Of course no good story ever started out with a salad, and this one is no different.

Unfortunately, a few weeks after that video clip was done, the bike stopped running. We are not exactly sure the precipitating problem, but it had some top end damage, including a toasted small end bearing, so apart it came. The motor is now about to be split apart to get all new bearings, seals and a general inspection, and a new bore.

So the top end was already 4th over, and my initial search didn't yield any larger pistons, so I began a search for another cylinder. Apparently when you have a one year only bike, parts become more valuable . . .

Dale Dvorak turned me on to the fact that Paul Stannard apparently thought ahead about my needs and actually stocks them up to 8th over. Wow.



This one was really, really worn and needed to go to 6th to clean up correctly. Today I just picked up the top end from my machinist fellow, freshly bored, cleaned, the outside and the head bead blasted and the piston rings fitted and sized.







And now I think we are up to date on the progress on the bike. The bottom end will come down to the crank over the next week or two as time permits, to be reassembled with all new bearings, seals, and the like. The chassis will get some detail work as well, since the first time, the excitement of riding the old girl kind of got him rushed.

I'll post as we move forward to completion.

We got the motor back, and my motor guru did a bang up job! Even installed new points, set the timing on the freshened up ignition! Bead blasted center cases, and overall tidied up.







Light protective dusting on the flywheel.



And a fresh sprocket.



You can see the Case mounting boss in that last pic. The original was broken off, so we were able to swap the side case only with a good one in my parts stash. (They are not machines as pairs).

Alex spent most of Saturday putting the bike back together. I ended up soldering a tiny pinhole in the fuel tank. It may need more, but seems sealed at this point we’ll ride it a bit and see how it does. Even if it needs more, the spot is very accessible.

Still blueprinting the shifter Case, and locating a few random parts that have scurried off, but today marked a really nice bit of progress.




As you can tell, the baffle/Spark arrestor insert is out - gonna re-pack it. But it does give that nice 70’s rasp of an open chamber!

I should add we replaced the carb on this go through. On the initial build I had to sub in a nice DT250 carb (26mm instead of the Hodaka spec 28) which carried identical outside dimensions. A month or two ago I located an original Combat Mikuni 28mm flange mount, so now the bike is actually “correct”.

The cool thing is I took the spare motor parts in along to my mechanic, partly to have spares if needed, but mainly so he could look through the disassembled bits and tell me what I need to get the regular Wombat motor redone. Looks like only a couple of shims, plus the normal bearing/seal package. I have a couple boreable cylinders, so it looks like another Hodaka will be coming back to life!