This is my story. (Oh, that sounds so dramatic!!!)

Ok, I haven't made an update since last weekend, but believe me, I've been working on the bike this past week. I just haven't had enough energy at night to make updates. It's either update the page or watch Big Brother on TiVo. Big brother won!!

But in all that confusion, I did update my friends on the Honda Nighthawk list about what was happening, so I'll just post my messages here. I think they describe things pretty well. Note that I ask for help from the members of the list several times and the people there were so helpful and sent me plenty of great suggestions, tips and stories. Thanks everyone!!

Message One:

Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 09:27:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: More problems for me and my CB700SC... I need help!

Well, yesterday was the night of truth for the bike. Would it start?

The Kreem in the gas tank was dry and I assembled the bike and filled the
tank with gas. Plugged it all in, hooked the power up to a car battery
(didn't want to drain my new battery.)

Hit the start button. It turned over, but no gas was flowing. (I have a
clear fuel filter.. makes it easy to see.) So, I put vacuum on the petcock
with a pump and still no gas flowed. ARGH! Either the petcock was screwed
up or the hole inside the tank was clogged was Kreem. That would SUCK. I
used compressed air while the kreem was in the tank to keep it clear.

I think it's the petcock though. I turned it to on, hooked up a clear hose
to the gas outlet, put vacumn on the petcock and tried to suck or blow and
no go. There was no flow through that thing. Oh well. I'll take it off and
see what's up.

Anyway, this wasn't going to stop me. I just used a little can with a hose
in it to get gas into the bike without the tank. As soon as it started to
flow, the carbs ate up an entire cup of gas!! Wow... I guess the floats
were empty. Then I filled the cup again and it was ok.

I tried starting the bike and after a short time, it started. But there
was another problem. (Tell you in a sec....) Back to the carbs..... after
the bike started, they ate all the gas in
the cup in like 2 seconds!! Something was wrong.... that was at least a
cup of gas and they ate it in a second!!! But the bike ran and I hit the
throttle and it revved up quickly and smoothly. I had the choke @ about
3/4 of the way set......

Anyway, I hit the engine cut switch and shut her down.

Now, when I looked at the carbs, there was gas all over the
place. ARGH. It was dripping off the little drains on the bottoms, so I
checked the screws and all were closed properly. The carb near cyl 1
looked like gas was coming from around the seal that goes around the fuel
bowl... but it was hard to tell. It was dark outside and I was using a
flashlight.

Also, the bike was on the kickstand, so gas could have been coming from
one of the other carbs and flowing down that direction. The #4 carb looked
dry... I think. I can't remember now. So anyway, there is a defenite
problem here. Maybe the seals are bad ... maybe the fuel line itself was
leaking. I don't know. I just couldn't see. I'm going to have to repeat
this but with the gas tank removed and with some light!

Ok, the next problems. The missing bolt on the second primary is causing a
MAJOR exhaust leak there. You can only imagine...... And a quick check
using a screw driver reveals a broken bolt in there. ARGH.

And.... after running the engine for a few seconds, I felt each exhaust
primary.... and, this potentially SUCKS. The #3 one was cold while the
others were equally warm. Now, it could be the carb on that cylinder is
really messed (and leaking all its gas out) so that cylinder isn't firing
at all. Or maybe there is no spark. I'll do a compression test to see if a
valve is a problem. [[Hopeing it's a carb!!! Please....!!]]

So, the gas tank is messed, there is a major gas leak/bad seals in carbs,
and I have broken bolt and mega exhaust leak.

Now, do people have any suggestions on any of these subjects for me? I
don't have a my service manual yet and it's about 2 weeks away. :-( The
carbs don't look too hard to remove, but I just don't know how to
begin. (Remeber, this is my first bike.)

I think on the broken bolt, there is still some sticking out of the
head... it looks like it broke near the head of the bolt. Should I take of
the entire exhaust system of just that cap on that one running? Oh dear. I
don't even know how to get it out! I've never had to do this on my cars
before.

Thanks guys... I would really appreciate any help I can get.

-Adrian

Next messgae:

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 09:43:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: one of three fixed on my nighthawk... argh!

Hey guys... Well, I put up a big post yesterday. A short run down of the
current problems with my bike is:

1> Petcock messed up
2> Broken stud on #2 exhaust primary (and leak)
3> Carbs are gunked up and overloaded with gas

Oh these problems, I tried to attack all three, but I wasn't very
successful.

I fixed the petcock. I took it apart and the inner diaphram on the vacumn
thingy was just stuck closed. I pulled it apart and it worked. I then used
carb cleaner to clean it all out, but it was all very clean actually. All
the funky-gunked up gas was in the tank only... looks like all gas
touching parts after the petcock are nice and clean. But the sticky ness
of the diaphram makes me think things are the same in the carbs. Clean,
but stuck......

Anyway, I tried taking the carbs off so I could open 'em up. BUUUUT, I
couldn't get the damn things off!!! I loosed up the airbox bolts and moved
it back as far as it would go, and it disconnected from the carbs ok. But
it sure didn't leave much clearance... But I couldn't get the carbs off
the rubber intake manifolds. UGH! Please, does anyone have any
suggestions? I sprayed on so much WD-40 over all of it... Ugh. I have a
non california model which doesn't have the "so-called" maze of emmision
control hoses... As far as I could see, there was only one small hose
going to the petcock but it was from cyl 2 intake manifold. I actually
still had the throttle cables attached but I knew they weren't causing
them to not move.

Well, I gave up on it and moved to the stud. I dropped the exhaust system
(hey, that was easy) and luckily no other studs broke when removing the
nuts. I don't know why that one was broken, none of the other nuts
were overtightned. But anyway, get this:

The stud was already drilled out, as if getting ready for removal!!

ALSO, there was no copper gasket on that cylinder!! WTF!? For sure,
someone has already given that stud some attention... but I wonder why it
was half-done and not taken out!? Anyway, without a gasket at all, no
wonder why there was such a bad leak!

Anyway, with the headers gone, I tried grabbing it with vice grips. That
didn't work. There was a lot exposed -- like 1" or so! It had broken off
right at the threads, so it left plenty of shaft left to grab or drill....

Well, I bought a screw extractor and tried it out. 7/64" was the size of
the hole drilled. I went to work and it actually started working! (LIberal
amounts of WD-40 the whole time.) It actually turned it about 1/8 of a
turn!! (My vice grip marks were now facing upwards.) Anyway, what happened
was it stripped out the drilled hole because the drilled hole wasn't deep
enough. So I used a 7/64" drill bit (I had two) and tried deepening the
hole. Buuuuuuuuuut, I think a drill bit must be broken off in there
because I drilled for like 15 minutes and NOTHING happened. The drill bit
didn't dull out, but it also didn't do ANYTHING. So, either drill bit is
in there from the last person trying to drill it or the metal of the stud
is SOOOOO hard and my drill bits just can't drill into
it. Ideas? Anyone? I'm going to try a bigger pair of vice grips but space
is very tight in there since the frame and engine fins are right there.

I'm also thinking I need to try the one size up extractor now. The drilled
hole has been "expanded" when it bottomed out.

I sooooo hate this. It is really pissing me off and it aggravates me....

I'm just HOPING the carbs aren't too messed up when I take 'em apart. And
then I hope the engine actually works well when it does finally run, or
I'll be enev more pissed. And I hope the bike rides well.... I still have
to fix the front shock seals.

I guess I should have known what I was getting into... (well, I think I
did. I was just over-optimistic.) The thing was neglected and only $200,
so what can I ask.

Thanks guys.

Another message:

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 17:21:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: YES!!!!!! Step 2 done!

Hey guys, while I was at work today, my super-duper-best friend Eric
removed the broken stud from my engine for me!

My bike is at his house where I'm working on it. He helped me last night
and we just couldn't get it out.

Well, he went out and bought some nice strong vice-grips and took the
stupid stud out!

Luckily, Honda came through and I have a nice new one to install into the
engine right now.

Also, I LOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEE Honda. THey are so damn smart. The studs are
made in such a way that IF they break, they will not break off flush with
the engine and will almost always break off at the threads, leaving lots
for one to grip using a vice grip.

I loooooooveee Honda. I can't say it enough. Sorry, It's just I'm so happy
to see their bikes are as good as their cars. (In that they are smartly
made.) My Toyota (Car) is pretty good, but just not as smartly made as
Honda.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me for a second. I was just happy.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna get those carbs off and I'm gonna get them fixed up. My
friend here at work gave me a quick rundown (using doodle-diagrams) of how
a carb work and how to clean 'em out. No problem!!

Thanks.

Wow, I wrote a lot of stuff here!!

Here's the next message:

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 10:35:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adrian Black 
To: Honda Nighthawk List 
Subject: Onto step 3 ... The Carbs

Hey guys ... last night, I put my exhaust system back together on my
bike. My friend (as I reported yesterday) took out the broken stud from me
engine for me. Yes!

So, when I came over, we put the new stud in and put the exhaust system
back on the bike. It was a pain, but it worked.

Next we moved to the carbs. It was SOOOOOO hard to get them off. What we
ended up doing was taking off the #1 and #4 rubber intake manifolds from
the engine. Then, we broke if loose from the #2 and #3 manifolds... One it
was off, then I poped #1 and #4 off the carbs.... Phew. Getting the
throttle cables off was hard too. They are deep in there.

Also, I couldn't remove the airbox or the rubber parts that go from the
airbox to the carbs. They are glued on and it would be hard to reglue
them.

But I got the darned things out.

Next, I took them apart. The floats on #2,3 and 4 were stuck to the bottom
of the bowls. Just taking off the bowls unstuck them... Otherwise, the
carbs were SOOOOOO clean. In fact, even the intake ports on the engine
looked brand new. I took out the top bellows (or whatever they are) and
they were good too. The needles were perfectly clean as was the float
needle. I'll blow some air through the jets and stuff to make sure they
are clean, but everything just looks clean.

So, I put the carbs back together... applied gas and it was working
better. But there were still gas leaks. Looks like the bowl gaskets are
bad... and also the TEE where the gas line connects to is leaking. (Or
maybe just the gas line there.) I'll have replace them all and see what
happens....

Anyway, it's kinda wierd the carbs are so nice inside, yet they gaskets
are messed.

Oh yeah, it also looks like my petcock is still messed up. It now flows
gas, but the Reserve setting seems to be clogged up still. That was the
setting the bike was on when I found the bike, and I guess it's gummed
up. I'll take it off and see what I can do, but that part of the petcock
can't be taken apart.........

Anyway, if anyone has more tips for the carbs, let me know.

Thanks guys!

Well, with LOTS of help from people on the Nighthawk Mailing list, Rick Ramirez and Eric Mamos, I got this thing running. Along the way, I took a few pictures (but my hands were too dirty most of the time to take pictures, hence the low number....)

To fix the damn broken stud, Eric and I dropped the exhaust system. It was so easy.

Of course, it was missing the copper gasket under the number 2 primary. ARGH! And someone had drilled it out before and broke the bit off inside. No wonder we couldn't drill it. Eric used vice-grips the next day to remove it for me. I was SOOOO happy he did that for me.

Next, my focus went to the crapped out carbs. They leaked gas EVERYWHERE. Getting them out was HARD as hell. We ended up unbolting the #1 and #4 intake manifolds from the engine so we would only have to break the carbs off of #2 and #3. That helped BIG TIME. Also, there is a bar above the engine where the throttle cables go under. Taking that off helps BIG TIME once you get the carbs off the engine as you can move the carbs out from the engine with the throttle and choke connected. I didn't learn this until I put it back on. Carbs are out!

So, with the carbs out, I bought the expensive o-ring kit for the carbs from the Honda (St)ealer and I was on my way. Someone has OBVIOUSLY worked on this carbs before as they were SUPER clean inside and someone tried to fix the leaky bown gasket by using RTV. That's NOT going to work as the gaskets themselves were old, hard, and cracked. Sheesh. Rick inspected and things looked good.

(This work I'm doing it all today, by the way. The 23rd. We took the carbs out on Wed but I took a break from the bike on Thurs and Friday. I was too tired.)

Ok, so I cleaned out he floats and removed the old gaskets. Some (or all) of the floats were stuck to the bowls... I unstuck them earlier in the week. I used compressed air to blow out the jets and other holes in the carb. I checked the slides for smooth operation and all but one were good. I took that one out and cleaned it up and now it's working great. I put it back together with the new bowl gaskets and put gas to the thing to see what would happen. Oh yeah, I changed the fuel line too. The old one was way too old and hard.

Well, guess what, gas was still leaking. "From where," you ask? Mainly from the TEE where the gas line connects. ARGH. So, I was going to have to take the carbs apart. Good thing I had all these O-Rings!!

Loosening the choke rod on each carb, I was able to bend each one apart to pull the interconnects out. And let me tell you -- the O-Rings were SHOT. They were so hard and many were compeltely cracked and broken. (Esp. the one on the feed line TEE.) So I changed 'em all.

One gas line tee. 2 rings.
Two gas line interconnects. 2 rings each.
Two breather/overflow tees. 2 rings each.

Missing accomplished. Next, I did something dumb, but I was confident. I put the carbs back in without doing a bench test. Why? I was sure it was going to work. Luckily, I was right. When I put gas to 'em, they were PERFECT. No gas leaks or anything. WOOHOO.

Oh yeah,I replaced all 8 O-Rings that go between the engine and carbs too. The old ones needed replacing and I didn't want to risk any leaks there either.

Alright, the bike was back together. Eric and I tried like hell to get the airbox back onto the carbs, but we just couldn't do it. Cyl 1, 2 and 4 are on, but #3 just don't quite reach. Right now, it's half way on the carbs but I'm not sure what to do. I don't really care in the short term, I think they getting a pretty good seal as it sits.

Ok, I mouted the gas tank, applied some vacumn to the petcock to prime the engine (which worked -- YAY!) set the choke and let her rip. I had the bike connected to a car battery as to not drain my new battery.

Well, after a few tries, it started to run. It was REALLY rough and shaky, but it was running. After a few seconds I could let go of the throttle and it would idle on its own. (High idle with choke set.) It ran very funky for a while, sputtering and coughing. But nothing major. As it warmed, I lowered the choke until it was closed all the way. With this setting the engine would stall unless I held the gas a bit, but it was slowly getting better.

After like 10 minutes, it was idling somewhat normally. It was unstable and yelling at me that it was going to stall, but I just gassed it now and then to "help it out." Eventually, it was really calming down. So, I decided to ride it.

AHH yeah, this brings us to my next problem. The clutch. The clutch discs on the bike are stuck together. After running the engine for a while, they were a little less stuck, but they were still dragging with the clutch handle pulled. So, I ran the engine some more. Eventually, I just decided to take it out for a spin anyway.

I started it up in 1st gear and the bike pulled forward just slightly. I could hold it back with my own feet, so it wasn't that forceful. The clutch point it about half way out so I KNOW the master cylinder on the clutch is good and it's the discs that are stuck together. (As Rick and people on the list had thought.) Anyway, the FIRST FIRST ride on the bike was without helmet and was simply out of the driveway and back in. No pictures of that.

But the bike was really behaving nicely, so I decided to grab my helmet and make a real run.

While I was going up his street, the bike began to stall if I put in the clutch. LAME. I had to gas it to keep the engine running. I limped her home and let her sit. I have less than a gallon of gas in the tank, so maybe it's low?? I know the petcock is still messed up too. I don't think reserve setting even works.... ANYWAY, I decided to just raise the idle and try again.

So, I turned the idle stop started her up. Now it was idling again on its own. I also noticed, while the bike was parked, the throttle could only move through about 20% of normal travel. WTF!? Well, I had put a different clamp on the #1 cylinder as we lost the nut for the stock one. It had a longer screw and it was hitting the linkage, keeping it from opening. OOPS! So I fixed that too..... So, I took her out again. Each time I rode, the bike was running better and better.

This time, I was motoring around the block, actually got it into 2nd gear and back to 1st!! But when I came to a stop in neutral, I tried to shift into 1st and it ground lightly. So, I killed the engine and started in 1st again. The clutch was almost back to normal, though.

Anyway, I made one pass up Eric's street and decided to really gas it. All I can say is: OH MY GAWD. I only hit maybe 6500 rpm at MOST, and the thing was simply SCREAMING. I was no where near floored either. AMAZING. To think people say it has WEAK power under 7000rpm too. HA! When I made this run, the bike was feeling GREAT. The engine was much smoother and running GREAT. The idle was now OVER 2000rpm. I guess whatever was causing it to stall before was gone from the system and my "fake-fix" was making it idle high.

Anyway, I did some more pases and them something was amiss. Power was going away BIG TIME. At the worst, I could barely accelerate. The engine would just bog and sputter. So, I limped home. (About a block.) The idle was also low, about 900rpm. What the heck!? This was different than the stalling before too... the engine power was different this time.

But get this, by the time I got home, it was fine again. Idle was back to 2000rpm and the engine was smooth again. Probably more smooth than it had ever been... So, I lowered the idle back to 1000rpm and it was smooth. Initially at 1000rpm, the idle was very lopey and rough, but now it was nice and smooth. Really sounded like all 4 cylinder were working properly. I guess something has just been in the jets or something and just cleaned itself out. Cool!! The whole time this was happening, I kept checking the fuel filer for gas flow and it looked fine all the time. It was also nice and clean. I guess the KREEM was working. YEAAAAH.

So that's it. I parked it back in Eric's garage and called it a night. Mission complete. Before leaving it, I fired it back up just to hear it. It started right up in an instant and purred. I revved it up a few times just to enjoy the nice sound. So fast and nice. That's it. No GAS leaks. No odd smells. Seems to run smooth.... I'm a very happy man.

Tomorrow, I'm going to change the plugs and clean it up some more. Lots of WD-40 residue is on the engine along with some mud from Eric's street. And I'll see how it runs in the morning after a cold night. Teehee.

I want to thank EVERYONE who has helped me with this... and of course, this is just the beginning. I'm far from done. I'm just happy the major step has been taken and the bike is working.

Over and out -- Adrian.