Total Motorcycle Community Forums

my girlfriend just bought a '73 honda cl350 for her first bike. i just replaced the front brake cable and throttle cable cause they were a little sticky. the bike had been sitting for a while so i also replaced the fuel lines, battery, and spark plugs. it takes a while to start sometimes, and today would only start if i kick started it. i dont know what kind of ignition it has but im guessing points. i have no experience with this type but i think ive heard that they need to be adjusted. when i use the starter to start it it wants to start but i think just one cylinder is really trying, it just doesnt catch. when it does get running it revs really slow (like on one cylinder) but you can randomly feel the other cyl. kick in. then it gets better once its warmed up. what should i look at to fix this? last thing, i had to take the exhaust off to get to the clutch cable and now that i put it back on, it leaks pretty loudly. are those metal half circle gasket things a one time use deal or am i putting them back in wrong? when i tighten the collector all the way, those metal things still move around pretty freely. let me know what you think. sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance!
~matt

The pionts could well need adjusting. It could also be a bad plug.

Your exhaust gaskets are very likely crushed past useable limits by now. Replacement would be a good idea.

like buzz said. mostly those gaskets are a 1x use thing. once removed they should be replaced. Now if its only been a month since they were last taken off you should be fine but if its been a couple years then they should be replaced.

well i worked on the bike for a while today and heres what i came up with. i adjusted the valves and points and got it running, then i adjusted the idle screws and it was running pretty nicely besides the leaky exhaust. then my roommate came home and we were going to attack some of the electrical problems like the neutral light doesnt go on, one of the turn signals doesnt come on and none of them flash, and the brake light is stuck on. so...we took off the headlight to get to that mess of wires and my roommate just started unplugging everything...well turns out they werent all color coded like he thought, so now were going to rewire everything with the help of the repair manual. when we took off the headlight there were loose wires and im sure plenty of shorts. it looked like someone had been in there before. we tried to wire some of the main things back together but we only came up with spark in one cylinder so we gave up for today. but to make sure we felt good about something we fixed the sticky brake light, figured out why the exhaust was leaking, and adjusted the controls. does anybody have any suggestions of a place where i can order gaskets for this bike when the time comes? ill keep ya posted on the next day of work!

Those metal half circles are not the exhaust gaskets. The gaskets are copper rings. They are probably crushed flat and if you look in the head, you'll see them.



Item 5 are the steel half circles.
item 6 is the gasket. It is usually stuck to the bottom of the exhaust port in the head.

The mushroom part of the steel collars are away from the engine. As you can see, the collars push against a should on the pipes and force them against the gasket. The copper exhaust gaskets are one time use only. replace them everytime. Best bet is to buy a handful, they are usually less than $2 each.