'65 Honda Trail 90 Rebuild - Filed under 'cables'

Rectifier, brake cables, carburetor, and front fork brackets

It's getting hard to squeeze time for this project in between work and family obligations. Tonight was just half an hour after dinner dedicated to:

Pulling the rectifier (a small box that converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC)) and it's associated bracket and wires
Removing the security lock that locks the front forks into position
Yanking the speedometer cable, front and rear brake cables, and throttle cable
Removing the carburetor from the engine

The front end of the bike is now ready to be detached altogether. Before I can do that, I need to pull the engine. Before I can do that, I really need a lift of some sort so that I'm not crawling around on the garage floor. Real motorcycle lifts are expensive but my Dad has a solution at his metal fab shop: a flat lifting table that is big enough for a small-bike project like this. It lifts to waist height and will provide the perfect surface to remove the engine, front forks, wheels, and eventually rebuild the engine itself:

After all of mucking with filthy old parts, it was nice to get the first new part in the mail today. It's a new gas cap for the eventually-refinished gas tank. It's a genuine Honda part, no less!

It fit like a charm, and it was nice to touch something during this project that didn't smell foul or crunch before disintegrating. Speaking of which, here are the shots of the parts I removed today...

Click here to download:

Rectifier_brake_cables_carbure.zip (5161 KB)

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Filed under // brackets brake cables carburator carburetor fork Honda 90 lock rectifier

Comments [1]

Throttle and entire handlebar assembly removed

Today I disconnected the throttle and removed the entire handlebar assembly. It's looking less like a motorcycle every day. The cables are definitely all going to require replacements. This was also a reminder that when I last worked on this engine back in 1984, I broke the throttle cable retainer. I wedged the two broken pieces into the handlebar tube to get by, but it was a short term fix. Back then, there was no worldwide web for average people to use, and certainly no eBay nor Craigslist. A replacement is < $5 on eBay, which would have been nearly impossible to find back in the 80s.

Dad is now clued into the project. It was going to be a surprise, but it'll be more fun to have him helping with it. And as you can see from the bars below, his expertise in metal fabrication will help when it comes to refinishing chrome surfaces like the handlebars.