It's ALIVE!!! (Twin Star video)

[Christ]

So, I posted in theycallmebryan's thread: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post131293 when I bought my Honda 1979 CM185T TwinStar, and promised that I'd soon have a thread dedicated to it.

Well, I suppose, now that it runs, here's the thread!

All the pics from that thread post:






Now, NEW PICS:




And a startup video!

[meanjoe75fan]

WOOT!

Always a special feeling when a "project" catches and runs of its own accord...

Got a 1972 CB350 recently (already running, though) and the minivan is quite a useful vehicle in that regard.

[Christ]

That dern'd Van has come in more handy than I could ever have expected, honestly.

I've been looking for a truck lately, but I may just cut the roof off the van behind the seats and make a removable hard top for it!!!

:X

[Christ]

I took her for a test ride today, but I didn't go over 35 (only for a second), and I was on a back road, because she's not legal at all... unfortunately, my old helmets don't fit anymore, so I gave them to my friend's kids... I have to get a new one before next season, I guess. Maybe I'll paint match it to the bike... LOL.

PS - Good luck finding factory match paint for your pre-1982 Honda bike... Honda didn't use discernible paint codes before that year. I may have to settle for non-OEM paint matched as close as a computer can get it, b/c there are dings and such on the bike that I may want to fix.

I can't find the TwinStar logos, either. I'll likely have them painted on, or just go without them, unfortunately.

As much as I want to keep this bike OEM as much as possible, I don't think it's going to happen very likely.. mufflers are the first thing, if I can get the old pair of Sportster mufflers that I gave to a friend who has never used them, I'll end up with them on the TwinStar, because I can't find OEM exact replacements, and I want to keep it quiet.

[Christ]

So - I now have to go over my bike's electrical system with a comb and see what I screwed up.

Not paying attention, the other day, and the bike still not being fully tuned and/or wired completely, I got tired of trying to kick start it, to no avail, so I jumped it off my van's 12V (oops) battery. (This was before I knew it was 6V system) It popped off at first, but ran like it didn't want to be alive... After several "near starts", I gave up for a minute, went to get the chainsaw ready to help my Father cut up firewood, and then went back to the bike. I left the jumper cables hooked up the whole time (bike's 6V battery is disconnected, so no harm there. Not even sure that battery is any good) and I think I may have just destroyed the ignition coil or some other component of the 6V system. Hopefully it wasn't something that will require pulling the engine apart, like the A.C. Generator.

There are connections not connected, and I just got the service manual today, cleaning up the images of bleed through, then going to print the 207 pages double-sided and put them in a binder in my Service Manual drawer.

I'm going to wait to play with it more until I get my quad running, so I can start clearing these peas from my plate... (metaphorically, of course.. I eat peas from a bowl.)

Once the Honda TRX 200 Quad is running, I'll move it back to my Father's house for storage, then move the TwinStar over here so I can really get to work on it.

[Christ]

Another thought - If I have to replace too many parts, I may consider changing to a 12V system after all. I can probably use most of the parts from a Lawn Tractor, like the starter solenoid, etc. I already know the starter can handle 12V, obviously... I jumped it with 12V and it didn't even get warm.

I've thought about it a bit more, and because of the lack of availability of OEM parts for reasonable prices, I'll probably end up modding it a bit.

For instance, the mufflers. I've got a pair from a '96 or so Sportster that are going on it, as soon as I expand/weld the head pipes. I'll probably double-wall the head pipes to keep heat in. I may also run an X or H pipe under the bike to help with low-end torque by scavenging the exhaust pulses together.

I had already planned on doing the lights with LEDs, all except the headlight. Not sure what I'll do with that, yet.

Gonna do a complete tuneup while I'm at it, just to make sure that everything is fresh. Instead of replacing the plugs, I'm just going to take them out, gap/clean them, and reinstall them. Even though they're probably the originals, they've only got 1100 or so miles on them, so they're not worn at all.

Meanwhile, the fate of the parts bike has also been determined... at least the front end of it will be used for my Father's Tri-Sport, I want to see if we can get that thing registered and on the road. It won't be original, but who cares... It's got a Yamaha 4 wheeler front end on it now, and it's an abomination. You can lift/shake the handlebars all over the place. I told him I'd donate whatever parts were necessary to make it mobile again, except my hand controls. We'd have to use the 4 wheeler parts for that. So he'll probably end up w/ the 90CC engine/trans, too.

[dcb]

If you swap the lights to LED correctly and have a kick starter, you won't need much of a battery. It might be possible to coax 12 volts out of your alternator, or use one of them dc-dc converters to keep the battery topped off under the reduced electrical load.

P.S. Glad you got a chance to ride it

[pgfpro]

Nice find

I love the van hauler also!!!

[Christ]

DCB -

The A.C. Generator on it, I"m not sure what it directly puts out, but after the rectifier, it puts out like 7.2 or 8.3 VDC at the battery at certain RPMS. It doesn't even start charging until 2,000 RPM according to the FSM.

[Tygen1]

Many of those old generators where built in halves. Two six volts halves that combined to make 12 volts, it probably just has the one half, you can probably find a similar stator assembly that will bolt up that is 12 volts. I ran one for years on just one six volt half to keep the 12v battery from completely dying it only had a rectifyier, no regulator and no lights, no nothing except power to the coils.
What is the diameter of the stator? I might have one that will fit, and the regulator, rectifiers to go with it.