First, the good news!

I decided to give the motorcycle a major tune up and see if I could get her running.  The key came in the mail in early April and a NOS battery came with the motorcycle.  My plan was to clean the tank and carbs, check the points and valve clearances, change the oil and then Bob’s your uncle.  This was the second week of April.  It is now June 4th and I have still not tried to start it.

The tank was pretty easy.  I filled it up with hot water and Oxy Clean, then left it sitting for two weeks while I was on vacation.  There is still a little rust, but most of it is gone.  I will clean it better when I get the dents removed from the tank, but for now it is very functional.

Next step, remove the airbox and rebuild the carbs.

The airbox was an issue as the rubber ear on the right filter cover (left) shredded as I was removing it.  It was soft, but very brittle.    This will need to be either repaired or replaced.































Once I got the left carburetor off (right)  I was shocked and amazed: This was clean...very clean!  So clean that I wondered whether it had been recently been re-done.

I was sold a non-running bike and this was an amazing discovery.  I knew it was not Toronto who had done it because he claimed to have done nothing, so I e-mailed the local guy to say thanks for the great head start.  The response nearly floored me: It was not he who did this, but the guy who sold it to him three years ago.... that guy had it running very strongly and it had merely sat for two and a half years while the guy that I was corresponding with tried to source replacement parts for all of the dented ones.  He told me that if I changed the oil and tried start it, I would probably have good luck.

So, I decided to forego the points, condensors and valves and just change the oil.  If the oil was clean, it would be a go.  The oil was VERY thick and very clean: actually still its original golden colour.  I invited a friend who used to race these old 450's over to help me get it started.  He warned me that I should open the oil spinner:  golden oil was one thing, but the spinner would reveal all.  Since he was not available to come over and start it that weekend, I decided to look into the oil spinner before I added new oil. Again, I found it clean as a whistle.  I noticed metal shavings in it that reminded me of breaking in new rings.  Good feelings were had, but they didn’t last long.

I felt that I had one last thing to do before trying to start it: remove the spinner and get rid of the filings before filling it up with oil.  I bought the special nut remover and pressed back all of the tabs that I could see on the lock washer, and tried to turn it.  The back wheel started spinning despite me holding the brake (something else I will need to fix). I took it off of the center-stand and placed it on the side-stand so that the weight of the bike could assist the brakes.  The wheel still moved.  I tried short, jerky movements and the bike rocked, but the bolt stayed fast..... then the bike fell over on its left side.... and the gear shift punched a hole in the alternator cover, the clutch lever end snapped off and the old Gran Turismo grip punctured at the end.

A very bad end to an otherwise perfect day.

It will be a few weeks before I can post again...