So I started to tear them down to see exactly what I was working with. One was a 72 with a 3-spd "automatic" and the other was a 73 with a traditional clutched 3-speed (or 4-spd? I forget). Both motors were locked up, but I was able to free the automatic (which was good because that was the one he really wanted for his kids to learn on). The body from the other one was in better condition, so I decided to keep it. I ordered a 88cc piston/cylinder kit since the cylinder was pretty wrecked up.
By the way, all the parts I ordered were from CHP Motorsports. They were super helpful in both diagnosing my problems and helping me find the appropriate parts.
Years of caked-on dirt and grease made everything hard to deal with, and the head was almost locked up from the carbon build up, but after much scrubbing I was able to get the engine torn down (well, Jeff had started to, so I had to figure out where everything went, get it back together to get a baseline, and then start to tear it down).
I made some supports for the bikes out of 2x4's and leftover OSB, and got to work. Many a late night I spent cussing Honda for their play-doh fasteners. Once I got it torn down I set about putting the piston kit on. Word to the wise: If you have a question, someone else has too, and there's an answer online. Google and patience are you friends.
Yes, that is a space heater blowing on my engine. Metal sucks the heat out of your hands in February. Now I just had to get it all back together. It's pretty basic, and if you've made it this far, you have the capability, so I won't go into details. you will fight with the wiring and gas lines trying to get the engine back in the frame. And you will have to drop the engine multiple times to unhook and reattach various things. As you can see in one of the pictures above, I used a jack to lift the engine and save my back a bit. At some point I thought it was a good idea to put the bike up on my bench to work on it at eye level. I think it was to mess with the engine electrics. I was having trouble with spark. Still not entirely sure how I got it up there myself (I'm 5'9", 140lb).
Once I got it all back together, I was having trouble with spark. I appeared to be getting 5-6 small sparks per engine revolution. This is obviously not compatible with the 4-stroke cycle. I had never seen anything like it, and no one seemed to want to respond to my queries on a couple of online forums, so I emailed the guys over at CHP again. They were helpful in chasing down my troubles. I ordered a stator assembly kit, coil, and spark plug boot. Add that to the battery I picked up, and this thing had an entirely new electrical system. I now had good spark, and continued putting the rest of the pieces together.
The gas tank was rusted completely out, but luckily the other bike had a plastic one that dropped right in. Soon I had a functional bike, and was able to get it to run well enough to learn about the adjustment knobs on the carb. I was going to pick up a new carb, but opted to heavily clean the original, as it was in good shape. There are carb rebuild kits out there, but I was able to clean mine up with some B12 and carb cleaner spray.
After teaching my son some new words, we had a runner.
I got it put the rest of the way back together and called Jeff to come pick it up. I threw everything from the other bike back in place or in a box and told him he had a parts bike. If I had more time, patience, and money I could get it back in running order. But I had other projects I wanted to get rolling on.
Here are some links I found useful during my rebuild:
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