Honda GL1000 Goldwing Chopper #42

Saturday, I Thought I would take a different route and check out one of the other GL1000's that I had bought over the past summer.

You may recall that I had removed all the farings and bags from the 6 bikes when I purchased them just so they would fit into the garage and sheds.

One of the bikes looked to be mostly all there so I played with it and got it running.
It ran great, idled fine so it was put in the garage for storage until needed.

I decided to check out another of the bikes, a 1975 GL1000 frame number GL11013158, engine number GL1E-1013380.

When I started really looking at the bike, I noticed that it didn't have wire spooked wheels.
Then I saw that it didn't have a kick start either although it came with a kick start handle.

I rechecked all the numbers and they do go with a 1975 GL1000 motorcycle, so I am asking the question - - - did some of the 1975's come without the spoke wheels and kick start?

Both items could have been changed by a previous owner, so I am just curious.

Well after checking out the bike I found that someone had reversed the #2 and #4 plug wires and all the spark plugs were loose. The start button was not working, and #1 plug wire was not even connected (screwed into the adapter at the end).

I hooked up an auxiliary gas tank, although at first I always try to start it with a little ether only just to see if it will fire.

I checked spark to the plugs, the plugs looked new, but had carbon on them like they were run rich for a few seconds. I cleaned the plugs with a rag, and the black wiped right off.

That's when I found that the #2 and #4 were reversed, I traced the wires to the coil and they were wired #1 and #4 to the right coil #2 and #3 to the left coil. someone had reversed the wires in the rubber holder and then had the #4 wire going to the #2 cylinder.

After bolting everything that needed to be grounded to the frame in various spots, I gave it a shot of ether and it fired right off running for a few seconds with no knocks or back fires.

I put a little gas in the tank and it fired and ran about 30 seconds but then the center manifold started to fill with a little gas and the engine flooded out.

I think that possibly one of the carburetors may have a sticking needle and seat and the pump is overfilling the carburetor and the valve isn't shutting the gas off.

Any way the engine sounds fine, so I am 2 for 2 in getting engines that are OK from the parts bikes I purchased over the summer.

I am now trying to figure out what I would need to put together a starter board to hook up engines to so that they wouldn't need the wiring harness or extra stuff just to get them running.

Below is a photo of the bike with the wheels in question for a 1975 GL1000.

Did these come on a 75 or were they changed?
What about the lack of a kick start, the numbers match those of a 1975 on the engine?