Anyone have any experience restoring one of these?
I don’t have any General Questions (yet), and although I’m sure this will give me reason to write a Pit thread someday, it hasn’t yet, so here I am. I’m hoping to collect motorcycle restoration war stories I guess.
I just picked up the above mentioned Honda for $75. It doesn’t run, but that’s the point. I wanted something I could tear apart as a learning experience. If I end up with a runner at the end of the day, great.
So far I’ve gotten rid of the seat (not salvageable) and removed the gas tank and drained the Regan-era “gas” that remained in there. I’ll asses tank rust tomorrow. My goal for the weekend is to remove and assess the carbs. If there’s interest, I’ll update on my progress.
The twin was very popular, had an awful gearbox, but I thought I was dreaming when I saw a light metallic blue 350 four all restored since I’d never even seen one before, I had to go back and look at it a couple of times.
If it is the four then I expect you will find that the 4by4 megaphone pipes will be very expensive, the Kawa Z1000A pipes cost mind boggling amounts and they are similar in construction.
If you look on that site under “pics of your bikes” you should be able to identify it, and if the contributor has put up an e-mail they might be able to give you highly relevant information.
This site has information about the twin and although he is putting together a race version (bit odd that!) there is lots about what you may need to do.
Thanks for the links. I’ve found a site that gives frame and engine numbers for each model year. According to that site, what I’ve got is a 1971 frame and a 1972 engine.
It’s the two-cylinder model. I understand that something like 300,000 were made, so parts are plentiful.
I’ve scouted eBay of course. It looks like you could assemble a complete bike just from eBasy sourced parts with no problem. There’s a guy offering a set of original, never been out of the box pipes for less than $100. If only I knew I could get the engine to run I’d splurge on the pipes. At this point though, buying those would be like pruning a dead tree.
oohhh! I used to have one of them. Well technically I still do, cause the carcase (sp) is still in the back of my friend’s garage (I think). Its on the east coast, if it was near you I’d say you can have it for parts. Its a cool little bike, reliable and easy to work on. Takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.
When you take the carbs off, check whether the manifolds (unifolds?) are cracked and dry rotted. You might need to replace them. You might want to replace the clamps with real hose clamps if they’re not in good shape. Make sure the screws that hold the choke plates on are tight, you don’t want them to come loose and get sucked into the engine!
Can you adjust the idle mixture? I forget whether I had to remove the caps or plugs on the idle mixture screws on that one.
I’ve read about the notorious carb cracking thing. It’s a rubber part that fails right? I haven’t checked mine out yet. We had dog park time this morning and now my paying job is demanding my time. I’ll try to get out there before dark to pull at least one carb. If not, it’ll be next weekend.
Oh, to answer your question, I’m pretty sure the engine is seized. I can’t get the kickstarter to move all the way.
I can hear you laughing now, but really, even if I can’t fix it I’ll still have fun tearing it apart.
I bought a 1978 Yamaha 650XS this summer for $100.00. Beautiful machine 14,000 miles. I have some history with the 650 Yamaha.
It took me weeks to figure out the problem with the bike. Someone had re-built it and set the cam chain 180 degrees off. It had great timing but it was 180 degrees off. I re-built the carbs a couple of times but it would not even pop with ether.
I switched the left coil to the right plug and visa-versa and BOOM boom booom boom. Got an engine. Or close to it. It still has some issues. And I think that the left cylinder right cylinder mix up is probably screwing up the advance. But, oh well. I’ ll get her running right next year.
Yeah, getting the cam timing right can be confusing on some overhead cam engines. If you get it wrong you might bend the valves when you try to turn the engine over.
Get a Clymer or Chilton manual, they’re usually much better than the factory manuals.
When you take the head off, be sure to tie a piece of string or wire through the camchain and attach it to the frame so the chain doesn’t fall down into the engine. You may want to replace the camchain tensioners while you’re at it, if they look worn. Bad things happen when camchains get too loose.
Y’know, I’ve never tried this, but it’s possible that you could get the engine unstuck by pouring some penetrating oil into the sparkplug holes and letting it sit for several days.
Yep - I got a clymer manual for the Yam650. I am dreading pulling that motor to rotate it 180 degrees. Not fun with out a garage. I live where it is winter 9 months out of the year, I really don’t no what I’m going to do with a bike but work on it.
Anywho - I think that rpinrd’s problem is a frozen cylinder. Could also be other problems.
Thanks for the advice guys. I’ve got a Clymer’s manual. I found the manual that covers the right years up to 250cc at a used bookstore, so I picked that up. It’s looking like I’ll need to order the correct manual on-line.
I’ve heard that penetrating oil trick before. I’m eager to try it.
As for the camchain tensioner, that seems to be the number one piece of advice out there, so I’ll definitely be doing that.
It should be a good machine to start on, the engine is simple enough.
The carbs may well be a real nuisance if the sliders are worn, if you can pick up a set from a wreck with low miles you might be doing yourself a favour.
One trick you might try on the carburetter manifolds is to use hand and nail conditioner lotion to make the rubber a bit more flexible.Unfortunately the combination of ozone and engine heat ages and embrittles it.
You might want to invest in a few JIS (Japanese Industry Standard) cross point screwdrivers. They are a little larger and blunter than the American Phillips. I was always stripping screw heads when I had Japanese bikes. An impact screwdriver was standard equipment for anybody who wrenched on them.
I’d recommend the 4" #2, at least. BTW, add another 4" to that size for the handle – I don’t know why but they just have the metal part listed. That 12" one is 16" long!
Don’t neglect the wiring – it’s old enough that the insulation is suspect anyplace it could wear. Be sure you have good ground connections, particularly to the headlight/front forks. Otherwise, current starts flowing through bearings, which can cause real problems with wear.
