Leela needs some work...

[Anonymous]

Okay, as the weather gets colder, I'll be doing less riding, or at least it'll be less painful to be not riding. I figured now is a great time to take care of some of the things that need taken care of as far as repair and maintenance.

The two biggest issues are a leaky head gasket and a leaky petcock.

How do I know it's the head gasket, you ask? Well there's oil all over the lower part of the engine on the front. It's gotta be leaking from somewhere. Judging by the area where the oil caked onto the engine is heaviest, my best guess is that it's the head gasket. Couldn't hurt to do the valve cover gasket too. Anywho, I'm a newbie when it comes to repairing and maintaining internal combustion engines, large or small. Funding is low to non-existant so I would like to learn to do as much on my own as possible. What do I need and need to know in order to fix this oil leak.

Petcock? Well there is a slow drip of fuel from the petcock in the on position. In the Reserve position, the leak accellerates. Should I just get a petcock rebuild kit, or is there more to my problem?

Also, the wife's '73 Honda CB350 needs a little work. The throttle seems to be sticking a bit. The twist grip snaps back and all the mechanism on the outside of the carbs returns to it's closed position immediately, but the engine acts as if the throttle doesn't close right away. The rear brake also seems to be sticking or seized or something. After a little moving around it loosens up a bit but even then it's nearly impossible to walk the bike. A bike that small should be a lot easier to walk than my GS750, but in this case it is quite the opposite.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated

[Anonymous]

Not real sure / But.

#1 You might want to clean up the engine first to determine where the leak is really at. Do you have any oil driping neer the tach cable? Lots of times these leak, and make it look like the head gasket / cam cover are leaking. The oil cooler and lines also do the same.

#2 If my GS was doing what that 350 is doing I would look at the seal between the head and intake manifold. The boot itself could also be worn. Could also need the carbs balanced, but I'm not sure how many the 350 has.

[Anonymous]

Some one told me over the weekend that smaller engines can't take rapid changes in internal compression very well so their throttles close slowly on purpose. This is news to me. I've never heard anything like that. Does this sound right? Was this person fed a line of bunk or is this the way smaller engines were engineered in the early 70's?

[HiSPL]

An engine is an engine is an engine.... Smaller engines have less rotational mass and can rev up/down much faster than bigger ones. However, most bikes had their carburators tuned in such a way that the bike would slowly return to idle. Has nothing to do with the size of the motor. It should not take that long to return to idle though, I would look at leaking carb boots, or an out of sync condition. As far as the rear brake goes, a little lube goes a long way.... Drum brakes have a nasty habit of seizing and dragging. Take it apart and clean and lube everything with a thick axle grease.