Trans. Advice, 1984 700 Interceptor

Hey,
I've been e-mailing back and forth with a guy who lives 2 hours from me. He has a good looking '84 700 Interceptor for sale. The bike has sat for 3 years since his son joined the army so he is selling it. It has 9800 miles only. The guy got the bike up and running for me to potentialy pick up this weekend ($750). Kind of a long e-mail that I cut and pasted but give me your opinion on this one. The pics of the bike are really nice, the bike looks great (pic files are too large to post here though). Any advice or questions to ask the seller would be appreciated.

"OK Tim here is the deal. I charged the battery multiple times over the weekend……slow, low amp charge for anywhere between 8 and 12 hours. I removed and completely emptied the gas tank (except for a little swish in the bottom that I couldn’t get out without turning the tank upside down and I didn’t want to do that because gas always gets on the tank that way) and refilled with new gas and a little carb cleaner additive. I tried to start the bike 3 or 4 times each day on Sat and Sun and no matter what it wouldn’t start. It tried realty hard and turned over and sputtered but just wouldn’t get going. I wasn’t completely surprised by this as she has sat around for the better part of 2 years and is bound to be gummed up some. So tonight I tried one more time but this time I used a 50 amp boost setting from my charger as I started the bike and FINALLY she started up. She sputtered and popped and spit and the exhaust was grey and then white. For about the first ten minutes she kept dying out after a few minutes but I just kept starter her back up and slowly the length of time she would stay on increased….as did her RPMs. I finally got her to where the throttle was fairly responsive so I decided to just jump on her and drive her around the block a few times to charge the battery and see how she’d run. I pulled the clutch in, stommped down on the gear shift and she took off! The good news is she took off…the bad news is I hadn’t released the clutch yet!!!!! I still cruised around the block a few times and could shift between 1st and 2nd gear fine…..but the clutch is obviously not working properly. It has a hydraulic clutch so I don’t know if the fluid is bad, or is just not flowing or what….there is no visible adjustment to it that I can see. I have a detailed maintenance book for the bike and I just need to look at it and see how to do some trouble shooting. When I got the bike back up the driveway…I tried to restart the bike but it wouldn’t start without the assistance of the charger. SO for sure I am in need of a new battery. I am leaving for California on a business trip tomorrow early and won’t be back until Friday. I am going to go get a new battery on Friday and charge it overnight…the last time I bought a battery for this bike from the Honda dealer I had to add the battery acid to the dry cells and charge overnight…so I assume I’ll have to do this again. I am going to get the battery no matter what…..but I wanted to let you know what the up to date condition and experience with the bike has been so you can decide if you still want to come down and look at it! Since I won’t be checking my personal e-mail this week…..here is my work e-mail so we can stay in touch during the week. Just let me know what you decide."

 

sounds like the clutch plates are frozen together from sitting so long. (somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the procedure to break them loose is:
1. engine not running
2. trans in 1st gear
3. clutch lever pulled in
4. rock bike forward and backward

 

If you don't need it for commuting, enjoy a challenge, are handy with tools, and have time and money for a project...go for it.

 

Sounds like the seller is being very straightforward to me. A bike with low miles like that probably just needs a little TLC.

I didn't know they made a 700 in '84 though.

 

Sounds like the clutch plates are stuck if the lever feels right. If the lever feels too easy to pull in, it might just need bleeding. If stuck, you might be able to free them up, but I'd replace the friction plates and clean up the steels. You might damage the transmission by chunking it into gear without the clutch working. I have freed up a clutch, but it would've been easier to have just replaced it.

 

Thanks guys.
As always you have provided some great feedback.
I'll be picking this bike up on saturday. I'll post some pics and provide some details......

Thanks again.

 

My bike sat for about a year and had the same thing. You can try rocking it, but I had to just hunker down on the brakes and drop it into gear to free it up. That may get you going enough to free up the rest of the clutch, but I found the clutch was not slipping enough and hard to feather meaning other plates were frozen. I had drop all the oil and remove the pack one plate at a time. If your clutch was frozen it means ALL the plates were frozen, so you really should make sure they are all free. You can often reuse the clutch once its freed up. Take a look at the clutch pushrod as well, Mine tends to get some rust around the carrier bearing every few years and hang the clutch on return and causes slipping. It just needs to be sanded clean with some emery cloth once in a while, I use bel ray water proof grease in it too.