1974 CT70 K3 Restoration Project

[OLD CT]

I use Duplicolor ceramic silver caliper paint. Here are some pics.
Honda never used clear on side covers, neither do I. The lighting you are using adds to the shine, i think. The clutch cover needs more work, sand and fill with some epoxy.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Should the dipstick seat be masked off or painted?

 

[cjpayne]

I just use an old dipstick and seal to cover the hole. You don't want paint sticking to the new seal later, flaking off, and getting into the oil.

 

[69ST]

Virtually all paint was single stage, back in the 1970s, except candies and the OEM candy colors weren't clearcoated back then, either. There is such a thing as matte clear, which is used with wheel paints. It's possible to get the same visual results with either single stage or base/clear paint systems. Wheel clear is used to add durability and chemical resistance to wheel paint. Caliper paint, OTOH, almost by definition has to seal the base metal and resist chemical exposure as a single stage; it's less work.

I'm not, as yet, completely sold on caliper paint. Been using it for the past 10 years, or so, on automotive brake parts and it hasn't held up well...rust spots appear after a single winter. Obviously, it doesn't seal the metal all that effectively. That's a non-issue with engine parts; the OEM lacquer wasn't any better...probably not quite as good. It's color/texture match which, imho, is closer to the 1980s version of "cloud silver". YOMD

 

[ArcticMinibike]

I had to splice the coil with a new plug wire. The new wire does not have the extra layer of rubber sheathing like the old one. Does anybody here worry about replacing that? If so, where do I find the material to do that?

 

[cjpayne]

I think they put in on there to protect from cuts, burns, chaffing, ect. You could put some heatshrink tubing on it. If it's too thin, two layers should do.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Switches / Sheathing / Transplant Part II

I finally got around to replacing black sheathing with silver. Cramming 5 wires down sheathing designed for 3-4 wires was fun. I used all sorts of techniques (pushing it, pulling it with fishing line or thin wire) and lots of dish soap as a lubricant, but never got it to go. In desperation I squirted some light household oil in the tube instead of the dish soap and wham bam it was done. I followed it up with some purple power degreaser to get rid of the oil and then washed it out with water.



I also did Part II of my heart transplant to my old switch body. Last time I used a slider switch from a new H/L switch. This time I took the knob from a brand new Z50 off/run switch.

Can anyone spot the problem with this switch?

 

[cjpayne]

On/off/dimmer witch looks great from here. When you ask what's wrong with it, do you mean it's not concourse correct?

 

[kirrbby]

Looks good to me.

Pulling all this wires thru can be a challenge. I've done a few. Spend a half hour getting the wires all straight and staggered, taped up in a nice organized row. Object is to wrap them up skinny by staggering the connectors. Make a hook in a piece of thin tie wire...like rerod tie wire. Hook it behind the first bullet connector of your row of wires. Tape it in place and use the tie wire to pull the whole bundle thru. Then unwrap the tape and finish pulling each wire thru. It's worked well for me, and without having to cut the bullet connectors off.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Looks good to me.

Pulling all this wires thru can be a challenge. I've done a few. Spend a half hour getting the wires all straight and staggered, taped up in a nice organized row. Object is to wrap them up skinny by staggering the connectors. Make a hook in a piece of thin tie wire...like rerod tie wire. Hook it behind the first bullet connector of your row of wires. Tape it in place and use the tie wire to pull the whole bundle thru. Then unwrap the tape and finish pulling each wire thru. It's worked well for me, and without having to cut the bullet connectors off.

I tried most of what you mentioned, although I didn't feel I had room for tape. I considered it. I straightend the wires and staggered the connectors and used a pull wire. I needed about 6 hands, some to push, some to pull and some to hold the tube but not squeeze it. 4 wires through 6mm tube was easy, 5 wires was pretty much impossible. By the time you add 4 wires plus that 5th bullet, it was stretching the sides if the wires weren't perfectly arranged, so some of the connectors had to go. That went fine except by the time I got to the last 6 inches of the 22" tube, it would go no more. Too much friction. If I had tried light oil at that point instead of soap, it might have gone. By that point I had cut off 3 of the 5 connectors. What made things worse, I was dealing with a pre-cut length of wire that was still attached to the switch, staggering created to much of a bundle at the switch end to get the wires far enough through to grab them. The tube was only a couple inches shorter than the tube. I would have had better luck with 7mm tube but I wanted to keep it thin like the original and matching the turn signal/horn on the other side. In the end worked out fine as I have replacement connectors The original wires had solder-on bullets, which I prefer over the crimp. I'll reuse them if I have enough.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

On/off/dimmer witch looks great from here. When you ask what's wrong with it, do you mean it's not concourse correct?

Yes, it is not concourse correct for 2 reasons (maybe just one, but I'm not sure about the original). Do you know what it is? Trying to figure out if it's too obvious.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Here's the deal...





The new knob is bigger by about 3/32" in diameter. You can see it overlap the raised center of the black housing a bit, whereas the original knob is slightly smaller than that raised part of the housing. I thought I was being so clever to buy a Z50 switch and rob the knob off of it. I was then going to put my old knob on the Z50 switch and sell it to recoup a little of my money. To my surprise, and not in a good way, the Z50 knob is slightly larger in diameter. It still fits, and to the untrained eye, seems to look normal. Unfortunately this becomes a $50 knob, and incorrect at that. It is fully functional and works properly. Unfortunately, the smaller broken knob won't fit on the Z50 housing, as it won't seat fully enough to allow the circlip to be installed.

Did any other models, even completely different Honda models in 1974, use the smaller K3 knob or was it unique to the K3 CT70? I wish CHP would reproduce these knobs. I've seen plenty of posts saying the same thing. If it had worked, I had planned on making a casting mold or creating a 3D model for possible 3D printing, but it was not to be.

What do you guys think I should do? Use it until the correct one comes along (pretty $$$)? Do you think a concourse judge would notice? (not that I'm anywhere making this that good)

I also wondered what the correct color red was on the originals or if they darkened over time. The new one is pretty bright red, although it has a pink tinge in the pictures, that's just the lighting.

 

[Tweakin]

Turned out great. Tough to tell until you posted the side by side comparison.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Side Covers Painted

Been a couple weeks working on these here and there. I stripped my old job and filled every tiny ding I could find. I'm still not happy with the paint. If I were to do it all over again, I would NOT use the Honda touch up paint. It's simply too glossy if you apply it like normal paint, a couple light dustings and a medium+ coat at the end to make sure there's no roughness. If you just do a couple light coats, you get roughness.

I've sprayed plenty of lacquer in my days and this is basically that - lacquer touch up paint. As someone pointed out previously, you spray paint the way you should spray paint, the gloss is determined by the paint, not the spraying technique. Also, the old-school style nozzle SUCKS big time, for you guys who remember what paint cans used to be like...low pressure and hard to push to get decent flow. I'll live with these for now but as soon as they start to get beat up, I'll strip them and use one of the many modern options with more durability and a little less luster.

I thought about wet sanding with 2,000 or 3,000 grit paper to knock it down a bit, or maybe some sort of liquid rubbing compound. Anyone ever tried this or have recommendations? A paste or liquid might be better, especially over the cast text.





...and remember that broken cover corner?

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Hi guys! Time to get back into this project now that the weather is warming up!

Please refresh my now 50 year old memory on what this indicator light this is. Turn signal blinker?

Secondly, the only wire left on this is 1/2" long on the center contact. I'm assuming there was a second lead on the socket for the ground. Correct? Should both wires exit through the 2 side holes? Why the third hole in the bottom, drainage?

 

[cjpayne]

Blinker indicator

I have one of those "somewher". if I remember right, it's in good shape

 

[ArcticMinibike]

I'm Back!!! I stalled on this project for a very long time, probably a year or so, but I'm pushing hard to get it done.

I have a Major issue and I need help ASAP. I went to put on the new timing chain and found this under the stator... see pic. I thought it was odd that the plastic sides of the lower "roller" were chewed up a bit, and what an odd faceted pattern this lower roller had.

I'm pretty sure it used to have teeth! This engine has over 7,000 miles on it. How the hell did it survive without a functioning oil pump drive for who knows how long?

Please confirm a couple of things for me. It WAS the oil pump sprocket, right? To replace it, do I just pop off the clutch assembly and oil pump, thread the sprocket off the shaft, and thread the new sprocket (with teeth this time) onto the shaft? Any tricks to holding the shaft to get the sprocket spun off?

Teeth on the main shaft look decent, but slightly worn. I hope that's good enough, because I'm assuming that's press-fit and no easy task to remove/replace.I'll replace the tension and cylinder rollers as well.

 

[cjpayne]

That chain is extremely worn and/or the oil pump is seizing(I doubt it though). I've seen worn chains eat that oil pump gear like that. Your right about getting to the shaft from the clutch side. Since the teeth on the gear are gone, you can use some small visegrips to hold it in place to loosen. I've used a big slot screwdriver to fit onto/into that shaft and turn. They are tight though. Check closely for scoring in the pump assembly. You might go ahead and replace the pump gears while your in there. You will need the little thin gasket too. Since your bike is stock, you wont need a HVpump and the HVpumps drag the motor down just a little on the top end. You would also have to drill out the oil oriface out to the head assembly with a HVpump.

 

[ArcticMinibike]

This ended up being WAY easier than I thought it would be. Thankfully I live an hour away from DRATV so my parts showed up in one day. I had this tiny C-clamp and it fit right in there. I was worried about using a big screwdriver but that worked great too. I took the oil pump apart and everything in there looked fine and freely moving. Kind of a pain but thankfully I had the gaskets in my kit. Thanks for the advice! You can see there's quite a bit of difference now...actual teeth!

 

[ArcticMinibike]

Next question: Which direction does the filter screen go in? I see that the shape isn't square, so I figured the narrow end goes in first to conform to the casting taper, but do the flaps go up (towards the oil pump) or down (away from the oil pump)? Does it even matter? This can't be worthy of a separate thread but I can't seem to find any reference to the direction.