Basket Case

[Lwhitney1]

I inherited a basket case bike from an uncle recently. I'm glad I found this forum, looks like a wealth of knowledge here. I'm at the point of deciding if I want to try and restore, sell, or part out this bike. I threw as much of the bike back together as I could to try to get an inventory of parts needed. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I have here. Best I could tell it's a 64 Dream 305

Frame Number: CA78-108172

Engine Number: CA77E-108167

Does this mean it has had the engine replaced, or is this normal?

[Michael Stoic]

Welcome to the honda305 Forum!

Most of the bikes in this family - CA, CB, CL - will NOT have matching frame and motor numbers. Looks like your numbers are very close and I would call it an original set, with great confidence.

Enter your bike into the honda305.com Registry https://www.honda305.com/registry/ and I'll cross reference your frame to a Model Year.

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Michael Stoic

[Michael Stoic]

Thanks for the registry entry!

Your CA77 Dream is indeed a 1964 model year ...and with its original 1964 motor.

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Michael Stoic

[Lwhitney1]

Thanks so much for verifying my bike info.

I started investigating, and unfortunately my pistons are frozen solid to the cylinders. I guess I will be splitting the case next.

https://flic.kr/ps/42WMeK

Any advice, or things to look out for before I split the case?

[Michael Stoic]

Before you split the case, try filling / soaking the cylinders with 50/50 ATF & acetone. Give it a few days or more. More is better. You may get some movement, but do not force it. Soak, try and repeat.

Do some data mining on this site for a lot of additional documentation on this from some very highly qualified people in this field.

Post your progress reports...

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Michael

[Lwhitney1]

I let it soak for a week in Marvel Mystery Oil, but I know the ATF and acetone was shown to work best by popular mechanics back in the day. Thanks for the suggestion. I will give that a shot. The pistons appear to be at the top of the stroke. If the ATF/acetone doesn't work, I might make a press tool to try and get them to move. I saw on here somewhere where someone else had done that. I will post my progress.

[Michael Stoic]

Try the ATF/acetone after the MMO, who knows...

One other approach is to use a grease gun. If you can come up with an appropriate grease-gun-to-spark-plug hole interface (fabricate an adapter) - this is one more method to try before a mechanical interface or a teardown (save for next, save for last).

Grease guns produce an enormous amount of pressure and are a go to for unsticking old brake calipers and motor pistons.