Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics
This is the magazine dedicated to the buying, riding and rebuilding of the later classics and Japanese machines. Subscribe here.
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Q: I’ve got a problem. After a run the bike is going okay, but while parked in the garage for a few days petrol leaked out through the breather pipe on to the floor. It even filled one or both cylinders and drained through to the sump, mixing with the oil. I changed the oil…
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Q: I discovered your mag last year and a have been a reader ever since. I’m hoping, with all your years of accumulated experience, you may be able to help. CMM has inspired me to look for a restoration project and I thought I’d found one when a friend offered me a 1981 Suzuki GSX…
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If your bike has grease nipples use them; if it doesn’t, investigate if they can be retro-fitted. Pivot points on suspension systems need a regular supply of fresh, clean grease. Decades of dust, seasons of salt and weeks of water do nothing for shafts and bearings contained within. Seized suspension linkages and swinging spindles are…
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Now and then you will find that a nut or bolt simply will not undo. You have tried everything: heat, penetrating oil and even an impact wrench but still the fastener remains resolutely tight. There is one more thing before you reach for the angle grinder. It definitely does have a normal right-hand thread of…
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Q: I am having a bit of trouble with my Honda CB72, 1965 model, and I wonder if you can help. Apart from all the other work I have done for my restoration, I have overhauled the engine, replacing parts where necessary, and made sure that everything is within the tolerances given in the workshop…
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Q: My cruiser has recently developed an intermittent engine rattle, on tick-over the engine is okay, it seems to occur as I ride in top gear about 40-50mph, and as I lightly accelerate through the gears to top gear, on motorways holding 70-75mph there seems to be no ratttle. It sounded as if one of…
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Little spoils a bike like a graunching throttle. Cables are obvious and easy to lubricate but throttle tubes regularly get ignored. Whether it’s the conventional barrel type or early Japanese straight pull/scroll type the same ground rules apply. Carefully remove the twist grip, cleaning both the handlebar and the inside of the throttle tube firstly…
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Q: The headlamp bowl was rusty and my mate gave me a new chrome one. Foolisly, I accepted and removed the headlamp in order to replace it. As you may know, in the shell there is a huge tangle of plugs and wires which are squashed between the reflector and the back of the shell.…
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Q: I have two valves out of a classic motorcycle (a Triumph) one and the other are the same size in all respects. The parts book gives a different parts numbers for each valve (inlet and exhaust). The problem is knowing which is which. I have looked in all my service books but cannot find…
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Q: I’m getting desperate here on the garage floor with my DT400B twin shock. Over the last two years since I bought it, I’ve tried everything I can think of to stop a nasty chugging action when the throttle is shut. It seems to be more violent the hotter it is and the longer/higher the…
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