[ex0r]

My brother-in-law was just given his dad's Honda Shadow. It's an older one, but we are not 100% sure the year. We do believe it's somewhere between 86-89. Anyway, his dad has had it sitting in his garage for the last 20 years or so. We know that it needs some where, but want to make sure we start in the right place.

We had a terrible time moving it. First off, all the lock mechanisms are frozen up, so I had to unbolt the ignition cylinder so I could get the handlebars unlocked. Secondly, the front tire is extremely hard to turn. I just glanced at it really quick, but it looked like either #1 , the bearings in the axel are dry or need replaced, or #2 , the brake calipers are seized up and pushing the pads onto the rotor. (It does turn with some effort, but not easily).

Aside from that, the rest of the issues are mostly cosmetic. (Seat is all torn up, the chrome has surface rust on it, and the metal trim is pitted and stained.) Before we do any major work to it, I wanted to remove the spark plugs, put it up on the center stand, and attempt to turn the motor over (To make sure it's not seized up). That's going to be my first step.

After that, I had planned to remove the carb, give it a thorough cleaning and replace any gaskets/orings/jets that are damaged/worn, and start working on the rest of the stuff.

Is there anything else I need to keep in mind when seeing if this is worth restoring? I would think that as long as the motor turns over, everything else should be salvageable?

Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[SemiFast]

Around 30 years old and sitting for 20 years? Proceed with caution, it may not be cost effective to revive.
Also a lack of available parts could be a problem.

The first thing to do would be a leakdown and compression test of motor condition.

 

[ex0r]

Without know what the internals look like, the parts that I saw that needed replaced (mostly cosmetic) were all readily available either as after-market or OEM on ebay. Mostly the turn signals, seats, and controls. It's more the internals that I would be worried about, or the engine itself.

 

[SemiFast]

Electrical parts like the main wire harness and such are probably not available.

 

[ex0r]

Anyone happen to know what wires I need to jump to enable the starter circuit? We replaced all the fluids and cleaned the carbs, but the ignition cylinder is seized up so we can't start it. We tested to make sure the motor wasn't locked up and it's good, so we want to make sure it'll run before we do too much more work or dump any money into it.

 

[cmonSTART]

If you can access both of the larger posts you can simply jump them with a wrench or other piece of metal. If you can spare a few bucks you can get a remote starter switch such as:

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...5VJu1S_aJGmJ3jiVNcoaAqa_EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[ex0r]

We actually found out how to do it. I think with the ignition cylinder being somewhat broken, it's causing issues but we jumped the red and black wires to get the lights and bike to come on, then pressed the start button to crank the starter over. It turns good and backfired a couple of times before dying. We found out the fuel pump is bad so before we can proceed with further testing we need to replace the fuel pump.

The cylinder when in lock triggers the lights to come on (not supposed to) but the start button doesn't work. W are going you replace that next but since we can bypass it for now we want to make sure it's going to run.

 

[ex0r]

Well, we've made progress! We found out the fuel pump was bad, so we replaced that and while installing it, we found out the lower nipple to the petcock was completely plugged up. We managed to clean it out, as well as the petcock. Then, we found out the relay is possibly bad (I jumped the wires and the pump worked, and without the jumper, when we crank the bike over, you cant hear the pump kick in). Is there a way to test if the relay actually is bad, or if the relay just isn't getting a signal from the pickup coil?

Also, the dummy had it hooked up to his car (with it running), while he attempted to turn it over to see if it would go. It turned over a few times, then we lost all power to the bike. Did we blow a fuse by some chance, or do you think he did more damage to the bikes electrical?