Rehab thread roketa
 

Grabbed a roketa 200cc (possibly 250) for$40.
Its been beat to hell. I changed the oil today. Black and gritty. Overfilled it with rotell 15/40, drained again. I use a paint screen when i do a oil change on a new to me bike.
It had slivers of alum, and specs of black plastic. Filled it to the spec level
Then i pulled the spark plug. And looks like it was running very well. A bit of fluffy black on the the threads, dark tan on the porcalain. A tad rich, but id ratherrather that than lean.
Figured out wich way is run on the kill swich, and placed the plug grounded to the fins. Kicked it with my hand and got a blue spark. Not brite but blue wich is good. Yellow spark is weak.
I have one of those cameras u can stick in holes. I stuck it in th spark plug hole. Not alot of carbon, piston looks good. Thats all for now. I just dumped 4 qrts of oil in my garage. Toutles!!!

Congrats on the new project! Try to get us a video of the very first cold start, that would be cool.



/

Will do.
While lifting it up on my atv jack, i heard a clunk. The head bearings and lock nuts are very loose. Is there tapered bearings in there or races with loose bearings? I didnt look too much at it. Im glad i couldn't start because I would've road it.

They are semi caged ball bearings. Perfect opportunity to get some good grease into those bearings!...ARH

U mean like a bicycle?

They're likely to be loose ball bearings in the Roketa. I slide the forks out of the triples and then hang a one gallon ice cream bucket under the lower triple. I can at least capture most of the loose ball bearings that way. Only my Lifan had caged bearings.


BTW, spec oil level is according to the sight glass, not the dipstick. The dipstick is wrong in most applications.

I went with the sight glass. Any idea the size of the balls in the head ? I have plenty of 5/16 from converting old yamahas to tapered.

There likely is a set of tapered roller bearings that fit your head stock. I have a set of All Balls Racing bearings for my Hawk, which are 26mm I.D. 47mm O.D., and 15mm Tall (thick). A common dimension for Honda XR and CR/CRF dirt bikes.

If you measure the outer race and inner race it should give you the specs you need. If they match the ones I listed above, then the part number is 99-3520-5, and is sold as a single bearing and seal kit. Both bearings can be had in a complete kit as part number 22-1021.

If you can get your dimensions, then you can use this chart to determine what individual bearing you need. https://www.allballsracing.com/media...gSizeChart.pdf

Make sure to verify the dimensions of both bearings. They are likely the same, but sometimes bikes do use different sizes top and bottom, and better safe than sorry.

Now, with all of that said, there is nothing wrong with the old Tapered cone and ball bearing style head stock bearings. While technically tapered roller bearings are more well suited to the job, there are plenty of bikes out there that have gone hundreds of thousands (even a million miles in the case of some old Goldwings) with this style of bearing. As long as they are properly maintained and greased, they will last for a very long time. So if the cup/race and ball bearings are not pitted or worn out of round, then you can save yourself some time and money and simply clean them up really well and give them a good greasing.

I converted both of my bikes to tapered rollers. The Goldwing because the old ones were pitted due to a long life being stored with no maintenance, and the Hawk because I could.

Wire cleanup
 

Started on wire clean up. The igniter, flasher unit, and starter relay and ignition box were just hanging under the seat. I plan on dirt only, so I deleted the turn signal circuit, and the starter circuit, it was already hacked apart. snugged up the connectors for the coil, and zip tied all components securely to the frame work.
Since I don't have any plastics for this bike, I cut off the side panel mounts, starter relay mount, took off the air diverters from the front of the frame, and used black appliance paint on the bare spots.
I plan on bypassing the key switch. Wich wires coming out of the switch do i need to splice together? Also, which wires from the left control box are the headlight leads? I have a grote 6led head light for this project. It is super bright.
Today i will delete the rest of the turn signal leads from the harness, as well as the horn, more useless mounts, and rewrap the front end of the harness. The protective covering is severely chafed but has protected the wires within.

More pics for your pleasure
 

The first wires im holding are the ignition switch wire. How to bypass?
The second pic of wires im holding are the left control box wires. Wich is the headlight wires?

This is a bit complicated, but here goes!

For the ignition switch, splice the Black and Red wires together (but it would be better to get a new switch if you don't have a key, because it will keep all of the components on) if you want the electrical components besides the motor (i.e. charging system, starter, blinkers, headlights, etc.) to work.

If you just want the bike to run, and you don't mind not having components working, check if you have spark first when you do this, but you should be able to unplug the switch, so that the black/white wire isn't grounded, even if the ignition switch is off. If you don't have a kill switch, you will have to ground the black/white wire to shut it off.

You could just jumper the Black and Red wires if you have a pre-existing kill switch. Hope that helps!

As for the headlight, I'd either get a powerprobe iii (they're like $90 on Amazon) and using it, figure out on the harness side which is ground, and then, unplugging the harness, on the headlight plug side, ground the ground wire, and send 12v to the non ground wires until you have which wire controls the headlights figured out. If you're cheap, and not averse to potential shocks, you can do the same with two wires, or a test light (for verifying ground).

Thanks perfect. Im making it kick only . Only head a d tail. Nothing else.

I'd almost consider making a custom harness then, and running the lights off of AC power, unless you want to keep the charging system intact. I'm not sure where you're located, but I've got a dirt-only harness that I'd almost consider trading for yours if you'd cover shipping cost... PM me if you're interested! I'd love to have all the street legal stuff, and it'd save you some time/headaches!

Its pretty butchered. Hence why stripping it down.

Tradionaly, magnetos were wired to a push button, which grounded out the magneto in order to shut off the engine, like on a Francis-Barnett. No key switch necessary. The other coils in the alternator used to be called lighting coils. The lighting coils supply a-c power to the lamps, unless there is a rectifier in the circuit, which is necessary if we desire to charge a battery. In days of yore, when you bought your motor cycle, you could specify ignition only, ignition and lights for a little more cashola, or for considerably more money, a rectifier and a battery to run the lights. In England, which required lights for parking on the road, a dry cell battery powered little glow-worm bulbs, front and rear, seperate from the main lights, if you chose not to go the rectifier-battery route. The electrical generating system is more similar than dis-similar to this system on Chinese bikes. You can run your ground wire to the right handlebar to ground out the magneto, and shut off the engine, and run a-c through a simple switch to control the headlight and tail light, and a brake light, if you want one. The number of lighting coils provide the voltage, so check total lighting voltage with the engine running at various speeds to make sure the voltage is low enough for the lamps. If it is too high, cut out 1 lighting coil at a time until you get where you need to be. LED bulbs function just fine from 8 volts to 20 volts, so keep that in mind....ARH

The only thing with LEDs though is that they will blink on AC power... They are diodes, after all.

I wrote that sitting under my LED house lighting, which, if it is blinking, is doing it so fast I can't see it. That doesn't mean you are wrong, as I have no idea what cycles the lighting coils put out. A WAG would be one cycle per revolution. If that is right, I don't think you will be able to see it happen...ARH

A lot of LED house lights use a bridge rectifier to turn the electricity from AC to DC, if they didn't, you might be bothered by the pulsating effect that they have. If you look at cheap LED christmas lights, some people (I am one of them), can see them pulsating at 60hz, because that is what the power in the US cycles at.

On one of these bikes, the frequency that an LED would pulsate is dependent upon the RPMs of the engine... I'm not sure what the frequency would be, but a cheap bike LED would probably not have bridge rectifiers to turn the AC to DC, so while it might not be as noticeable at higher RPM, it might be visibly cutting out at idle, kind of like how an old AC powered light would appear dimmer at lower RPMs (but for a different reason, lower voltage). Usually smaller single LEDs, unless specified differently (like wired in parallel), operate at 1.5v.

The ones I have bought for my car are 1156 and 1157. Package says will operate between 8 volts to 20 volts...ARH

With all that aside, my $120 grote led light will be fine. On another note, before i even attemp to fire it up, i want to adjust the valves. Is it .003 intake, .004 exhaust? I will also adj the chain tensioner, but the starter motor sure looks in the way.is there a known block off for removal,? Some bikes can take freeze plugs to block it off.

:) Honda always said 0.1± 0.02mm https://plus.google.com/photos/10536...48744657475970

On Both? Usually the exhaust is a little looser.

IN=EX are recommend by Honda in many small bike https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2b...ew?usp=sharing
---
63.5*62.2 = MD29E http://www.ctx200.com/files/xl200_workshop_manual/

Yes, but we've had great success with .003 inches intake, and .004 inches exhaust. After break-in, you can go .002 intake and .003 exhaust, if you want, but most just stick with .003 and .004...ARH

Ok. Thanks. Word on the starter?

You may be able to use something like this. Just need to find the correct size. https://www.amazon.com/Needa-Parts-2...AB79JRQDYXB5FH

I would just make a block off plate out of 3/16th - 1/4 inch aluminum plate. Make a paper gasket out of an old breakfast cereal box, and bolt it on in place of the starter...ARH

We have those at work. Thanks

If I remember right that should be about 30mm which is about 1 1/8" But I would check that. I'm getting older and the remembering is getting worse. lol

I got the starter out. Looks like a 1 1/4 expansion plug will block it off.

1and 1/4 is too big. Your 'memberin' is just fine. 1and 1/8 will do it
I got alot done today.
The mess of wires was gone though. I eliminated the turn signal wireing, and the horn. Took a wild guess at the head light wires, and whent with blue, wich should be the high beam.
I accidentally cut the connector off the left switch box, wires were too short, so i had to solder them back together. Spliced in the connector for my grote led headlight.
Wrapped it all back up nice and tidy, put the tank back on and the seat.
After wards , I turned the key to make sure i still had spark. Yup. Spark. But since im going batteryless, i cant check the head, tail or braek circuit. Cani hook up a 12v7ah battery to the red on the key switch? I cant start it untill i check valves and put the carb back on.

I cleaned out the carb, and put it back on. Wondering if the cable is supposed to go under the the back bone or over? Its under right now, and dosnt snap back. Its at quite a dramatic angle coming out of the top of the carb. The cable sheathing is in poor shape.

Have you already cleaned and lubed the throttle cable? The cable on our Bashan goes in at a similar angle and it will snap back easily

It's pretty beat. I grab a new one. Thanks

How do i drain the fork oil? I don’t see a drain screw. Do i have to take the forks off and turn them up side down?

It runs!!
 

Adjusted the valves. They were tight. Fresh gas, full choke. Started kicking. 20 kicks the n it fired! Snicking thru the carb and worsened as it settled into idle. I had dumped a few shots of seafoam in the crank case . After i go it to high idle, and get hot, i drained the oil again. Was gray. Put in fresh load of 15-40 deisel oil. Fired it up. Puked oil alover. Drained excess out. And started fiddling withe carb. I have the idle mix screw 1 and 3/4 out(pz27). .”snickicking “ subsided but wont let it idle without choke. I set the float with the seam on the float parallel to the gasket flange, but i have gas weeping from the bowl seam. Did i set it to high?
In any case. I heard it run . Sounds strong, no wierd noises from the motor itself.

There should be a drain screw on the bottom of the forks. Take them off and turn them over to drain would be the best way.

To be fair, the bolt at the bottom isn't really a drain screw. It's the retaining bolt for the dampening rod. The easiest and least frustrating way is to remove the top fork cap and invert the forks.

Basic How-to.

1. Lift the bike in the air so that the front wheel is off the ground - many
methods to do this.
2. Remove the front wheel.
3. Loosen the top clamp bolts on each side. (steps 2 and 3 can be
interchanged)
4. Break the fork caps free (hex bolt shaped item on the top) but do not
remove them. Just make them loose.
5. Loosen the lower fork clamp bolts. While looseing these, have one hand
on the fork leg just in case it decides to slide out on its own.
6. Remove the fork.
7. Using a wrench/socket, and a rag over the top cap, loosen the cap
carefully until it comes free.
8. Remove the fork spring and preload spacer - careful not to lose these.
9. Invert the fork into a container or drain pan. Once most of the oil as run
out, pump the fork in and out a few times and this will help remove more
oil. Once I do that, I sometimes leave them upside down to help drain as
much as possible. I will do one, leave it upside down, grab the other and
start working on it.
10. Fill each fork leg with the recommended level of fork oil. Cycle the fork
a few times to help purge them of any air. I recommend taking the time
to measure the air gap of the fluid to the top of the fork tube with the
fork fully compressed. This will allow you much quicker/easier fluid
changes in the future, and also allow you to even the levels if one or the
other happens to be off. I use a metric ruler for this, but even a
measuring tape can be used. Obviously you don't HAVE to do this, but it
can be handy.
11. Install spring and then preload spacer. Then install cap and tighten it
down as much as you can manage.
12. Reverse the removal process. Before you tigthen the top clamps, give
the fork caps a good snug up. You don't need a ton of force on them,
just a little extra to ensure they are tightened down. Do NOT lean into
these, or feel the need to crank on them hard as you will strip the
threads if you do.


At this point you are done.

Thanks dan. Im trying to upload a first start vid, but takes too long. It times out. Photo bucket really put a hurt on the internet. Im trying to use my phone to do it.
I need to pull the front end apart and see if the steering head bearings can be saved. I have no idea how long it’s been slopping around the way it is.

Personally, I would just replace those head stock bearings. It doesn't take much of the wrong kind of pressure to cause a small amount of damage that will grow over time. For less than $40 you can have both converted over to taper roller bearings, which are simply better. Plus you can have peace of mind.

Just my 2 cents, so take it that way.