Bobby Clarke - 1978 Honda XL250s

[HerrDeacon]

Re: 1978 Honda XL250s - Semi-Restoration

May have gotten lucky, buddy of mine said his puller for his KLR650 may use the same size, hopefully. Need to save money where I can.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Re: 1978 Honda XL250s - Semi-Restoration

Buddy dropped by and KLR puller fit fine, got the rotor off and will open up the bottom end over the next day or two. Saved me $20 and a week of waiting for it to arrive.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Re: 1978 Honda XL250s - Semi-Restoration

Got the alternator off and prepped the cases for splitting, will try that tomorrow lunchtime. With the alternator off I now see the reason it won't shift, half of the rear balancer sprocket is totally sheared off and looks to be jammed in the transmission. Just hope it never damaged anything else in there, but fear it has.

One positive is I think I found the source of the small bit of aluminum I found in the oil, seems the cam chain was hungry and ate a bit of the case. Not much but enough to account for the aluminum I found.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Re: 1978 Honda XL250s - Semi-Restoration

Opened it up lunchtime and greeted with a mangled rear balancer sprocket and transmission, everything else appears to be in good shape but will take a closer look at everything when I go through it. Looks like two sets of gears took the brunt of the damage. So, when I get some cash I'll have to start looking for a new transmission, balancer assembly, piston, engine seals and set of gaskets. In the meantime, we'll get everything cleaned up and ready to go.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Re: 1978 Honda XL250s - Bobby Clarke

With the number of teeth I found at the bottom, I'm going to have to start calling this bike Bobby Clarke and now I have a colour scheme

 

[HerrDeacon]

We finished stripping everything off the frame tonight. For now we left the handle bars and wheels on so that we can move it around easier. We'll take it outdoors tomorrow and wash it, then strip the rest of it off. We'll then take our time prepping and painting the individual pieces. Have some of the necessary engine parts on order, but will still need a lot of parts for the rest of the bike, like lights, controls, cables, etc. Recent purchases have tapped me out though, so may take a while to pick those things up.

 

[Mcgoo]

Fingers crossed! Good luck with this one!

 

[HerrDeacon]

Used transmission and balancer assembly arrived in the mail yesterday, both look good. Need to order new oil seals and a piston and I'm hoping that will be it for the engine. I have the upper engine case prepped for paint and now working on the lower, hope to have it all painted and ready for when the seals arrive.

 

[woodsv]

Nice project you have going on. I know a guy in town that has an XL frame with parts on it that he is selling. Hes also one of those guys that knows where to find whatever you happen to be looking for. PM me if you want his contact info. Good luck with the bike!

 

[HerrDeacon]

Thanks man, I'll let you know if I need anything. As of now I think I'm good but I'm sure some things will come up as I progress through the build.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Happy day today, got the bike transferred over to me. Was a bit touch-and-go since the bike was never registered before and she seemed a bit leery. In the end, she gave in and I just had to sign an affidavit and she is now mine. Now I don't mind investing time and money into the project knowing it is mine and I can get it registered for the road when I'm done.

 

[Maritime]

Happy day today, got the bike transferred over to me. Was a bit touch-and-go since the bike was never registered before and she seemed a bit leery. In the end, she gave in and I just had to sign an affidavit and she is now mine. Now I don't mind investing time and money into the project knowing it is mine and I can get it registered for the road when I'm done.

Good deal, nothing worse then putting time into something and not being able to register it. Becomes a very expensive parts bike.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Yeah, I hear you. I was going to fix it up regardless to get it running and such, but if I couldn't register it I would have just cleaned it up enough to sell as a dirt bike and get rid of it. Now I can make it a fully streetable bike and rebuild it to suit me. Big weight off my shoulders for sure.

 

[HerrDeacon]

My son is done with school for the summer so we started in on cleaning up and prepping some parts for paint. Have the swingarm totally stripped and also gave the frame a good wash. We washed it before but it was still a mess, its good now so we hope to get it ready for paint this week.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Started in on the shocks yesterday. First task was taking them apart which went pretty easily with my homemade spring compressor.

 

[HerrDeacon]

We also have the frame stripped and primed. Wasn't going to fully strip the paint off the frame at first but glad we did since we found a crack on the rear lower engine mount. Have it all welded up now so hopefully its good to go. Will keep an eye on it if this bike ever sees action

 

[samsquantch]

The XLs are singles right? What's the deal with the dual exhaust?

 

[HerrDeacon]

That's because the engine creates sooooo much power that they had to add an extra pipe just to handle it

Actually, I don't really know the benefits (if any) of a dual pipe setup on a single cylinder. From the little that I've read its supposed to give a bit better low end torque. I've seen it on a couple of other bikes as well.

 

[Brodie]

The XLs are singles right? What's the deal with the dual exhaust?

The XLS has dual valves. Hence two exhaust ports so two pipes.
Supposed to help with intake and exhaust flow.

 

[HerrDeacon]

Have the fiberglass put down and have it about 80% smoothed out. I've started designing the bracket that will support it as well but that is going to take some time to make since I'm very green in this area. I'm first going to build a prototype out of some scrap metal I have laying around just so I can test it out before buying the real metal.

Ignore the cutouts for the clipons, I can't fully shape them until I actually have the fairing mounted and I can see how large they'll need to be.