Topic: Shifting on my Hondamatic

[bakoehn]

Hey, guys.
I'm brand new to the motorcycle world and wanted to get into it slow. As most of my friends are getting "rockets" I decided to go retro. I found a '77 CB750Hondamatic, (honestly didn't know there was such a thing as an auto, but here it is!) that was in the back of someone's shed and it hasn't been ridden in a couple of years. I went though the carbs, fixed a number of leaks, and found a few "small" problems with the wiring, but all in all running pretty good. The only thing that I can't figure out is, it will not shift into high gear no matter what speed I am at. Anyone have an idea what may be wrong? And is this vacuum activated?

[merc2dogs]

  On the hondamatics, here is no shift, you have high range and low range, low range is used for lower speed riding, and high range for faster cruising, no actual shift involved other than selecting the range, unlike a car where the range is a subset of the gears in the transmission (drive is all gears, 2 is 1st and 2nd, L is 1st only) with the hondamatic you have two gears in the transmission (planetary gearsets) one high and one low, the lever only selects the range.

 all ruduction is done in the torque converter, so there's not any mechanical shifting involved. when everything is in sync, engine speed and cruising speed are right the TC pretty much becomes a 1:1 linkage, if you start losing speed like going up hill, or accelerating, the tc starts acting as a torque multiplier again and essentialy 'downshifts'.

 Can't find it now, but there was a writeup on riding the automatic, that gave a rough 'speed' table for the ranges

 if stop and go, or slow (around or under  40) use low range, otherwise use high range.  I actualy think that low range is good over 50mph, but not sure what the actual top is, and think high is ok for driving in town, just puts motor in a better operating range.

 
Ken.

[bakoehn]

Thanks Ken. So when I shift from neutral, it goes into low range, does it go to high automatically or do I need to use the shift lever again? I have had it up to 60mph in low and nothing I do lets it shift to high. What I'm I doing wrong?

[merc2dogs]

You're welcome,
 
 You do have to manualy shift into high range, sounds like you're doing it right.

 Don't have to start in low and then go to high, you can start in either gear, best way is to think of it as a 10 speed bicycle with the rear shifter unuseable, so all you can shift is the front derailiur, for most speeds either gear is fine, but for slower speeds it's easier on you, (the engine) to use the small Low range gear, for higher speeds it's easier on the big high range gear. 

 so if you're going to be riding a lot at lower speeds or with a lot of stop and starts, leave it in low, but if you plan on longer runs, or higher speeds, use high range. 


 The hondamatics are actualy pretty nice bikes, made great cruising bikes, they just weren't too popular for some reason.
 Bought my wife one last year, and just got it all together for her.

Ken.

[paxtonpony]

By the way, welcome to the forum!  Now lets see some pics!   

[bakoehn]

 I thought that I was doing it right, but I am still not getting a high gear. I click the foot lever up once and that is alll that there is. What else could be wrong?

[merc2dogs]

Hmmm,  you can only get one click when upshifting? Any lights come on or go off?

 on the wifes bike, it's click up, let it down, and click up again.

  With hers, when I first got around to playing with it, the shifter seemed to hang up going to high, put it up on the belly stand and cleaned up the kick-out rod that's connected to the kickstand, just had a bunch of crud on it that stopped the shift

 May want to try putting it on the belly stand and rasing the kickstarter and watching while shifting to high and low.

 if it will shift at all with the kickstand down then the rod needs to be adjusted, it's to keep it from knocking itself over while idleing.

Ken. 
 

[bakoehn]

Tried the kick-stand thing...won't shift. Only have one click up. The neutral light stays on all the time, is there something electronic involved? (this was going to be my next tech question)

[merc2dogs]

 The only electronics involved is the sending unit that operates the shift lights, since it doesn't change it may be frozen up and not letting it go all the way up to high.

 I'm going to be out in the garage pretty much all day tommorrow, (after picking up the 'new' f1) mostly cause I've had the week off and it's been COLD and RAINY the whole #%$%^ time so I've been in the house, But I'll take a good look at hers to see if I can come up with anything that could lock it up.

 since going by what you've said, it seems to run and ride good otherwise, it sounds like it may be a simple linkage problem.
 
Ken.
   

 

[merc2dogs]

 Well, took a good look at her bike, and the shifting is all enclosed.
 
 did notice that if I 'bind' the lever from the kickstand, I can put it in low, but not high

 only guessing recommendation is to put it on the belly stand, remove the rod from the kickstand, and see if moving that lever manualy will allow you to catch high.

 on her bike it sits not quite at 6:00. more like 5:30 or so, if I stop it from reaching that point it will hit low, but won't go to high.
 
 check that the rod from the kickstand is straight, that the kickstand goes all the way up, and that there's no crud between the lower lever and the 'skid' plate.

 Hopefully it helps, if not let me know, I've been wanting to tear into that bike anyway!

ken.

[bakoehn]

GOT IT!!! I thought about what you said about the kick stand thing and decided the heck with it and pulled the cover off and to my surprise....the last person in (besides stripping all the screws off) didn't have the thing put together right!! Took her for a spin.....works awesome!! All I'm going to do now is get the headlight brackets and blinkers, take that very gay looking windjammer off and I'm rock'n!! Thanks a million for the help!!

Brian

[merc2dogs]

 Glad to hear it
 good luck with it.

 And I was just going to see if you needed a set of lowers for that fairing!

Ken.

[oconnor]

Now maybe you'll ride it to work.
Did you need front and rear signals or just front?

[mkramer1121]

Hmmm...Do all Hondamatics have those nice tall bars or was that a retro upgrade?   If you want stock 750 bars (off a K4, don't know the compatibility), let me know as I have a set that could be yours for shipping.

[Kamal]

Hey there,

I lowered a Hondamatic some time back..it was a nice fun bike, especially for someone new who wants a mellow ride.

Check out the pics....scroll to he bottom of this page:

http://www.mototherapy.net/failedprojects.html


Good Luck!

Kamal

[bakoehn]

Just need front blinkers and the headlight brkts. I think I have a line on some, but someone have a set cheap??