[luketrash]

I'll be picking this up tomorrow for my wife. I've only looked on ebay to get a feel for the cost and availability of key parts. Otherwise I'm completely wet behind the ears on this particular model of Honda.

My wife expressed interest in a small, unintimidating motorcycle that she could ride around on. I -almost- bought her a Honda CL100 single that I found at a swap meet last weekend, but the deal didn't go down.

This bike is better. It's bigger, much cheaper, and has highway travel potential.

I'm going to search the threads, but the immediate things I'm looking for info on is

-How to adjust the clutch. It was loose and the adjuster looks different than my CB350.
-Any plusses and minuses of these bikes and the engines. Stuff to look out for right away when shaking it down.

 

[Bikenoob]

I'm watching this. Picked up a '71 last year. This year my wife told me to buy a Goldwing so I could take her riding (I did), and she's making noises about learning herself. I had her sit on the 175 and she looks comfy on it...

 

[tbpmusic]

http://home.comcast.net/~tbpmusic6/CB125-CB175-CL125-CL175-1974.pdf

 

[luketrash]

Well it's here and it needs sundry parts before it'll run. Exhaust studs, clutch cable (on the way) and other things...

The former owner is bringing me a spare bike worth of parts. It looks nice, but someone has neglected her.

[youtube:2xllu0hc]_OYTFz5ggCo[/youtube:2xllu0hc]

It needs a new seat cover, but otherwise I think it's pretty.

 

[luketrash]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luketrash/4985607876/

A short video of it running once I went through the carburetors to verify they were complete. It must have some sort of Keyster rebuild parts installed. Everything that's brass looks new. The floats are nice and probably new as well.

Time to set the float height and get this beast idling right.

 

[tbpmusic]

I'll be picking this up tomorrow for my wife.

Darned good trade, I'd say...............'

(couldn't resist)

 

[jayel]

I'm watching this. Picked up a '71 last year. This year my wife told me to buy a Goldwing so I could take her riding (I did), and she's making noises about learning herself. I had her sit on the 175 and she looks comfy on it...

then she'll be joining a biker gang :lol:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... l-joy-ride

 

[HerrDeacon]

Darned good trade, I'd say...............'

(couldn't resist)

Took me a second to get it. Good one Bill. I'd make that trade for mine

 

[luketrash]

I'm watching this. Picked up a '71 last year. This year my wife told me to buy a Goldwing so I could take her riding (I did), and she's making noises about learning herself. I had her sit on the 175 and she looks comfy on it...

then she'll be joining a biker gang :lol:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... l-joy-ride

Oh jeez.. Well she's already in the two scooter clubs that exist in Iowa, but it appears to cater to a younger generation.

There's a few young women in Des Moines on vintage Honda twins, so hopefully once she starts riding a motorcycle she can get together and ride with them.

 

[luketrash]

Tonight it became immediately apparent that the previous owner had attempted to get the head cover off of the engine but didn't know about a hidden 10mm bolt under the engine mount.

On each side of said bolt are flathead screwdriver pry marks. And on both pry marks, the head cover gasket was broken and parts were missing.

Right hand side:

Left hand side which was leaking oil while the bike ran:

This is what the gasket looked like when I got it removed. And I didn't even break it.

Here's that bolt I was talking about. I have a 1/4" drive swivel 10mm socket which made it easy to get at.

I just used some gasket maker and am running the headcover on the bike with no gasket. I ebayed a new gasket and will install it later. But for the time being, no more oil leak.

 

[luketrash]

I got a NOS clutch cable off of ebay tonight. Nice!

However, the clutch actuation device hangs up. That or the pushrod for the clutch isn't pushing back hard enough. I think some critical component of the whole mechanism is probably missing. I'm finding all sorts of odds and ends that are screwed up. The front wheel axle castle nut was finger tight. Both fork clamp bolts were finger tight... The swing arm nut is missing.

The center stand/rear brake mounting points are loose from the frame somewhat...

All sorts of issues to work through, but I think I can tackle them. Today I found out that I get a whole other frame with a complete (including carbs) engine. I think I might need some of those parts! It came with a front and rear wheel as well.

Do any of you know what size the swingarm nut is? 14mm? Fine or coarse thread?

 

[luketrash]

I haven't updated this in a while. Over the winter nothing happened, because I'm allergic to the cold.

At the end of February, I got a free CL175 off of Craigslist. No gas tank or seat, but a lot of good stuff was there, including nice fenders, and exhaust heat shields. Little things I need. And bigger things I REALLY needed like the clutch adjuster inside a nice left engine cover.

It's a pity this bike was forgotten in a shed. The engine is locked, but it appears to have had low miles. The engine will live on, having donated parts to my wife's bike.

You can see the engine cover after I swapped it over to her bike. Also the heat shields are from the free bike as well.

 

[luketrash]

I posted this in the tips and tricks area, but I'll include it here as well. her fuel valve was leaking gas like a sieve because there was pitting in the pot metal.

Instead of throwing it out, I took a belt sander to the part until the pitting was gone.

The result is that the part is physically 'thinner' but it still functions. Also, no more leaks. Mission accomplished.

 

[luketrash]

Her bike wasn't always firing on both cylinders. The coil was original, and as you know, the wires crack and turn hard and brittle. It didn't help that both plugs were fouled (as I found out later.)

I bought this coil for a Vulcan 1500 on ebay because it was a dollar. Much cheaper than OEM, and I can replace plug wires whenever I want to. From the info I found online, the primary resistance is 4.2 ohms. The secondary resistance is 34.5k ohms.

I got the coil and it looked huge. However, it's almost identical in size to the OEM coil. In fact, the mounting holes are the same spacing! The only change I had to make to do this project was that I moved the horn down two inches to clear the wires coming out of the bottom of the coil. I adapted the factory wiring to spade connectors.

So far it's working fine and my plug wires are brand new instead of brittle.

 

[nigelrharris03]

Neat and cost effective solution good one

 

[luketrash]

I pulled compression numbers tonight after my friend brought over a 12mm thread adapter for me to use with the compression tester.

Right cylinder:

Left cylinder:

Not bad and well balanced. So my black smoke, and wet plug might be due to a bad head gasket and oil getting in or something...

 

[74shovel]

I'm not sure what the proper compression should be for this bike, but if the compression is up to specs and you are getting oil in the cylinder it usually means you have a bad valve seal. The seal is made of rubber so even if there are not a lot of miles on the bike the seals could be bad simply due to age. If you have a lot of miles on the bike it's possible the valve guides may be worn as well. My '74 450 has less than 800-miles on it but I'm changing the seals while I have the motor apart so I don't have tear it down again later.

 

[66Sprint]

IF those were cold compression pressures, you are probably JUST at minimum spec before replacing the rings (if read hot)..... IF they WERE read hot, you are very low.... Compression should be 170 PSI, with 153 being rebuild time....
That could explain the burning oil......You need to at least re-ring .....

 

[luketrash]

Really, it's that high for that engine?

I've been working with three bikes lately, the 175, a 350, and 650 so those numbers would be great on the 650

i'm going to chase down the chain clatter anyway, so the engine is coming apart at the top end. I've got the gasket kit to redo the head gasket up to the top of the engine. Hopefully all it needs are rings because I have two other engines that need bored over already.

The bike fires right off but runs badly and erratically. Lots of smoke too.

 

[66Sprint]

Yep....170 PSI is "normal" spec....I got 182 ish on a "fresh" rebuild.....