Rogue's NC30 Project

Sweet excell sheet!
Got my Hotcams shim kit and my Samco tubes! I dig the coolant hoses. Valves clearances adjusted, new carb isolators installed and carb set installed. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can fire her up! still have a bit to install.

 

Update:
Water pump seal is bad. The pump is leaking from the weep hole in the bottom of the pump. Boo. New pump or fixable?
Currently no other leaks concerning coolant or oil.
Revs all the way up to 14k. Idles off choke and starts easily with choke from cold.
Temp gauge came back to life as well. time to get to next level. Driveway test ride. The water pump leak is small enough not to freak me out for a quick up and down the driveway.
charging system putting out 14.68v at the battery. Yes my garage is a mess.

 

Also had to solder on an actual reg/rec wire harness connector. Glad it works! I like my PC subframe.

 

Cool little running lights.

 

Always jealous of cool little running lights... thanks U.S. DOT.

 

I *think* the 400 water pump is unique and the path to replacing or repairing is not very straight or cheap. I hope I am mistaken.

 

Just a suggestion, there's a business called Happybikes.co.uk that specialises in water pump repair kits for the Honda ST1100. I bought the kit which had the necessary seals and successfully rebuilt my pump, which is pressed together. They may be able to provide the parts needed for a rebuild?

 

If it is anything like the RVF pump, which I'm sure it is, Honda did not intend for these pumps to be rebuilt. I got together with my fabricator and rebuilt one, but it is internally nothing like the oem pump when done. I would post pictures of it, but for some reason this site doesn't recognize my photo hosting site and I'm not going to try to unfuck it.

 

The complete pump looks to be available from CMSNL for EU170.

The pump on my ST1100 was also not meant to be rebuildable, but it was. The attachment shows the process (not my document) and if you had access to a press it would be easy, and even my cave-man approach worked fine. I am guessing that if you had the original leaking components to hand, any decent pump or industrial seal supplier could find a replacement for cheap. While we love and treasure our two-wheeled toys, the water pump is a very basic piece of industrial kit.

 

Great info dudes! I believe some one “ Nor cal” mentioned Black Friday sale on CMSNL? Lol

So I perform some more running checks.
My choke cable is hanging up in its housing causing running issues by partially holding the choke on. Remove cable and the bike runs much better. New cable required.

Oil showed fine before start up. Ran for a bit until slight knock kicked in. Shut it down and verified oil level. Added additional 3/4 of a quart. Bike is much quieter. Whew.

Bike is running a tad rich. Could also be an odd smell from not running for several years. IDK.

And the main concern. The water pump seems to have sealed itself. I am not really going to trust it, but several heating and cooling sessions has helped. I am not getting any leaking at this point.
Coolant flush #1 looked pretty. I think one more and I should be good for a short 20 mile ride and flush again. Did polish out the stock exhaust while waiting for dinner. Lol

 

CMSNL lists all parts from each Parts Diagram, but not necessarily carry those parts. Water pump in not in stock. boo Might take a look at Happybikes later today.

 

You can get a cable from Rick Oliver, I believe his is for a CBR, but works perfectly.

 

That water pump hasn't been available the last 5 years I've been sniffing around on CMSNL. I thought they might have found some new old stock somewhere, so I didn't bother to look when TS indicated they were available.

 

Webike and FCMoto, England/Germany have the cable for $15 ish each. I will have to put a short list together to make shipping worth it. For now I am just going to leave the cable out of the housing (choke lever) so I can attach the airbox and place the fuel tank on for a test ride. The bike didn't seem to need the choke for very long so it should not be a big deal for road test.
I do appreciate the help on these situations for sure!

 

Sorry if I got everyone's hopes up.

 

Seals don't like sitting unused. Fork seals are a particular example, these will start to leak after the first decent ride when the bike has been parked up for a while. The mechanical seal in the pump may have had a tiny bit of grit that has been washed clear now. Keep your fingers crossed; even if it starts weeping again it is hardly a crisis, just an annoyance that will need to be fixed at some point.

 

No apologies needed. I would have bought one just to have it.

 

No worries Terry. I would have bought it just to have a real replacement down the road like NorCal mentioned.
I just made a deal with my son to pick up Crooooober stuff for me while he is still living in Japan. Start small for now. Now if I can just get him to ship me the stuff or I guess wait until May when he visits.

 

I bought a set of used VFR mufflers through Croober, right at the height of the pandemic when shipping sucked. Paid $50 for the mufflers and $350 to ship from Japan to NZ. On the plus side, they arrived REALLY fast!

 

Finally got a driveway test completed. Maybe a highway later today. Running off the fuel tank now, new rear tire and transmission feels pretty good. Let her cool down and perform coolant flush again and oil change. No leaks of any kind, idles pretty decent. Stoked.

coolant looks clean. Yes! No sediment or ick.