[tbus227]

I bought this bike about 1 month ago. It's a 1972 cl350. I took it to a friend of mine and he adjusted the timing, valves, points, syncronized the carbs, and installed a new throttle cable. The bike is in pretty good condition and it runs great. What else should I do to it as far changing out old parts? It has 3000 original miles on it, but it was sitting for quite a long time. If it's running fine, should I just leave it alone or should I change out older parts with newer ones if I can? (bearings, cables, etc..) Also, the original gas tank has an 1/8 inch hole in one corner. Is there any way for me to patch it? I have the tank and seat off of a cb350 on there now but I'd like to put the original stuff back on. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[RicH2]

Just some thoughts....

Old tires dry-rot. You might want to get new rubber on the wheels.
Take a long look at the condition of the chain as well.
Air filter.
Old cables will leave you stranded.
New bearings all around the chassis will make it ride better: wheels, steering head, the swing arm if it's slopppy.
Change out the fork oil.
Check for fork oil seal leaks.
New rear shocks.

The tank hole can be repaired but I'll refer that to any experts here to chime in on.

 

[MNellis]

Even more important than looking at the cam chain (it's tough to tell if they are worn) is to check out the cam chain rollers. You can see them if you remove the cam chain tensioner. If they are mangled up (most are) then they need to be replaced.

 

[fxray]

You should also replace the brake shoes front and rear. My front brakes looked like new on my old barn bike CL350, so I kept them as I was redoing the front end. When I pulled out the brake panel from the back wheel, one of the linings fell off its shoe. It had delaminated. The other one was hanging on by a thread (of asbestos). That scared me enough that I not only used new shoes in the back, I pulled the front wheel again and replaced them too. No sense having a wheel lock up at 70 mph!