Apr 12, 1999
Found an ad in the Argonne newsletter as follows:

To Be Given Away: Honda 750 motorcycle.

I e-mailed the owner, Lubomir J. Nowicki, and found that, while he still had it, I was about 20^th on the list of guys who were interested in it. I figured that was the end of it.

Jul 26, 1999
I got an unexpected e-mail saying I could come pick up the bike whenever I wanted to.

Later, I got a call from Dan. It turns out that Dan had actually already picked up the bike on July 24^th, but determined it was more work than he was looking for. He contacted Lubomir who gave him my number.

I picked it up about an hour later. My initial inspection revealed the following:
1) The clutch cable is broken.
2) The front brake lever is broken somehow (it just flaps around).
3) The air filter box is missing.
4) Most of the handlebar switches are frozen and the starter button is broken.
5) The seat is a Corbin replacement.
6) The exhausts are replacements.
7) The gas tank is rusted so badly that I put my finger through it.
8) The engine/tranny look pretty good from the outside.
9) The frame and wheels appear to be straight.
10) There is no evidence of crash damage, although the fenders are a little beat up.
11) Both side covers are broken and parts are missing from the right one.
12) The tires are in suprisingly good shape… no dry rot.
13) All of the chrome has a heavy layer of surface rust on it.

I found the original owner's manual, still in its original plastic pouch, inside the document compartment under the seat. It has lots of useful information in it. I'm very glad to have it. I also found a registration card from '87 in there with the manual.

Jul 27, 1999
I took pictures for the web site. I was surprised to find evidence of mice living in the exhaust pipes. Hopefully they never got further up than the first bend. I'll pull the plugs and check just in case.

Aug 01, 1999
Working on the cab of the '40 Chevy in the driveway put me in close proximity of the Honda so I worked on it in the 1/2-hour curing times of each Bondo application. I pulled the bowl off the #1 carb and found it full of crud that looked like the crud we found in the Chevy's brake cylinders. I pulled the whole carb bank off and opened each one individually. #1 had the white crud, as I said. #2 and #3 were empty and dry. #4 was full of gas... laquered up, but still gas and the "guts" are all rusty. So, now I know all four carbs need serious attention, cleaning, and since all adjustment will probably get messed up in the cleaning, rebalancing. I tried to get the plugs out to check for mice, but found that I need yet another plug socket. I've got 5/8", 13/16", and 7/8" sockets. This one appears to take 3/4". I'm sure it's actually a metric size, but the 3/4 seems to fit (I put a short one on w/out the ratchet to check).

Aug 02, 1999
I pulled the plugs on the Honda. I quickly realized that, since the 750 was the monster of its day, they left little room around it for niceties like enough room to get a plug wrench into place and still be able to turn it.

Aug 15, 1999
I decided to try to see if the starter was any good. Then I thought that maybe I shouldn't power up the electrical system without first checking it out. That lead to hours of entertainment!

I started with the turn signal wiring. All the wiring is supposed to go inside the handlebars to the headset area. Someone had apparently cut all the wires to take the switch cluster off and then been unable to repair it properly. All connections were made by simply wrapping the wires together and then taping them. At the frame end, the original crimp connections were still intact and these other repairs were made a few inches up the line from there. I removed both and made one proper splice (AT&T splice, soldered, with heat-shrink tubing over it). Wire stubs were also left on the switch end and the new wires were connected to them. The new wires had been run along the outside of the handlebars and in through a hole cut in the switch cluster case. I fished the new wires through the handlebars where they belong and soldered the new wires directly to the switch, removing the original wire stubs. To facilitate identifying the wires in the future, I slipped a tiny section insulation from the old wires over the stripped end of the new ones. The clutch lever interlock switch had been repaired in a similar fashion, thought it at least was intended to run outside the bars.

With all of that wiring repaired, I attached a battery (via jumper cables) and tested things out. The four indicator lights on the "dash" work, as does the headlight (both high and low), the taillight, and the left front marker light. All four turn signal lights work, though they don't blink. The brake light does not work but I haven't looked into whether that's because of a bad bulb or something else. I tried to activate the starter solenoid, but got no response. I don't know the cause of that, but I haven't ruled out anything yet (including the battery I was testing with).

I also pulled off the front brake master cylinder to see what was wrong with it. The brake lever flops around because the piston is stuck and doesn't push on the lever to return it to its normal position. I haven't figured out why it won't come apart.

Aug 18, 1999
The wiring to the brake/taillight works okay. For some reason both filiments are always on. I tried a different twin-filiment bulb in the socket and it worked fine. I'll have to replace that bulb, though I can't explain what's going on with it.

There is supposed to be a buzzer to indicate the turn signal is on, but it was removed and the wires leading to it were connected together. As it was wired, that bypassed the flasher relay, so the lights would just come on and not blink. With that disconnected, the turn signals work properly, except that the flasher relay is open.

I cleaned up the contacts of the horn button, but the horn doesn't seem to work. Maybe the battery is too dead.

Aug 19, 1999
I rewired the taillight and rear turn signals, just to clean up bad connections. For some reason, the turn signal flasher relay started working. The horn also works now that the battery is doing better. I tested the starter motor by hooking the jumper cables directly to it, and it worked fine. I played with the starter solenoid briefly and then decided to just hook it up to the wiring harness and try it with the starter button. Low and behold, it worked!

With that, I declare all electrical problems fixed. Now I'm going to move on to carbs. I've put it off long enough. I figure the brakes and tires need serious work and will probably cost money. If I can't get the carbs cleaned up and the engine running, there's little point in worrying about brakes/tires.

Aug 31, 1999
I worked on the front brake master cylinder some more. The outter dust seal is a rubber sleeve. It fits in a groove in the piston end and, I gather, it is supposed to be retained by a spring ring at the inner end. The inner end was free of that ring and, concequently, a lot of crud collected up in there. Once I figured out how to remove the outter dust seal from the piston, I scraped out some of the crud and found a snap ring retainer. With that removed, the piston came out.

I cleaned up all the old, gelled brake fluid and cleared all the orifices. I damaged the front valve while trying to get the piston freed, so I'll need to replace that. Other than that, it looks to be in good working order now.