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Last dance with an old friend

SL350

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I've chosen to ride, repair, overhaul and ride again my sl350. I've done it for about 40 years. But this might be the last year.

The bike developed an oil leak around the head gasket. Still I rode it last year across several of the mountain passes in Colorado and a ton of day rides around north Texas. But winter set in and it was beginning to be hard to start.

First problem was getting the engine out of the bike. What was fairly easy a decade ago can do months worth of damage to my back lifting an engine out of the frame. It's out.

Now I had a backup engine that I had taken the kick start gear out of. The spare engine was already overhauled so I chose it for now and will rebuild the one that came out later. This is Texas and you ALWAYS have to be ready to ride. Heck it was 81 yesterday.

Part of replacing the missing kickstart gear is removing the clutch and the oil pump. Here is the first real problem, the oil pump split its gasket. Now I already have an overhaul gasket kit but that oil pump gasket is missing. That gasket is unavailable (I did find one on ebay and am waiting for delivery). Not wanting to wait a week I visited OReiley last night and picked up gasket material. But the oil pump has a screen on the bottom and I can't figure how I am going to trace it and the holes.


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So while I am waiting I decide to order air filters for the old SL. New Mexico and Colorado forests left the foam filters caked in dirt. Bikebandit no longer sells them, nor did I find anyone else. Right now they are soaking in Dawn and water trying to eek another season out of them. The alternative is to make them out of blank foam and glue.

It was one thing when last year I lost a few teeth from my kickstart gear. Luckily I could use the one in the spare engine and I sort of expect those kind of parts to be hard to find on such an old bike. But air filters and gaskets?

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I'm putting this back together but this is likely the last dance with the old ride. I will surely miss it and knowing how to fix what I am riding. Probably migrate to a maxi scooter.
 
Honda SL350 from the 70s? I am sure you already know this but just in case,,,,,,,,. Smart Honda parts guys can find NOS pieces hidden on some dealers shelves. If your bike is the one I am thinking of it is one of the finest Honda ever built IMO. A BIL had one and I loved that thing.
 
I put the case back on today after removing an oil filter gasket from a spare engine. Actually I did it twice since the penny I put in between the gears to tighten the oil slinger style filter fell into the engine blocking the oil flow. I had to take the pump and clutch off repeat. I cursed that penny.

I'll set the valves before putting the engine back into the bike. But I look at a beautiful Saturday lost to this repair and I can hear bikes zooming along the near freeways and I am so jealous. More riding, less wrenching is my 2020 motto.
 
that sounds about right . It usually takes me 1.5x the time it should take to do most jobs due to having to repeat something, due to falling pennies or the like...
 
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Did you finish it? The worst part of rebuilding hydraulic pumps for a WW2 turret was making all gaskets from scratch. Hate that!
 
The engine is still on the floor of the garage. I hurt my knee taking it out and it's not healed enough to lift and put it in the cradle. Soon. I'm riding my ct90 and it's perfect for the short runs.
 
This may or may not be of interest to you.

I have a customer who bought a restoration project, a good condition 1971 SL350 and brought it to my shop about 4 years ago. I had already built a larger CB900F Scrambler/Street Tracker for him and he asked for me to find a CB350 to use as a small cafe racer. When I couldn't find a reasonable donor CB, he located this 71 SL350 and we started to explore our options. After some consideration my customer decided that the SL was too nice to simply canabalize and told me to sell it as is whenever I had the time. It has been sitting in my shop for several years without a direction. The project has completely stalled as he has lost all interest. Currently the bike is about 80% complete but is missing an exhaust system and has not been started for the better part of 4 years but has been stored inside a dry and heated building. The engine has good compression and could probably start without too much effort. I have thoroughly cleaned the carbs in my sonic cleaner and was last replacing the ignition points and battery but I'm sure its dead too, now.

I had planned to make a new SS 2 into 2 high pipe set with twin mufflers if he gave me the approval, but that would add several $$$ to the potential sell price. It is not original paint but is the correct blue metallic color. I also have a second original blue and white tank included with it. I know he'd like to get what we currently have in it which is about $2000. Anyway if you are interested, just shoot me a PM. I haven't actively listed it for sale as I've had a busy year moving my workshop from Houston to the Conroe area in a new building we built early last year. I just saw your thread as today is the first time since 2013 that I signed into my TWT account.

Anyway have a good one, Talk soon, Travis
 
I had one in the same condition, it's where the spare engine came from. I had painted the frame, bored the engine, and built the rolling chassis and it sat for two years. I lost interest and mine was riding perfectly if not pretty. Anyways about two years ago I sold the rolling chassis to a buddy for $1 hoping he would build it. Last I heard it too was just sitting in his garage.

Thanks for the offer. About the only thing I would buy for it today is the kick start gear. If I had an extra I might change my mind and ride mine forever. But two years of eBays and all I've found is broken gears and whole engines. I'm always one kick away from a bump start only.
 
About the only thing I would buy for it today is the kick start gear. If I had an extra I might change my mind and ride mine forever. But two years of eBays and all I've found is broken gears and whole engines. I'm always one kick away from a bump start only.

If its the pinion gear - there are several NOS ones on ebay - here's the listing for one of them
 
... Anyways about two years ago I sold the rolling chassis to a buddy for $1 hoping he would build it. Last I heard it too was just sitting in his garage. ...
Heart breaking.

Peace and joy.
 
I hear it! 😜

I'm looking for one w dual sport tires and a high front fender.
 
For a street worthy scooter, I'd recommend a Yamaha XMax. It only has 3" of rear suspension travel but otherwise is a great scooter.
Dirt tires and a high fender on a scooter may be an oxymoron. Watching this thread for enlightenment.
I live on a dirt road, have a dirt driveway, and a dirt path to the shed where my motorcycles are stored. Mud clogged and slicked tires on scooter would be interesting.
 
I love those bikes, the dual mufflers looked great even though they were placed where they'd take a beating.
 
Last night I searched for the unobtainable gear that is in post #1. With the part number in the search box I get a hit on a well respected website (David Silver Spares UK) and dang if they didn't have that part! I ordered immediately. Thought I would get it no problem, they said they had 6 of them! OK ... wait a minute ... I've been looking for two years now and someone has 6 in stock? No freaking way. Double check part numbers and sure enough it's one digit off which is close enough to my eyes at midnight. Turns out it was the gear right next to the one I need, and I already have two extra of those.

Never order late. Good news, David Silver Spares already said no problem and washed off the order. Like I said, a great site for vintage parts, right up there with Western Hills Honda and CMSNL in the Netherlands.
 
I love those bikes, the dual mufflers looked great even though they were placed where they'd take a beating.
I missed this earlier. The bike has upswept pipes and with a bash plate, it ought to be ok. I'm running pipes from its street brother, the cb350. Those DID hit my heel and drag a few rocks in the Rockies last August. I've found original replicas for about a grand but I'm too cheap to pull the trigger as this bike has always been a rider and not a show bike for me.
 
I never found the part and decided to sell the bike knowing it was always one kick away from a push start only. I replaced it with a drz400e. Lots different.

But I do have a line on another sl350....
 
I never found the part and decided to sell the bike knowing it was always one kick away from a push start only. I replaced it with a drz400e. Lots different.

But I do have a line on another sl350....
Sad that some parts are so difficult to locate. Good to know you might pick up another. How do you like the DRZ? I enjoyed the mods you did on the previous SL. I had a SL 100 in the past I rode that was my fathers.
 
Easier to say what I don't like about the drz cause it does so many things so well. The stock saddle is a pain in the xxx
 
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