'65 Honda Trail 90 Rebuild

45 years after it left the showroom, a 1965 Honda CT200 just might ride again.

New points, a clean chamber, and a stuck valve

Spent a little time in the garage with Dad tonight before the UFC PPV fight. Was good to have a second set of hands to help loosen the screws holding the ignition points. They were very easy to replace with a much cleaner set that I bought. The new ones theoretically have only a few dozen miles on them. Here are the old, and then the new.

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Cleaning the creosote off the interior of the cylinder was easier than I expected. I used brake parts cleaner based upon a recommendation from John Ryland over at Classified Moto.  Great recommendation, as it cuts right through most anything. Here's a before and after of the top of the chamber with just a few minutes' work. 

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I'll finish that cleaning tomorrow. Good news is that I found a complete new gasket set that I forgot having bought, so I can get the head back onto the motor quickly. The bad news is that when I went to test the valves, the intake actuates OK, but the exhaust seemed stuck. I'll work on that a bit tomorrow too, but I was optimistically hoping to not have to deal with stuck valves. With 25 years passing since the last time this motor fired, I shouldn't be surprised with a stuck valve.

A year gone by, time to get back at it.

It's hard to believe that I let over a year go by since doing anythign on this project. My last post was back in October of 2010, and that was the first in months. So what's the hold up? In a word: work. I'm rejoined the ranks of a team and project that I love (Xbox), so it's easy to let all of my extra time that doesn't go to family funnel into work. While that may sound like a bad thing, I actually consider myself incredibly lucky to work on a project that I love with people that I enjoy working with.

Balance is important, though, and hobbies like this project are an important thing to balance in. With the holiday coming up, I'm hoping to get back into the project more regularly. Ideally, I'd like to have the motor running by January. That's a stretch, but we'll see. 

To start toward that, I began some general cleanup on the exterior of the crankcase. The cylinder is still pulled and all oil drained. I'll flush the crankcase when I'm done. Here's how the crankcase looks with 40+ years worth of gunk on it:

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I spent about an hour just cleaning it off. Haven't used any solvents other than elbow grease, but it is beginning to clean up pretty well:

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Next weekend, I'll try to get the crankcase thoroughly cleaned and get the cylinder and head back on. That shoudl be easy provided I can figure out a gasket. After that, this poins have to be replaced:

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I already have a new set, but am shopping for a cover for them. All of the ones on eBay are pretty beat up and I haven't seen any NOS anywhere yet. I'm hoping beyond hope that I don't need to dissamble the crankcase. It looks to be in good shape as-is and it'd save me a lot of time to leave it in tact.

Fresh powdercoat is a beautiful thing.

Thanks to the generosity of my good friend Leon, I have several parts back in beautiful new condition. He had these powdercoated and they look fantastic!

They're still in the back of my truck, but this is a sneak peek at the next phase of the project. The before/after difference is amazing.

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Metal parts are out for surfacing, head and cylinder come off

A few pieces of good progress to report today: First, the frame, front forks, and other metal body parts are now offsite at a powdercoating facility getting sandblasted and then resurfaced. They should return shiny and like-new in a few weeks.

While the carburetor parts soaked today, I ran up to my Dad's metal fabrication and machining shop to work with him and a buddy on a plan for the wheels and main engine components. After really examining the wheel rims, we decided that there was enough rust that the process of stripping them would render them structurally unstable. Since i want this bike to be rideable after this project, I bit the bullet and decided to toss both the original and second set of eBay wheels and buy a new set. They rim and spoke sets come out of Thailand, and I'll order them shortly.

Since the cylinder head needs to be stripped, we went ahead and pulled the whole thing off. I brought the motor's lower unit and valve stems home. The lower is in great shape and doesn't need a complete tear-down, so I'll just store it until the head is resurfaced and then do an exterior cleaning after I put the head back on. This will keep foreign stuff out of the lower unit. We got some photos of the broken down motor, including the teeny tiny little piston.

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Twin carbs, both need work to yield one good one.

While body pieces are out for refinishing, I wanted to get started on the carburetor rebuild. I bought a second complete use one online in case I need any parts, which I certainly will. Unfortunately, both have similar problems. I disassembled the original carb and found exactly what I expected: a lot of gummy gunk in the float bowl. The good news is that the floats are intact and fill valve appear to work. The bad news is that the throttle insert is stuck tight -and I mean TIGHT- in both units.
 
I had hoped for this to be a one-day project, but it'll take several at my pace. First I've got to strip all of the gunk out of the float bowl and jet insert. I've got some great chemicals that are helping with that. In fact they're soaking over night. Once I get them stripped and can see what I'm dealing with, I'll attach the problem of the stuck jets. None of the industrial lubricants have worked thus far, so the next step is some brute force. I have to be careful not to break the housing, but then again I've got a spare if I need it!
 
In the photos, the top one is the one I bought online, the bottom is from the bike itself. The purchased one has a rusted source value so I will wind up rebuilding the original rather than the new one. Though the original is dirtier, it's actually in better mechanical shape.

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Headlamp, speedometer, and front-end wiring removal

As you read this post, you can play a fun game of "count the number of insect carcasses and nests."
 
I pulled the headlight, speedometer, and front-end wiring. That's basically everything that was inside the plastic housing that bolts to the front forks. The plastic is chipped but likely salvageable. I plan to replace all of the wiring anyway. The speedometer is a closed unit and is in remarkably good shape. Provided it stull functions, it'll be saved for the rebuilt bike. In fact, I cleaned it up a bit and it looks great!
 
Individual parts that can be made to shine again provide motivation for the overall project:
 

 
Here are the documentation shots. It's kind of neat to see the front forks completely bare:

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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.

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