NDFettig
New Member
Hello everyone!
To make a long story short, I bought this '71 Honda CB350 near the end of summer in 2017 and I am finally able to dedicate more time and money to making this thing roadworthy. I bought it from an older gentleman who owned the bike since he was in high school, and while it had clearly seen better days it seemed like it was in decent mechanical condition. $400 and an hour later I backed it off the trailer and rolled it into the garage. Unfortunately, it's remained there with only a little bit of work done here and there.
This bike represents a lot of firsts for me: first motorcycle, first carbureted motor, and first points ignition system. I had been itching to own a classic for quite a few years but never could really justify spending a couple thousand dollars on a classic car--especially since I'd have to put even more money into parts at that kind of price. This Honda seemed like the perfect way to get into the nitty gritty of older vehicles while being on a budget (I've actually spent about as much on riding gear as I have on the bike itself!).
Here's the bike the day we brought it home. The picture is a little deceptive on its condition, but I think it was a pretty nice deal.
I immediately knew it was going to need tires before I took it out on the pavement. The tread depth is fine but the DOT date codes only had three digits, meaning they're likely from the '90s. I have a pair of IRC GS-11 tires, tubes, and rim strips waiting to be installed. I also (correctly) assumed that I was going to have to do some work on the wiring sometime in the future. After a winter in storage, the fuse would pop every time I switched the key on. It took me a while to figure out where the short was, but I narrowed it down to one of the power wires to the switches after ruling every other component on the bike.
While I had the bar switches apart for wiring repair I figured I would install the new bars at the same time so I only had to run the wiring once. It was kind of a pain in the ass since the repairs made the harness even thicker than it was before, but it's together and finally working properly.
That's about all of the work I was able to do on the bike for the summer. I went out and started it up a few times just to keep everything moving but for the most part it just sat in storage waiting for me to work on it. It's finally starting to be bearably warm in the garage now that it's "spring" in northern Michigan, so I spent a few hours looking over it and trying to fire it up again yesterday (emphasis on trying).
Here's where I'm currently at. Both spark plugs were wet when I pulled them so I believe I'm getting enough fuel, but the right cylinder has a very weak spark. I adjusted the valve lash and re-gapped the points but it still didn't want to fire. This next weekend I'm planning on throwing in a couple new spark plugs and verifying the ignition timing. Based on resistance measurements I don't think the problem is in the ignition coils. I'm getting ~4.5 ohms on the primary windings and just under 10k ohms when measuring from the ignition wire and either one of the smaller primary wires. There's no specs for the coils in my repair manual but it's in-spec according to some info I've found online. My carb float bowl seals and fuel lines are going to need some attention as well since I have a good amount of fuel seeping from them.
All in all I'm excited to finally be able to jump into this project on a bigger scale. My short-term plans after getting it to run again are to replace the tires, brake shoes, and wheel bearings, and to rebuild the carburetors so they no longer leak. There's a number of other little things that need to be done as well, but one step at a time. It's more important to me to get the thing running well and make sure all the things that keep me on top of the bike instead of on top of the asphalt are in good condition.
For long-term plans, I'd like to turn it into a brat style bike. I really like the more upright posture compared to the low handlebars of a traditional cafe racer, and building it like these bikes would allow me to have a passenger if I ever needed to. Here's a couple of inspiration images that are similar to what I'd like to build.
To make a long story short, I bought this '71 Honda CB350 near the end of summer in 2017 and I am finally able to dedicate more time and money to making this thing roadworthy. I bought it from an older gentleman who owned the bike since he was in high school, and while it had clearly seen better days it seemed like it was in decent mechanical condition. $400 and an hour later I backed it off the trailer and rolled it into the garage. Unfortunately, it's remained there with only a little bit of work done here and there.
This bike represents a lot of firsts for me: first motorcycle, first carbureted motor, and first points ignition system. I had been itching to own a classic for quite a few years but never could really justify spending a couple thousand dollars on a classic car--especially since I'd have to put even more money into parts at that kind of price. This Honda seemed like the perfect way to get into the nitty gritty of older vehicles while being on a budget (I've actually spent about as much on riding gear as I have on the bike itself!).
Here's the bike the day we brought it home. The picture is a little deceptive on its condition, but I think it was a pretty nice deal.
I immediately knew it was going to need tires before I took it out on the pavement. The tread depth is fine but the DOT date codes only had three digits, meaning they're likely from the '90s. I have a pair of IRC GS-11 tires, tubes, and rim strips waiting to be installed. I also (correctly) assumed that I was going to have to do some work on the wiring sometime in the future. After a winter in storage, the fuse would pop every time I switched the key on. It took me a while to figure out where the short was, but I narrowed it down to one of the power wires to the switches after ruling every other component on the bike.
While I had the bar switches apart for wiring repair I figured I would install the new bars at the same time so I only had to run the wiring once. It was kind of a pain in the ass since the repairs made the harness even thicker than it was before, but it's together and finally working properly.
That's about all of the work I was able to do on the bike for the summer. I went out and started it up a few times just to keep everything moving but for the most part it just sat in storage waiting for me to work on it. It's finally starting to be bearably warm in the garage now that it's "spring" in northern Michigan, so I spent a few hours looking over it and trying to fire it up again yesterday (emphasis on trying).
Here's where I'm currently at. Both spark plugs were wet when I pulled them so I believe I'm getting enough fuel, but the right cylinder has a very weak spark. I adjusted the valve lash and re-gapped the points but it still didn't want to fire. This next weekend I'm planning on throwing in a couple new spark plugs and verifying the ignition timing. Based on resistance measurements I don't think the problem is in the ignition coils. I'm getting ~4.5 ohms on the primary windings and just under 10k ohms when measuring from the ignition wire and either one of the smaller primary wires. There's no specs for the coils in my repair manual but it's in-spec according to some info I've found online. My carb float bowl seals and fuel lines are going to need some attention as well since I have a good amount of fuel seeping from them.
All in all I'm excited to finally be able to jump into this project on a bigger scale. My short-term plans after getting it to run again are to replace the tires, brake shoes, and wheel bearings, and to rebuild the carburetors so they no longer leak. There's a number of other little things that need to be done as well, but one step at a time. It's more important to me to get the thing running well and make sure all the things that keep me on top of the bike instead of on top of the asphalt are in good condition.
For long-term plans, I'd like to turn it into a brat style bike. I really like the more upright posture compared to the low handlebars of a traditional cafe racer, and building it like these bikes would allow me to have a passenger if I ever needed to. Here's a couple of inspiration images that are similar to what I'd like to build.