Gas tanks curing in the sun

BARNEY’S JOURNAL

Oct 25, 08		Chinese takeout
Feb 07, 08		Cleaning Barney
Jan 31, 08		Barney beheaded
Nov 05, 07		Top end gasket set
Oct 28, 07		Compression Test
Oct 14, 07		A Look at the Timing Chain Area
Oct 08, 07		Last Look Under the Clutch Outer Cover
Oct 02, 07		First Look Under the Clutch Outer Cover
Aug 22, 07		Acorn Nut and Cam tensioner
Aug 21, 07		Let's do an oil change
Jul 14, 07		And exhaust valve tappet
Jul 13, 07		First look at the intake valve tappet
Mar 31, 07		Intake pipe gasketing
Mar 29, 07		Carburetor and petcock rebuild
Mar 12, 07		Engine clean up day
Mar 11, 07		The great "de-barning" of Red
Feb 13, 07		Carb opened and a peek into the frame
Feb 12, 07		Fuel system removal and throttle system

August 21, 2007: Let's do an oil change

I am just going to do a 30-year oil change! I figure it hasn't been opened since 1977 or so! So I drained the oil, which was dark, but no large chunks of anything. I then removed the clutch cover 4 screws, then the cover popped off when I actuated the clutch a little. Better than smacking the case. Actually I tapped it with an old rubber mallet.

Let us look under the clutch cover first.

clurch cover off, clutch cover screw head stripped.

Without some magic "Y" shaped tool to stick in two of the four holes of the clutch, to hold it in place while I use my hand impact wrench on the stripped head, I was unable to remove the clutch outer cover, to see what was behind it. Anyway, I was going for the filter down by the drain plug.

So I removed the screws around the right cover, laying them out in a mini-pattern of the cover, so that I could put them back in the right places. Two of the screws were longer than the rest. Anyway, after removing all the screws, the right cover wouldn't budge. So I put the clutch cover back on, and opened the clutch with a vise on the clutch lever. The picture is just a suggestion of how one would place the vise. One just has to watch that the pivoting piece on the end of the lever doesn't get caught passing the engine fins.

Suggestive of how a vise can hold the clutch in

Still no movement. So I tapped with my rubber mallet all the way around the right side cover, and thought of Robert Pirsig and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" where he recounts how his twin head was ruined by "mechanics" who knew nothing about how to adjust valves!

After a little meditating on this and tapping, "thaaa-woop" it popped open.

just a picture of the first time in 30 years

So now after removing the kick starter arm, it was easy to work off the cover past the kick starter shaft. The seal doesn't look great, but I have the set of (is it four or five?) oil seals for the S90. That will wait until I see what leaks from where!

So here is the clutch and primary gear. Looks pretty clean in there. Finally I can see the oil screen.

So here is the right cover. Nice piece of work. Actually the whole engine is a nice piece of machinery!

Looks mighty clean in there. Doesn't seem that 6852 plus miles are in there.

Anyway, finally the oil screen
pretty clean, just some little pieces of black plastic, I think

pretty clean, just some little pieces of black plastic, I think

There were some (maybe 2 or 3) tiny black specks on the screen. They looked like pieces of black plastic from the screen holder itself, but I can't be sure. The pictures are not very good, I forgot to go to close up mode:-( I'll do better in the future.

So I cleaned the screen, put it back in, put the cover back, put the clutch cover back on, and finally added good ol' Castrol 10W-30 GTX, just like I did in the ol' dayz.

Since S90s are new to me, it seems from my study, that I have an intermediate model. Some newer, some older parts! Generally an older type frame with a newer type gas tank, but a newer type engine with an older type muffler system.

The straight intake and right-angle exhaust are from the newer model. The drain plug without the 4 screws (so the right cover must be removed to clean the oil screen), as shown above, is the newer engine style?

There is no visible cam chain adjustment, so that is a newer style?

The right-angle exhaust (newer) came out to a two-piece muffler - exhaust pipe system, which was the old style!?

Actually, I have the original "pipe in a pipe" exhaust pipe, if anyone needs one. Including the mounting flange. I bought a modern one-piece right-angle exhaust pipe muffler combination from Anis at (tenavintage.com), that I believe is for the newer S90ZK1 etc.

My frame for the two-piece muffler had one bolt hole on the projection, whereas the parts list shows frames with two bolt holes, which I presume is to mount either old two-piece or new one-piece mufflers.

Mine has a mounting bolt in the right engine cover below the kickstarter shaft (old style?). So of course the new muffler mounting bolt is 1.5 inches too far back to line up with the frame mount.

That is what my apprentice welder is for (LOL). To move the bolt on the muffler back 1.5 inches! Doesn't every "Classic Honda" owner have an apprentice welder at his/her beck and call?