I was given a beautiful 72 wombat

[Natelampa]

My wife gave me a 72 hodaka wombat for a wedding gift at our wedding a couple weeks ago, back from the honeymoon and starting to work on it. Starts up good but A few things are happening.
Starts up, idles fine, then revs really high then dies... Air leak?
Clutch needs work, when in neutral while bike is running if I pull the clutch it sounds like it's grinding.. Took cover off and now I am trying to get to the clutch plates, how do I do that?

[Bullfrog]

Hot dang! Sounds like your wife a) really likes you and b) wants to keep you home (you won't be out on the town when you are working on your scooter!)

Yup, sounds like an air leak to me. You just can't trust 40+ year old rubber crank seals. (what's the world coming to?)

The clutch is held on the crankshaft by the ONLY "left hand" thread nut on the machine. ("Righty tighty, lefty loosey" does NOT work for that nut.) Remove the nut, then the clutch can be removed and disassembled. However, I suspect that when you remove the clutch, you will find that the clutch pinion bushing is excessively worn - which is why it makes the graunch sound when you pull in the clutch lever. Replacing the clutch bushing MAY be all you need to do to restore reasonable clutch operation. Although it is also quite possible that a full clutch rebuild may be required (um, it too is 40+ years old . . .)

Do you have a genuine, Official Hodaka Workshop Manual? If not, consider ordering one - it will be a great help.

Ed

[Bullfrog]

DOH! Wait a second! Your engine idles fine, then revs and dies . . . that may simply mean that the fuel system is plugged and not delivering fuel at nearly the rate needed. What might be happening is that the float bowl starts out full (because you've had the fuel valve on for a while). You start the engine and it idles fine, but the carb isn't getting nearly enough fuel from the tank, so the level of fuel in carb starts going down and after a while that causes fuel starvation and the mixture goes lean (and the engine revs up) but then the starvation gets so severe that there just isn't enough fuel to allow the engine to continue running - so it dies.

Yup, I'd check for free flow of fuel through the delivery system FIRST. (sorry about that first response)

HOWEVER, it is good to keep in mind that um, you just can't trust 40+ year old crank seals (but I've already mentioned that )

Ed

[Natelampa]

Awesome, going through the carb and fuel lines now.
Can't get that clutch nut off, it just spins the whole basket. Is there some sort of clutch tool? That goes into the two holes on the basket?

[Zyx]

Starts, idles, revs, dies is fuel starvation. For some reason fuel is passing to the carb but at only a very slow rate, which will fill the bowl but not offer adequate supply for running. Peacock, fuel lines, filter if it has one (and if it doesn't, out one on) then passages through carb to float needle. Blow air (hose and mouth, not air gun) and air should pass freely through all these parts.

Yes there are tools to aid in removing the clutch nut, but the easiest is an impact tool. Just make sure it is running the right way before giving it any real force. Left hand as the man says. I use a small air impact device I call a flutter gun or butterfly gun because it has a treadle on top that you push one way or the other. It is very low torque but is adequate to remove the clutch nut which should not be all that tight. There is a critical torque value when reinstalling this nut. Don't exceed the torque spec because it can cause the bushing to bind.

If you don't have a shop manual, please find one. Even an old Clymers has tons of useful stuff in it, including torque specs. Or, all of this info can be found on the Strictly Hodaka website. Search for your bike by schematic,many on the very first page showing index diagrams of the various part groups you will find at the top, under the photo, a line of text that says "View Model Specifications". It doesn't look like it but that is a hot link to a .pdf showing the original factory spec sheets which includes torque for critical parts.

[Natelampa]

Right now only one fuel like from one petcock is being used, could that be the reason why it's not getting enough fuel? Why does this bike have 2 petocks? Reserve tank?

[Zyx]

The saddle design on the Hodaka tank, like any other that straddles the backbone, will not draw fuel from the opposite side. Reserve? You could use it that way, but if you have only one petcock, you have to stop, lay the bike over to transfer fuel, then go on. Hence, two petcocks. I always bridged the two with a cross over, and opened both. One line will flow more fuel than the bike can consume, but running with both open evens the drawdown. A reserve on a dirt bike serves little purpose unless you ride very long distances at one time, or routinely forget to look at your fuel. We recently did a 50 mile ride in Oregon at Hodaka Days and even with a motocross engine I used only half a tank (approx one gallon) and on the Clarke tank that I have, with the HT3 pipe crossing under the tank, I can only have one petcock, yet fuel supply was more than adequate.

If you can't get enough fuel to the carb through only one petcock, something is wrong somewhere.

[Bullfrog]

Having only one operational petcock should not limit your fuel supply. I run only one on my competition bike by choice.

The problem is that something is severely reducing fuel flow. Note that the inside of your tank is also 40+ years old, and it is made of steel. There may be a considerable quantity of rust and other "stuff" in there clogging the screen on the fuel petcock - if the screen has survived this long that is.

Cleaning the tank may be needed - along with cleaning the petcock screen. As already mentioned, installing an "in line" fuel filter is highly recommended too.
Ed

[hodakamax]

Yes Ed, caught your new profile---Cool!

Max

[viclioce]

Pull your petcock and check the filter screen, making sure it's not clogged. Also check your fuel line and make sure they aren't real soft and collapsing under a fuel draw. I'm just guessing but the filter screen on the petcock would be my first guess. ; D Victor