New rider, new to me CL350

Billy17

Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2026
Total Posts
11
Total likes
5
Location
Bellows Falls , Vermont
Morning all, I am fully in the game now. The 1974 CB360 that I was bidding on last week sold to someone else; which is just as well. It went for $8300 and needed new tires and would have to have been shipped to me, plus the auction commission. All told: putting it well above ten grand,
Yesterday I drove two hours from home, (Vermont to New Hampshire) looked at a 1972 CL 350, red which is what I originally wanted to get. Brand new tires and battery, 12,000 miles, new used but shiny and sound exhaust.
I bought it! Asking. $3500, I offered $3300. Deal. Now I just have to learn how to ride it.
Got the bill of sale and paperwork, including old registration. The guy seemed legit, had a shop and business restoring mostly old cars, beautiful mustangs, Chevy ss, a couple of hogs etc.
He had had it running before I got there after putting in the brand new battery. Then, about fifteen minutes before I arrived he reached down and lifted up the little fuel filter in the line drooping down on the right side. The brittle plastic nipple on the plastic filter case snapped. So when I showed up,he said you’re not gonna believe this…..we talked for a while and I sensed that he was being honest about it, so I encouraged him to look around his shop for a piece of tubing.
We worked on it together, the tubing was a bit larger in diameter so it was a struggle to get it up on the metal nipple next to the other cylinder’s feed line nipple.
But, we got it.
We started her up and he drove it around his yard. Only up to second gear cuz of limited space. All sounded good, but I am new to this and don’t really know what to look/listen for.
Short story long, my new red 1972 CL 350 is in the back of my old Toyota pickup right now.
THIS morning, I noticed some dripping gasoline that looks like it is dripping out of the left carburetor, onto the engine case and then maybe dissolving a bit of oil on the way to the drip spot under the bike on the mat in my truck.
The fuel shut off lever is in the off position.
So, this is my first reach out to the HVT community for advice, ideas, input.
the carburetors were cleaned but not rebuilt or replaced….. should I put new ones on?
There is a brass looking drop down post or nipple or bolt or something sticking downward from the bottom of the carb and the gas is dripping off the end of that. But it may be leaking out somewhere further up and sliding down that thing.
I don’t know how much fuel might remain in the bowl of carb…with the fuel line shut off, I wouldn’t think there would be much gas to drip……and the spot underneath is not too big.
Anyway, I want to get a service manual and learn how to do some of the work myself. I am pretty good at basic mechanical stuff, and these bikes are reputed to be relatively easy to work on..
I welcome all input. Thanks all.
Also, if anyone knows of a mechanic with experience on these 70’s CB and CL machines in New England area, please let me know.
 
Sometimes the overflow tube in the carb bowl develops a crack and allows fuel to drip out from the spigot at the bottom of the carb. If you have original exhaust and air filters I would stick with the original carbs.
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The VHT library has the service manuals for the 350, always best to ask here first before purchasing.

We also like pictures, always easier to help when we can see what you see :)
 
You might pull the lines off the petcock to see if it is leaking in the "off" position before you start digging too deep. And get some fuel line material, good stuff, not that clear vinyl stuff from the hardware store.
 
Having experienced a petcock failure over the winter during a period of extreme cold, I second Mike's suggestion to evaluate the petcock. If it does leak, you can rebuild it with new seals.

If your stand tube is cracked, you can likely repair it using solder or epoxy.

The online vendor 4-into-1 sells Honda 5.5mm fuel line, as do many vendors on eBay. The experience with a broken plastic fuel filter is not uncommon. I recommend ensuring that the tank is clean, so you don't need an inline filter.

If the bike is leaning heavily in the truck bed, that could also lead to some overflow from the bowls.

+1 on the photo request. Threads with nice photos get much more attention and people will provide better input also. Plus, no matter how many bikes we've all seen, we never get tired of seeing more.

I got my first vintage bike in 2011. I was using Craigslist and the bikes were being sold as fast as they were listed. So many false hopes until I expanded my search range and agreed to buy a CB450K7 sight unseen for a little over $400 two hours from home. I hope you enjoy your purchase as much as I've enjoyed that one.
 
Got my bike back from shop , runs great now after basic tune up, BUT they did not fix the leaking carb “ drain screw, copper colored down tube “
they told me they noticed it leaking after running bike for a few minutes - and that they searched for cracks but didn’t find any. I did get a couple of helpful replies a couple of months ago here on VHT. shop told me “ common issue on these vintage bikes , tap/knock carb bowl with butt of a screwdriver to free up the float if that is problem” or “ solder the tube” I presume that means removing it, repairing and re-installing it.
I am going to see if I can remove it and repair with solder or epoxy- as also suggested by helpful folks here.
i am just posting this now to see if there might be any other tips and tricks I should be aware of. And what about replacing it with new one? I dunno if available.
i will try to add a photo too, as suggested.
 
Billy17 said:
Got my bike back from shop , runs great now after basic tune up, BUT they did not fix the leaking carb “ drain ****, copper colored down tube “
they told me they noticed it leaking after running bike for a few minutes - and that they searched for cracks but didn’t find any. I did get a couple of helpful replies a couple of months ago here on VHT. shop told me “ common issue on these vintage bikes , tap/knock carb bowl with butt of a screwdriver to free up the float if that is problem” or “ solder the tube” I presume that means removing it, repairing and re-installing it.
I am going to see if I can remove it and repair with solder or epoxy- as also suggested by helpful folks here.
i am just posting this now to see if there might be any other tips and tricks I should be aware of. And what about replacing it with new one? I dunno if available.
i will try to add a photo too, as suggested.
Click to expand...
I moved your post to your existing Projects and Builds thread for continuity.

In case you need help with posting pictures, take a look at your "Welcome Package" of helpful stuff in my reply to your introduction.
 
Billy17 said:
Got my bike back from shop , runs great now after basic tune up, BUT they did not fix the leaking carb “ drain ****, copper colored down tube “
they told me they noticed it leaking after running bike for a few minutes - and that they searched for cracks but didn’t find any. I did get a couple of helpful replies a couple of months ago here on VHT. shop told me “ common issue on these vintage bikes , tap/knock carb bowl with butt of a screwdriver to free up the float if that is problem” or “ solder the tube” I presume that means removing it, repairing and re-installing it.
I am going to see if I can remove it and repair with solder or epoxy- as also suggested by helpful folks here.
i am just posting this now to see if there might be any other tips and tricks I should be aware of. And what about replacing it with new one? I dunno if available.
i will try to add a photo too, as suggested.
Click to expand...
Realistically, there is no such thing as “replace with a new one” when it comes to basically anything in the engine or carbs on these bikes - outside of some parts that have been lying about in a storage room for 50 years.

Did you check the petcock to see if it was fully shutting off?

Did you inspect the overflow drain tube for cracks?

Did you ensure that the carb bowl drain screws were closed?

Have you put 3.5MM hose from the drain on the bottom of the carbs to direct the fuel leak away from the engine - as per the stock routing?
 
ancientdad said:
I moved your post to your existing Projects and Builds thread for continuity.

In case you need help with posting pictures, take a look at your "Welcome Package" of helpful stuff in my reply to your introduction.
Click to expand...
Thank you AD. I did review the welcome package before posting and thought I had followed protocol ( forum to categories to post thread, etc.) But,obviously, I am not quite yet fluent in best practices here. I appreciate your adjustments and guidance. I will also refer back to and review welcome package to get the hang of posting pictures.
 
Billy17 said:
Thank you AD. I did review the welcome package before posting and thought I had followed protocol ( forum to categories to post thread, etc.) But,obviously, I am not quite yet fluent in best practices here. I appreciate your adjustments and guidance. I will also refer back to and review welcome package to get the hang of posting pictures.
Click to expand...
It's all good, once you start a project thread then anything done to your bike should go there. Some here prefer to do separate threads for the various functions they need to work on and that's okay, but either one or the other for continuity purposes so future readers will get better search results. My reference to the Welcome Package was more for the tutorial on posting pics, in case you hadn't seen it yet. For whatever reason, so many overlook the Welcome Package because they (I assume) think it's just typical "welcoming" stuff. We don't give out fruit baskets here, just good information. :ROFLMAO:
 
EzPete said:
Realistically, there is no such thing as “replace with a new one” when it comes to basically anything in the engine or carbs on these bikes - outside of some parts that have been lying about in a storage room for 50 years.

Did you check the petcock to see if it was fully shutting off?

Did you inspect the overflow drain tube for cracks?

Did you ensure that the carb bowl drain screws were closed?

Have you put 3.5MM hose from the drain on the bottom of the carbs to direct the fuel leak away from the engine - as per the stock routing?
Click to expand...
Thank you EZ Pete, Good points all. Yes, when fuel valve turned off , the dripping stops. I will order some 3.5 mm hose/ tubing to put it where it should be. I was surprised ( not favorably) when the person at the shop - which was supposed to be a top notch shop), said, oh yeah we noticed it leaking too, and they didn’t seem to think that wet gas dripping all over the top of a hot engine was anything to worry about. Seems to me to make a lot more sense to route it away to underneath bike, so gas doesn’t sit on hot metal.
That is how the drain tubes are routed on the two CB 350 s we now have.
”no such thing as ‘replace with new’ on these old bikes.” Good point there.
i just banged on carb bowl with button screwdriver to no avail. Next I will try to remove overflow drain tube and inspect with magnifying glass.
I did not know about or check carb bowl drain screws. Thank you for that suggestion. I will check that too.
i will report back once I have more to report.
 
ancientdad said:
It's all good, once you start a project thread then anything done to your bike should go there. Some here prefer to do separate threads for the various functions they need to work on and that's okay, but either one or the other for continuity purposes so future readers will get better search results. My reference to the Welcome Package was more for the tutorial on posting pics, in case you hadn't seen it yet. For whatever reason, so many overlook the Welcome Package because they (I assume) think it's just typical "welcoming" stuff. We don't give out fruit baskets here, just good information. :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Dang, I wanted some papayas.;-) The continuity theme makes good sense.
 
You can test the bowl drain tube for cracks by removing the bowl and filling it with acetone or gas and seeing that’s even the source. No need to remove the tube itself, getting it back in is a nightmare.
 
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