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1969 Honda CL70 Scrambler! My old dirt bike returns!

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Unread 12-28-2008, 11:05 PM
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Default CL70 Clutch Adjust & Oil Change

The little scrambler started right up the other day and now it's time to adjust things back to spec. Being that it hasn't been run in years the clutch just wasn't doing anything when it was pulled. It would pull the lever located on the right side of the crankcase but nothing was happening at all. It was kinda strange. My CA160 was doing the same thing and after I adjusted the clutch rod screw it worked just fine. It just seems that the clutch plates just need to be freed up a bit with the adjustments to get them working again. It doesn't help that the oil that was in the engine was too thick for the little engine. I drained the oil out cold and it was hardly coming out at all. This is very bad as it takes a long time to get the oil through the engine on cold starts. The oil needs to be somewhat thin to get through the lubrication system and in the bearings ASAP on startup. When the engine was started you could hear rattling noises for at least 20 seconds and those noises are raw steel surfaces hitting each other before the oil gets to them. Not good.

While I was adjusting the clutch I was draining the sludge out. The oil was clean but came out inconstantly still. This might be due to some condensation that might have accumulated in the engine and thus, another reason to change the oil after so long.



  • Lubricated pivots and check for full range of motion
  • Adjusted the cable taut attribute - to remove slack
  • Last resort remove two screws to adjust the clutch push
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Unread 12-28-2008, 11:27 PM
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Here we get a little into the engine on the right side. Don't worry you won't see any oil as the clutch push has a seal with the wet clutch on the other side. Any Honda out there will probably be bone dry out there like mine was so just spray some WD40 or something in there to lubricate and help preserve the alloys from corrosion. The nut you see in the middle locks the adjuster screw in place so go ahead and free it a half turn loose. Then I adjusted the screw out (counter clockwise) about one whole rotation with a small screwdriver. This will push the clutch in quite a bit just to free the clutch plates when you pull the clutch lever from the handlebar. The clutch should surely work now so go back and adjust the screw inward (clockwise) back to where it was just so that there is no slack when you pull the clutch lever.



Check the cable adjustment (#2 in the picture in previous post) to make sure it's somewhere in the middle of the adjustment range. This way if you do need to adjust the clutch you can do it either way without taking off the cover again.
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Unread 12-28-2008, 11:42 PM
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Now the oil subject is always a good one! On the crankcase cover you can clearly see that it recommends SAE30 or SAE20 depending on the temperature. This is back when they opened up oil cans with a can opener punch that made the triangle shape on the edge of the top of the can. Ahhh the good ol days (that I'm too young to remember). These days and ever since I was born they have multi-viscosity oils like 10-30 and 10-40. Both of these oils are fine but 40 is thicker and thus, won't circulate quite as well as the 30. If we were in Palm Springs and out engine was hitting 10,000 rpm creating crazy heat then we would require the thicker oil that would protect against such conditions... maybe. But since this engine is incapable of such heat and needs oil to circulate in the bearings ASAP we need some thin oil that can do just that. The oil might be thin but it protects the engine many times better than the best oil 40 years ago when this engine was produced!

I really wanted to make sure that I got oil into every crevice in this engine case and bearing so I put some Mobile1 Synthetic racing oil inside. Yes this is race oil for stock car engines and different from what you buy on the shelves. Don't ask me why but I have this laying around for use so I'm using it. This oil pours nice and thin like hot maple syrup and will surely coat every surface and clean out any old oil or contaminates. This oil really cleans out engines and is SUPER protective. People might whine that it will promote leakage from old seals and all that but this is a bunch of bull and the stuff of old wives tales. Also you see that seal that is already leaking horrible on the kick start shaft? Well it's getting new seals anyways so that's that.

I will just be using the synthetic to super lubricate and super clean the inside of the engine. It works great and I'll run it for a short time and the next time I fill it with oil I'll be putting some regular Motul or Castrol 10-30 in it, whatever is in arms reach. All of these oils are much better protecting and circulate much better than the engine requires. Like I've said before I just highly recommend people let their engines idle up to temperature for a minute before they bring up the engine speed. It's super critical to get oil into the bearings and valves before you take off down the road. It will make a huge difference in these older engines in the long run.

Next time you start your engine listen closely to the noises it makes and listen to the changes in the noises while the engine warms up. It gets a good amount quieter when the oil finally warms up and gets around the engine lubrication system. When I first started it up for the first time in years it made some horrible noises and I wished I had changed out the oil first before I started it. I was questioning the valves while it ran for the first minute until the oil got through the system. I was glad I didn't start it up early in the morning because the sludgy thick oil really would have taken a long time to get to the bearings!
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