Service

SERVICE

We welcome your technical questions and comments, and will publish those we think are of interest to our readers. Because of the volume of mail received, we cannot return any personal replies. Please limit your “Service” letters to technical subjects only, and keep them as brief as possible. Send them to: “Service, ” CYCLE WORLD, 1499 Monrovia Ave., Newport Beach, Calif. 92663.

HODAKA INTERCHANGE

Last year I bought a 1978 Hodaka 250SL brand new, and have in the meantime come up with a few hints which may help other Hodaka owners in tracking down parts:

(1) Wheels of Time, a parts source, burned down recently. Don't know if there's anything left, but their address is Island Route, Box 7-A, Lock Haven, Pa. 17745, phone (717) 374-9531. (2) A place in Georgia has parts (don't know their name), phone (404) 386-0733. (3) A Suzuki piston, TS250 or TM or RL will fit a Hodaka 2.50SL. (4) A Harley 125 piston will fit a 125 Wombat. (5) A Yamaha AT, MX, CT 1, 2, 3 DT 125 or 175 rear sprocket, 428 chain, will fit all Hodakas with 428 chain. Yamaha Y5, YL-1, Y6-S, YL-2C 420 chain front sprockets will fit Hodakas with 420 chain, blonda XL250 and SL350 front sprocket, 520 chain, will fit all Hodaka 250s. (6) Yamaha DT/RT 2, 3 batteries will fit all Ho-

dakas. (7) Ignition points from early Honda 50s, Kawasaki 85s and 100s and Suzuki K10, 11, 15 and 31 s will fit all 90 and 1 OOcc Hodaka models. (8) Honda XL250/350 1971-1975 rear shocks will fit all 100-125 Hodakas. (9) Honda levers will fit into the

Hodaka perch and vice versa. (10) All Hodakas except those with CDI ignition use the same flywheel puller as the Yamaha TT and XT 500 models, the Honda and Suzuki 50s and the Kawasaki 125.(11) One of the Kawasakis (I think 125) rear brake shoes will fit all rear Hodaka drums with the 528 chain if you enlarge the pivot hole. Thanks for listening.

Brian Fuymiare Glen Mills, Pa.

Whew! We can't vouch for any of this, but for riders of old Hodakas it might be worth checking into. Thanks for the info.

CHAIN GRIME

What is the proper way to clean a chain? It seems that if a solvent is used it will only carry grime into the chain links and damage it. The chain on my bike cannot be removed because no master link is provided, which poses another problem in cleaning it. Please> advise on lube and maintenance procedure also.

Richard Borzsik Bridgeport, Conn.

Drive chains come from the manufacturer4 with a fairly heavy grease in the rollers and links, so it is never a good idea to take á' chain off and soak it in any kind of solvent.. This will only dissolve the heavy lubricant and, as you suggest, allow fine abrasive grit^ to work its way into the rollers and between the side plates.

The best cleaning method with a dirty chain is to set the bike up on its centerstand and clean the sides of the chain with a wire brush while you rotate the rear wheel. This will knock off the big chunks of grit and din^ built up between the plates. When most of the loose stuff is wire brushed away you can dip a parts cleaning brush in solvent (but not too much solvent; don't drench the chain) and brush downward between the links to remove the remaining dirt. A rag can then Be run over the chain to wipe away any leftover dirt or solvent. *

The best place to oil the chain is along the tops of the side plates as you rotate the rear wheel. The chain lube has to work its way^ down into the pin joints and rollers from both sides, and lube sprayed down the miadle of the rollers is simply fiung off and wasted. The best time to lube the chain is right after riding, when the chain is hot, and when you can let the bike sit for at least half an hour—or preferably overnight—so the lube has time to sink in. Excess lube on the rollers can then be wiped off before you gq riding.

The chain should be lubed, on street bikes, at roughly 300 mi. intervals, or every time you return from a Sunday afternoon* ride. O-ring chains can go a long time without lubrication, but will last longer if lubed every 500 or 600 mi. Several manufacturers: recommend using 90 wt. gear oil on their O-ring chains because they mistrust| additives in commercial chain lubes that could cause deterioration of the rubber OJ rings. Most commercial chain lubes, however, are now formulated for use on O-ring chains and will say so on the can.

Dirt bike chains are normally cleaned and lubed by the same method and arAe lubed after a weekend ride, while the rest of the bike is being cleaned up.

HOT FUSE

I own a recently purchased 1976 Hond^ CB550F. I am troubled by a warm/hot main fuse; specifically, ignition on, engine off or engine running, when I lay a finger across the group of fuses in the fuse box themain fuse feels warm if lightly touched and uncomfortably hot if I use a press touch. The other fuses (two are spares, of course) are cool; ambient temperature.

The Yuasa battery is less than a year old; I get normal voltage readings at engine off and engine running at idle, above idle and with rpm increase. My worried guess is that a slight overload for whatever reason will blow the main fuse (say, as I'm attempting \o avoid a Peterbilt.) I was taught that heat and electricity are suspect companions, as a general rule. Is the condition I find normal?

Randolph Lespach Huntington Beach, Calif.

Main fuses on Honda 550s and older 750s tend to run a little warm normally, but *will become even hotter if there is too much resistance anywhere near the fuse block. ?This increased resistance is caused by bad connections, between either the fuse and the prongs that hold it or the wires coming into the fuse block and the fuse clip prongs. The most common reason for a bad connection is if? loose fit between the prongs and the fuse. Owners often remove fuses by pulling them forward and expanding the prongs, then replace the metric diameter Japanese fuse with a slightly thinner American fuse from a gas station. The loose fit causes high resistance and heat at the point where the fuse fand prong are touching. Make sure you are using a 15 amp fuse of the right diameter, that the clips are tight and the surfaces clean. If that doesn't cool the fuse down, check the wire connections behind the fuse block and clean or re -solder any that appear 7o be corroded or weak.

CHAIN LIFE

I have just bought a 1980 Can-Am 250 Qualifier. Although it is a good bike, after tOOO km. the chain is completely worn out. 1 don't know much about chains, but am wondering if this much wear at such low mileage is normal.

Randy Robinson Guelph, Ontario Canada

OJf-road use is especially hard on chains because of the ever-present dirt and frequent contact with moisture. A Can-Am 250 Qualifier used by the CW staff wore out its original equipment chain in 1000 mi. It ap-

pears that the stock chain is not one of tltg better quality pieces on the motorcycle and the replacement chain fitted to our bike is* holding up much better. If you will maintain your chain by cleaning off dirt after each ride, keeping the chain properly lubricated, and not too-tight, it should last longer. Exactly how long is difficult to say, but you probably can't expect more than twice the mileage you've gotten from the original.\ chain.

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

I am a proud owner of a KZ1000. This spring I brought it out of storage, started ÎT up, and thoroughly warmed it up. I noticed a milky-brownish substance covering the oil level view window. I changed the oil and it still persisted. I am assuming this must be some kind of condensation in the oil. Pleass advise on how to remedy this problem for I cannot even check the oil level. C

Dennis P. Madden Jackson, Wis.

Engines used in cold climates often develop a brown oil froth from condensation around breather hoses, oil fillers, etc. Beforedoing anything else, you may want to see if the clean detergent oil you've just added will clean up the window after a few hundred miles of riding the bike with the oil warm. Assuming you've added the correcttA amount of oil at the last change, you should be able to ride it for a while without worry-j ing about the oil level. If that doesn't clean the window, then drain the crankcase and fill it with kerosene. Slosh the kerosene around (don't run the engine) until the window clears and drain it. Add fresh oil and change the filter before starting the bike? After that you may want to do one more oif change to make sure you've gotten all the kerosene-loosened contaminants out of th^ crankcase. As a non-chemical solution to the problem, of course, you can always rt+ move the sidecover, clean the window and put the cover back on with a new gasket. Ná fun, but you'll save wasting a lot of oil.

XS RUNNETH OVER

In reference to Ronald Shortz' letter concerning an oil blowing problem on his 1978 XS750 Yamaha, I had the same problem. I finally discovered that, believe it or not, the dipstick was marked wrong. If I added oil to the full level, it was one half quart over fulk I drained the oil, changed filters and measured exactly what my owner's manuql called for and discovered that the level was up to the bottom line. I have now run it 23,000 mi. like that and it still doesn't blow oil.

Ed Cones

Little Rock, Ark.

BLACK ENGINES

Recently I was told by a friend that there exists a black engine case paint, used on motorcycles, that has the quality of increas ing the amount of radiant heat loss, thus promoting cooler engine temperatures.

I had often thought the use of paints would generally have an insulating instead of radiating effect on an engine, and that most applications of paint to an engine were for appearance rather than efficiency. Yet I'm left to wonder when looking at the nu merous pictures of high performance and racing bikes, both dirt and pavement, that have used such paints.

Can you enlighten me as to whether such an effect (cooling) can be gained from the use of paints? If so, what paint does the job, and is it available to the general public?

J.M. Leathers La Grande, Ore.

Ills true that black cases and cylinders on many bikes have been painted purely for cosmetic or sales reasons, as silver or plain aluminum versions of exactly the same en gines are out there working just fine with no overheating problems. However, it is a rec ognized fact that black surfaces radiate heat much more effectively than light, pol ished or highly reflective surfaces. This phe nomenon is known as blackbody radiation. Surfaces which absorb heat most effec tively, i.e. flat black non-reflective surfaces, will also radiate heat better. Hot rodders, for instance, have found that painting black exhaust manifolds white on a high perform ance engine will reduce under-the-hood tern peratures by as much as 100' F.

Paint, particularly heavy layers of paint, does have an insulating quality that can in terfere with convection cooling as the air streams over the engine, so the lightest pos sible coat of black coloring material is best. On most engine pieces a black high-temp enamel, available in spray cans at most auto supply shops, will work fine. A company called Kal-Gard uses a baking process to coat engine parts with a black finish that is much more durable than black paint, but the engine must be disassembled so the pieces can be treated separately. Kal-Gard's address is 16616 Shoenborn St., Sepulveda, Calif 91343, phone (213) 993-5769.