This is starting to really piss me off.  Does anyone know what would cause fuel to constantly drip out of the overflow tubes on the carbs?

I mean, I know it’s because (1) the petcock needs a rebuild and is not stopping the flow of fuel and (2) the floats are obviously not doing their job and stopping the fuel.

I’ve ben up the metal tabs in order to push the needle valves higher sooner, but it seems to not make a difference.  Could my valves just be worn?  It’s doing this on both carbs.

By the way, the picture above is my work around for this problem so that my garage isn’t an enormous fire hazard.  I looped a hose between the two petcock outlets and then let the carbs drain back into an empty bottle. 

I’ve been looking for motivation the past two days to go out to the garage and work on the Honda CL200, but the motivation just isn’t there.  I think it’s just the annual shock of colder weather setting in combined with being exhausted from vacation still.

Actually, as far as meeting my goal for the year, I got it running and got one nice long ride on it without breaking down….which was pretty much my goal for the year.

I’m hoping since it will be in semi-heated space in the garage bay at my office I’ll find the time over the winter to work on it still.  The only real problem with it at this point that’s not just cosmetic is the oil leak and a couple cracked lenses on the back end.

Well, here are the plans for the bikes for the weekend.  First, I’m hoping for nice weather on Saturday and I’ll take the Kawasaki Vulcan 500 up to Mentor for the Western Reserve Harley test drive event.  Sounds like fun, aside from the loads of douchebags that will inevitably be there.  It’s right next door to the Honda dealer, so I’ll pop in and see if they have anything in stock for my CL200…probably not.

I’m also going to check out a 1989 Suzuki GSXR 750 basket case that someone offered to me at a very interesting price of $300….will post more about that later.

The CL200 is the big project.  The petcock still drips fuel into the lines even when it’s turned to off, so in order to get my carbs off to inspect the jets, I’m going to need to go get about 3 feet of fuel hose for each carb and run them from the petcock right into the gas can.  I tried looking at the carbs last weekend but the only way I could stop fuel from going all over the garage floor was to hold the floats up.

New floats and new jets – after that I think it’s in tip-top shape, cosmetics excluded.  There’s an oil leak from the tachometer drive housing, but that’s minor – just need to get a factory gasket or some of that crap that forms it’s own gasket…most likely the latter.

Hey – I’m thinking about organizing a 100 mile ride around the Hudson/Peninsula area for next summer – anyone interested?

Ah!  Finally I have a taillight.  I have to be honest though, I tapped into the guage lights and ran a new wire to the back.  I just couldn’t trace down the problem and dismantling all of the wire harnesses was not an attractive option.

I ordered new brake light switches from Western Reserve Honda in Mentor Oh.  As usual, they were able to set me up with NOS for less than risky buys on Ebay….about $24 including tax.

By touching wires together, I can make the brake light work from both switch locations…so I’m confident that as soon as the switches are installed the issues will be resolved.

This Saturday I’m going to purchase the historical vehicle plate for it and (crossing my fingers) I will be able to get a nice ride or two on it before Winter.

Ahh….electrical problems are so much fun.  Well, I did make some progress.  Again, the issue is that the rear brake light and tail lights do not work.

The mystery wires that were holding up the speedometer cable turned out to be wires that were supposed to go to a front brake light switch.  That switch is missing.

It also appears that the rear brake light switch is not working.  I can’t get a good continuity test on it no matter what.

I’m not sure what all this has to do with the taillight, unless somehow that voltage travels through the same wire.  I’ll find out when I get a replacement switch.  If not hing else, I can tap into the brown wires in the headlight bucket – those are positive leads whenever the headlight switch is turned on.  By the way, when you’re weaving through the wires in one of these old Hondas, dark green is ground, blue is the positive lead when the headlight switch is turned to high, and the white wires are the low beam positive leads.

I got my use out of my multimeter this weekend.

After finally finding my tester, which was seemingly lost because I actually put it away last time I used it, I determined that I did in fact have a blown fuse.  I replaced it and I’m back in business.

Also, I did replace the broken speedometer with the one from the former CB360 project.  I believe at some point I’m just going to put the entire cluster on from the 360.  It has a center module for the highbeam, turn, and neutral lights rather than being inside of the tach on the CL200.  I just like the look of the guages more…and I alsready have them so no additional $$$.

The last issue I have before it’s street legal is that the taillight and rear brake lights do not work.  I checked and the maximum amount of voltage they’re getting is about .1 volts.  The buld is definately good.  Any suggestions?  I’ll post this on totalmotorcycle and see if anyone knows what to look for.

To my surprise, I started the CL200 today.  As anticipated, it started right up and ran like a champ.

About 3 or 4 minutes into it, I saw smoke rising though.  The wire from the speedometer cable was glowing red hot.  It was never connected because the speedo is shot (tonight though I replaced it with the working one I had leftover from the CB360). 

By the way, the wires you see holding the cable up were actual live wires for something….and melted together during this incident.  I cut off the ends in order to get them off of the speedo cable. 

I immediately shut it off, but now the entire electrical system is dead.  No power anywhere.  I checked the one fuse it has, it’s fine.  I tried reconnecting the two wires that I cut as well.  Any suggestions?

Well, I got the bike back today.  All I can say is “outstanding.”  It runs like it’s new.  It rides like a 36 year old bike should ride.  I love it.

So, back to the restoration, to the left is the right side cover after about three or four rounds of filling and sanding.  Looks beautiful, right?

I have to say…I’m pretty pleased with how this is turning out.  Here is the side cover after the second round of primer.    As you can see, I did cut the remaining vertical bars out and just make it an open vent.  I have to argue that it’s almost looking like a professional job.  That’s important to me because it will hopefully set the stage for the rest of the bike’s restoration….I tend to lose steam and start settling for “good enough.”

Finally, here is the left side cover as-is.  It’s intact and just has some scrapes that will need to be filled.

Well, no pictures tonight since I can’t seem to find the camera, but the side cover is coming along and is really turning out to be a good lesson for having patience…which is necessary with body work.

The good news is that the CL200 is coming back on Saturday.  The guy is another really great person to know and with his permission I’ll also give out his name.  Anyway, for just over $350 (including pickup and delivery) he said it’s running and riding well now.  Here’s what he did:

• Install a new clutch cable and adjust the clutch – the clutch cable was just too short and causing all of my grief.
• Acid wash the tank and remove all rust
• rebuild the petcock
• Install new ends on the battery terminals
• Adjust the carbs
• Change the oil
• Install a new front brake cable and adjust the brake

I can’t wait to ride it!