My Little Red Honda FT500 Ascot
From: Ron Flory ( janiceflory@totalaccess.net )
I sure have enjoyed The Thumper Page!!! It seems to be the only place where I can get information on my FT 500 Hondas.
I had been a rider since 1958. Back then a 15 year old kid didnt need to look over his shoulder all the time for a policeman (now a Law enforcement officer) while running the back roads on his Sears Scooter. Yep, a Thumper. My next bike was a 1965 Suzuki 250cc twin. Next came a Ducati 350 Desmo then a Yamaha XS650 then another Ducati 350 Desmo then a Honda 350 XL followed by a Honda TL 125 then a 1977 Bultaco 350 Sherpa T (not a Thumper but a Popper?).
I had been away from motorcycles for 20 years and got the itch again in 1998. In January of 1999 I found a Honda FT500 with only 5842 miles on it. I paid wa.a.a.a.ay too much for it but a neighbor was looking it over and when I told him it was a 1983 model he asked if the previous owner had kept it in a box, it really was that clean!
Well, I liked it so much that I bought the next FT 500 I found for sale. Not as much money as the first but it ran good (when you could get it started) and all the gears worked. I wish I had paid more attention when the guy selling said it's been outside most of the time. Boy was he right! My next bike may not have been kept in a box but it will damn sure have been kept in a garage!!!
I started by removing all the plastic and seat which werent in too bad a shape. The first thing I noticed was the right side foot peg was from a Yamaha!! I started cleaning and de-rusting most everything else. Lots of 0000 steelwool elbow grease and diesel fuel. One needle bearing on the right side was totally gone. (just think about it on the side stand the right side is pointed up all the time and gets all the rain, dew, ice and other moisture) It was a booger getting the swing arm pin to turn let alone drive out. The Honda dealer wanted $16 plus for a new needle bearing. The local bearing shop wanted $4.50. Guess who won! Repacked the wheel bearings and checked the rear brake pads, cleaned the chain etc.. Reassemble in reverse order.Then the Front end. Fork oil must have been the original. Dark and thick and stinky!. I noticed the Honda spacer was only 9 long and I swear the 83 had 12 spacers. They both looked like factory to me so which one is correct? One circlip had the eyes completely rusted away.. I couldnt get it out by prying something under it so I went to the trusty ole drill press and drilled a hole the same width of the circlip groove. In no time I pressed the old clip out far enough to be able to work it out. Another trip to the bearing people (Pervis in Austin Texas) and $1.06 later I have not one but two new clips. No they aint factory originals but they work just fine.
The front brakes were stiff and had to be rebuilt. Not a bad or big job but it sure was dirty inside. Need and got new seals. Cleaned and greased the fork stem bearings and lots of misc. work also. (Cables and etc.) Then I noticed the fork stop was missing! Had to fabricate and weld on a new one. Man, little stuff was popping up all over and Im beginning to wonder about the insides of the motor!
After finally getting it all together and shined and polished its time for the first run. No go. Weak battery. No problem. Charged. No go. Wont stay engaged for some reason. Took off the infamous starter mechanism and boy was it dirty and rusty! Stripped and shined and polished. That's when I found out the pinion gear is half worn off. Just half of it. I may have an idea on this later. I got lucky and found a not so worn gear at Austin Cycle Salvage. Now the sucker runs!! Man it seems a lot stronger than the 83 model. First gentle test run shows everything O.K. except it will hardly coast down hill. Up on the center stand shows that the rear brake wont let go. So off it comes and its even more crappie inside than the front brakes were! More cleaning and more seals but now it scoots for real!!!!
Douglas M. Lively wrote about the air filter soak the filter in water and carefully tear away the filter material. I tried this and it was pain stakeingly slow so I threw mine in the burn barrel and burned that sucker clean. (YOU could do the same thing in your B-B-Que) This got rid of all the filter but it also burns out all the glue! I cleaned it up and painted it black and glued it all together with Dow Corning Urithane epoxy. It did a good looking job. I then used a piece of filter foam and added some aluminum rain gutter guard ($2.00 a 6ft roll) to the inside to hold it all in place. Worked out great!!!
I still have to get it some new treads and new clutch and front brake levers before it can be inspected but that will come with time and money. So far its cost have been.
FT 500 $475
Parts.$120
Tires.$250
Misc.. $100?
Total.$1000Dont count the time, just count the fun and learning experience and if you really want to have some fun ride it into your Honda dealer and check the prices of a new ride that will make you feel a whole lot better!!!!!!!!
FOLLOW UP to the LITTLE RED HONDA ( 11/04/99 )
Well, I finally have the 1982 Red Honda FT500 Ascot on the road again. With new Kenda tires and everything torqued and ready to go I loaded it into the back of the pickup and headed for the closest Texas State Inspection garage that is able to inspect motorcycles. It is some 20 miles away but really friendly folks and what a clean shop! (Ron Rileys Tires and Auto repair on highway 79 in Thrall, Texas) They also do Harley rebuilds and such. All this in a really small town no less.I trucked over, as I didn't want to wander too far from home without a little more reliability testing under my behind. Let's face it, I hate to walk. After getting unloaded and talking with the guys a little I embarrassed myself. The Honda wouldn't start. It acted like it did before. It would try to engage the flywheel but then immediately disengage. Try, try again just didn't work. Ron Riley and his helper even tried to bump start me but I've never been any good at that. I know I was in forth gear but all we managed to do is slide the wheel. Break time! After a cup of coffee I tried it again and it fired after the second attempt. I surprised myself for sure.
Passed with flying colors! Good horn, brakes, lights, tires and everything else but boy did he check the exhaust system over good! Had me worried for a second as I had put the original exhaust back on. But she passed! Now I'm riding it quite often and my 'circle of adventure' is getting bigger all the time. I jump on it more that I do the Black 83 Ascot seems like.
I got to thinking about the 'not starting thing' and decide to tear into the starting mechanism again. I'd done it in the beginning and thought I had it fixed but here we go again. Originally the 'starter drive pinion gear' had been worn down about half the width of the gear. I was lucky enough to find one at Austin Cycle Salvage in Austin, Texas and when I put it in the Red started fine. I had mentioned in the original article the starter mechanism (gears and pins and drive pinion clutch and stuff) was dirty and needed a good cleaning and lube. That's all true but I've come to find out it needs a 'through' cleaning, up to the point of being polished!
Man this time I really went at it and shined everything up good and lubed it to the point of overkill. I pulled and cleaned and shined the starter solenoid till it sparkled. It all works slick as a button but it still wouldn't stay engaged long enough to turn the engine. There is a little spring that retracts the 'lock cam' from the 'fork claw' which holds the 'starter drive pinion gear' into the flywheel and this little spring is too strong for an old and weak 'starter solenoid' to over come. I installed a slightly weaker (by feel) spring that I had in my junk drawer and now it starts every time, now fuss no muss just lots of continuous crank.
I can't help but think that what has happened to a lot of the FT500's is as follows..... As the solenoid gets weaker the 'lock cam' and 'fork claw' doesn't lock completely and the 'starter drive pinion gear' starts to get worn down. By not doing a regular routine on the mechanism it gets steadily worse and people eventually burn out their starters simply because there starter won't stay engaged. All because of a little spring! I can't help but wonder how many decent FT's were pushed into the garage or bone yard because of lack of maintenance on this critical little area! For those of you out there that may think your starter is bad, take another look. It really isn't that hard to work on.
Ron Flory
1500 CR 484
Elgin Texas
78621
e-mail janiceflory@totalaccess.net