1974 Honda XL350 - First Project Bike

APOS

New Member
Hey there.

New to the site and motorcycles in general. I have ridden dirt bikes on and off and hope to improve my knowledge and abilities with this project. I purchased this 74' Honda XL350 couple of months ago from the original owners out of California. I would like to do a simple tracker build to bring her back to life. I have enough tools to do the majority of the work myself at home, just lack the knowledge in areas of motorcycle resto (sourcing parts, mechanicals, etc). That being said I work in a body shop where I can do the paint work myself and any custom fiberglass.

Anyways, here is how she sits now. I welcome any recommendations on, well...anything. Thanks for looking!
 

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Lots of inherent wear items in the XL350 motor, Nice you have a decent start with most of the stock parts.

I would take it all the way down... bag and tag all the parts, clean as much as you can as you remove the parts and if budget allows search the home page for "RestoCycle" things like the carb and any aluminum parts you want to look better than new Niles can get it done.

Me and a few others are into the XL here so look around, you can get a lot of info :eek:
 
Good luck, I've got a 1972 xl250 I'm been very slowly working on as well, someday I'll get around to a build thread.


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Nice looking base. If you get rid of any parts (seat, taillight, etc) I'm interested.

Definitely look at the left side cover as they are magnesium and can become very corroded - the clutch actuator mechanism - check my XL thread for some examples of that. If you aren't planning on tearing down the motor, definitely clean the centrifugal oil filter - if it's badly gummed up then you may want to check on the health of the camshaft and journals. I'm in for the ride.


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adventurco said:
Nice looking base. If you get rid of any parts (seat, taillight, etc) I'm interested.

Definitely look at the left side cover as they are magnesium and can become very corroded - the clutch actuator mechanism - check my XL thread for some examples of that. If you aren't planning on tearing down the motor, definitely clean the centrifugal oil filter - if it's badly gummed up then you may want to check on the health of the camshaft and journals. I'm in for the ride.


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Are you familiar with the centrifugal filter? How is it disassembled past the snap ring?


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mitchn06 said:
Are you familiar with the centrifugal filter? How is it disassembled past the snap ring?


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It's SUPPOSED to pop right out. Mine was so caked in there with dirt and crud I ended up threading a bolt in there to pop it out. Which worked, but I ended up botching the inner sleeve on the crank and spent a few hours cleaning out metal shards. I destroyed the filter cover as well and had to source a new one.

I'm really not sure of a good way to remove it. I would try some heat and PB to soften the o-ring and you may be able to pull the whole assembly out with a hook of some sort. Terrible design if you ask me.


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I've taken a forked end on a slide hammer over the spring loaded insert and lightly tapped it off.
 
deviant said:
I've taken a forked end on a slide hammer over the spring loaded insert and lightly tapped it off.

We are talking about removing the bell AFTER slotted nut is removed right? if yes... both of mine popped right off with a little wiggle. you need the tool or make one:

s-l225.jpg
 
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