Next Victim 1966 CL77 Gentleman's Scrambler

[flyin900]

I damaged the shift drum on disassembly as one of the shift forks was seized on the drum. I split the front snout apart on the assembly by not using a proper drift instead of a large JIS screwdriver.

I was able to find a replacement shift drum along with two other shift forks, as one of mine was badly rubbed by the side of the gear assembly. Many of the gear dogs in the transmission had damage and were rounded off beyond use, so new gears and all new bearings and bushings were in order. Many of the ball bearings have micro abrasion damage from particles in the oil from poor oil change practices, possibly with detergent oil.

There is also an update on the gear cotters that are oversized to help shift the gears over further on the shaft, to engage the gear dogs better into the associated connecting gear.

So here are the items replaced which represent 50% of the gears, plus all new bearings and bronze bushings on both gear shafts.

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[flyin900]

Can't wait to see this one start going back together. Meanwhile, it's fun just sitting back watching you spend money!

Hey VISA made me customer of the month. This bike is very and I mean very expensive to restore. The parts are very thin on the ground new or used and searches require world wide shopping.

I have no regrets, as this will be a beautiful bike when I am done. It was one I have always appreciated and it's another one saved.

[desertrefugee]

I feel your pain. My CBX wasn't restoration, it was a resurrection. But even so, CBX parts lean towards the pricey end of the spectrum. It was worth it, and I agree that this CL77 is as well.

Following with interest. You do good work.

[flyin900]

A little more progress today as I took the barrels and the new piston kit to my friend with the machine shop in his garage and he is doing an overbore on the cylinders. The deal is I bought new cutters for his boring bar and he will do the work.

I did reassemble the transmission with the new oversize cotters and checked the gear dog overlap and it is very good. It is about 70% on second gear which is usually the problem gear, where it sometimes is only 20% and the transmission jumps out of that gear. I assembled the crankshaft into the cradle. I am waiting on one replacement case stud that was partially cross thread stripped by a PO. It's on the way; then I can button the cases back up.

I was also able to drop off the chroming pieces from this project and add them into the CB350F batch which is now all being run together starting this week. So that worked out well, as it has been almost 6 months since I dropped off the CB350F parts for chrome.

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A little more glazing putty on the top of the tank to fill in some tin worm spots. The bottom area is finished and I lined the tank with POR15 liner.

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[Whiskerfish]

Have seen many shift forks that look like that in the GL1000's I have split.

[flyin900]

If you mean the wear on the fork sides, I believe it is an indication of the fork being slightly bent and rubbing on that one side. Too many power shifts.
On that particular fork there is rough metal from the side wear folded over into the half moon rounded area. It would likely hang up on the gear assembly at some point I would expect.

Since I am in so deep now on this build I want to do it right, as there is no pulling a side cover off to fix an internal motor issue.

[flyin900]

I recently have been working on some small body damage dings and dongs on various panels. Many small parts had vibration cracks in the metal that I used the Tech Steel to repair and body filler to smooth out again. I was also able to get the two motor cases closed back up last week with everything working and shifting well inside there. I am heading to my friends shop tomorrow to have the new pistons and barrels installed on the top case.

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[flyin900]

I ended up with the wheel hubs and some other small parts at the laser and vapor honing place a few weeks ago.
They came back just like the engine cases, yet I think I will polish them up to a higher shine finish. It is a little too satin a finish on the outer hub areas, yet perfect on the interior sections; much like the factory finish was originally.

The clutch pack really cleaned up with just the laser treatment which burned away all the stuck on old oil residue that was still visible after a good petroleum degrease first.

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[flyin900]

I was able to get the new pistons and barrels reinstalled with the help of my friend today and later tonight I put the head back on as the start towards installing the new cam chain and timing the set up correctly.

Paul used a different trick to install the new pistons and rings into the barrels. He placed the pistons into the barrels first on the bench, which made it pretty simple and installed one C clip into each piston on the inside section of that piston. We then lowered the barrels down over the connecting rods on the case studs and manipulated the rods into the pistons and put the corresponding piston pins and outside C clip in place.
It worked quite well with really no fuss at all with two people and four hands.

So here is where the motor is tonight. I did spray the head gasket with a copper spray from Permatex as Mr. Honda indicated in his rebuild instructions to seal the head gasket around the oil hole areas with a sealant. I was fortunate to find a seller who had 3-4 top end original Japanese gasket kits from 1970 noted on the packages. He made me an offer on all the kits that was too good to pass up. So at least those gaskets including the head gasket are OEM Japan originals and not aftermarket.

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[flyin900]

I worked today on getting the cam chain installed which was a battle of wills. The chain was one tooth short it seemed, yet when I compared it to the old original chain it was the same length. So with the new parts it seems this is a common issue faced by rebuilders of these motors.
Give me a set of Goldwing timing belts any day as they are a walk in the park. Where this was a struggle to pull and stretch the chain over that last tooth. I installed some of the outer case gear, such as the clutch basket and the centrifugal oil spinner assembly; there are no oil filters on these motors. The stator and rotor went together well, so one item cooperated.

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[gltriker]

the centrifugal oil spinner assembly; there are no oil filters on these motors.

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Interesting !
The oil spinner centrifuges impurities / particulate ?
Where are the undesirables collected into ? How eliminated?

[Shadowjack]

The 75 CB125 I have uses the same oil-cleaning principle, but it's part of the oil pump, IIRC. You have to get in there and dig it out sometimes, but it doesn't build up very fast. In an all ball-bearing engine like a 305, clean oil is not so critical as one with plain bearings.

[flyin900]

The 75 CB125 I have uses the same oil-cleaning principle, but it's part of the oil pump, IIRC. You have to get in there and dig it out sometimes, but it doesn't build up very fast. In an all ball-bearing engine like a 305, clean oil is not so critical as one with plain bearings.

Well you would think so, yet that was not the case at all. Every ball bearing was shot with some really bad and notchy. I feel that someone used detergent oil in the bike as time went on, instead of non detergent oil as Honda recommended. The suspended dirt particles damaged every ball bearing in the motor and transmission with micro abrasion.

The amount of crap and sludge all throughout the engine shows that the centrifugal filter system was useless, yet likely never serviced as intended, especially if the wrong oil was used. I know how bad I was at a young age at ignoring service and just rode the bike.

The crankshaft uses 3 roller cage bearings which were fine, since a larger bearing contact patch vs a ball bearings smaller patch. The one quite large end ball bearing on the crankshaft suffered some minor abrasion damage and since it was a special design; the one seller who had them wanted about $400 Canadian for it. I could find no other option or seller with stock and since the damage was minimal per my machinist friend; I took a hard pass on that one.

I replaced every other ball bearing in the motor and transmission (4) in the head on the cams and (2) in the transmission on the main shaft.

I still love the bike and as noted Visa still loves me too.

[flyin900]

the centrifugal oil spinner assembly; there are no oil filters on these motors.

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Interesting !
The oil spinner centrifuges impurities / particulate ?
Where are the undesirables collected into ? How eliminated?

The inner section of the spinner is a collection device and oil is fed into there directly off the oil pump. It needed to be cleaned out on a regular basis I would suspect back in the day. The front section is removed and then the canister is cleaned out is the design principle. Honda fortunately moved to a oil filter system on some bikes by the late 60's and still used this design on some smaller bikes into the early 70's.

[gltriker]

Thanks for the information.
I went searching for engine service maintenance information about the 1966 CL77, and came across a site where some fellows had been chatting.
One contributor said the engine oil capacity was 1.5 quarts and the recommended oil change frequency was supposedly 600 miles.
Until today, I hadn't paid any attention to the crankshaft, itself. When you spoke of roller cage bearings on the crankshaft, I just had to look see what I could find.
I spotted the lower end of the 1 piece connecting rods had to utilize roller bearings, too. Oh, look there, a cam chain sprocket between the 2 inboard bearings.
WOW! The CL77 crankshaft assembly is press assembled like a 2 stroke engine crankshaft assembly would be. WOW, AGAIN!

Very fortunate to have found the crankshaft assembly was still in good condition.