The Honda XL (and other vintage singles) thread!

Chains off? Both chain tensioners loosened off?

This side went well with the castle nut and adjuster sleeve coming right off

On this side the axle, spacer and brake all seem to be frozen together. The wheel slides in the swingarm opening, but when I put an adjustable wrench (15") to the axle it will not spin as it is stuck. I have beat from the opposite side with a hammer:huhand didn't even budge. I think I'll tip the bike on it's side and load up on the PB blaster before I head off to work.
I looked on the Bike Bandit fiche and it looks like it should slide right out. The tire is the original Nitto so I have reason to believe the back wheel has NEVER been off and never been treated to a little antisieze.

I guess if it was easy, everyone would have vintage Honda's

Damn! I'd soak it as best as you can, and apply some heat while applying torque & pounding. Try tapping on the sleeve/spacer also. If you partially thread the nut on the opposite end and hammer it, you will not bugger up the threads. Good luck!

Huh, interesting, what bike is this? what year?

a week of soaking it with PB blast then get a block of wood and a big hammer. if that don't work, heat the sleeve a can of compresed air turned upside down sprayed on the bolt will cool it. that should work. it will expand the sleeve and contract the bolt. if that don't work give it another week of soaking and repeat. PB blast is some good stuff.

Marvel Mystery Oil is really good for this as well you can get it at almost all auto-parts stores. I've only used it in motors to free up stuck cylinders. my boat was sunk and 3 cylinders had water in them long enough to rust them stuck. the Marvel Mystery Oil broke the rings free and cleaned everything up. the boat has a little blow by on one of the cylinders but it doesn't smoke. that stuff might be worth a try.

edit. put the nut on the end of the bolt before you start to hammer the hell out of it. it will help to keep from messing up the threads.

here's a question. I have a 82 XL500R I have the right side cover off and it almost looks like a oil cooler could be added to this motor. has anyone ever done or seen it done?

I added an oil cooler to a '76 XL350 motor. The installation required plugging a short oil galley, redirecting the oil through the cooler then dumping it back into the motor on the other side of the plug. The galley was in the right side cover and almost seemed to be designed for this purpose. What you are describing sounds very similar.

My XL with the cooler installed:


without:

OK, looked at your profile and I'm guessing this is the '75 XL250? Also looking at the pictures you posted and can tell you that the back wheel has definitely been off...and if you don't have it, it is probably long gone. That wheel looks to be a painted over chrome wheel, and the hub is a non-cush drive hub, more than likely off of an MT250. Whoever did the swap may very well have just beat it all together to make it fit, although I think they are pretty interchangeable if you use all the MT spacers. Hard to tell just from a pair of pics but looks as though the bike may have been more than axle deep in water at some point (the kind of greenish tint to the grease is often a sign of long term water breakdown) which means maybe the axle is really stuck in the internal distance collar or the bearings. Then again maybe when the PO did the wheel swap he cleaned everything really good and didn't re-grease everything before putting it back together.

Personally, I'd see if I could get the swing arm bolt out (fill up the Zerk fitting with grease first, because it may be the same problem there) so you can get it to a more manageable piece. Try and get as much penetrating oil (WD40) into the center of that hub as you can with the wheel on its side, stuck side down. Maybe you can punch a hole in the seal (guessing) and fill up the hub. After all this I seriously be thinking about putting new bearings in while you have it off, if you get to that point. If not and you decide to sacrifice the axle, drilling it out may be your best bet for saving the swingarm. If you decide to do that, and it is indeed an MT wheel as it certainly appears you'll need to look for MT parts, unless you just swap the whole thing back to an XL wheel. Brake panel should work and the sprocket is the same pattern between the 2, and maybe even the axle itself. The spacers are all different between the 2.

One of my bikes had an MT wheel on the back and a modified XL350 swingarm. That bike is all back to stock now, well hub and swingarm are anyway, rim is new and wider and spokes are stainless now.

yeah there's a oil galley close to there. and it does have to round counter sunk places on the out side. I may get a side cover off E-bay and play with it. the old 500 get's HOT during the summer.

I recently picked up a1980 XL500s for $100 with a title. It's rough looking to be sure, but not as bad as I thought it would be for the price. I pulled the carb and soaked it over night and replaced the fuel line and it started up, I would say right up but it took me a while to figure out the secret handshake. I have only riden it down the block and back to go through the gears, any further rides will have to wait till the new chain and front sprocket retaining plate get here.

The bike is missing a few parts: turn signals, mirrors, skid plate, air cleaner. It is this last item that prompts me to writing this post. The bike has a 36 mm Mikuni VM carb and the top of the air box has been removed as well as the openng for the filter enlarged a bit. evan so a unipod still rubs a bit on the frame cross member as well as the battery. For anyone who is running this same carb what are you running for an air filter and how are you getting the filter into the air filter box? I would like to keep the battery and the air bix is a handy way of holding the battery so removing the air box is solving one problem bit creating another.

Now that she's complete, I can add her to the collective. "74 XL175:








The build thread: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=643112

Very Nice!! Red looks good!!

Thanks! It's a fun little bike.

No luck on XLboard, so posting here too.

I bought the Progressive series 12 shocks for my '76 250. No luck finding the correct mounting sleeves/bushings. Could someone who has these shocks let me know how they got them mounted?

TIA!

Tony Mc Loughlin from Christchurch, NZ

hey guys i've started a build thread in the Thumper section.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=711672 I'm merging a XR400r with my 82 XL500R.

Dumb question here, not the first and wont be the last. I am trying to adjust the timing chain on my $100 1980 xl500s. I got rid of the exhaust leaks and could hear the timing chain making some noise. I am following (I think) the instructions in the Clymer manual that came with the bike. I warmed up the bike and then with the engine still running I loosened the upper and lower nuts on the rear of the right side of the cylinder as shown in the manual. I made some marks with a sharpie so I could be sure to only loosen them 1 1/2 turns. The chain stopped making noise and the engine seemed to idle smoother. It would idle before but it was a bit fast. Then with the engine still running I tightened the nuts, and when doing so the chain started making noise and the engine died.

Is there something wrong with my cam chain tensioner or was I supposed to turn the engine off before tighening the tensioner nuts?

The MT250 hub is cush drive as its a road based bike, not an MXer.

Looked at the parts fiche and yep you're right it is a cush, but not the same as an XL hub. Plummer Mikes hub is an MT hub and not an XL hub, cush for cush or not. The XL hub has a stamped steel cover over the sprocket which the left hand spacer fits into, under that cover is a spanner nut that holds the left hand bearing. Like I said I have an MT hub that was on one of my XLs when I got it, chrome steel wheel still laced to it.

It's now sporting an 81 XR200 front end.

My bikes engine number starts with SL too. I wonder what kind of frankenhonda I have? :huh