Sunday 22 December 2013

CL350 crankcase repair

When I took the engine out of the CL350 to repair the broken kickstart mechanism, I noticed that part of one of the engine mounts had broken off.

There was no obvious damage to the frame oround this so possibly it broke due to vibration, or it had hit something when being ridden off road. Either way, it would have to be fixed.
I filed off the edges to make them reasonably flat then cut a strip of alloy and a half round piece from a tube (actually an old curtain rail from my kitchen - why buy something when you've got something that will do lying about!)
I temporaily glued the tube to the broken mount, then drilled and tapped the crankcase for an M3 screw. I the case is only about 3 - 4 mm thick at this point, so I 'broke through'. This shouldn't be a problem as it'll be sealed later.
I then screwed the alloy strip to the case so it passed over the half tube.
I bent the strip over the tube by carefully tapping it with a small hammer, then drilled and tapped the case again (didn't break through this time!)
Once I was happy with it, I took everything off and gave it a good clean with wire brushes and alcohol, then mixed up some epoxy (what would I do without it!!!)
I reassembled the tube and strip, glueing them in place with the epoxy, then smeared some more epoxy over the top.
I looks a bit messy at the moment, but I'll smooth the epoxy down, adding some more if it neeeds it. This will probably not be seen when the engine is in the frame, but if it's too obvious, I'll tidy it up a bit.
Ideally, I would fit the optional bash plate that Honda list in their parts book (part 9).

However, this is the 'Holy Grail' of CL350 owners as it hasn't been available for about 40 years and is much sought after. I might try to make something similar out of alloy sheet once I get the bike on the road. Unless someone out there has one they don't want..........
(Cue Larry to say 'I've got about 6 of them rusting away in my yard, do you want one?)





1 comment:

  1. Actually the only 'skid plate' in the backyard is one on a Triumph 650 frame. Somewhere recently I saw one for a CL 77. With all the 350's I've seen or worked on,
    I've never encountered a CL with a plate.
    They must be rare. You could always do the desert racer thing, and find an old aluminum coal shovel and fashion a plate from it. I'll take a poke through my stuff and see if I have any CL fork ears.

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