Thanks for the great story Clarence! Perseverance wins!

But then the Old Man Going North thread has amassed 85,000 views.

Let's see... there are 6 pages with let's say 25 posts per page, that means there are 150 posts. If you divide the 41,000 visits by 150, it means that on average each post was read 273 times. Seems a little high considering the small group that we have.

I'm no expert on the topic but having seen the picture, I think it's possible that this could might actually be a Nigerian Police model. The black paint inside the headlight bucket , and especially the black gas cap and dip stick make it a possibility in my limited knowledge.

Magically cured!

Welcome and thanks for the interesting story. That AJS sounds like a great piece of history!

Vic,
Among other things it could be a glazed cylinder wall. It might need a light honing to restore the hashmarks and allow the rings to work with the oil provide a seal. Good luck.

Thank you for taking the time to scan all of these great memories. I've had a great time reading them.

Because the clutch is on the end of the crankshaft, in first gear it has to spin at a very high rpm and the drag caused by the oil is magnified. I've never seen a Hodaka that would push around easily in first gear with the clutch pulled in. in the higher gears it spins much more slowly and is able t...

You may have stumbled onto something here. The Wiseco 228 piston is a fit for the Yamaha 125 AT-1 Enduro. Yours is definitely stamped 228. I wonder if the two pistons are interchangeable between the Yamaha and the Hodaka.

Vic, do you have a strong magnet to help in your search?

I would like to agree with the other two answers that ground connections are very important. If you painted the frame you may have to remove paint from the motor mount areas, and the mounting tab for the top coil. If you run separate ground wires to connect all the components, removing the paint isn...

216 and counting

You do a great job!

Hypoid gear oil is not designed for wet clutches. It's best suited for gearboxes that accommodate high shear situations like a helical 90 degree. In motorcycles it's usually used in a shaft drive rear hub. Stick with the gear oil specifies for motorcycles with a wet clutch. Every oil company makes o...

Either of those gear oils should be fine for your application. I would stay away from castor oil for street and trail use as it's a fairly dirty burning oil and tends to separate from the gasoline when sitting. Modern castors are way better than the stuff we used in the 60's though. If you're using ...

A couple of things to check regarding the floats and needle valve. Make sure the floats are right side up, sounds silly but it happens from time to time. Make sure the needle valve is seating properly in its seat and shuts off the fuel flow. This can be done by attaching the fuel line to the carb wi...

It appears that the roller has a bushing that is slightly longer than the width of the roller itself. This would allow the roller to spin with the bolt tightened down securely.

The fact that this particular machine, in very capable hands, won both the most recent (2021 MX and 2022 Supercross) Championships in the premier division suggests that they may be on to something. It is interesting and is the production model. It is not, however, a Hodaka!

Actually the backwards configuration is in use today by Yamaha with their YZ models. They canted the cylinder toward the rear of the motorcycle in order to accommodate the fuel injection, the exhaust wraps around the engine, the fuel tank is moved rearward, and the air filter is where the fuel tank ...

Just a guess but it would appear that the head pipe has a much tighter bend than original. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the weld between the head pipe and expansion chamber doesn't look factory to me. Maybe you could try fitting it to an ACE to see if it fits that frame configuration. If ...

I didn't realize that you can visit this forum for medical advice also. Good to know.

Mine may have been in 1969 for $50.00... it ran but didn't shift well. Put an expansion chamber and street tires on it and went flat track racing. My older brother had a Hodaka also and we had some fierce battles for last place (I usually won that dubious honor).

Clarence you may have missed that the engine and frame numbers are at the end of the original post, just before the pictures.

Except for the fact that the cylinder sleeve broke!!