Wife's CL175 - How do I remove old tanker sealer?

dean owens

Pittsboro, NC
Well Fellas,


Two weeks ago I posted this thread sharing that I might have accidentally bought my wife a bike. I've failed to take pictures but I have some from the previous owner. My wife isn't too into cafes, bobbers, or choppers. The goal here is simply to get everything cleaned up and running. Most likely, it'll be sold. So no major modifications. Here's what she looked like fresh after a wash at the previous owner's house.
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How many miles you might ask?
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Right now I'm working on getting the carbs off so I can drop them in the ultrasonic cleaner. Here's where I am.
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How to I get the throttle cables out of the carbs to get them off?
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The manual I have says "The carburetor can be removed after removal of the throttle valve." But it gives no direction on how to do that. Anyone have any guidance?


Next up is to figure out if I want to do anything with the tank. Apparently the PO lined the inside of the tank. I've never dealt with tank liner. How does this look?
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I'm adding a To Do List here so I have a place to keep track of what I have done and need to do.


To Do:
  • Clean carbs
  • Repair/replace floats
  • Get a battery (Got one from Battery Plus. Said there wasn't an AGM for this size battery so I had to get a wet cell.)
  • Oil filter and oil change
  • In-line fuel filter
  • Lubricate cables
  • Clean/polish rusted parts... specifically chromed parts
  • New tires & tubes

If you guys see anything else I'm missing, let me know.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Well for starters those are mikuni VM carbs ya got there so the manual isnt much help. The cable is attached directly to the slide, unscrew the top and pull the whole thing out. the rest should become obvious. Very cool little scoot ya got there, dont sell it.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

That's good bike to learn on as well as putz around on in the future. Always a good idea to have a spare bike for those instances when you are working on your primary ride either due to maintenance, repair, or fabrication. :D
 
Re: Wife's CL175

ProSimex said:
Well for starters those are mikuni VM carbs ya got there so the manual isnt much help.
The picture wasn't the greatest... they say Keihin on the side. As I understand it, I'm the third owner of the bike. The previous owners didn't do any modifications to the bike.

ProSimex said:
The cable is attached directly to the slide, unscrew the top and pull the whole thing out. the rest should become obvious.
That did it. I was just afraid to go pulling since I didn't know what it was attached to. The throttle side was a pain to get out. I've been cleaning them in the ultrasonic cleaner. Still have some more cleaning to do. As to being obvious... these are pretty simple carbs.

ProSimex said:
Very cool little scoot ya got there, dont sell it.
Thank ya. I'll do my best to hold on to it. We'll just have to wait and see.

MNBikerPup said:
That's good bike to learn on as well as putz around on in the future. Always a good idea to have a spare bike for those instances when you are working on your primary ride either due to maintenance, repair, or fabrication.
Couldn't agree more. We'll just have too see how much my wife really likes the bike when it's done :)
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Cool project man. The carbs should also have a number stamped on that top cap. I think it was 18 for the CL175's?
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Yesterday and today have been devoted to carb cleaning. I knew they would need cleaning but I had no idea they would be as nasty as they were. Here are the slides. The left side came out pretty easily.
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But the throttle side didn't want to budge. Found out why.
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Now comes the inner beauty of the carbs.
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They're not far from being finished. But I'm out of time and have to pack it all up and wait until next weekend. I'll post a picture of the finished product.


I have run into a bit of a problem though. Turns out that both of my floats have one side that has a few pin holes. I think I've read about people soldering them. Has anyone had any luck doing that? Any tips?


Still wondering what y'all's thoughts are on the gas tank.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Those are some pretty nasty carbs. LOL Will look nice when all polished up.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

I can't offer any real help, but my carbs were pretty nasty as well. For me it was easier to buy new Vm20's and just make new mounts for them......


What are your concerns with the tank? The coating inside? Could try just running an inline filter and keep an extra one handy.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

yeah, i'm wondering about the coating. since i've never dealt with any sorta tank coating i don't know if it's done right... or any good. i do know there was stuff that looked an awful lot like it all in the float bowls and even a thinner concentration of it in at least one of the floats. i will definitely be using fuel filters after going through the cleaning i'm doing. didn't know if it'd be enough. i will say, when i poured the gas out of the tank it didn't look milky. it looked like gas. so maybe it's fine. i'm just wondering.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Carbs are getting there. I think I might have fixed the floats. I'm going to submerge them for a while and see how they do. I'm still tempted to just get some new ones. They're about $30.00 each.

On tap for this weekend...
- Oil change
- New battery
- Finish up the carbs. This is part of my float dilemma. I can't get new floats until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

I do have a question about the oil change for those that have this bike. I'm looking through the manuel and I can't see anything that looks like a normal oil filter. Is the filter on these reusable? Is it pretty self explanatory once I open it up? Any advice?
 
Re: Wife's CL175

dean owens said:
Carbs are getting there. I think I might have fixed the floats. I'm going to submerge them for a while and see how they do. I'm still tempted to just get some new ones. They're about $30.00 each.

On tap for this weekend...
- Oil change
- New battery
- Finish up the carbs. This is part of my float dilemma. I can't get new floats until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

I do have a question about the oil change for those that have this bike. I'm looking through the manuel and I can't see anything that looks like a normal oil filter. Is the filter on these reusable? Is it pretty self explanatory once I open it up? Any advice?

I believe that this bike uses a centrifugal oil filter in the pump... Look in the manual for info relating to the oil pump and then you should probably find it.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

The bike has a centrifugal oil filter. Yes it is reusable. I think the manual says to clean it with gasoline. On the left side of the bike I think. It's a small round cover with three screws holding it on. It pulls straight off and there is a rubber gasket, so be careful. I think the cover to the filter just pulls straight off and then you have to unscrew the filter. Double check the manual regarding the oil filter disassembly. I don't think it tells you in detail how to do it under the maintenance section.

Great looking bike. I am currently working in a 71' cb175. Keep us update and keep asking questions. I'll do my best to help. If you need the service manual, I have a PDF of it.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Thanks for the replies guys. That helps confirm what I was thinking. And thanks for the PDF offer. I have one that looks like it's an "official" shop manuel and it's horrible. The guy I bought the bike from has a Clymer's manual that is on it's way to me. I should be good with the two of them together.

Do have a few other questions I've been rattling around in my head.
- For the battery I'm planning on just going to Auto Zone. Should I be looking somewhere else? Looks like I'll spend about $40.00 there for a battery. Can't imagine I'd get one much cheaper somewhere else.

Now for the biggie... I need some tire help. How does (hope my memory is correct) 3.00-18 front and 3.50-18 rear translate into modern tire designations? I've tried to look around for tires to figure out how much to set aside and I'm not finding any info that I'm feeling comfortable with. Also, is there anything I need to know when buying an inner tube? I've never had spoked rims before so I'm pretty clueless. Lastly, any brand/models you'd suggest? In my mind this bike will have 1 of 3 futures.
--- Wife digs it and wants to keep it (keeping the fingers crossed)
--- It supports my big rear end and I can ride it to work every now and then
--- It gets sold once I finish and Spring comes around
I don't need support sporty tires. Just good, solid, economical tires.

Thanks for the help. Oh, and adriannarnold, you should work the feather into your build somehow :)
 
Re: Wife's CL175

According to the manual tire specs:
If your vin is: 1000001~ (K0): then its 2.5 front and 2.75 rear
If your vin is: 4000001~ or 5000001~ (K3,K4): then it a 3.00-18 front and rear


I have found my battery's previously at a place called Batteries Plus. Just a battery shop. I think they are about $35 average


As far as I know for your spoked rims, just make sure you have some rim tape to cover the spokes. I think on my last build I just did a layer or two of duct tape. Seemed to work fine


Big Rich suggested Pirelli's on my build. I haven't got to the point of purchasing them yet, but he knows his stuff. I like Bridgstone Spitfires, and I had Shinko 244's on my cb350 and they were fine, but the Spitfires were much better feeling.
Hopefully someone else pipes in
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Yeah, I think the '72 is a K6. I think I remember the numbers on my tires not matching the numbers in my manuel. I just chalked it up to the manuel not having the newer numbers. Guess the PO could have put the wrong tires on?

Regardless, what does a 3.00-18 translate to? I can't seem to find any tires that are marked like that. They're like 90/90-18. What should I be looking for? Is there a conversion chart anywhere?
 
Re: Wife's CL175

Hey Dean,
Yeah those numbers confuse the crap out of me too. Somebody on here knows. If I am not mistaken I think it is 100/90/18. I will try and remember to check my tires tomorrow for you and see if I can find any markings.


Right now I am running a 3.00-18 on both the front and rear and instead of a 2.75 on the front. (Thats what the bike came with) It feels fine to me. I would like to put maybe a 3.25-18 on the rear if there is such a thing.
 
Re: Wife's CL175

adriannarnold said:
Right now I am running a 3.00-18 on both the front and rear and instead of a 2.75 on the front. (Thats what the bike came with) It feels fine to me. I would like to put maybe a 3.25-18 on the rear if there is such a thing.
Just checked and the tires read
front - 3.00-18
rear - 3.25-18
so there was a 3.25-18 at one point in time :)
 
Re: Wife's CL175

I'm a little frustrated.

I'm giving the carbs a final cleaning. Went and got new fuel line and filters. Decided to open the petcock and see if it needed a cleaning. Boy does it. At this point I'm wondering if I should go full out and get a rebuild kit for it since I have it apart to clean it. It was leaking a little gas when I turned it from on to off but not enough for me to worry about it. But now that it's opened...

Then I decided to do something I hadn't thought to do up to this point. I started looking around in the gas tank to see if the sealer up to par. When I started looking down deep it wasn't looking so hot. I got a long screwdriver to just poke around a bit. Turns out the stuff at the bottom of the tank is all wrinkled up and not attached to the tank anymore. It moved round quite freely. I do not want to go through the hassle of cleaning the carbs just to have some old sealer make it's way to them.

So here's my question(s):
Does it sound like I need to remove the sealer? (The gas that was in there is rotten)
If so, what have you guys found works best for removing tank sealer?
 
Under the small, round cover with 3 screws on the left side of the crankcase there's a centrifugal oil sludge seperater.
It pulls out with a long M8 bolt for cleaning I think.
 
CXPHREAK said:
Under the small, round cover with 3 screws on the left side of the crankcase there's a centrifugal oil sludge seperater.
It pulls out with a long M8 bolt for cleaning I think.
Thanks. I have the oil drained. I just need to get to the oil filter... the screws are stuck. Thankfully my neighbor has one of these.
Screwdriver%20Impact.jpg

I should get it from him tomorrow and get to the oil filter on Tuesday.
 
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