Saturday 21 December 2013

New bits, and refreshed bits

Just in time for Christmas, a box of nice new (old stock) parts!  Exhaust, exhaust shield and mud flaps.


The most exciting bit though is getting the frame, forks and swinging arm back from coating.  It's a really nice job and a good colour match too, I'm very pleased.  So the next step will probably be to fit the cleaned and repaired wiring loom to the frame, ready for fitting the forks and swinging arm.


Saturday 14 December 2013

The good old days...

Whilst I sort out powder coating, painting, vapour blasting and plating of various bits I've been doing a bit of idle browsing on Google.  I've found some great photos of C110's in action from back in the '60's.  I particularly like this one, from a blog called Chalopy.  It's of an AMA rider called Steve Nichols in action in 1967 at a race in California.  Check out the lack of a front brake, and the pretty decent wheelie from a bike running a 55cc big bore!


There are also some period race photos, see below, and other C110 info on the R4L blog.




There's some good information on C110 racers on the HondaClassicRacing blog too.

Monday 9 December 2013

Ready for cleaning.

All engine parts have been removed from the cases.  I've given the cases a wipe out and they're now in the pile of bits waiting for vapour blasting. 

I like gearboxes.  There I've said it.  I always 'lose' a half hour or so when working on an engine having a play with the gearbox.  The mechanical action of selecting the different gears fascinates me.  I have a mind to take some of the numerous spares I have accumulated and make myself a desk toy for work out of them.  Beats a Newton's Cradle!


With the cases split but with the crank still fitted you can see the dipper used to lubricate the engine internals.  It protrudes from the bottom of the crank and scoops up oil, flinging it onto the gearbox internals.  Like a lot of the engineering on this bike, it's simple but effective.






Sunday 8 December 2013

All apart!

An hour and a half spanner twirling in the garage this evening, and the end result?  The crankcases are apart!


Right tool for the right job.  Makes life so much easier!  Luckily I could use the same puller as I use on my 350LC.


 The stator plate had obviously been off before, the fasteners were quite chewed.


Removing the stator plate showed that the crankseal had been leaking, not a surprise after all these years.  It may well have been fine when it was last run properly and started leaking as the rubber hardened with age.


Next job, lifting out the crank and gearbox and tidying up the cases ready for vapour blasting.


Overall it's been a pretty straightforward disassembly.  What it has brought home to me is the importance of using the proper tools.  The impact driver, clutch holding tool and the puller have all saved me a lot of grief.

I also need to source new rubber seals and bearings, although the latter feel OK it seems shortsighted to not replace them.



Saturday 7 December 2013

More surprises.

I found the time to take the engine disassembly further this evening, starting with stripping down the clutch side of the engine.


With careful application of an impact driver the case bolts loosed up nicely, allowing the innards to be exposed for the first time in 50 years, or so I thought.


Removing the clutch pushrod revealed that the clutch hub nut has been off at least once in the past.  It'd been exposed to a fair amount of abuse in the process as well.  I was surprised by this as there is little external evidence that the engine has been apart before.  In addition I didn't think there would have been much cause for it to be apart in 10,000 miles.  However, I guess it all depends on how well it was looked after for those miles. I took a more measured approach to removing the nut, with the correct special tool and a clutch holding tool to stop the assembly from rotating.


The abused clutch nut, not my fault honest!


So, next I need to check the clutch plates, and continue the disassembly of the clutch side of the engine.  A job for tomorrow.


Monday 2 December 2013

Broken bits of metal

With the rolling chassis all apart and off for refinishing I've turned my attention to the engine.  I'll be performing a full strip down on it so that I can be confident in it's reliability during the National Rally next year.  Being a bit tired after work (and it's only Monday!) I set myself the easily achievable target of removing the top end (rocker box, cylinder head, barrel and piston).

No surprises with the rockerbox removal, apart from the gasket between it and the cylinder head.  It was so think it looked like carpet underlay!


The cylinder head was an easy removal too, uncovering a slightly coked up piston and very oily bore.  The latter has me thinking that a rebore and new piston maybe in order.  Fortunately I have six spare barrels and at least as many pistons.  Hopefully there'll be a match in there somewhere.  A job for another evening.


Next to come off was the barrel.  It has some discolouration in the bore and some light scoring, but it isn't too bad apart from one scratch.  Looking at the piston though, it was immediately apparent that the gudgeon pin circlip had been poorly fitted on one side.  It wasn't sitting fully in the groove in the piston and, when removed, was oval after all the years of sitting in the incorrect position.  The next thing to happen was the biggest surprise though, and underlines the importance of performing a full strip down on restorations to give a known quantity in terms of the engine.  The main piston ring fell off!  So the top ring was broken (which probably explains the scratch in the bore).  Maybe starting her up at the very beginning of this project wasn't such a good idea!  The broken ring probably explains the oiliness of the combustion chamber as well.


So with a few nasties uncovered, it's time to call it a night.  Lots more investigation to come and I'll be especially careful in my inspection of the rest of the engine.  Although the engine cases haven't been off it has clearly been exposed to a bit of abuse in it's 10,000 odd miles.