The Paso Project - Page 11

May 13, 2008


My have things been busy, lately. With all the other projects, I put the Paso on the backburner for a while. It was a shame with not much else needing to be done to the bike. I just didn't have the time. When things lightened up around the house, I messed with the paso a little more with the intention that if I couldn't iron things out fairly quickly, I'd have to take it to my buddy Rick at Motorcycle Parts Plus.

One of the first hings I notice was that the one slide wasn't dropping down when I was trying to adjust the idle. I had all the slack taken out of the cable, so I had to loosen that up. I did some more gross adjustments to the slide cables and then set out to work on the sloopy-loose choke cables.

The chocke cables had no adjustment to them. The cable sheaths had been crudely cut and the ends of the cables were brazed in a feable attempt to make the cables the correct length by whoever did the Dellorto conversion. I couldn't slide the cable through some adjustment fittings that I had, so I used a Dremel to cut a thin line down the length of the adjuster pieces so I could slide the cable through it. I had to do this on both ends of the single cable section of the 2-into-1 choke cables to try to get the choke useable






To solve some of the oil leaks, I replaced the aluminum gaskets on the drain plug and the prefilter screen, but I still had the cracked oil level sight glass that needed to be addressed. Surfing through eBay, I saw a stripped Pantah engine side cover listed, so I contacted the seller to see if he had the sight glass. he told me that he had both of them, the oil level and timing sight glasses. At first, I was only going to buy one, but I wound up buying both of them. They were from a 650 Pantah engine, but they fit the Paso's 750 perfectly.




I had opted against removing the side engine cover to change the starter gasket, because I was afraid that if I started on it, it would be several months before I got around to finishing the job. I had started taking some online classes for a degree that I decided to try to earn, so free time has become even more scarce. The last thing that I wanted to address was the rear brake. The original master cylinder was bad and needed to be rebuilt, but I had recently bought a bunch of parts from an '88 Paso that was parted out. I cleared out the guy's inventory and gained a complete rear brake system. Instead of having to mess with swapping the master cylinder and bleeding the line, I figured it was just easier to swap out the whole system.





I wheeled the bike out of the house, fired it up with some difficulty, and decided to test ride it.....I really think the bike was running worse, now, plus it was making a weird gulping noise from the carbs. I rode it a few miles around the subdivision, took it back home, and made arrangements to tkae it to Rick. I was tired of messing with the bike.

I dropped the bike off at Rick's and decided to let him play with it. The following week, Vicki and I went to the Ducks Along the Blue Ridge rally that is sponsored by US Desmo in Mt Airy, NC. That Friday, while out riding around, appearantly the Paso called and left me a message. I had to wait until the next morning to call on the bike, as it was late when I checked my messages and Rick had closed for the day.

Rick told me some of what he had done to the bike over the phone, but he went over it more thoroughly when I went to the shop the next week. The one carb was not only at a slant, but it was cocked to one side because the engine mount was in the way. He removed the mount and notched it so that the carb could sit level. He also determined that the fuel pump was not necessary, as the float bowls were well below the gas tank, so he removed the pump. He also redid the fuel lines completely, making it a much simpler system. Other things he discovered was that the one throttle cable was now holding up the other slide, and the cable was out of adjustment, so he lightly shaved the top of the slide cap. It was also determined that one of the choke cables was far too short, resulting in the choke staying open and causing the gulping sound. He disconnected that one completely. He synchronized the carbs for idle and open throttle, and it was time for a test ride.






I put the tank on the bike, fired it up, and ran it for a short period of time.......when it died and wouldn't start again. It acted like it was running out of fuel, so we checked the petcock. Then we checked the filter. It appeared tha the filter had an internal valve in it and was one to be used with a fuel pump, so.....we installed another fuel fulter. I fired the bike up, took it up and down the road in front of his shop, and was very pleased with the power and the way it was running. The only adjustment that we had to do was increase the idle to prevent it from wanting to die if I chiopped the chrottle quickly when comign to a stop.

I took the bike home and was going to ride it into work the next day, but opted against it. Instead, Vicki and I decided to take our two "new" bikes out for a spin together. Me on the Paso and her on her recently acquired 2001 Monster 900ie. We rode the backroads and wound up logging about 100 miles by the time we got back home. The Paso runs quite well. I liked the power it had and the bike seems really small and nible. It will take me a while to get the feel for it, so....the first offical day to really ride the bike was Friday, May 9, 2008, and....I rode it into work this morning.

Here are two pictures of the Paso with Vicki's Monster at "The Store" at the corner of Hwy 11 and Hwy 178. This is the local hang-out on the weekends, as it is at the base of the mountains.








So, it looks like the end of the saga. I took a non-running bike with many little things needing attention and seemed to have "rescued" it. It took me nearly 2 years to complete and twice the amount of money I was hoping to have to invest, but I'm looking forward to many years and many miles of enjoyment with this bike.....Now, onto my next project! Here's a hint of what I am playing with the thought of attempting to do in the near future....The Mega Paso.




....DONE!


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