Restored a 1995 Honda Steed: The challenging journey & rewarding result

Flash back to my childhood days, I had seen this bike quite a few times, always kept in immaculate condition, ridden very nicely and gracefully.

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Once left to rust in a forgotten corner, a rare 1995 Honda bike, name probably not known to many had seen better days. Its paint faded, parts worn, and spirit nearly lost. But beneath the dust and devay, lay a classic worth reviving. This is a journey of restoring and reviving a 1995 Honda Steed, a direct Japan import, which was lost to time only because the owner could not find any mechanic, reliable and confident enough to keep her in running condition.

Flash back to my childhood days, I had seen this bike quite a few times, always kept in immaculate condition, ridden very nicely and gracefully. The owner of the bike was a good friend / customer of my father. Lets call him Mr. K. He had privately imported this bike and had gone an entire ordeal of having a private import - navigating the challenges of port clearances, customs procedures and finally getting it registered. Back then I did not knew what this bike was. I just knew by its looks that this was a very costly imported bike. With its V-twin engine, I only thought of it as some Harley. As days went by, the bike began to fade from sight until it vanished like a memory left behind. Later got to know that Mr. K could not find any reliable people to keep the bike in running condition, it was parked away gathering dust and hopes lost.

Enter the Kawaski Ninja 650, which I got in 2017 and still ride it with pride, is the reason why I got the opportunity to restore the '95 Honda. As Kawasaki was a costly affair to maintain, it was a perfect bike for me to bring out my DIY persona. Apart from a few major maintainance points, the Kawasaki was completely maintained by me at home. Earlier to Kawasaki, I had a history of repairing and rebuilding most of our family owned vehicles. Although being an electronics engineer by background, but also being in the automotive industry, it was easy for me to understand and maintain the Ninja.
Mr. K used to see me tinkering with my vehicles, especially the Ninja. During one of our casual conversations, he mentioned needing a trustworthy mechanic who could help him get his old bike running again. It seemed like a simple request at first, but the moment he brought it up, a wave of memories hit me. I realized he was talking about that Expensive Imported Bike. The one that I hadn't seen in years, which once held so much presence before it quietly got faded away from view.

I had given him a couple of contacts at that time, but it seemed things did not work out well. May be the leads fell through or never materialized. As time passed the bike slipped from my mind as well. Then a couple of months back, the topic again resurfaced. He brought it up again, asking once more if I knew any reliable mechanic. This time he shared the whole story of how none of the mechanics he approached seemed up to the task. Most just kept the bike for weeks without touching it, only to return it in an even worse state than before, leaving him more disheartened than ever. He was on the verge of scrapping the bike altogether, ready to let go of the dream. Seeing that, I stepped in and asked if I could have a look at the bike and try to at least get it started myself. I wasn't sure what I was falling into, and also not sure what crossed his mind in that moment. But he agreed to think about it, and that was the beginning of something unexpected.

A few days later we again had a talk over this topic and he agreed to let me give it one last shot. He was sure that the bike needed only carburetor cleaning and a new battery. Due to space constraints at my place, keeping the bike with me wasn't feasible. So I asked if I could first take a look at her and maybe try starting her at his place. He was completely on board, and I soon went over to check her out. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that first moment of seeing her again after all these years. She was parked on the roadside, just outside his gate, hidden under a dusty tarpaulin. Seeing her in this state, weathered and neglected, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sadness for what was once a proud machine. As I began cheking her, I had a gut feeling - this was going to be far more than just a battery and a carb cleaning. Starting her up wouldn't be a quick fix. It would be a real task. If I was going to do it right, I needed her in my space where I could give her time and attention she truely deserved.

Within 2 days, she was in my parking space. I truely consider myself blessed to have a family that supported me wholeheartedly in taking on this restoration journey. That very weekend, I rolled up my sleeves and began the work. Never had I been so excited to get into any project . When she was brought to my place, I noticed the front wheel had a lot of resistance while rolling. The first step involved was to see if the brakes are stuck. As I unscrewed the brake pads holding screw on the front brakes, the friction material fell down as it had came loose from the backing plate. After both the brake pads were taken out, she started to roll freely. I also loosened up the rear brake just to see if the issue was with the front brakes only.

After this I started stripping down the bike. Took the seat and fuel tank out to have better access to the engine and carburetor system. Taking out the carburetor turned out to be a challenge on its own. I had to dive into Honda forums and video tutorials just to understand the fitments and the assembly / disassembly sequence.

Thankfully, Mr. K had managed to keep a physical copy of the bike's workshop manual from Honda. Since this particular model was a Japan-only variant, the manual was entirely in Japenese. But with the help of the detailed illustrations and assistance from Google Lens, it was easy to decipher the dismantling sequence of the parts. Eventually the carburetor was out and oh boy, its condition was rough. Gummed up, grimy and clearly mishandled by earlier mechanics, the task of cleaning the carb started. The earlier mechanic(s) had used silicon around the bowl joinery and had completely messed it up. Internals of the carb were also not in a great state with one of the pilot jet's head broken. Also it being a dual carb, I had to even visually check if the butterfly valves are somewhat in sync together, and as expected their angle was also messed up. Thus the entire weekend was dedicated in meticulously cleaning it and carfully putting everything back together.

Now the real restoration journey starts from here. Once the carb was fitted back, I concentrated on the engine ignition and electrical system. Also while fitting the carb, I noticed the accelerator cables were not free enough, so they were lubricated and also the accelerator handle / grip was rectified and greased properly for a smooth rotational movement. Before to cranking of the engine, I took out the spark plugs to inspect them for any clues on the engine health. Out of the 4 spark plugs (2 for each cylinder), one was completey rusted and its mounting hole was filled with water. Although some waster did seap inside onto the piston, most of it was taken out by soaking a cloth.

While removing the spark plugs, I noticed that all the HT cables were lose at their contact points. One in particular stood out, the cable connected to a heavily rusted spark plug, had a corroded connector and to top it off, it came out with the spark plug. With this, I first checked if at all any replacement / compatible ignition coils were available with any of the bikes present in India. But with no replacement found, I finally decided to repair it myself. All the spark plugs were also cleaned and tested to check if they are still functional, especially the rusted one which needed extra attention.

With the carb and ignition components addressed, I turned my attention to the engine to check if it was free and capable of turning over. Battery was connected, key in ignition ON position, pressed the stater button with a hope of hearing the first cranking sound. Dead silence, the engine did not crank and with that my heart sank! I still kept the spirits high and started to diagnose the issue. It came out to rusty contacts in the handle bar switches. Cleaned them, also cleaned the connector joints, connected them, turned the ignition ON, pressed the starter button, still no cranking sound. With a multimeter, checked if the starter relay was receiving any voltage. Yes it was, but still the engine remained silent. That's when my father stepped in to lend a hand. With a calm, methodological approach, he also checked all the connections and if I am missing out on something. With all things connected, he bypassed the system and directly connected the starter to the battery. And just like that, the engine cranked. That moment was pure joy.

Since the spark plugs were still out, water that had seeped in one of its cylinder started spraying out as the engine cranked. To help flush it out and avoind any further internal damage, we poured a small amount of engine oil inside both the cylinders and cranked the engine few times till the water completely came out. It was a necessary step to clear the cylinder and give the engine a better shot at breathing freely once everything was reassembly.

The circled portion is water that came out of the engine.

I think the starter had got stuck and with such a bypassing technique, it got free and then started to run freely on the bike's igition system as well. With this problem sorted out, I tightened the spark plugs, connected the ignition coils, and got to work on the bike's fuel system. Although this bike is carbureted, it also has a fuel pump (diaphram pump) to keep the fuel line primmed and pressurized. The bike also has a separate fuel filter, and as it was very dirty, I bypassed the complete fuel system, connected te fuel line directly from tank to carburetor and poured some fresh fuel. With this, waited for the carb bowls to fill in and check if there were any leakages. Fortunately no fuel leakages were found even though I had used its stock seals. Now the moment of truth had arrived. I turned ON the ignition, took a deep breath, and pressed the starter button. For a split second, there was silence and then the engine roared to life. Even while writing this I am getting goose bumps. After years of silence, she was finaly awake. Although she was idling very rough, the thump of the V-twin was more than just a mechanical noise. It was a heartbeat returning, a soul rekindled. I stood there for a moment, a mix of disbelief and pure joy washing over me. She was ALIVE again !

After this momumental achievement, it was time to move on to the next phase - fine tuning the engine and address the rest of the issues to make the bike truely roadworthy. Although the engine had now come alive, its idling was very rough. Kept it running for a while to access the situation. I began adjusting the air/fuel mixture screw but it did not have any noticable effect on the engine rpms.

This bike being a dual carb, both the cylinders had their own dedicated screws, a setup in which I had no prior experience. My Ninja, whiel also being a 2 cylinder (parallel twin), is fuel injected and only required butterfly valve syncing and that too on need basis. Here I found myself in an unfamiliar territory. Adjusting the screw on one carb made the cylinder either get driven or drive the other cylinder. I couldn't quite lock in the correct air/fuel ratio for a stable idling. Scratched my head trying to think through the problem and called it a day, leaving the puzzle for another day.

The next couple of days were busy with office work and home responsibilities, but managed to squeeze in some time for research. I dove into Honda online forums and also talked with fellow vintage car/bike enthusiast, hoping to find a solution to this puzzle. Many recomended using a Vacuum Gauge to fine tune both the carbs. With this tool, it was also easy to sync the carb butterfly valves. But getting that tool was not easy. I also explored some DIY methods for building the tool, experimenting with what I had on hand.

Then during a casual chat with my dad on this problem, I asked him - what if we closed down both the screws and then adjust them together in co-ordination? We immidiately gave it a try and after a few turns on the screw, the engine started idling smooth. I again kept it running for some time to see if the idling remained constant without any hiccups. As the engine gradually reached its operating temp., the idling again changed. Again fine tuned it a little and then gave it a few controlled revs. That's when a new issue revealed itself. The rear cylinder was back firing (through intake) at higher RPMs. It felt like the bike had its own way of revealing problems, one at a time, almost like she was guiding me through its resurrection, step by step. Just as I had solved one, the next would surface. It was frustrating at times, but also oddly rewarding.

All this while, the engine was running without the fuel pump. To connect the fuel pump, I had to first procure all the fuel hoses as all the hoses had become hard and cracked at few places. Went to market the following weekend in search of the appropriate diameter fuel hoses. The original hoses had bends according to the filter and pump fitment. We knew these OEM hoses will not be available here anywhere so looked for generic ones which were soft enough to bend as per the fitment and not get pinched. Got a few hoses to have a permutation-combination. I also got lucky in sourcing a similar size fuel filter, apparently this same size filter was used in some Hero X-Pulse version and the shop keeper had only 1 left in stock. Came back home and started assembling the fuel system. When all was connected and routed correctly, it was time to test. Initially when the ignition was turned ON, I was of a thought the fuel pump was present there to prime the line as in the case with other fuel pump equipped vehicles. But it remained dead silent. So with a multimer in hand tested out the harness connections. All were rusty, so cleaned them connected them and did a continuity test. Still after all this activity, there was no supply to the fuel pump when ignition was turned ON.

During the wiring inspection we got a clear picture of the functioning of the fuel pump. It was not a priming pump. As per the electrical connections, the pump was conencted in series with the rear cylinder ignition coil. So it got supply after the engine was running, through the ignition coil. But still when the engine was running, the fuel pump did not turn ON. There was also a Fuel Cut Relay connected in between the ignition coil and the pump. So here there were 2 possible culprits - Fuel Cut Relay and the Fuel Pump. The Fuel cut relay was getting voltage on terminals when the engine was running. Voltage was also measured at the fuel pump connector. So it was concluded the fuel pump itself was faulty. Either get a replacement or check if it can be.

Many suggested doing a fuel pump delete and run the bike as it is. While that approach was working (I also found the same on online Honda Forums), I choose to keep the bike as close to its original form as possible. Even if certain parts could be deleted without affecting the functionality, I chose not to take shortcuts. This was not just about getting it running, it was also helping me to learn the engineering it was born with. So chose to find a replacement for the pump.

By the looks of it, I initially thought it to be a conventional rotary pump. But online search revealed it to be a solenoid operated diaphram based fuel pump. It also had a pressure switch kind of arrangement on its rear side with mechanical contacts. This was a completely old school pump, so I tried to dig more into its working principle. The point here was to understand its engineering. I noticed the pressure switch contacts were all dirty and corrosive. Tried cleaned them with a sand paper and out of curiosity checked if the pump can start by applying external voltage. Voila!! this indeed worked. The pump's solenoid started to vibrate. So it was all down to dirty pressure switch contacts.

Parts of the Fuel Pump

Before connecting the pump to the bike, first cleaned it inside out with fresh petrol and a lot of dirty petrol came out. Connected it to the bike and it surely worked. The pump initially ran for a few seconds and as the pressure built up, and then it switched to intermitent cycles. So now I had the engine sorted out and also its fuel system. But still the intake back fires were present. I checked the oil level of engine and surprisingly, the oil level was perfect and so was the oil. Although this oil being old, I kept the oil change activity for some other day when the bike is complete. With the engine running now, I couldn't resist the urge to take her out for her first ride in years. That moment, rolling the bike out and starting the ride felt surreal. The first few runs in my society were nothing short of magical. My family and also neighbours who knew I was rebuilding this bike, came out to see the first run. She pulled forward with surprising eagerness, as if she too had been waiting all these years to stretch out her legs again. Despite the backfires still present, she came alive in the higher revv range, almost like she was rediscovering her spirit. After a few joyful laps in my society and some chit chat session with all the people present to witness this event, I wrapped up the day. There was a quiet sense of fulfilment and deep satisfaction as I wheeled her back in and called it a night.

The following evening after coming home from work, I cleaned her up got some fresh petrol in her tank. After this, I rode straight to Mr. K's place to surprise him. The look on his face when he saw me outside his house with the engine humming was priceless. Both he and his wife were visibly moved, overwhelmed by the sight and sound of the bike. Though he had long fallen out of the habbit of riding a motorcycle, still he hopped on for a small spin. His wife was also more than happy to see him reconnect with his machine. As he got off the bike, his smile, his posture spoke volumes. The earlier thoughts of scrapping the bike seemed to fade away with each rev, replaced by a renewed sense of excitement and a determination to restore her fully to her former glory. Words weren't needed, his body language said it all. With this I headed back home with the bike and with a mission to complete this restoration journey. Filled with a deep sense of joy and fullfilment. This wasn't just about getting an old engine running again, it was all about reviving a forgotten bond between a man and his machine. I felt proud knowing that I had helped preserve something truely special which was more than just a metal and fuel. This bike held memories, emotions, and a story that deserved to keep running.

The next coupe of days were again consumed by office work and home responsibilites. In office I had conversations with colleagues regarding its back firing issue. One thing that stood out in common in all these conversations was to change the old spark plugs. It seemed like a simple fix, but given how long they had been sitting idle, it made sense to change them. Maybe, just maybe that was the key to smoothing out the things further.

Old spark plugs

That evening as work load was not much, I managed to come home early and went out to pick a fresh set of spark plugs. One thing I noticed was, whoever had worked on this bike prior to me had installed 2 different spark plugs on each of its cylinder head. Although they all shared the same dimensions, it was clear they weren't identical as per the bike's spec sheet. I cross-referenced both the spark plug models and identified a single compatible spark plug. To ensure consistency, I went ahead and picked up a full set of 4 matching plugs. Came home and right away fitted the new spark plugs.

Along with the plugs, I also picked up a compatible air filter, something that had been missing all this while, as she'd been running open without one. According to the manual, the bike was meant to use a paper filter, but at some point ma be during some service interval, it was swapped out for a foam one. That foam, by now, had begun to deteriorateand crumble away. Since an exact replacement was not available, neither in paper nor foam, opted for a larger foam filter and cut it out to fit in the air filter housing.

Installing the spark plugs was a straight forward job. As expected they fit perfectly in the cylinder head threads. After reconnecting all the HT cables, I turned ON the ignition. With a press of the starter button, she roared back to life with a sound track different than previously heard. The engine note was smoother, more refined and far more even, a typical Honda note. I let her idle for a while, then gave her a few revs. The back fires had completely gone, she sounded more strong, steady and full of life. Taking her out for a short spin, I returned home with a wide smile. She wasn't just running, she was thriving.

With the final piece of puzzle now in place, we had made a significant progress in bringing the bike back to life. This was a major milestone, one step closure to restroing her fully. From here on, it was all about focusing on the remaining known issues of the bike.

1. Lamps
2. Battery Charging Issues
3. Electrical Issues
4. Front Brakes
5. Cooling System
6. Leaking Front Forks
7. Speedometer Cable

Most of the things listed above were tackled simultaneously, and from this point onwards, the restoration really picked up pace. Every evening after returning from work was devoted to the bike. I first dismantled the front brake components, then moved on to inspect the electricals, as none of the lamps were working. In between all these issues the harness problems were also getting solved. Let us go through each of the items now.

1. Lamps :
For turn signals and tail lamps, it was mostly changing of the bulbs. Like all the classic cruisers, this one also had the parking / turn signal functionality in the Front Indicators. Being a Japan specific variant, the front indicators and tail lamp had 23/8W bulbs. Even the rear turn indicator had a 23W bulb. Changed them to 21/5W for the Front Indicator and Tail Lamp, and 21W for the Rear Turn Indicators. This also helped in reducing the overall electrical load on the harness (More on this later). Before installation, cleaned the connectors and also the contact points of the bulb holder. I had to dismantle the rear left indicator as the spring loaded bulb connection plate stuck and was not creating enough pressure on the contact to have good connection. After cleaning it and assembling it back, the indicator started to funtion properly.

During a cleaning session of all the chrome parts, I opened up the headlamp unit as it is a complete chrome unit. After dismantling it, saw that the outer housing was completely rusted on the inside. As I had opened it, I also cleaned up the headlamp bulb contacts. While doing this it cam to my attention the bulb was changed to 90/100 (More on this later). Changed it to stock 55/60W bulb. Cleaned up the chrome bodys of all the lamps and assembled them back.

Rusting inside the headlamp housing. Needed a lot of elbow grease

I even had to address the tail lamp unit. It had 2 bulbs both 23/8W each for the parking and brake functionality. Due to its compact size and the parking bulbs being always ON with the ignition, the tail lamp body used to heat up. Overtime, the wires inside the tail lamp had also become hard, so took the decision to have a bulb to LED conversion. Coming to the LED conversion, all the LEDs present in the market had a flashing functionality for the brake lamp connection. I personally did not like this feature. I wanted to keep the LED conversion similar to bulb unit. Checked the e-commerse sites too, but I did not find any particular LED which will have a stable glow like the bulb. So opted out to another DIY excersie, and came up with the below arrangement. Here, I used 3 LED modules and they hardly consume 1~1.5W. Being LEDs, the combined light is much brighter than what was earlier with the bulbs. This helped reduce the electrical load drastically and also eliminate the heat accumulation.

Bulb vs LED illumination for Parking ON condition

This LED setup is made in a way that it can be completely rolled back to stock if needed. But with the high intensity of illumination and also this setup being colder than the bulbs, this might stay here permanently.

The Number plate lamp also required a replacement. I think sometime back the complete number plate unit was fabricated because original one I found is a complete plastic unit. This unit comes with lamp too. Whatever reason it was, the complete assmelby was changed and with that the lamp too. The lamp used did not have any back plate, so lamp was all dirty from inside and which had also affected the bulb holder. The harness also was not in good shape, So I had to change the complete harness and also make a back plate for the lamp to avoid any water and dirt penetration.

See how the fabrication was done for the number plate mounting. Just above the number plate was the fitment of the lamp

The state of the bulb holder

Used foam board to make the back plate. An easy fix.

Night time illumination of the number plate lamp.
LED is pasted inside the housing facing downwards which is now illuminating even the rear surrounding area

2. Battery Charging Issues:
Earlier as I was working on engine, due to multiple cranking cycles, I had to frequently keep the battery plugged into a charger. It was untill I started to ride the bike, I realized the battery is not getting charged. Also I more thing that I had noticed earlier was that the rectifier used to get extremely hot (almost burning hot). But I did not pay much attention to it at that time until now. During rectifying the charging issue it was obsereved, not only was the rectifier getting hot, but also the wires coming out of the alternator. The wires were getting to hot to even hold them. So first I checked if the alternator coil was burt, but it was giving out a steady 20~21 AC voltage at idle. Also the wires were not getting hot unless the rectifier was connected. So now started to check the rectifier. One connected, it give a clean 13V output, but soon within minutes it uesd to heat up and the voltage dropped to around 3~3.2V. It being epoxy dipped, I had to find a replacement. AS this exact model of the rectifier will not be available in Indian Market, I chose to find a compatible replacement one. This being a visible unit mounted below the LH side panel, I wanted an exact fit. During online searches I found the rectifier used in Dominar 400 can be a direct fit. Although it had different conenctions coming out of the rectifier, still it can be fitted on the bike without any modifications. So got the dominar one and got it connected to the Steed's harness. The output got stabilized, heating of the wires stopped and the battery also started to charge.

One thing to note here, the original alternator and rectifier had a output of around 310W, and Dominar is somewhere between 230~250W. Although both the bike had a 8Ah battery I chose to bring down the overall electrical load just to be on safer side by having such bulb and LED conversions.

>RECTIFIER IMAGE<

3. Electrical Issues:
Being an old bike, overtime due to ageing most of the wires had become hard. The insulation was also not in much great shape. In most locations where the harness was taped together, the taping was falling off. Almost all of the conenctors needed cleaning due to rust buildup. All of this was sorted along the way as and when issues were diagnosed. The wire on which the bike's complete electrical load was present used to get hot. Also a 10Amp fuse which was connected on the wire used to blow quite a few time. The fuse blowing off was completely irractic and not having any pattern. While cleaning of the headlamp housing, I found the 90/100 bulb connected on the stock harness. As soon as I changed the bulb to stock wattage, the wire stopped getting hot and so did the fuse blowing off. Surprising it was, the fuse never blew immediately as the head lamp was turned ON. So with this the complete elctrical system got diagnosed and repaired wherever required.

4. Front Brakes:
As you read and saw in the image, the front brake pad's friction material had got separated from its back plate. These were the factory original brake pads and never been changed. The Brake master cylinder piston was also stuck. Moreover, the bike being kept idle for years, the brake caliper assy also needed a overhaul to check for any issues. As this was not my area of expertise, I had to get help in rebuilding the complete brake assembly. I got help from a known friend of my father. Being in the bike servince industry since long, he was expert in his techniques and also guided me in restoring this bike. Before handing over the complete brake system to him, I had dismantled and cleaned the master cylinder assembly. The oil inside it had turned into granules. The piston was also stuck inside and was completely rusted.

The dust seal had persished, rusting around the master cylinder was so much that even the circlip locking the piston assembly was not visible. I had to scrape out the rust first and then hit the master cyclinder hard to make it come loose. What you see in the below image is a much cleaner version of the piston. I placed the piston in the drill chuck and polished it till all the rust was out leaving behind a smooth surface.

The seals on the piston were also not in great shape. But still I tried to clean them and out of curiosity, when everything was clean including the reservoir and its inlet ports, I tried to assemble it back just to see if I can build up the pressure. The pressure from the seals was not enough or may be I was not using the right technique. So gave it out to my uncle for rebuilding the system. He took the brake parts at his place and spent almost a in searching the repalcement seals but the same were not available anywhere. Finally we decided to see if the original seals work effectively or not. Went over to his place over a weekend and we tried assembling back the assembly. He also had kept the caliper assembly dismantled. Fortunately the piston seals on the caliper assembly were in good condition. We assembly the brake master cylinder assembly in the reservoir housing, connected the hose between the caliper and master cylinder. Then what he did was a big learning experience for me. He filled the piston areas with brake fluid and then pressed the pistons in the assembly. This way the brake system got reverse bled making the air come out of the inlet holes of the reservoir. This was soon we were able to pressurize the brake system. Still after this the pistons were not moving out as the pressure was not enough. The brakes took their own time in getting the air out of the system. But once the complete air was out, the pistons started to move out as intended.

Once sure about its working, I brought home the complete system as it is and fixed it on bike without disturbing it. After all the fitment tested the brakes and they were functioning quite well. Meantime, I had also got the replacement brake pads, so the performance of the brake will improve as they wear out.

5. Cooling System:
Since the first day, I started dismantling the bike, the coolant level was much low. Also some of the coolant had leaked out during as I had to remove the coolant hoses for taking out the air box. As the bike had now started to run in its optimum condition, I first flushed the cooling system and then filled up the coolant as per the quantity mentioned in the manual. Bled the complete system and then started to have my night rides in soc. Soon it was discovered the engine was running hot and the radiator fan was not kicking ON. So turned to the workshop manual to see the system diagram. The diagram showed Honda has used 2 sepearate thermo switches. 1 for coolant high temp indication which is mounted before the thermostat, and the other one on the radiator for turning the fan ON if required. I first checked if the fan motor was working which was confirmed by connecting it to external 12V supply. Then I moved on to the thermostat assembly. Upon opening the thermostat body, everything got cleared.

The state of the thermostat.

Crystalized coolant and sludge buildup

After cleaning both these items and also the bottomhousing of the thermostat, I checked if the thermostat was working or needed a replacement. Used the boiling water technique to see if it opens. At first the spring was not getting compressed. Cleaned it again and check if the valve is physically opening by pressing it with appropriate tools. Even though I was able to compress the spring, the valve plate was stuck. Pressed it once again and it opened. Then it moved with the spring. I again checked it with boiling water, and this time the valve cleary opened. As it cooled, slowly the valve got closed. Once confirmed, I reinstalled everything, bled the system and went for a spin. This time, although the engine did not come to a temp. where the fan will turn ON, the engine heat was noticeably low.

6. Leaking Front Forks:
This bike had both the forks leaking right from the day she was brought home. It was an issue which I had kept it at the end when all her issues were sorted. For fixing the forks, I had to take this bike out to the suspension repair shop. During the forks removal, the shop mechanic did not have a allen key to open the main axle bolt. I seriously liked what he did next. First he check with a tubular box spanner if he can overcome the appiled tork. This did not work out, then he got a bolt whose head was of the correct size of the axle allen bolt. He went out immediately to a nearby welding shop and got the below spanner made. I truely liked his problem solving technique.

However, this did not work out. The axle bolt was stuck and he had no option but to go get the the correct allen key / socket. Soon the axle bolt was removed and so were the forks.

As I had gone to the correct guy repairing the forks, it was fast and simple. He already had all the required seals in stock. I came home feeling really happy and relived. The bike's handling had improved significantly, effortlessly gliding over the road undulations with ease and grace. Before heading back home, I had texted Mr. K about the completion of the front fork repair. Within 5 mins. of me reaching home, he showed up at my place to see the bike. I took him for a ride in and around my soc. and he couldn't stop smiling throughout the ride. Seeing him so genuinely happy made me feel even more satisfied with the entire experience.

7. Speedometer Cable:
This is a complete "Jugaad" solution. This came to me like a brain wave. I tried it out and the solution is still holding up perfectly. Ever since I received the bike, the accelerator cable had been hanging loose. Upon inspecting, I discovered that the cable end on the wheel side was broken. One part remained attached to the cable, while the other was on the wheel. Since this cable end is made of rubber, I needed to find a replacement cable.

However, sourcing the correct cable wasn't easy because of the unique of cable end required at the wheel side. I found out that Bajaj was using a similar cable on its Discover, Platina range. I bought one, but it turned out to be shorter by approx 20~30 mm, and also the wheel end side although similar did not match correctly. So, the search for the right cable continued.

As I mentioned earlier, the solution was a impromptu idea, a true "jugaad" moment. This was a simple yet effective solution to make the speedometer start working again. And to my surprise, it has been working flawlessly and maybe will continue to hold up. See the below imagefor my impromptu solution.

Out of all the fuel hoses that I had bought for this bike, some were still lying around. One of the hose ID was perfect match to the speedometer cable. The hose was tight to even slide on the cable outer and the cable end on the wheel. Cut the hose to approriate size and dipped it for a few minutes in hot water to soften it. When it was soft enough, slide it over the cable and also the cable end. As the hose cooled down, it perfectly held the speedometer cable and the cable end in place and it also made the cable firm.

Finally the bike is now complete. As the repassing of the bike is pending due to its condition, we have now initiated the process. With the RTO paperwork underway, it won't be long before she's officially back on the road. For now, I have choosen to preserve the original patina on the bike, the little signs of age, wear and history that tell the story of all the years she has seen. The patina gives her a unique character which I think a complete cosmetic restoration might erase. It's a reminder of where she's come from, and it adds a soul to the machine.

Ending this rewarding, challenging restortion journey with a few parting shots of the bike.

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