CL77 accident recovery

[rdefabri]

I am the owner of a '67 CL77 Scrambler with 8,000 miles. My father purchased the bike from the original owner in 1967, and we've owned it since.

It's been my bike for over 25 years, I really love it and lots of memories of riding from my childhood.

About 17 years ago, I crashed the bike - 2 weeks before my wedding no less - and she's been more or less mothballed since. Over the bike's 43 years, I think it has been idle for close to 30 of them.

I took her out over the weekend, cleaned out the tank / carbs, put in new oil, plugs, and battery and she started right up! Unfortunately, it's not streetable.

The front wheel now "floats" in the fork - by that I mean it has lateral movement that causes it to wobble while riding it. I haven't had the wheel apart, but I am pretty sure there are sealed bearings in there that must have cracked.

Anyway, I want to get her roadworthy again - I have to start with that front wheel and new tires for front and back. As she's somewhat of a time capsule, I want to retain as much of the original equipment as I can, but if not, I want NOS parts if possible.

Any thoughts on why the wheel floats/wobbles? Could it be the bearings? I am sure the fork is straight, and none of the spokes (or the rim) have visible damage, so I think I am in the right place.

Thanks all!

[awineke]

My bike has similar symptoms because the fork has spread, or I've got the wrong axle in there, or something - I literally cannot tighten the axle nut enough to pull the forks together to keep the wheel tight on the axle. Some washers fixed it reasonably well, but I dunno if there's a better solution. It sounds like you've got a different problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there since no one else has chimed in.

[e3steve]

I am the owner of a '67 CL77 Scrambler with 8,000 miles. My father purchased the bike from the original owner in 1967, and we've owned it since.

It's been my bike for over 25 years, I really love it and lots of memories of riding from my childhood.

About 17 years ago, I crashed the bike - 2 weeks before my wedding no less - and she's been more or less mothballed since. Over the bike's 43 years, I think it has been idle for close to 30 of them.

I took her out over the weekend, cleaned out the tank / carbs, put in new oil, plugs, and battery and she started right up! Unfortunately, it's not streetable.

The front wheel now "floats" in the fork - by that I mean it has lateral movement that causes it to wobble while riding it. I haven't had the wheel apart, but I am pretty sure there are sealed bearings in there that must have cracked.

Anyway, I want to get her roadworthy again - I have to start with that front wheel and new tires for front and back. As she's somewhat of a time capsule, I want to retain as much of the original equipment as I can, but if not, I want NOS parts if possible.

Any thoughts on why the wheel floats/wobbles? Could it be the bearings? I am sure the fork is straight, and none of the spokes (or the rim) have visible damage, so I think I am in the right place.

Thanks all!

Please edit-in your location; a lot of forumers won't respond otherwise, as is possibly the case here.

Wheel bearings are available from any good bearing supplier; and cheap, too. Knock out one of the old ones and take it along as a pattern -- it has a size and type stamped into the outer journal.

[Snakeoil]

I would not think your problem is a Honda specific problem. More of a generic assembly issue or your suspicion of worn bearings.

Wheel bearings in general, are an assembly with inner and outer races with balls or rollers captured between them. Hard to envision them being worked to the point that the wheel wobbles, but given enough corrosion and time, I guess it is possible. But I would also expect them to be pretty gritty sounding when you turn the wheel with it off the ground.

Your thought that the races are cracked is plausible, but because the bearings are a press fit in the hub, a cracked race should stay in place and not cause excessive wheel wobble.

Any chance the wrong axel is installed. If the OD of the axel is significantly smaller than the ID of the wheel bearing, that would contribute to a wobble. People can forget doing stuff after 17 years. Just throwing out possibilities here.

Looking at a CB77 parts diagram (my bike is 2 hours from here) there is a collar on one side of the wheel and the speedo drive on the other side. There is also a spacer between the two wheel bearings inside the hub. If the spacer is missing, I supposed you could have pressed one of the bearings out of its location when you tightened the axel. If the speedo drive or collar is missing on either side, you will never get the forks to snug up on the bearings.

Without seeing it, anything you get here will be an educated guess. Best bet it to make sure you have all the parts in place visible from the outside. Then if it all looks right, pull the wheel and check the bearings for condition, axel for size and see if the bearing spacer is in there.

Even if you have no experience, if you have some mechanical ability, just moving things and watching what moves relative to each other will tell you a lot.

Not sure if this is possible, but since the bike was in a wreck, you could have a broken bearing socket in the hub. As I said above, bearings should be a press fit into the hub. If they just fall out, there is something wrong.

You never said how the bike was damaged. If it took a front end hit, then you really should disassemble the entire front end to look for damage, including the steering head. I owned a Sportster (just one) years ago that a friend of mine wrecked. It was a very high speed wreck and the bike went airborne before returning to Earth. Front end took a good hit. Later, when I was pulling the bike apart to repair it, when I removed the aluminum top tree, it broke into six pieces in my hands. Looked fine when it was on the bike. And the front forks were still perfectly straight.
regards,
Rob