Four Wheel Forum

Done.

No worries. I'm not getting terribly discouraged or frustrated. If there weren't a few problems with a bike that has been sitting for 40+ years, I would be worried. I'll be keeping my eye out for a coil and I'm going to try a 35/35 watt scooter bulb to see if the charging system can keep up with that. I've inspected the wiring harness and other than that one wire being the wrong color, it looks good and everything is routed as it should be. If worse comes to worse, I'll try to figure out what kind of 12v stator I can swap in. A Honda CL175 stator can be had for less than $50 and if all else fails, that should provide plenty of oomph.

I found out a bit more about the bike from the PO. It had been sitting in his front yard for seven years. Thanks to his cat, the pack rats never got to it. Before he got it, it belonged to a Hell's Angel who had it sitting in his storage shed and hanging from the rafters in his garage since the mid '70s. He got it from the original owner in exchange for some work on a Harley.

It's a really cool little bike and a ton of fun to ride. It needs a new coil and some work done on the clutch but I was expecting that sort of thing and have had a ton of fun on it in the mean time.

The charging problem has been figured out! The ignition switch wasn't put back together properly and my brother fixed it. It'll charge the battery with the 55/60 watt bulb on high beam. I have a 35/35W bulb standing by if it doesn't hold up to stop and go traffic. I have a gasket set and am waiting for an oil seal set to pull and resurface the clutch disks and fix that pesky weeping kick starter. Hopefully the coil holds out for another month or so until I can swing a new one.

The coil finally gave out for good today, about halfway to work. I managed to limp it home 1/4 mile at a time and my brother picked up a pair of used Goldwing coils (which are supposed to be pretty close to bulletproof) for $27. We're going to hook one of those bad boys up and see what happens.

The really nice thing about this bike is that unless something bad happens inside of the engine/tranny, this should be just about the last thing that could possibly go wrong with it. Once we get it up and running and reliable, I'm going to try to talk my brother into taking an overnight motorcycle trip to Bisbee, AZ.

Done.

It appears that I am in need of some wisdom yet again. We replaced the coil yesterday which made it a lot easier to start when cold but didn't make the problem go away. Today we cleaned and re-gapped the points, checked the condenser (it's fine), pulled apart the carb (clean but we blew it out with the compressor just to be safe), cleaned and fixed the gap on the plugs and it isn't dying anymore but it's still running really badly. I can't think of anything else it could be besides the D6HS plugs I got from Thailand, although they worked perfectly for a hundred miles or so. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Maybe you got a slug of bad fuel. For kicks, drain and refill with fresh gas. The clue is that you cleaned the carb and now it does not die, but still runs bad.

Maybe, just maybe you have a bad plug.

Go for the simple stuff 1st. IMO

Done.

Just an update: It turned out to be the points. Replacing the gas made no difference and I researched the coil and found out that it behaves exactly as you would want it to, it fires both cylinders at the same time whenever it gets a signal to do so from the points. The contacts on the points were fine but the old plastic had cracked and they were getting sloppy at higher RPMs. I replaced them today and now it runs great at idle and at higher RPMs but is really sluggish off the line which I'm assuming is a carb adjustment.

I replaced the coil (again! The Goldwing one from the junkyard was bad too) with a brand new universal unit from JC Whitney and the bike runs better than ever right now. My brother also decided to put the chain guard back on and finally put in the taillight screws that Kartgreen was so nice to send (we had to extract a broken off screw from one side first) and the bike looks and runs great. We're going to take another ride up Mt. Lemmon tomorrow and I'm looking forward to being able to enjoy riding the Benly again rather than just having it look pretty in my carport.

Buckets can you give a brand and specs on those tires? - I think they look awesome on the Benly. Are they oversized from the originals?

They are Shinko 244 tires in the stock 3.00x16 size. I got them for $25 apiece from JC Whitney Here's a link:

http://www.jcwhitney.com/244-series-fro ... c51715u0j3

I like them OK. I probably won't get another set when they wear out though. Pros and cons are as follows:

Pros:
-Price
-Grip really well on the street. I was flying around some corners that I probably should have taken a little slower today and they held on really well.
-They were the right size.
-DOT approved and rated to 93MPH

Cons:
-Noisy
-High rolling resistance
-Throw rocks up into my fenders like crazy
-I don't personally like the way they look on the bike very much

They are a good tire and if you like they way they look, they work just fine. I'm going to go with a more street oriented tire next time.

Thanks for the info Buckets - I think that's why I like them - counter culture to the rest of the bike.

Had a bit of a scare today. I was going about 55 (downhill with a tailwind, of course) when my rear tire went flat. The whole back of the bike started wobbling around like crazy. I was able to get it off of the road without dumping it but it was not a fun sensation. I'm not sure if there was something foreign in the tire, if the tube was pinched or if the little piece of the wire I pulled out of the tire managed to puncture the tube (there were a few holes in it, some likely caused by the tire spoons when we were replacing it) but it isn't an experience I would like to repeat.

Buckets81 wrote:Had a bit of a scare today. I was going about 55 (downhill with a tailwind, of course) when my rear tire went flat. The whole back of the bike started wobbling around like crazy. I was able to get it off of the road without dumping it but it was not a fun sensation. I'm not sure if there was something foreign in the tire, if the tube was pinched or if the little piece of the wire I pulled out of the tire managed to puncture the tube (there were a few holes in it, some likely caused by the tire spoons when we were replacing it) but it isn't an experience I would like to repeat.

Glad to hear you're okay!