I thought my motor had seized!

[GG]

Almost had a heart attack! I was cruising up the mountainside (here in my part of Costa Rica it is either up the mountain or down). My cb77 was in 2nd gear, purring at about 5,000 rpm's. Suddenly the motor dropped drastically, I heard a squeal and a clacking. I immediately shut down the motor and coasted to a quick stop (you don't coast far going uphill!).

I checked the oil - full. I pushed the kickstart - the motor would turn over. I hit the starter button - horrible sounds of squealing and clacking! Sigh. The only good thing is that I knew I could coast ALMOST all the way home. There was one 50 yard climb. Down the hill I went, I used the squealing, clacking motor to climb the 50 yards, and coasted the rest of the way home with the motor shut off.

At home I disassembled the side of the kick start first, since it seemed the most noise was coming from that side. To make a long story short - one of the screws from the starter clutch on the backside of the rotor had backed out and was almost ground off! Fortunately there was not major damage, and in less than an hour the Superhawk was back purring up the mountain! I was a very thankful motorcyclist!

Just to finish up this overly long post: I made a quick check on THIS FORUM for the size bolt to get my rotor off, and sure enough, someone had posted it: a 16mm bolt with 1.5 pitch thread. Thank you! A quick trip to the hardware store was all that I needed. I marked the bolt and put it in a special place for next time. Don't know what I'd do without the Forum!

GG

[Dana01]

Good story GG. Glad both you and your CB are ok :)

[davomoto]

GG,

It's a good idea to either stake those bolts, or use a threadlocker to prevent them from backing out. Glad to hear that all is well with the SH !

Davo

[GG]

Dana01 and Davo - thanks!

Yes, I found out the hard way that these screws must definitely be secured. It seems like a little bit of oil gets in that clutch, and they can easily work their way out.

GG

[Snakeoil]

Good story and thanks for the trip back to my past. I spent quite a bit of time over the years in Costa Rica. Our agent there was Eric C. Murray which is in downtown San Jose. Always enjoyed going there. Beautiful country and great people. Nice to know there is a vintage 305 on the roads down there.

regards,
Rob