The Upside of Falling Down…

In my 60 years of riding motorcycles, I have had four serious crashes, any of which might have taken me out permanently. But for the grace of God or whoever pulls our strings in this life existence, I have survived them all to date.

1. Riding a troublesome CB450 in downtown San Diego, a college student pulled out from a parking spot and did a U-turn in front of me. I hit the left rear quarter panel and the bike and I hit the ground very hard. I tried to get back up, but noticed that my right foot was at a very unusual angle to the rest of my leg, so I just stayed down until help arrived. The end result was a compound-fractured tibia and broken femur. The femur was stabilized with a long steel rod and the tibia was secured in a full-length leg cast. The steel rod was removed a couple of years later.

2. The BIG ONE. Winding down the end of a 6-hr. endurance race at Ontario Motor Speedway, I rear-ended another bike which had slowed suddenly and drifted down in my path, just as I was looking at a pit sign saying that there were 20 minutes left to go. That crash red-flagged the race and I got a helicopter ride to Loma Linda Hospital. My right arm was broken in three places, The upper humerous bone was broken in two spots, which were secured by two long screws in the upper break and a plate and screws for the lower break. The ulna bone was broken just below the wrist. Due to a nearby open wound, the doctors delayed surgery until the wound healed up. In 3 weeks, the follow-up x-rays showed the bone moving back to where it belonged and was fusing rapidly. Doctors said to just leave it in the cast and it healed all on its own. That crash ended my racing hobby, but I fixed the race bike and swapped it for a CBX 6-cylinder super bike.

3. Having met a woman at a nightclub on NYE in 1982, I offered to take her for a motorcycle ride on NYD. I was unaware that the recent storms left black ice on the roads leading to the town Julian. As I followed a slow-moving car, it pulled off to the side of the road and I veered towards the centerline, shifted down a gear and applied power. The rear end fishtailed wildly and the bike started to go down on the left side. I instinctively tried to outrigger the bike with my extended left leg, but the black ice prevented any kind of countermeasure and we went down, sliding across the roadway into the path of oncoming cars. When I tried to stand up, my left knee collapsed. Passersby, including a nurse, helped me to the side of the road and someone found a long branch and some rags to stabilize my leg. My shaken passenger was uninjured apart from a hole worn in her boot. A CHP car came by and loaded me up into the back seat, tben took me up to the Ranger station where we contacted my passenger’s brother who drove his truck up, loaded up the KZ550 and both of us, then took me to the hospital and left the bike at my house. The diagnosis was a torn ACL and PCL ligament. Surgery followed with the ligaments reattached and my leg back into a full-length leg cast. I sold the bike, while still in a cast. The only real damage was a scuffed dyno cover, which I replaced.

4. The “last” one. In mid-March of 2025 I was riding with my Jamuligan friends, returning from a nice breakfast at the local casino. As we returned towards home, I was second in line of the four of us, riding down the two-late road in Harbison Canyon. George was leading the pack and I was second in line, with two more a ways behind me. As I was descending down the canyon, I reacted to the sight of an ugly Nissan car which had intruded into the oncoming lane and appeared to be heading straight for my front wheel. I instinctively grabbed a big handful of front brake and the wheel locked up, low-siding the bike and me down the road at about 45 mph. It was an instant of earth-sky-earth and the bike and I slid to a stop in the roadway. My two riding buddies, who were trailing behind me about 100 yards back, arrived at the scene of me and the bike lying on the ground, with no signs of the car that triggered my response. I was down for the count and my friends, plus some local neighbors all came to my rescue. My friend Steve called 911 and the local fire department arrived within minutes.

Steve and Keith both wrestled my bike upright and off to the side of the road, as I was being attended to. The bike’s seat had been torn off the bike, the shift lever was bent downwards, and the foot of the centerstand was folded inwards. Both of the handlebar levers were broken, and the quarter fairing had a large scuff mark on the left side.

I was up, sitting on a cement wall, trying to sort out what had just occurred. The EMTs got me onto a gurney and loaded up into the ambulance for a trip to the Trauma department at Sharps Hospital, about 20 miles away. I had slipped into shock, so I just tried to keep quiet with my eyes closed during the bumpy ride and was transferred to the hospital trauma department. They gave me a CAT scan from head to foot and discovered that my right thumb was broken, but nothing else was damaged to any degree. My brother was called to come down from Mira Mesa to gather me up and take me home about five hours later.

My thumb was repaired with surgery a week later by use of a plate and a half dozen little screws. During the surgery, my heart rate had spiked to 135 bpm, which is way up from my normal 60bpm. When I came out of surgery and into recovery, the nurse said that she had seen a lot of patients come out of surgery with high bpm rates and then they subsided the next day. Mine followed that pattern, but the cardiology team at the VA was alerted and put me through numerous tests before I was discharged from the hospital. They applied a heart monitor to my left side chest and I was told to keep track of any unusual heart rhythms for a two-week period. I was never aware of any kind of irregular heartbeats during that time, however.

A few days after the heart monitor was returned to the lab, I got a distressing message from my primary care doctor:

Patient had a min HR of 49 bpm, max HR of 211 bpm, and avg HR of 73 bpm.

Predominant underlying rhythm was Sinus Rhythm. 2 NSVT runs occurred, the run

with the fastest interval lasting 6 beats with a max rate of 169 bpm, the

longest lasting 14 beats with an avg rate of 119 bpm. Atrial Flutter occurred

(<1% burden), ranging from 82-211 bpm (avg of 131 bpm), the longest lasting 1

hour 25 mins with an avg rate of 138 bpm. Isolated SVEs were rare (<1.0%),

These are not good numbers for the long-lived human being….

I was never aware of anything unusual in my heart rate at all. My previous checkups and even some EKG tests were inconclusive until this accident. A prescription of Metoprolol is forthcoming and I will have some follow-up appointments with the Cardiology department. I don’t know how long this has been going on, but it appears that the unforeseen benefit from crashing my beloved Hawk GT650 is that I may have a few more years of health and well-being. I hadn’t planned on an early check-out, but this gives me some confidence that my heart problems will be contained and monitored into the future. I guess you can call it an extended warranty event.

With gratitude, even from crashing my bike…

Bill Silver aka MrHonda

www.vintagehonda.com

Cleaning the Garage….

Due to a recent accident, my right thumb is out of commission for about 2 months. Plan A could be wait until I am able to be functional enough to complete them all or Plan B is to move them all out as-is with most of the parts ready to make them all functional again. Thanks to local friends and enthusiasts, two bikes have been sold already. 

Project 1

JDM Honda red S90 from around 1965. Li-on battery, some engine work done, Mikuni carb, factory winkers, speed and headlight shell replaced. The front wheel was very rusty, unlike the rear wheel. I bought a good used front wheel assembly and a set of new tires for the bike. New carb-to air cleaner tube. Runs great, but the clutch is stuck. I have all the repair parts on hand for the clutch repair. $1800. Bill of Sale only           SOLD

Project 2

1975 CB200T with 5300 miles and original mufflers still installed. Engine top end rebuilt, carbs rebuilt, rusty front rim replaced with new rim and spokes. New tires, new cables, new starter switch on order, due soon. $2000 with current CA title. WAITING FOR PARTS

Project 3

1975 CB400F. 8400 miles, was stored since 1984. Carbs removed for cleaning, kits provided, new battery, new complete front brake system, new tires, fuel tank sealed up, new handlebars replacement right side cover, and switches, new instrument cushions, $1000 worth of new parts ready to install. $2200 new CA title                 SOLD

Project 4

1991 Honda NT650 Hawk GT. At first, I thought I would have to just sell the wounded Hawk for cheap money, but after a closer look, it looks like an easier fix than I thought. The seat cowl had a crack and a broken grommet tip, so that went to my ace painter, Jerry, for repairs and some fresh paint. I found a good used center stand on eBay, but will need some help installing that one. The custom Corbin seat is being replaced by the original mint stock seat, which came with the bike when it was purchased. Some turn signals need replacing. I found what might be the last NOS shift pedal in Puerto Rico! The broken aftermarket brake and clutch levers were replaced with the stock take-off levers. The little ¼ fairing took almost all of the big hit, saving the instruments. It’s a goner, so the bike will revert to “naked” status again, as it was from the factory. The handlebar ends were torn off, but some copies were secured. I might have to replace the left handlebar, as the end was pretty ground off. So, the Hawk comes off the market. I won’t have full use of the right thumb until the end of May, so there is no big hurry on the repairs.

Bill “MrHonda” Silver

www.vintagehonda.com

04/2025

MrHonda gets strafed by a Black Bomber

What goes around sometimes comes back to me. I had a history with this CB450K0 Black Bomber dating back in 2022, when the then-owner brought it to me to get running after it sat for years. Something came loose inside the generator and damaged the stator and rotor. The carbs were all gummy, the spark advancer springs were loose, the battery was dead and the oil pump mod needed to be done. I got it running well, but the later reports were that one of the carb bowl gaskets was leaking. I stopped by to have a look at it about a year ago and asked them to order a new gasket and I would re-install it.

No word until this week 1/15/2024, when the new owner, who was the housemate of the original owner called to ask me how much these bikes were worth. He was suffering the aftereffects of some kind of accident (not on the bike) and needed hip surgery. He was out of work so needed some ready cash ASAP. He offered the bike at a below-market price, considering what was going to be needed again to get the bike up and running, so I bought it, picked it up and brought it home for a re-acquaintance review.

The Motobatt battery, which was $91 in 2022 had 5 volts remaining. The gasoline was stinky and somewhat tainted by the RedCote sealer that had been installed previously. I removed the air filters, battery and carburetors for some cleaning and getting it ready for coming back to life again.

When I opened up the carbs, one already had a sinking float, so that probably was adding to the leaking float bowl gasket problem. The old gas hadn’t congealed too badly and they came out clean after a visit to the ultrasonic cleaner. I had tried to drain the fuel tank through one of the petcock fittings with a long hose attached, but nothing came out in the Reserve position. Silly me, with the tank half off the bike, decided to unscrew the petcock from the tank, and out came a gallon of stinky old gasoline all over me and the bike.

The petcock feed holes were all blocked up, due to disintegration of the 4-hole gasket, the little nylon filter on the reserve fitting was ripped open and the main brass fuel tube had split down the middle. So, a replacement petcock and some carb floats were ordered from 4into.com which were shipped out the next day. In the meantime, I decided to try to repair the float using a heat gun to heat up the gasoline inside enough to show me where the pinhole leak was located. Apparently, the floats were aftermarket parts and the solder joint was not completely fuel-proof. I heated the float up with a heat gun, but suddenly it went POP and separated on the bench. You could see the high water mark inside the float lobe cavity where gasoline had made an ingress inside the part. I fiddled with it for a half hour, cleaning the solder off the edges of the two halves, and tried to re-solder the pieces together. It got kind of covered with lead blobs, so probably weighs a bit more than the other site. While waiting for the new parts, I thought that maybe the repairs would be good enough to get the bike up and running again.

The bike came with 4 sets of OEM carb repair kits, a new camchain with a master link, A brand new factory wiring harness, the owner’s manual, a photocopy of the parts and service manual and a set of brand new OEM tank badges! Sometimes you just get lucky.

With the temporarily-repaired float installed, I tried to fire up the bike, but the starter clutch was skipping badly. I removed the left covers and pulled the rotor out, only to find that one of the roller spring caps was jammed into the starter clutch spring holes. I had to remove the starter clutch to pull out the spring and cap. I had a set of the standard springs for the 250-305s and installed fresh ones after checking that the caps wouldn’t get caught up again. With the spark plugs out, the starter clutch seemed to work fine, but after it was all back together again, the clutch would skip intermittently. 

The rotor was marked K5 and there seemed to be some part number changes for the Bombers, but more importantly, the springs had a 283 code part number instead of the 253 springs. I rush-ordered the correct springs. In the meantime, I determined that the carb jetting was incorrect, with #130 main jets and #38 idle jets installed instead of the specified #125 and #35 jet sets. I was able to get #125 main jets from 4into1.com but the idle jets seemed to be NLA almost everywhere. I did find some listed at cmsnl.com but they were on some kind of back-order and not available until early Feb. I did receive new floats and the #125 mains, so swapped out all those parts and the bike started up fairly quickly and I was able to run it around the block.

The first test ride was initially a bit troubling, as the bike seemed to jump when I went around the corner. I thought it had a flat tire or something odd, but what turned out to be the cause was that the steering head bearings were notched and the handlebars self-centered when you moved them left of right. I happened to have a set of tapered steering head bearings on hand, so spent a couple of hours taking all of the handlebars and headlight ears, etc loose, then driving out the old races and driving in the new ones on a bike that was sitting on the centerstand and a small floor jack beneath the forward frame rail junction.

The 283 springs arrived just before I was going to the Mecum auctions in Las Vegas, so I hurriedly checked them out for installation. They were slightly shorter than the 253 springs, but visibly thicker wire gauge. I popped them in and installed the rotor back onto the crankshaft. This time, the spark plugs were still installed and the starter clutch seemed to be pulling the motor over okay. I had checked the compression and both cylinders were showing 175 psi so the starter clutch had its work cut out for it.

After putting all of the covers and bits back together, the starter clutch was pulling the engine over markedly better, but still had a few skips every once in awhile. I noticed that the rotor went onto the starter clutch hub very easily and now wonder if there is a different dimension in the clutch hub.

There were some issues with the speedometer light bulbs being either blown out or in the wrong locations, so that needed some attention. The dimmer switch contacts are a bit corroded, so that switching from Lo to Hi beams is a bit inconsistent. Apart from that, it is pretty much ready to find a new home with a Bomber fan, somewhere.

Bill Silver

aka MrHonda

www.vintagehonda.com

MrHonda’s little shop of horrors….

Factory photo courtesy AHMC  

It started last November, pushing out a CL77, then taking in a CB750 which had been treated to an 836cc kit, but someone forgot to get one of the wrist pin clips all the way in and it ground a groove in one liner. In the background, I was piecing an early CL77 together from misc bits (separate story coming).

Then, there was the return of the blue CL175K3 that caused a lot of headaches in the beginning, then has come back for a mysterious oil leak and poor running conditions. No mechanic wants to have comebacks return the shop, but this came back with intractable problems with the suspension and carburetion.

I had a 1963 CB77 dropped into my lap which had a reported replacement top end due to piston seizures but was never run after re-assembly. That one required pulling the engine again, as the shift drum had rusted the forks in place, due to inactivity for many generations. That one was a pretty nice original bike but needed the usual tires, cables, battery, carb overhaul, tank sealing and various electrical repairs. Thankfully, that one sold to a local enthusiast.

The CB750 had a removable frame section above the engine so I could remove the top end without pulling the 175 lb engine assembly from the frame. The bike was spewing oil out of the #3 cylinder as well as a big leak at the crankshaft seal behind the ignition system. The cylinders had to be shipped to Cycle-Xpress in Wisconsin for liner replacement and boring, plus fitting new pistons to the rest of the cylinders. Slowly it came back together but then the carburetors wouldn’t fit back onto the cylinder head spigots. The chassis was late 1969-early 1970 and the carbs were 1975. After trying to force the carb rack back on with new copies of the manifolds that were on the bike, I discovered that Honda made revised manifolds for 1971-76 bikes. They solved the problem at a cost of $150 for the set.

                                                            Factory photo courtesy AHMC

A KIA camshaft seal has the same dimensions as the OEM crankshaft seal on the 750, but without the ridge that normally holds the seal in the cases. I pried the old one out and installed the new one from the outside. Otherwise, you have to split the cases to install the OEM seal where it registers with a groove in the upper and lower case halves.

There were more problems with just changing the oil and filter. The drain plug washer was missing and the old oil was diluted by some kind of miracle engine fluid that the owner thought might fix the oil pumping out the pipe. The oil filter was missing the flat washer that sits on top of the spring that pushes against the oil filter element. The exhaust system was a fabrication set that had two pipes anchored to the footpeg bolts, but the inner pipes were held to the bike and outer pipes with hose clamps! Then the battery died and I had to push it 6 blocks back home again. It’s just one thing after another, it seems.

The CL77 bike came with the wrong rear wheel and swing arm and missing lots of parts. The old tire on the replacement wheel was a monster 4.00x19 rock hard chunk of rubber. I was able to eventually pry it off and spoon on a new one, but when I fitted the wheel to the bike the wheel locked up when I tightened up the axle nut. I had missed the fact that someone had robbed the hub of the inner wheel bearing and the spacer. I rebuilt the engine, which came with a CB77 cylinder head/tach drive and then discovered that the crankshaft was also from a CB with the oil hole for the starter clutch. There were damaged gears and it needed the full transmission overhaul with replacement bushings. Eventually, it came back to life and sounded pretty good, but still looked a bit tatty.

The CL77 clutch was dismantled during engine repairs and inspected with all parts apparently correct for the engine, but the clutch pull was a 2-handed affair, so was inspected once again and some softer springs fitted, which fixed that issue. There were many problems with the chassis wiring, including a dead headlight bulb and then the tail light needed to be replaced with a different bracket. The fender was painted but not cleared for a good ground path, so more work was needed to remedy that. Finding a front fender for CL72-77s became quite challenging during the process.

The CL175 was reported to have a little oil leak, but the owner had cleaned it off before it came back to me. I had to guess where it might be and reseal the left side cylinder head cover. This bike had been running some aftermarket carburetors as the original ones were fitted with some aftermarket parts that prevented the bike from running properly. The left side was the biggest headache, despite having the carburetors off numerous times for cleaning and inspection. Eventually, I checked the #90 main jets on both carbs and the left side and finally determined that someone had drilled out the jet to about a #105 size, which caused all of the plug fouling. Fitting a proper sized main jet finally fixed that issue.

                                                        Factory photo courtesy AHMC

Then, there was a problem with the front end. When the forks were removed to allow the new headlight ears to be fitted, a bit of slack was noticed at the bottom of the forks, as if the fork springs were too short. I pulled the right side off and wound up fitting a ground down intake valve spring into a short spacer to put pre-load on the fork assembly. The bike had suffered some kind of crash damage that caused the forks to be out of alignment, making refitting of the fork legs difficult. On top of that, the front brake started to cause the front wheel to dive to the right under braking. Inspection showed that the primary shoe was contacting the drum fully, but the secondary shoe was not. The brake plate was checked and the shoes cleaned and synchronized again, but nothing influenced the brake to behave normally. Finally, the bike was sent to a frame shop to check out the frame alignment and perhaps replace the steering stem.

The battery wasn’t charging properly, so the engine continued to run roughly. The OEM style rectifier was replaced with a solid-state unit, which seemed to improve the battery stability and thus the coils were getting 12v on a regular basis. Then, there was a problem with the replacement gas caps not venting properly and the petcock not feeding the carburetors equally.

Diagnosing and repairing these continuing problems takes at toll on your psyche. When you have worked on Honda products for 50 years, but suddenly everything you attempt seems to fail due to some mysterious maladies that are hiding in the background, you begin to doubt your sanity or ability. Obviously, problems such as these eventually have a resolution, sometimes requiring replacement of what seem to be good parts and doing a lot of questioning your mind about what is missing to cure the problem.

At sometime, I will hang up my wrenches, but even though I am 76 years old, my overall health is good, so I will continue to try to sift through the clues and come up with some resolutions that bring the bikes back to something close to what they had experienced after driving off the showroom floor.

It would be great to have an intern or understudy to absorb the experience and information that I have floating around in my head. I have spent many hours helping on various Facebook forums for various models, as well as continuing to supply my restoration guide downloads for the 250-305 series models. Hopefully, what I have shared is taken in as fact in most cases to those who are generations behind me and share with their peers and any upcoming enthusiasts to take the knowledge forward into the future.

Bill Silver aka MrHonda

www.vintagehonda.com 01/19/2025

It’s all in your head… 250-305 cylinder heads.

For mass manufacturing, simplifying the production process yields more products at a cheaper unit price. As Honda ramped up production from the early days of J-Benly, SA/SB-ME-MF singles, their goal was to build a reliable and punchy OHC twin, which was indeed inaugurated in 1957. Honda designers must have decided that making thousands of little valve seats for the cylinder heads could be replaced by a cast-iron cylinder head “skull” which incorporated the combustion chamber, including valve seats along with the spark plug hole. The cast-iron skull was then set into another mold in which was poured molten aluminum, fusing the two dis-similar metals together into a single unit. From there, valve seats could be easily cut and the combustion chamber either left in the 250cc-sized hemispherical shape or the edges were chamfered out to match the step up from the 54mm 250 piston size to 60mm enlargement for the 305cc displacement.

As brilliant as the design was for manufacturing, the heads did have a tendency to have the skulls work loose from the alloy castings, causing oil leaks around the edges of the spark plug holes.

This discussion will revolve around the “wet-sump” 250-305 engines which began production in 1960 and carried on until 1967. The earlier dry-sump engines are in a different class of design and application and are seldom seen in the US. When Honda came to the US in 1959, they offered the CE71 and some various 250-305cc versions of the dry-sump (separate oil tank supply) bikes, but swiftly moved into the newly-designed wet-sump types.

The 250-305 Dreams were introduced in 1960 in the new wet-sump format, followed by the CB72-77 Super Sports in 1961. The range was extended in 1962 with the newly designed CL72 250cc Scrambler.

For the first two years, the cylinder heads were offered with tiny 10mm spark plug holes. In early 1962, the heads were machined for the commonly seen 12mm (NGK D8HA spark plugs) and that continued throughout the rest of the production runs for all models.

Visually, the early heads were most easily identified by the U-shaped machine work done between the exhaust ports on the cylinder head fins. In 1965, there were numerous detail changes to the engines, including the elimination of the machining step for the fins, as they were now cast in a clean V-shaped design.

                                                                1965-on V-pattern head

1960-64 U-fin cylinder head.

People often question about the interchangeability of the cylinder heads across the three models. To manage the number of parts needed to build these engines, all the cylinder head castings are the same to allow for cross-building of the various engines. Apart from the single intake port Dream heads, all the dual port heads will interchange between Scramblers and Super Hawk models. Early Dreams had smaller exhaust valves, which were upgraded to the CB series exhausts in 1962. For 250-305 dual port heads, they all share the same valves, despite the difference in displacement sizes. There is a slight difference in the intake port size for the 250 heads, where the 22mm carburetor insulators match up to the intake ports.

Honda was able to use the same castings for the dual port heads, as far as the combustion chambers are concerned. The 54mm bore size of a 250, requires a tight hemispherical combustion chamber with a small squish area at the edge of the piston crowns. The same castings used for the 60mm 305 engines require a beveled chamfered machine cut to allow for the fitting of the larger pistons.

                                                      Combustion chamber for the 250cc engines

                                                          305cc combustion chamber

These cylinder heads do not use valve stem seals, rather there was a thin air passage drilled into the head that matched up with some cross-drilled intake valve guides. This system was thought to break up the oil film on the intake valve stems, reducing the tendency to suck engine oil past the stems and guides into the combustion chambers. Remarkably, this system seems to have worked efficiently for all the years, until 1967. Honda decided to eliminate the whole system just in the last year. The last generation engines don’t seem to be more prone to using oil than the previous types, however.

So, in conclusion, the main difference between 250 and 305 cylinder heads is the machine work on the edges of the combustion chambers. Heads are generally interchangeable between the various versions of the engines. Considering the engineering challenges faced in the late 1950s, to build motorcycle engines that could rev up to 9k plus in a world of plodding, low-rev OHV designs from European/British companies, the speed of manufacturing of components led to the dominance of Honda in the world of motorcycle manufacturing.

Bill Silver

aka MrHonda

www.vintagehonda.com

10-2024

MrHonda dodges a scammer…

What started out with an SD Reader ad for my former Pink Panther CB77 Honda (now restored to Silver and Scarlet Red) culminated in an attempt to scam me out of at least $980. The SD Reader ad had my phone number, so when I got a text message from someone wanting to buy the bike, I was not too concerned. In fact, I texted him a photo of the “Hot Rod CB77” bike that is also for sale and he said he would buy it for $300 less than my asking price. It appeared that I was going to cash in on a double sale and put some cash in the bank, but in the end, it was just a scam.

Initially, the man messaged me that his “PA” had made a mistake and added an additional $1500 to the amount, which was supposed to go to the shipper. He asked me to give those funds to the shipper when they arrived to pick up the bike. I agreed, as long as funds were secured in the bank.

A couple of days later, a check arrived with the name of a construction company. To that point, this man had never introduced himself, so I had to ask his name. Finally, I did a search on the business name on the envelope and found just one name in Virginia where the envelope was sent from. The man said he was working in Georgia, which is why his phone number had an Atlanta area code.

I took the business check to the bank and asked if they could verify the funds. Apparently that is not easily done, so I was told that if it was deposited into the system, there would be some indicators as to whether the check would go through or not. The check was deposited and initially there was just a couple hundred dollar release from the $11,800 business check I received.

I became suspicious looking at the check, which had a different business name from a corporation in NY. The bank it was drawn on was in Illinois. So, I was looking at a guy who was currently in GA, but living in VA, with a bank account in IL and a master account in NY. It didn’t really sit right with me, but I was willing to let it play out until the check cleared.

After 2 days, there was a partial release of $5k. I asked the bank if this was a good sign or not, but was advised to let the check go all the way through to verify the funds.

The next day, I started getting text messages asking if I had various ways of transferring funds, like Venmo or PayPal. I only use PayPal but the current balance was zero. Then, he said that he had promised his shipping partner friend a $980 amount for some kind of services and could I send that “right away.” This was beginning to sound like a classic Nigerian 419 scam. Finally, I was asked if I could send a postal money order to his friend that day. I was on the road to my chiropractor appointment which is an 80-mile round trip. I turned off my phone and went to my appointment and headed back home again.

When I turned the phone back on, there was another message asking if I was going to make this payment to his friend. He had never offered the name of his friend or how to contact him with funds, but I sensed that the game was up after that message. I told him that I was waiting for the check to clear completely and then the messages went quiet.

The next morning, I was greeted by multiple messages from my bank saying that I was overdrawn in my account with a negative $2k balance. The “item had been returned” so the $11,800 amount was not valid, plus the hold on my account was reversing my balance from plus $4k to a minus $2k. I was advised to “fix the problem” ASAP or an overdraft charge of $36 was to be charged and it would certainly affect my credit score.

That morning, my friend Bill had driven down from Orange County to help me finish putting his SL100 project back together. I figured that I had plenty of time to finish the bike and then get to the bank to sort things out. Well, of course, the bike took 7 hours (including lunch) and the time was getting short to get to the bank.

In the interim I received another flurry of emails from the bank, stating that the overdraft charge was reversed and my account was back to $4k again. I don’t know if this was an automatic system re-balancing or if someone got directly involved at my branch. Anyway, everything was restored and no further action was required.

When I texted back to the man, telling him that it was a scam, as I was beginning to suspect, he denied it and said I was lying. I copied the bank statement section of my account and texted the line that said “$11.800 item returned.” Then I told him that I was filing a scam report to the BBB, which I did and sent him a copy from the BBB system recognizing the report. Then, I blocked his phone number.

I’m sharing this with you all, as there is a proliferation of scam attempts in the Facebook forums and with increasing spam messages to my email addresses. Do NOT send funds or accept fake checks, no matter how good they look unless they clear the bank completely. Do NOT advance any of your funds to the buyer before the check clears.

The internet is turning into a Wild West show where anything goes now, in the name of financial gain at the expense of the unsuspecting public. With huge data breaches revealing email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers and social security numbers, everyone needs to be on high alert for those people who want to make a buck or a thousand at your expense.

I am musing whether to add this man’s name to the story at the moment. If you want to know who it is, contact me directly.

Be careful out there, folks….

BTW: the bikes are still for sale...

Bill Silver

aka MrHonda

www.vintagehonda.com

All coiled up, but unable to strike…

With the decreasing availability of OEM Honda (and other makes/models) ignition coils, the only alternative appears to be the Chinese-made copies of single—and dual-output ignition coils that flood the eBay market listings.

I recently had an exchange with one eBay seller about this listing:

High Voltage 12V Ignition Coil For Honda CS90 CL125S CL100S S90 SL90 XL100

I pointed out that none of these models use a 12v coil, but the replies were vague and unhelpful.

This listing: 

6 Volt 1 Ohm Ignition Coil Dual Spark Plug Output for Honda And Others 24-72454 shows the application chart including CB92, CA95, CA160, and CM400T! I doubt that it will last more than a few minutes, as a 1-ohm coil is designed for electronic ignitions.

Case in point:

Recently, my friend Steve P. was finishing up his wonderful restoration of a 1961 Honda CB92 and Hs purchased an aftermarket coil from an eBay seller. After re-checking the cam timing, ignition timing, carburetor jets and metering circuits, he was unable to get the bike to fire up at all. I made the usual suggestions about the basics, which he checked out thoroughly, but still no joy when he hit the starter button, even with some starter fluid sprayed into the intake.

I agreed to come by his place and check his work and the bike over, looking for any concrete reasons why his restored engine and bike were stubbornly inert. The compression tested out to about 100 psi, equally on both sides. We verified that the cam timing and valve lash settings were all correct. The point gap was .014” and they were opening at the F mark.

With the spark plugs still out after the compression test, we grounded the plugs for a spark check. Initially, there seemed to be a strong spark, but in repeated cranking the spark became erratic and finally pretty much quit altogether. One thing that can upset spark creation is a failed or disconnected condense. But when it has a problem, the points will arc heavily during cranking or engine operation attempts. This was not occurring in this instance.

Having checked and eliminated the main possible culprits and noting the diminishing spark output, I pulled the coil primary leads off for an ohms test. The ohms test for the supposed 6v dual-output coil read out at 4.5 ohms. That is a reading expected of most vintage Honda coils that are of the 12v variety, but not for 6v types. When we checked his removed OEM coil, it tested out at about 1.5-1.8 ohms, which is what you would expect from a 6v ignition coil.

                                                        A genuine CB92 ignition coil. 

So, what was happening is that the 12v coil, being fed a diminishing 6-volt supply, was dropping lower with each electric starter test cycle until the voltage dropped below the cut-off limit. The higher resistance of the aftermarket coil curtailed the spark output on a steady decline until it ceased.

It’s easy to see an initial spark at the spark plug on a quick check and assume that it should be enough to run the engine. In observing the decline in spark activity through prolonged engine cranking, you get a truer picture of what is happening. This is a vital clue to troubleshooting an ignition system issue.

In an earlier blog story, back a few years, I wrote about buying a CR93 street bike tribute bike, based on a CB160 chassis with a 5-speed CL175 engine installed. Ironically, I had owned the bike and sold it at a swap meet event in N. Cal. The tank and seat were actual CR93 components fitted to the CB160 chassis. I could see that a great deal of detail work and restoration work had been done to the bike, during its surprise, last minute entry at the Las Vegas Auction. I felt compelled to buy it back and did actually win the auction in the end. https://www.mrhonda.guru/2017/03/the-beast-within-beauty-cr93-replica.html for the story.

The bike had not run recently, so I went through a basic check to see how the basics were doing before trying to start it up. The carbs were cleaned and one float was found to be sinking. Once the carburetion was dialed-in and ignition timing checked, the bike fired up quickly on a fresh battery, but it wouldn’t run more than a few blocks before it began to misfire and finally quit altogether. Backtracking over my previous work and rechecking all the obvious causes, I finally realized that the spark to the plugs was becoming erratic, after just a few minutes of operation.

The CB160/175 series of bikes are all equipped with 12v charging and ignition systems. Finally, I noted that the ignition coil was an aftermarket copy and checked the primary resistance. It was about 1.8 ohms, which is something that you would see for a 6v ignition system or in some cases bikes equipped with electronic ignition systems. Most full electronic ignition systems use coils in the .3 to 1.5 ohm range. When these coils are substituted on a 12v system using points and condenser, the high current draw will burn out the primary coil windings pretty quickly.

Sure enough, when I replaced the coil with one of the 4 ohms range, the bike started immediately and continued to run for an extended period of time without any mis-firings or performance issues. Recently, a customer bike came in with perfomance problems and on a single-cylinder vintage Honda machine and when the coil was checked, it too, had a 4-ohm coil instead of something in that 1.5-1.8 ohm range.

In looking at some of the various eBay listings for aftermarket coils, few, if any, have ohm specifications listed. Because motorcycle coils come in just a few sizes and mounting dimensions, it seems that the sellers are pushing out products that are inappropriate for the desired applications. Typically, you will see the same photos of the same coils listed by various named eBay vendors who are either all working together or all getting the same products from a few manufacturers in China.

Asking questions about the specifications is often a fruitless endeavor, as they are not tech-savvy vendors. They seem to take your questions and then refer to the suppliers in China. I imagine that there are translation difficulities all around, which make finding out the details of a component difficult or impossible.

So, all I can say is BEWARE of aftermarket products, especially in the category of ignition coils. DO NOT buy from one who is unable to supply the correct ohms specifications for their products. Their cheap pricing is enticing, however you may well find yourself scratching your head for hours wondering why the bike won’t run even though you have changed the whole ignition system.

This one small detail makes all the difference in success or frustration when trouble-shooting the cause of engine performance failures. Once Steve replaces his coil with one of the correct primary winding impedance (or puts the original one back in place), the bike should fire up properly and he’ll be a happy man. I feel that this is an important issue that needs to be remembered in times of frustration and confusion after a bike build or repair.

Bill Silver

aka MrHonda

www.vintagehonda.com