1970 CL350 Project

its hard to say really. i was clueless about motorcycles before i got my 350. ive learned a lot by error but i use my bike daily and have never been able to break it down. i have come a long way but i probably wouldnt jump into the engine myself with my mechanical skill. but seeing how you already have your bike apart i would tackle the engine. my bike is almost where i want it cosmetically but still runs "eehh" it definitely gets me from point a to b but my carbs guts are a bit shot and really just need to be replaced. all this to say, tackle what you can with the depend ability of the bike first. then in between when you're low on cash work on the looks since that is fairly cheap. i just started really getting the bike on track and its been over a year. slow and steady.
 
ffjmoore said:
What are you intentions for this bike? that will help you determine what to do next. You can always remove un wanted brackets from the frame. Are you going to get new spokes and rimes or polish up what you have. Likely going to need new bearings. Try getting out the old ones, thats always fun. Have you bought new bearings for the steering head?


As for the motor i would pull the jugs off and see how bad they are. If your going to get new pistons you may want to go at least .25 over. I would also have a look at my cam chain tensioner. You may want to replace the cam chain. I doubt its new and they are not to expensive. Hate to open it back up just to replace it later. Also might want to buy a set of oil seals for the motor they almost always leak after the bike has been sitting for so long. There is more you can do but it just depends on how deep you want to go.
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Great info! As for the engine I was planning on replacing at least the piston rings and putting a new gasket set on. This might sound ignorant, but do I just buy standard size piston rings or .25? As for the wheels I was planning on polishing everything up and seeing how it turns out. I had thought about putting a new set of spokes on the bike but if I can get the ones I have looking good will they do me just fine? Thanks
 
pistons match the bore which matches the piston rings. So if you bore to .25 over then you need .25 over rings and .25 over pistons.
 
You pull the cylinders off the motor and inspect the inside. If its immaculate and low miles (highly unlikely for a bike this old) you might be able to hone and use the same pistons with new rings. Most likely you will need to bore the cylinders to make the walls smooth again. That remove material and makes tho holes bigger so you then need bigger pistons to fill the hole. So what yo do is buy the next size up piston, they go in .25 increments, and the machinist will bore the holes to the correct size for your piston. Does that make sense?
 
ffjmoore said:
You pull the cylinders off the motor and inspect the inside. If its immaculate and low miles (highly unlikely for a bike this old) you might be able to hone and use the same pistons with new rings. Most likely you will need to bore the cylinders to make the walls smooth again. That remove material and makes tho holes bigger so you then need bigger pistons to fill the hole. So what yo do is buy the next size up piston, they go in .25 increments, and the machinist will bore the holes to the correct size for your piston. Does that make sense?
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Absolutely, thanks man! My bike had 18,000 miles on it when I got it, so I assume that isn't "low mileage". I was told I could just get the head cleaned out/blasted by a shop locally and be in good shape with rings. What would you do?
 
It all depends on how much you are willing to spend and how sure you want to be that your bike is reliable. One way to tell if you will be ok with the rings you have is to do a compression test before you pull it apart. Who told you to take it apart only to blast the head and put it back together is wasting your time. Why pull it apart. The reason you take a motor apart is to replace broken parts and to make it have better compression, thats what makes a motor work, compression, so if you take it apart you might want to give some attention to that. The head, you may be able to just clean up but again if you care you might have the machine shop do a valve job (increases compression) and have them check your guides to see if they are within spec. There is a lot that can be done. Sounds like what you need to do is take the motor apart and find out what needs work. Take the cylinders and head to a macine shop and get a professional opinion from somebody who can actually see and feel what your working with. That in my opinion is the best way to find out what needs to be done.


Now you asked what would i do.. Well i am starting to rebuild my 550 motor. I am replacing everything that needs replacing. The head was ported and i had a valve job but the guides were ok. New pistons ( big bore) new rings,camchain,primarychain, oil seals, clutch, camchain tensioner and guide, bla bla bla i totaled my cost and with the machining im up around $1500. :eek:


Now i dont suggest that for your 350 but open that puppy up and find out what needs fixing. Why did it not run in the first place?
 
ffjmoore said:
It all depends on how much you are willing to spend and how sure you want to be that your bike is reliable. One way to tell if you will be ok with the rings you have is to do a compression test before you pull it apart. Who told you to take it apart only to blast the head and put it back together is wasting your time. Why pull it apart. The reason you take a motor apart is to replace broken parts and to make it have better compression, thats what makes a motor work, compression, so if you take it apart you might want to give some attention to that. The head, you may be able to just clean up but again if you care you might have the machine shop do a valve job (increases compression) and have them check your guides to see if they are within spec. There is a lot that can be done. Sounds like what you need to do is take the motor apart and find out what needs work. Take the cylinders and head to a macine shop and get a professional opinion from somebody who can actually see and feel what your working with. That in my opinion is the best way to find out what needs to be done.


Now you asked what would i do.. Well i am starting to rebuild my 550 motor. I am replacing everything that needs replacing. The head was ported and i had a valve job but the guides were ok. New pistons ( big bore) new rings,camchain,primarychain, oil seals, clutch, camchain tensioner and guide, bla bla bla i totaled my cost and with the machining im up around $1500. :eek:


Now i dont suggest that for your 350 but open that puppy up and find out what needs fixing. Why did it not run in the first place?
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That is the mystery of it all! Picked it up from a guy who inherited the bike, so no idea why it didn't run. It turns over nicely and seems to have decent compression on both cylinders but once we get it open we can see what we are really dealing with like you said! Can't wait it will be my first engine build.
 
Then why open it up? Just try and get it to run as is. Clean the carbs, put new plugs in and try to fire it up. I have picked up bikes like that cleaned the carbs and rode them for a while with no problems.
 
ffjmoore said:
Then why open it up? Just try and get it to run as is. Clean the carbs, put new plugs in and try to fire it up. I have picked up bikes like that cleaned the carbs and rode them for a while with no problems.
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To be honest I just assumed since I was doing a complete build I would replace common parts that wear over time to give the engine a little more longevity. I have new carbs I'm ordering for the bike along with everything else over time. I figured for now I would get the wheels done, new tires, clean up the brakes, forks, paint forks and brakes, then get an idea of what needs to happen with my tank and seat (build a seatpan, any other frame mod), next send the frame to powdercoat or paint myself, build rearsets, new bars, paint tank...etc


I figured while I had all of those things to do, maintenance on the engine could be happening simultaneously. By the way the engine on your bike looks great! what is the best way to clean it on the outside (especially the fins seem difficult)? And cleaning internal parts? (Carb cleaner)?
 
If i were you i would just clean up the outside and see if it will run. It doesnt look like it had any bad oil leaks. I would use a green scrub pad and some simple green to clean it up and then i would hit the whole thing with some silver engine paint and then trow it back in the frame and call it good.
 
yeah my compression was good as well so i wouldnt do to much if you dont have to. since you have some pieces off i would throw in the new gaskets and be done with it. the only "engine issue" i have is a small very slow leak not worth pulling the engine apart for. theses engines are as simple as they come with few moving parts to really mess up internally. i just deal better with cars. plus it was made by honda. if it wasn't beaten down chances are the engine will be fine. as for cleaning it. there are a lot of different sand paper numbers so to keep it simple grab about four different kinds. start with the roughest and go down to the smoothest. grab one of these bits below if you have a drill and hit the tough to reach spots with that. pick up a mothers polishing ball and go to town. dont paint aluminum until you know it cant be salvaged. not that there is anything wrong with guys that do that but thats after the bike is together and they know the final look they want. it loses something with everything is just painted with no elbow grease put in.
 

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I have two words for you guys.. SIMPLE GREEN. This stuff is doing work on my engine. It has rolled back about 15 years I do believe. Its starting to look pretty good, but wondering what you guys would suggest for the fins??


The fins seem almost impossible to clean up on the inside.
 
quote fromt the ebay link


"If you are unsure of fitment for your bike, please feel free to ask us! Local customers, please feel free to stop in and have them installed."
 
nice, yeah i used some stuff in a spray can but would defintely use this stuff next time. it worked but took forever and was way to much money. let us know how it goes.
 
framework

It was sunny and quite warm today in Georgia, so I decided to finally tackle the frame. I have heard that aircraft stripper works better with some sunshine to to almost cook the paint off.

After 10-15 minutes I used a wire brush to scrape off the paint. Worked pretty well, but decided a second coat was needed. So I repeated.






Here is the result after using the aircraft stripper twice and rinsing. I am pretty satisfied with the outcome. I do plan on hitting the frame with the wire wheel attachment I have for my drill to take care of surface rust.


 
Looks good. What color scheme are you going for? Some advice, dont rattle can the frame. Even if you use excellent primer, it still scratches like nothing. I ended up stripping it 3 times before i decided to have it sprayed :-\ It would be too soon if i never had to work with paint stripper again haha.
 
MrMister said:
Looks good. What color scheme are you going for? Some advice, dont rattle can the frame. Even if you use excellent primer, it still scratches like nothing. I ended up stripping it 3 times before i decided to have it sprayed :-\ It would be too soon if i never had to work with paint stripper again haha.
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I'm thinking a black and gold bike. The frame will probably be dark gray. Gray not silver lol. But, I will most likely be priming the frame myself with the rattle can and having it sprayed at a local body shop.
 
Alright gents need some advice...


Not sure what length rear shock to run on the bike? I would like to order them today since I just put a dent on the AMEX on all the random parts needed to make this thing a roller. I am running a 120/90-18 rear tire.
 
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