{"id":30381,"date":"2025-07-27T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=30381"},"modified":"2025-07-22T12:05:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T19:05:49","slug":"where-were-you-in-62-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/27\/where-were-you-in-62-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Were You In ’62? Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Gresh<\/h6>\n

Originality is rare in the mechanical world. Designers build on other’s work. The clean sheet stays clean and so the Honda Dream was heavily influenced by German motorcycles of the 50’s. Just like Honda’s 305 inspired Laverda’s 750 of the mid-1960’s.<\/p>\n

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The Dream borrowed a lot of ideas from the German NSU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And then Laverda borrowed a lot of ideas from Honda’s 305 engine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, none of that has to do with the job at hand: getting the 1962 Dream running as cheaply as possible.<\/p>\n

The running part was easy: you can’t kill these old Hondas. I cleaned the carb, squirted some oil in the cylinders and onto the valve train, rigged a battery and a hot wire to the ignition, stabbed the starter wire onto the positive-battery and the Honda fired right up.<\/p>\n

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The sprag clutch (red arrow) will need some work. It skips and grabs intermittently.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not right-right up as the electric starter’s sprag clutch is a hit and miss affair. (I’ll work on that later) once the engine turned over it ran.<\/p>\n

Of course, clouds of smoke poured out of the tail pipes, as all that oil I squirted in the cylinder was burning off. Then the left cylinder stopped firing. I discovered the Tytronic ignition puts out a strong spark when I electrocuted myself pulling the left-side spark plug lead to confirm it wasn’t hitting.<\/p>\n

Next I swapped leads to check the secondary of the ignition coil and the problem stayed on the left side. Since there’s only one carb, that left the spark plug. I swapped plugs and the problem moved to the right side.<\/p>\n

The Dream came with three boxes of parts, and inside those boxes were at least eight new spark plugs. All were the wrong ones (the reach was too long). I kept digging and found a used plug with the correct reach but a different part number. Regardless, I screwed the thing in and the Honda ran on both cylinders.<\/p>\n

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The rear fender is kind of a mess.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I shifted the gearbox through its four speeds. The countershaft rotation speed increased with each up shift. I didn’t hear any untoward noises except for the taillight. At some point the taillight cracked the rear fender. Someone, probably an engineer, welded the light to a back plate and then to the fender. Which should have been fine. It wasn’t. The welds broke and the taillight rattled like a loose roofing panel.<\/p>\n

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I like the way the Dream looks with the fenders shaved. (Photo from internet, I don’t know who took it.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A hacksaw remedied the taillight situation. I ran the Honda until it quit smoking. The bike kept running better the longer it ran. I have something to work with, baby. Now I can move on to the running gear.<\/p>\n

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The old speedo cable took a beating.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, my budget-build took a setback with the speedometer cable. The cable stuck in the housing and twisted the end off near the wheel side. Fiscally, I was going to fix it. The dried grey plastic around the housing flaked off easily. I managed to get the cable out and since the speedo cable was a bit long I figured to shorten it by a 1\/2-inch and re-crimp the drive tang and end piece. For the plastic cover I was going to use black, heat shrink tubing.<\/p>\n

All was going well. I decided to wire wheel the rust on the cable housing.\u00a0 Long-time wire-wheelers will be able to predict what came next. I must have momentarily relaxed my grip on the housing. The wheel grabbed the housing and wound it around the grinder shaft. The loose end flailed like a weed whacker string. I was lucky to escape un-whacked. The worst part is I kind of knew it was going to happen but I kept going anyway.<\/p>\n

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Four cables for $100! Such a deal!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new speedometer cable was around $50 on eBay. Or, I can get a complete set of speedometer, clutch, throttle and front brake cables for $100. My budget swelled with excitement. At least I won’t have to watch those other three cables wind around the wire wheel.<\/p>\n

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I’m using a generic starter relay. These are cheap and available. I’ll need to make a bracket to mount the thing to my bike.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Interesting duct work on the 305’s phenolic carb spacer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then came a bridge rectifier, a starter solenoid, a chain, some o-rings, and new spark plugs. When the stuff shows up I’ll have more work to do.<\/p>\n

Still on the list is tires and tubes, a seat cover, cleaning out the gas tank liner crap, and all the wiring. The plan now is to get the bike operational and ride it around a bit to see if it’s worth messing with further.<\/p>\n

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For Where You in ’62 Parts 1 and 2, as well as earlier Joe Gresh Resurrections, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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