80 Tail Piece on 79


Spooky#1
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Re: 80 Tail Piece on 79

Post by Spooky#1 »

Jeff Bennetts,
The pictures you posted make a lot of sense especially when seeing the lock plates laying neatly into the indentation on the grab rail cross member. I love being part of a discussion where some possibly new discovery is made even if it doesn't help my reputation as a shit-starter. I'm preemptively adding the information to my part catalog PDF in case the info is confirmed by other members. :D

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Jeff Bennetts
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Re: 80 Tail Piece on 79

Post by Jeff Bennetts »

Spooky#1 wrote:Jeff Bennetts,
The pictures you posted make a lot of sense especially when seeing the lock plates laying neatly into the indentation on the grab rail cross member. I love being part of a discussion where some possibly new discovery is made even if it doesn't help my reputation as a shit-starter. I'm preemptively adding the information to my part catalog PDF in case the info is confirmed by other members. :D
Spook, that's what this place is supposed to be all about, if you're open for discussion things seem to get worked out, for the life of me I don't know why everything needs to be decided in ten minutes and in one thread, however it is important to get things straight and correct.

I, like you are curious if anyone else has seen this or am I a candidate for the old peoples home.

daves79x
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Re: 80 Tail Piece on 79

Post by daves79x »

Ok - so your tail piece was clearly an early replacement kit that came with everything to convert your silver '79s solid tail to the trunk. Looks like also what Spooky has for a tail, but no matching chrome rail with holes (and maybe not even a flat spot). So what he did was about the only choice. I've had both a silver replacement tail kit and a red one and both of them had the conventional production mounts all in the tail. I stand corrected and apologize for confusing Spooky even more. Honda couldn't have made a lot of replacement silver tail kits that way. The parts fiche you show, Jeff, clearly shows the lid latch going with the tail and not the rail. I never saw a parts book showing it the way yours is. The '80 addendum makes no mention that there may be a difference.

Dave

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Re: 80 Tail Piece on 79

Post by Spooky#1 »

I bought my 80 grab rail new from eBay two years ago and the tail piece from eBay last spring. Honda should have made the center area of the storage lid thicker with a longer shank on the lock set to fit the added thickness, the thin lid is too fragile to have the heavy lock bouncing and vibrating. They dropped the ball on that tail piece assembly but I'm still glad I have it on both of my bikes. It sucks that I feel the need to do it but now I can stick a compact 9mm in there for late night rides.

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Jeff Bennetts
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Re: 80 Tail Piece on 79

Post by Jeff Bennetts »

daves79x wrote:Ok - so your tail piece was clearly an early replacement kit that came with everything to convert your silver '79s solid tail to the trunk. Looks like also what Spooky has for a tail, but no matching chrome rail with holes (and maybe not even a flat spot). So what he did was about the only choice. I've had both a silver replacement tail kit and a red one and both of them had the conventional production mounts all in the tail. I stand corrected and apologize for confusing Spooky even more. Honda couldn't have made a lot of replacement silver tail kits that way. The parts fiche you show, Jeff, clearly shows the lid latch going with the tail and not the rail. I never saw a parts book showing it the way yours is. The '80 addendum makes no mention that there may be a difference.

Dave
Yes, I bought my silver 79 replacement/upgrade tail as an assembly from Honda, including the rail and all the hardware. I still have my 79 doorless tail that is original to my 79 in storage in pristine condition. I bought the upgrade assembly very early on because I wanted the trunk feature, not because my OEM tail was cracked from riding fat chicks around. The two 80's I have are both standard with the locking hardware on the door.

I also learned something new today Dave or whatever your name is now :D I thought all 79 upgraded tail assemblies were like mine, with the lock plate on the rail. I can see why Honda changed them though, I cracked my original lid at the lip where the lock set is and bent the locking plate on the rail when I pulled the seat off without unlocking the lid first.

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