1974 850 Roadster - On The Road Again - Maybe

Lineslinger said:

Take pictures of every step of disassembly and tear down and even more when reassembling, keep shooting all the way to completion. They become an invaluable reference when rebuilding and offer verification of work performed upon resale.

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MCP said:

I've taken the head off (need to repair a fin from years ago) and I'm looking for your thoughts on what to do or not with these pistons?

Background - I had the compression tested 30 odd years ago prior to storage and it was good then, with very few miles ridden after that and a service. My goal is to replace the basics now, everything but the internals, paint it and then have it looked over and tuned by a professional. Fingers crossed there are no serious issues on that check out. There are 20,000 miles on the bike.

1) Since the head is off for service and possibly paint I was thinking of taking the barrels off for paint too. Is that an issue? Opening a can of worms?

2) I've been reading where the pistons if bad should be de-carboned. Are these bad? Good idea?

Thanks for any input.

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Dutch said:

I'd pull the jugs, send them to get honed. If they cleaned up without removing too much metal, clean the pistons and install new rings.

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MCP said:

If the compression was good, would you still do it?

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