium Grease), which can be used where any NLG grease is specified. This grease is red in color, just like Chevron's.

With the bearings and races packed with new grease, put the pieces together and you're good to go. Follow your manual for the instructions and torque settings and refer to your disassembly photos if you're not sure where something goes!