1965(ish?) Honda CA77 Dream

bilbikek411 said:
I see the KZ1300 carbs in the background you giving it a complete fix-up?
I like seeing those SS mufflers shiny !
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Good eye there Bill on the carb catch. I’ll leave it at that :unsure:

As the saying goes “To many projects and too little time” Good the see you were able to get a score on the mufflers. As you noted getting them chromed is an eye and wallet opener when you find a shop willing to tackle the job.
 
Yeah, it's definitely been a minute. Had my hands full with a CB750 that took a lot longer than I wanted it to. Anyway, to answer the questions-

-Rather than the silicone ring, these earlier sets used a rubberized... ish collar, with a lip on the top, fitted into the front of the mufflers. It came with a set, but they had fallen apart from age. Thankfully, they are still available, and surprisingly, easier to find than the ring type.

-While I am making progress, I still have two major purchases left to make: tires ($$), and an air compressor ($$$$). Painting will be it's own adventure, but that's just a question of learning it. I"ll probably do a full engine teardown as well, if only to get the cases and top end vapor blasted. But that's a WAYS off.

-As for the KZ1300, I've been fiddling with that for about 10 years now. Cosmetically it's actually really nice, but I've been struggling to get it running at 100% for a while now. I gave up for a while, but it's finally back into the rotation. Goal is to tear apart and clean the carbs this winter, then see what happens come spring.
 
Work proceeds slowly. I'm currently saving money for that air compressor, because that's kind of got the build at a hard stop at the moment. In the meantime, I've taken it upon myself to grab some of the harder to find, albeit less important parts whenever I can. This one is fairly niche, and probably unnecessary, but it's fun that I was able to find one. The plan was always to add period correct turn signals to the bike. The signals themselves are easy enough to find (or aftermarket copies, at least), and I was able to track down a reproduction right hand control switch that had the blinker controls on them. I still need the relay to make the blinkers function, but that's something I can wire in and hide anywhere.

But why should I make it simple like that?

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So, full disclosure, the relay itself is wrong- it's 6 volt, for the earlier models, and I need 12v. But really I bought it for the bracket. Stock location is bolted into a pair of holes under the seat, up inside the frame spine. I'll probably make a modern relay fit into the stock location, but if I can find the proper relay I might give it a try. As I said, it's a tiny thing that 99% of people will never notice, but for me it's fun to have the "correct" parts when I'm able.

I've got at least one more goody coming in the mail, so stay tuned for that. Again, nothing I NEED, but more of a quality of life thing for the future. Until then!
 
Best I can tell, it's these two holes right here. At the very least, it's a pair of holes that line up with the bracket.

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Looking at old parts diagrams, those are rear holes for the solo seats. I'm not sure what the third hole is for. My spare frame actually has the two main holes blanked off with rubber plugs, which would make sense as a US only thing. I can only imagine it would make taking the seat off a pain, having to juggle a turn signal bracket while you're at it. Luckily the double seat doesn't have this problem.
 
Another day, another rare part acquired. I've never been happy with the headlights on these things. The sealed beam, combined with replacements being rare and spendy, never sat well with me. Now, international models did get lenses with replaceable bulbs, but THOSE things are even rarer, and more expensive- $400-$600, on average.

One day, just for funsies, I was browsing Dream parts on CMSNL, and to my surprise, look what they had for sale?

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About 100 bucks, shipped to my door (not mentioning the week it was held up in customs...). I still need bulbs and the socket, but those are much easier to get than the lens. Not sure what I'm doing with the pilot light. The smart thing would be to just blank it off, but who knows.
 
Lucien Harpress said:
Another day, another rare part acquired. I've never been happy with the headlights on these things. The sealed beam, combined with replacements being rare and spendy, never sat well with me. Now, international models did get lenses with replaceable bulbs, but THOSE things are even rarer, and more expensive- $400-$600, on average.

One day, just for funsies, I was browsing Dream parts on CMSNL, and to my surprise, look what they had for sale?

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About 100 bucks, shipped to my door (not mentioning the week it was held up in customs...). I still need bulbs and the socket, but those are much easier to get than the lens. Not sure what I'm doing with the pilot light. The smart thing would be to just blank it off, but who knows.
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Just got a '64 Dream myself, in black. Haven't had a chance to tear into it yet, in fact it's still on my truck so I could haul it around to various inspections to get an antique title, but I'll be referring to your posts to inform my own work, as this is my first attempt at a build/rebuild/light restoration.

And yeah, I was contemplating getting an LED bulb swap myself, just to brighten things up. Let us know what results you get. Thanks in advance!
 
Ages ago when LED lights were not readily available, I built my own. You could build a custom pilot light pretty easily.
 

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Now, I am fairly certain this is a reproduction part.
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Looking at the wires, especially the yellow wire with the red stripe (starter button wire), I would say the handlebar switch is original. The yellow wire wit the red strip is exclusively used by Honda, you can't buy it anywhere. If you can buy a yellow wire with a red strip, the stripe is straight, and not cork screwed around the yellow surface.
 
Spokes said:
Ages ago when LED lights were not readily available, I built my own. You could build a custom pilot light pretty easily.
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My biggest question would be how to actually wire the pilot light once it's in. From the research it looks like the "proper" way to wire one up requires a six-position ignition switch, rather than the US-spec 5 position that I have. I've seen them for sale, but I'm not paying $300 for a something I already have, just with a position I'm never going to use.

I've thought about wiring it so it comes on in the "park" position, if I put one in at all.
 
This may seem a bit out of left field, but I don't have a whole lot to do until I get my paint setup figured out, so I've got time.

Does anyone know when the Dreams switched from the "early" to the "late" clamshell carb covers? Best I can tell the only difference is the extra slot on the left cover for the breather tube, but does anyone know when this happened?
 
Lucien Harpress said:
This may seem a bit out of left field, but I don't have a whole lot to do until I get my paint setup figured out, so I've got time.

Does anyone know when the Dreams switched from the "early" to the "late" clamshell carb covers? Best I can tell the only difference is the extra slot on the left cover for the breather tube, but does anyone know when this happened?
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Pretty sure the ones on my 64 fit my friend's 65 too, even though the side covers and battery trays are different. Don't really know about any earlier variants.
 
Do you need part of the clamshell covers? I've got one good side and one partially broken side that must have come off the CA160 that was in the parts pile because it doesn't fit the mounting locations on the CA95 motor.
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I'm good on the covers. I just happened to luck into an early set that doesn't have the extra notch for the breather tube on the one side. They all bolt up just fine, but I was curious which version was "correct" for my bike. I know a lot of stuff got changed in 1965 (which is what I have) and was wondering if that was one of them.
 
Lucien Harpress said:
I'm good on the covers. I just happened to luck into an early set that doesn't have the extra notch for the breather tube on the one side. They all bolt up just fine, but I was curious which version was "correct" for my bike. I know a lot of stuff got changed in 1965 (which is what I have) and was wondering if that was one of them.
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I believe mine is a '65 based on the wire harness tag and my covers have the notch out for the breather tube. Pardon the mess, haven't started cleaning yet ;)
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My unrestored 1965 does not have the notch. My frame number is within 150 of the engine number in the picture.
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I'll have to double check mine. The bike I'm restoring is for sure a '65, and I'm pretty sure my parts bike is also a '65, but even these have differences. Straight vs slanted clutch cable housing, higher engine and frame number, MAYBE different side overs, etc. It looks like the bike I'm restoring is an early '65, and if the carb cover changeover happened in '64/early '65, I'll feel better about running them like that.

(I'm running them regardless. But at least I'll feel better about it. 😂)
 
oldjeep said:
Do you need part of the clamshell covers? I've got one good side and one partially broken side that must have come off the CA160 that was in the parts pile because it doesn't fit the mounting locations on the CA95 motor.
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They won't fit the Dreams but it's a rare part for the CA160.


The extra notch appeared way back (pre 63?) when Honda deleted the crankcase breather from the top engine case and moved to breather from cam cover.
 
So I got to looking, and learned some things. First off, my frame number is 1009506, and my engine number is 1009526. So my engine and frame are 20 numbers apart, which is kinda cool.

Second, I remembered that I actually have clip mounted to my cam chain tensioner that I'm 99% certain is for the top end breather tube. It lines up right with where the notch on the carb cover would be, and there were remains of that vent tube stuck on that clip on my other engine.

So, the question is, what do I do about this? I haven't decided yet! ;)
 
ballbearian said:
They won't fit the Dreams but it's a rare part for the CA160.


The extra notch appeared way back (pre 63?) when Honda deleted the crankcase breather from the top engine case and moved to breather from cam cover.
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Ah. Well if anyone needs one it is free. Makes sense that it is ca160, have a carb for that too. The last free parts pile will be in the for sale section soon. Have everything I need now.
 
Getting closer to that air compressor. But in the meantime it's the same story: gathering parts where and when I can. Scrambler Cycle had the cheapest air filter and intake tube, and the quality is excellent. I'll be eager to get to the point I can use it.

I also looked into grabbing actual turn signals. I snagged the cheapest pair of Thailand repop lights on eBay I could find, but wasn't too keen on the plastic housing, especially vs the metal housing of the stock parts. On a whim I checked CMSNL, and low and behold, they had options.

Full front units were prohibitively expensive for the left one, and the right was completely unavailable. BUT- just the housings WERE available. So I snagged a pair of those. Current plan is to gut the reproduction units and use the innards and lenses to fill the stock housings. I'm sure I'll have to modify something, but I'm hoping it's not too hard.IMG_20251031_181321635.jpg
 
Thailand blinkers arrived in the mail and... well, these are quite literally the definition of "better than nothing". We'll start with the good:

-Bulb sockets look better than stock. I'll need to fabricate small brackets to get them to fit in the OEM housings, but that shouldn't be overly difficult.
-Lenses will fit, but look... rough. Rears don't seem like they'll be too bad. The fronts don't actually line up smoothly with the outside of the housings, but it's better than nothing.

The bad? Reproduction housings are unusable. They are plastic vs. the OEM metal housings. This means that all of the screws are unusable as well, because they are, well, screws, not the bolts I need for the OEM housings. I'll also need all the bolts, which I'm sure I can find something. I may need to re-thread some things if it uses the non-existent fine pitch, but that's fixable.

The ugly? The holders. Those blasted holders. I didn't think these would be too hard to replace with something that looks close, but come to find out, the cutout for the handlebar isn't at a right angle. This means that not only are "easy" replacements hard to find, it also means even if I could track down the actual holders, I'd need both a right and a left. And while CMSNL has one side (the lefts, I believe), OF COURSE it doesn't have the rights. I've got two lefts on the way, in case I have to modify one to make it work, but I'm still holding out hope for a proper holder.

(Plan B was to cast the holders from the reproduction blinkers, but again, those are so far off it's not going to work).
 
That's disappointing. I've heard that some stuff from Thailand is good quality while it seems not the case for everything.
I'm beginning to realize that parts for these bikes are getting very scarce and hence costly.
 
Long time, no update. I haven't made a lot of tangible progress, but do have some pretty beefy updates. Let's run through em quick.

--I was able to make the turn signals work. I managed to salvage the lenses and bulb sockets, then pieced together the OEM metal housings from the separate pieces on CMSNL. The only problem part was the top holder bracket on the right side. The left was available, but the right was not, and of course they are handed. Thankfully my brother in law has a CAD milling machine, so he was able to scan the bracket I had, mirror it, and mill out a replacement.

--The biggest news: I FINALLY got a full shop air compressor! It still needs wired up and hoses ran, but I finally have the ability to sandblast, vapor blast, and paint, which was a major holdup.

--Finally, I browse ebay for Dream parts semi-regularly. I have most of what I need, but if I can snag a deal I will. I just recently got lucky with a 2-fer. First off, a speedometer. These frequently go for $150-$200, even for roached ones. I nabbed this one for 30 bucks. That brings my current count to 1 "repaired" (I needed the spring replaced so who knows if it's calibrated), one pile of parts, and two unknown used. I'll probably sell the extras once I have a good working one. Second, I've been on the lookout for the fork lock cover- a little piece, usually missing, and stupid expensive if you can find one. OR you can buy a $20 pile of random hardware that happens to have cover. (It'll need re-chromed, but I have a set of rims that will need done as well, so that will be the next major expense.)1299.jpg
 
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