My 81 Seca

Last winter I pulled my 81 seca into my new garage. It was sitting in the corner of my yard under a tarp for ten years! I trying to decide if I would just clean it up and sell it or create something out it. I new the motor was fine, but the wiring was just nuts, I could never start the thing so that is why it ended up under a tarp. So I started with the wiring harness, gone... build something way more simple. I used the wiring diagram I found on the forum and expanded it to LED lights. Once the electric gremlins were gone and fixed I moved to the carbs and then all the other stuff that you see. I searched the net for weeks to see what others had done with this bike and others and came up with this.

 

I like it. Good job.

 

Thanks, it was a real learning experience. The rebuilding of the ignitor is were I learned a ton, thanks to my brother in law.

 

Love the rivetted look on the tank! What am I seeing thats blue in the second pic?

 

Josh I have some blue highlights (petcock, breather port for the rear differential) throughout the bike. I
Think what you might be looking at is the LED fuel gauge. I placed it on the right side of the bike as I wanted to keep the top go the bars as clean as possible.

 

Another image just to show whole right side. It shows the fuel gauge a bit better.

 

I'm not usually a fan of bobbers, but I like this one! Would like more details of your build (especially the seat and fender details). Good work!

 

The build took one and a half winters to complete the job. As noted above the wiring harness was the first to rebuild. I completely built my own, and simplified it by quite a bit. The TCI ignitor was rebuilt by my brother in law (changed out one of the capacitors for a much more modern one (does much more than the old one) and resoldered all the old solder joints) it works real well. Replaced the pick-up coils,ignition coils and regulator. I knew that the start button was shot and the keyed ignition was on the way also. So I moved both of them from the top and moved them to the left hand side and new ignition and start button. My brother in law is extremely knowledgable on electrical things so he helped out a lot in that area, I learned a lot from him.

The motor was good with excellent compression so I left that, just checked the valve clearances and did some cosmetics. Carbs were gone over and synced.

I shortened the back of the frame capped the ends with brass fittings. The rear fender was an issue as I could not find anything within budget at the wreckers, so I trimmed down and reshaped a trailer fender. When you remove the original plastic fender from the Seca there are two tabs existing on the frame. I used those to weld strapping across so I had something solid to mount the rear fender. The front fender is the existing Seca fender that I trimmed and reshaped. I had to trim down the side tabs and fabricate a new way of connecting it to the forks, because I wanted the fender to be close as possible to the tire. I then stripped the fender down to the bare metal. Most seem to finish bare metal with some type of clear, but I researched if this was the best way, as air can get trapped under the paint and rust. I ended up using a product called “Penotrol”. It supposed to seep into the pores of the steel and bond better, so far it seems to be working. The fork gators were way too expense at the bike shop, then I read on-line of some other using vehicle shock covers. I went to the local auto parts and ordered some, $17 versus $40, they work for me.

I did all the paint myself. Originally I had the handle bars right way up, but I was having trouble with clearance to the tank, and the look just was not what I was looking for. I then bought risers and flipped the bars.

This winter I refurbished front brakes and put stainless brake lines on. I want to find another tank on it and I will search for that this summer.

So that in a nutshell was the process I went through to get the bike back on the road. The bike is nothing but fun to ride, brings a smile to my face, and a lot of others.

 

Thanks. Any details (maybe some close-up pics) on the seat and how you mounted it? Some other things are somewhat obvious too - like the continued use of the remote master cylinder and the K&N pods. Did you need to re-jet for the pods too or was that done by the previous owner? And why the high-temp wire looms on the ignition wires and the screen across the frame down tubes in front of the engine?

 

ahh yes that must be what im seeing. I would love to have a fuel gauge on my bike lol Very clean build man, truly a work of art

 

Really nice bike. What are you using for air intake and did it require a lot of work with the carbs?

 

I will get some close ups up when it warms up a bit. Check back next week, supposed to be a bit warmer. I will try to get pics of the seat mounting for you also. I scratched my head on how best to mount the seat, so it would work well and look good. The seat flips up so I can get to the electrics readily. As far as the pods, I originally had a K&N filter in the original air box so way back when I did re-jet, but I cannot remember back 11 years as to what size. I found that actually the bike runs better with the pods though. The carbs just needed a bit of cleaning,my hat was about it. What I have been doing and will continue to do is use Lucas octane booster. This I believe really helped the bike run better also, and I get a bit better fuel economy. I had one carb that it' plunger kept sticking on me. I decided to use the Lucas after researching why racing teams use it. Some of you might not think this makes sense, but I swear by what it has done for my bike! The stainless screen on the front, wire loom covering are purely to clean up the visual and tie in from other places on the bike. I have screen under the seat to help hide the electrics, as I moved them from the left side, to under the seat. I am going to change the loom, I have some cotton fabric loom (black with red flecks) on the way, it is used in Ford hot rod builds (38 to 42 I believe). This will help tie in the colors more, and look much better than the hi temp stuff on there now. Want to thank you for all your interest and comments.