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I had the seat and the tank removed from the frame this morning to accommodate the valve adjustments. In the process I noticed something odd (as I usually do). I noticed that the green ground wire that connects to the frame was exposed in multiple places due to melted insulation. I had either never noticed before or the exposed ground was relatively new.

I’ve mentioned before that I always feel a bit like an archeologist when working on this bike. I begin to notice strange things that the previous owner did. Or perhaps the previous, previous owner did. The ground cable is no exception. It wasn’t wrapped in with the rest of the harness. It was running along side it.

This burnt out ground could explain a lot of things. Perhaps it was the root of my non-blinky blinker problem?

Needless to say, I cut it off as close to the main harness as I could so I could splice it with a better piece of wire.

I also noticed that the frame were the other end of the ground connected was particularly oxidized and rusted.   

I had never considered looking here or cleaning it up until this morning. I hit it with my dremel rotary tool with a wire brush bit. It took the rust off in seconds and exposed some nice clean steal for my ground connection.

All in all a good morning, and I’m fortunate to have stumbled on the ground wire issue. Clearly, a closer inspection is due tomorrow.

The cold and the rain are behind us now and it’s time to run some basic maintenance on CB to prepare it for summer riding. I started this morning with a simple vale adjustment.

Popped the tappet covers off.

I slid the feeler gauge between all the valves to measure the gap and they were all fine. If they were off it was by a hundredth of a millimeter. No fun.

I decided to adjust them anyway for good measure and because it was such a nice morning to be outside wrenching on the ol’ bike.

Intake valves (rear) are .05mm gaps. Exhaust valves (front) are .08mm gaps.

All done.

Like an archaeologist digging through layers of sediment and finding signs of earlier civilizations, I’ve discovered several locations on my bike that have had previous work done. Example: The oil filter bolt.

I presume the bolt was stripped and the previous owner used a cutting disc or angle grinder to fashion some sort of primitive rectangular knob to be able to turn it and get it out. What I can’t understand is why the bolt was put back in. A new bolt can easily be purchased for around $10 bucks.

I used some vice grips to try turn the bolt… after a short battle, I was the victor. It came loose and I drained the thick, dirty, black oil.

• I wiped down the oil filter housing
• Installed a new oil filter
• New rubber gasket
• New shiny oil filter bolt
• Poured in a few quarts of fresh SAE 10W-40