CL350 Junker Wrenching

Sorry to read about your wife, glad she's started to feel better now.

Yeah, I wouldn't concern myself about the scratches in cover. You would have to move a lot of material to repair that.

Spend that time making $ then just replace it later. Im sure you could pick up better pretty inexpensively.

OR a few heavy coats of high build primer, sand and paint it, same as Honda did. 8). That cover wont get so hot.

Personally, I would prefer a bent fin to a broken one. ;)
 
The fin isn’t just bent but cracked pretty badly from what I can see behind the bend. I’ll mull that one over. I got the new points on the bike today but had no time to set them. I also added a condenser once I realized I wasn’t getting anything on my meter. I walked the wire back to the starter solenoid right off the battery. I ordered one. These screws for the plate behind the points have just been mangled. I checked my hoard and not a thing that fit. I will pick up some hex heads tomorrow. I went ahead and put on the cover for the stator and spent the rest of my day fighting with a lousy Zama carb on a Stihl weed eater. I couldn’t believe the state of the air filter. Amazing.

I think, after some consideration, that I will go with the original triple tree clamps and just replace the one bent fork. It would certainly solve a great deal of fitment issues. I had a look online at some measurements and there are just tons of these for Chinese-made dirt bikes if I can’t find one in acceptable condition. Both the diameter and length seem right, as does the axle size. I’ll need to sort out the prodigious amount of rust and scum accumulated under the cover on the forks.

I also need to order another kickstart pedal. This one is made for a dirt bike, I believe. It seems too short and has too little leverage. So my next order of business is:
Starter solenoid
Set ignition timing
Check cam
Clean and true-up wheels and spokes
Clean and lube rear swing arm
Restore tach and odometer
Paint, paint, paint
 

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Things to consider beyond fork diameter, length, and axle diameter: axel length, brake mounting, brake spacing (for disks), speedometer mounting (for street bikes), fender mounting, spring and damping rates (sized to bike weight, rider weight, and type of riding). Probably others. Best to swap an entire front (triple, stem, forks, brakes, wheel or at least hub) or stay with repairing the original.

On my present build someone had swapped in wrong diameter forks (bad enough) that had leading axle giving way to little trail (unstable). They cobbled up some steel adapters to mount the original calipers and modified an axle to force a fit. Then to try and control the inevitable tank-slappers fom too little trail they weled on a steering damper. They did at least fit up a front fender from the donor bike. They also mounted the speedometer drive upside-down (haven't figured out why yet). I just swapped the entire front end to a GoldWing set that the calipers and wheel fit and happen to have the same stem dimensions. I'll still have instrument and light mounting issues, but have the donor bike components to help me work that out. If I had found original forks, I still would have been forced to replace the triples as they had spread the originals to accept 1mm larger diameter fork tubes. I had most of the GoldWing parts on-hand anyway.

Sometimes we just have to wait for the right parts to turn up.

Kind of like the fun of trying to fit a JD 216 48" deck to a 345. It can be done. Eventually.
 
Something I like to do is pull the timing advancer, disassemble, clean and lube.

I found they can usually use a little TLC.

Just be very careful, the small flat washers can be easily lost as they want to stick to things, and some are actually wave washers or concave lock washers acting as "springs" to keep moving parts snug so they dont wiggle around loosely.

Most important is to note the punch mark on the edge of the lobe for orientation. As the lobe can be turned around and re-installed 180degrees out. Makes for a frustrating time when your points open and close perfectly (backwards).

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For sure. You can see in the first picture how far the assembly was shifted counterclockwise. I’m sure that was giving the previous owner some headache. Based on the condition of the hardware he was going at it like he was trying to kill it. If I don’t get my starter solenoid in tomorrow (probably even if I do) I think I will reassemble the front end, pull the old tire off the bead and give that rim the once-over. I’d like to dig into it today, but something unexpected happened: I have the day off. It wasn’t by choice, unfortunately. I have a deep cold in my chest. I have worked the last 30 days. It wasn’t what I was expecting in a day off, but I sounded like a two-stroke on a steep hill yesterday. I didn’t sound any better today. I’ll kick it.


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Anyone know offhand what the size of the shaft is on the kickstart? I’m not at my shop or I’d just measure it. I can’t find a labeled part, but related Google searches makes me think it is 16mm.


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The parts fiche says the oil seal has an inside diameter of 14mm.

https://www.cmsnl.com/honda-cl350-general-export_model50698/partslist/0054.html#.W8TqGXtKiUk

#13 in the list, I think?
 
Thanks Sonreir. I actually meant 14mm and I’ll lay that at the feet of cough syrup. When I logged in today and reviewed the text of my post from last night it was a little...scattered. Codeine is an interesting thing. The doc says I have a touch of pneumonia, which startled me a little. That crept up on me and I hardly noticed. I know what you mean about the ragweed. SC is a storm of pollen of all types. During the spring the rain runoff looks like badly mixed Tang.


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It does do that, for sure. I didn’t really get to complete my efforts on the points today as I still haven’t picked up the mounting hardware...but one thought on this always leads to another. For cranking purposes, I really needed somewhere to put some switches and clutch, throttle etc...so that naturally brought up the front end. I have picked up two discarded forks and I think they are fit enough. I started wire-wheeling the triple-tree clamps so I could go ahead and paint them and I also decided I would go ahead and put the bearings, etc. back into place. Unfortunately, these bearings have seen better days. I can eyeball spots on them even after careful cleaning. I think I will replace them with the modern cylindrical bearings already in a sleeve. No reason to put something I know to be defective back into place. I did replace the starter solenoid and about a foot of wiring that was a little sketchy. To be honest, I could probably prune and replace the whole thing, but I hate to get ahead of myself. On the right cylinder, I pulled out the plug and glanced at it. It was new as could be on the business end. BR8ES. I bet that didn’t work out so well. I replaced it and the other with two matching B8ES. I would have done more, but that was enough to make me clammy. Ready to shake off this chest cold.


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Check the resistance on your plug wires. The BR8ES might be because someone's changed out the caps for a low resistance option.
 
I thought the same, Sonreir, but apparently that isn’t the case. B8ES would have been the right go-to. Someone just goofed a little.

I am still pretty sick. Apparently I came down with a touch of pneumonia. I took it very easy today and didn’t move around much, just doing some light work and not doing enough to break a sweat.

I am really happy with the results of the epoxy-based VHT. I banged around a little on the pieces I did yesterday and it seems pretty resilient. It’s no powder-coating, but it will certainly save the budget a bit. I started doing a handful of the pieces I planned on doing a cover-up on after carefully cleaning them.

I passed the right fork under my wire wheel. You can see a side-by-side with the untouched one. The accumulation of rust and scum is amazing. They are viable, but obviously marred. They are very much like the ones I took off, and were apparently victims of the sleeves used to mount the headlight. I’m on the fence about those. I could salvage them to be sure, but there might be a better alternative. Anyone do anything unique or unusual?

I was amused when I looked at the prices of points mounting hardware. The screws I had were hopelessly stripped. I could have snugged them up, I’m sure, but getting them off again would have been a trick. I thought to just order them but found the prices unrealistic. I went into the local Ace hardware and browsed the screws/bolts aisle. I found the solution in the drawer that was marked for Rifle parts. Even have the same head as the ones online. .69 cents each seemed reasonable enough. I even bought two extra because sometimes you just have to live a little.

Hopefully I will be back to productive work tomorrow.


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I bought over half of the fasteners on my last build (GL1000) from ACE. Our local store has a great metric assortment, and down on the end of the isles they have drawers of sleeves and various mounting/small power transmission etc. parts. Watch out using aerosols and putting dust in the air wire wheeling and such until your lungs are healed!
 
Yessir, I am wearing my respirator. I made some progress. I guess from all appearances I am going about things a little on the scattered side, but I’m definitely deliberate. I know how much I have to do in a day to be profitable and complete my work, and I know what I can do with the time I have left in a day to advance the fun things. So while I might not have time to pull off the rear swing arm, I might have time on that day to clean and paint the fork covers and also start on the front wheel. Part of this is a physical thing. I’m 42, so if I have a backache from laying on the ground working on a Toro’s deck that hit weed- concealed bricks...well, you take a lesser evil that day so the shop stays open tomorrow.

Amazing the difference a little steel wheel makes on the wheels. The far side of the wheel in the third pic is after the first pass. I thought this front wheel was spent, but after some scrutiny I think it might be ok. The spokes have rust, but I can knock off some with steel wool and a wire brush on my drill should take care of much of it. I think a black center hub and spokes might be required. If I should need to replace the wheel down the line I will. I think I will match the front and back tire sizes. I suppose the Scrambler aspect of this bike was the reason for the larger front wheel...or maybe some other reason that escapes me at the moment. I ordered new bearings and those should be here a Saturday. I might paint the tank on Saturday or Sunday as well. I need to experiment with the compressor and sprayer I have and see what kind of results I get.

Amazing the damage done on the cap to this fork. I’ve checked online and can’t seem to find a replacement without buying the fork. Maybe a grinder might touch it up? Not sure yet. The tires are long done but should be enough to stand it on while I work on some other things and try to decide what kind of tires are best. Forgot a pic of the fork sleeves, but there is always tomorrow.


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Solid headway today, especially regarding the bike’s electrical system. That light on my tester is gold, Jerry. Gold. I did a replacement of points, condenser, ignition coils, starter solenoid..and finally I see the light. I did a little more rust removal and painting today, again just to cover some ground when I had the time. Tomorrow, I’m planning on replacing the clutch cable and getting that cover back on. If time allows, I’ll remove the back wheel and get to work back there. Starting to feel like something. Not too worried about overspray on those dry-rotted tires. Made things move much faster.


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Made a little progress, but I should have slowed my roll yesterday and it showed today. Just dragging along still. Pulled off the back wheel and that was about all I had in me, even though I needed to clean my bench and do a degrease on the floor. It’s a shop, sure, but the Mrs. likes to come by and bring my lunch so I keep it tidy normally. The VHT paint worked well on the wheel. To be honest, that would be one thing other than the electrical system components I would replace right off the bat, but right now the medical industry owns me. They were fairly well preserved despite their lengthy mud-bath and I think they should be able to hold up fine for the moment. Masked up and shot the rear fender, which I’ll sand and recoat tomorrow if I get up. Yeah...under that pile is a motorcycle. It’s slowly coming together. I have it propped up on a jack by my “I’ll get around to it” shelves.


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