Astrid: Street Legal!

$103 to pull the CM91 out of non-op.  And perhaps share a license plate with Ivy one day...?

Astrid: K&N

The K&N RU-0155 (38mm OD) was a perfect fit for the CM91 carb.  And more importantly, she actually ran with it.  But I actually started it with the normal airbox, let it warm up, then switched to the K&N.

What I discovered a few days later is that while she'll run with the K&N, she doesn't seem to be able to start with the K&N.  Must simply be too much air when the engine's cold (even choked).

Interesting...

Odd Jobs: Astrid 77-day start, Mikuni

Must be a new record...  Astrid started with ONE kick after 77 days.  Crazy.  It had been so long that the inside of the battery toolbox was full of corrosion, though I couldn't quite tell from what.

Once again confirmed the fat oil leak from where the head meets the cylinder jug (I think).

Also disappointed to see that there was a gas leak coming from the carburetor.  Hard to see from where or why.  Probably need to pop it open and check the gasket...


Also added the offset intake and Mikuni carb to Ivy.

Astrid: Battery Tender Jr.

After a few kickstarts and idling for a minute, the new UB645 battery dropped from 6.4V to 6.29V.  I hooked it up to the Battery Tender Jr. for the first time today.  Unfortunately, the UB645 has some male spade connectors (bent at 90 degrees) and neither the included ring connectors or alligator clips made for good attachments. 

I tried electrical tape to keep them in place, but I think they kept separating, since I'd sometimes see the light on the Battery Tender go out.  Then I'd fix the contacts and then the light came back.

It charged in "storage" mode (green light) for about 30-40 minutes, and the voltage went from 6.29 to 6.38.

I'll try to make a more solid connector and then see what happens with a longer charge.

Viola: New Battery

Got a new sealed lead-acid battery given what a short life the 6V's have when used to start the bike.  As expected, the new battery's 6.4V dropped to 6.27 after some kickstarting and idling.  Also got the Battery Tender Jr. and we'll see how well that works to bring the battery back up to full charge.

Astrid: Semi-Permanent

Setup wiring with the battery lying in the compartment.  Still not anything permanent, but this lets me shorten all the wires and reduces the chances of knocking something loose while kicking.

Astrid: Tank Cleaning

Removed the tank, which turned out to be as easy as removing four bolts.  Pulled the fuel lines out so I could shake the big rust chips out of the tank.  Then I re-attached the tank, but let the fuel lines poke out of the battery compartment.  It should be pretty easy to run new lines when I'm ready.

Plugged the fuel lines with golf tees and filled the tank about half full of Evapo-Rust.

Astrid: Gas Tank Testing

At the risk of adding even more corrosion to the inside of the tank, I ran water through Astrid's reserve line to see if a lot of gunk would come out.  There was some sediment, but nothing a good filter couldn't handle. The bigger chunks stayed inside the tank as expected.

I'm considering filling the tank with Evapo-Rust and letting it sit for a couple days before then flushing it out again and finally replacing with gas.

Though with all the sparking going on, I'm still a bit nervous having gas in the metal tank.  Maybe I should leave the Evapo-Rust in until a more permanent (non-sparking) battery solution is in place.  Wouldn't hurt to let the Evapo-Rust sit for as long as possible anyway.


The old fuel filter cracked and the rubber fuel lines themselves are brittle and perished.  I'll need to see about replacing the fuel lines completely.

Astrid: On a Roll...

So the oil leak turned out to be just a few alternator cover screws that weren't tightened down.  They were the 3 that were hidden by the sprocket cover.  Replaced them and tightened them and wouldn't you know it - no more leak.

Tested the homemade static timing light for the first time.  Worked like a charm.

I must have confused the S90 and CM91 kickstarters at some time in the past, since this one that was on Viola has way more clearance.

 

Original battery is a 6N5.5 - 1D by Cycle Tron.

Astrid: A Rookie Wrench Milestone

After three years of sitting, and countless disassembly and reassembly by this rookie, Astrid's engine fires up and idles!  It's definitely a milestone.  Probably less to do with my mechanical skill, and just the bullet proof nature of these old Honda engines.

Had a little confusion at first rigging up the killswitch, as I had the wires running to the wrong leads.  After sorting that out, I rigged up the aux gas bottle, ending up just hanging it off a handlebar.  I poured in a little bit of gas and opened up all the petcocks, then checked the carb for leaks.

At that point I moved the bike out into the open where if she caught fire at least we wouldn't burn the garage down.

The first few kicks did nothing.  After a half dozen of these, the kickstarter came loose and I had to re-attach it.  I kept kicking, knowing from the compression test that it took awhile to get up to 120lbs and maybe the oil still needed to be distributed evenly.  Eventually I thought I heard a little mutter right at the bottom of each stroke.  When she caught, she just fired right up without any hesitation.  There was smoke from the exhaust for a minute or two, and I was revving the throttle to keep her running.

Eventually I just let her idle and she ran strong for a few minutes.  She then sputtered and stalled, which may have been because I left the choke open.  But at that point, I'd already seen the massive oil leak coming from the right bottom corner of the alternator cover.  So I didn't start her up again, figuring the day was still an unqualified success.

Astrid: The Final Stretch

Some odd jobs, but this pretty much gets us to the final point.  The only thing left to do is rig up the killswitch and secure the wiring, and also decide how to hang the gas bottle.  From there, it's just kick and cross your fingers.


Carb gets mounted and air hose attached (which was a pain to fit).

700 mL of the Castrol 20W50.

Something odd - if you attach the kickstart lever flush to the case, it won't clear the exhaust on the way down.  I'm not sure what's out of whack.  Maybe it's the wrong model of kickstarter, or maybe it's the wrong exhaust.  But either way, I had to mount the lever out at the very edge in order to get a full rotation.  I think for the short term it will have to do.

And the big moment - 120 lbs on the compression test!

Astrid: 69 Cents Saves the Day

Thankfully, a $0.69 rubber #14 o-ring from the hardware store solves Astrid's carb leak.

Astrid: Marathon

Solid four hours of quality garage time today.  Did a laundry list for Astrid run prep, pretty much everything leading up to adding oil and then doing the compression test.

• Added in all the gaskets, using 4 from the replacement kit.  
• Torqued the clutch nut, which actually turned into a bit of an ordeal, but learned 2 good tricks as a result.  
• First, realized that I had the perfect sized C-clamp to keep the clutch basket holder from moving as you apply force to the nut.  
• Second, on a brand new lock ring, you need to bend the tabs inward otherwise it's tough to fit a screwdriver behind the tab once it's tightened.
• Did a mini tune-up
• Set the valve clearance, using the yellow 3mm wrench for the first time
• Set the points gap.  Weird thing about the points gap is that since the whole thing rides on a spring, it seems tricky to use a feeler gauge to measure the space in between.
• Checked the timing, and realized after much confusion, that my homemade LED was not working because LED's don't dim.  Switched back to the incandescent bulb setup and found the timing was already dead on to the "F" mark.

These 2 gaskets were original, I'd just fallen into the habit of leaving them off.

These 4 gaskets came from the replacement kit.  I'm not 100% sure the o-ring for the oil galley is correct, but it seemed to fit and it was better than nothing.

 

 

 

The locking tab (before bending the tabs), the C-clamp setup, and a clean oil filter screen.

 

 

Astrid: Bling

Replaced all the fasteners on the alternator and clutch covers.  The hardware store was fresh out of 6x20 plain steel screws so I ended up getting stainless at $.90 a pop, but I didn't feel like waiting to check other stores.

 

Also, tried tightening up the exhaust bolts to see why there was such a big gap there.  I'm fairly certain it's not supposed to be that way, but I'm not sure if it really matters.  Going to try swapping it with Viola's to see if I can at least cut the gap down.

Astrid: Gaskets

On the road to bringing Astrid back to life.  Now that we've got spark...

...time to check all the gaskets on the top end and crankcase covers.  Unbelievably most were either still intact, and I was able to find matches for the others in my set of replacements.

The only one that didn't seem to fit quite right was the head cover.  The holes actually line up correctly with the screws, but the internal shape doesn't seem to match.  I wonder if it's good enough, though...  I'll have to research.

Air box and filter element seem in good enough shape, too.