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Honda Restores a Chevy Pickup


TerryB

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Hey Joe,

The Chevy pick-up's had a factory hydraulic clutch. The original cylinder shared the same casting body as the master cylinder but had two separate chambers, one side for the brakes and the other for the clutch. The cylinder that they are using on this truck is not the same coveted screw top.  

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1 minute ago, mike6024 said:

61_235ci6_1.jpg

 

Is this original?

 

1961 Chevrolet Apache 10 Short Bed Stepside Pick-up Truck

 

 

The master/clutch cylinder is. I guess when Honda added the power brake set-up to the Chevy they had to find something that would work the clutch 

Edited by John348 (see edit history)
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11 minutes ago, mike6024 said:

1961-1967 Dodge D300 Series Clutch Master Cylinder LUK LMC513 61-67 Dodge Clutch Master Cylinder 1963 1962

 

1964 Dodge D100 clutch master cylinder. The brake Master cylinder looks the same.

 

What is in the "Honda Apache" looks something like this.

 

 

 

That Dodge one has a center bolt, the one they are using looks like the lid screws on and off the body casting

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I think this is a great story. In fact I use to carried my '72 Honda CB450 in my '69 Chevy C10 often. Once when the C10 had an engine swap done by a Motor Builder, Shore Line Motors in Easton,  I had given a 327 v8 to  rebuild and replaced the original six that was in the C10. The 327 through a rod 10 miles from the shop. I made it home on the Honda 450 while the shop came and took the C10 back to their shop. They told me to come back in two weeks and the truck would be back in service. I road the CB450 (THIS WAS IN THE WINTER) the 70 miles back from home to the Shop to get the Truck back. The best thing was that when I got there and looked at the Truck they had replaced the 327 with a rebuilt solid lifter highly modified 350 V8 that is still in my C10 truck going on 20+ years now running perfectly. The shop did not charge me for the 350V8.

 

So.......Chevy Trucks and Honda Bikes are born to be together. I still have the '69 C10 but sold the Bike years ago.

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We had a lot of fun in those days. Rode on the fire roads, in lake county northern California, around the north side of Clearlake and Lake Pillsbury. Our leader had a Honda XL 175, that had a 250cc top end fitted to it. I had a Honda trail 90, then a '74 Kawasaki KS-125. My cousin Joe had a Honda 70, and a Honda XL-100, even a Honda 50 minibike. The 70 was a minibike too. He liked riding those small thing even though he was was too big for them.

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Funny my Hondahauler was a Chevy too, a 1967 C10 in bright red.  Used it to take the XL250 to enduros in eastern PA.  After crashing more times than I could count with a heavy bike and street legal tires, the Honda went back to street duty and the off road stuff was handled by a Husqvarna CR250.  Still have fond memories of the truck and bike.  It was nearly impossible to kill those old Hondas, they were overbuilt and many are still around today.

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Great video IMO. This is exactly as I remember it way back when. This is what riding the fire roads and trails is like in Lake County, Northern California. Out of Upper Lake, which means the north end of Clearlake, and around Lake Pillsbury.

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, TerryB said:

My first motorcycle was a Honda.  1972 XL250 Enduro.  Made me the world renown motorcycle competition rider I am today 😊, or at least in my own mind I am!

 

72667BD1-95D6-4434-AE72-6B1C8A347E1A.jpeg

 

 

I had one of those with a stroker crank and a big bore kit that made it 305cc.  Best hill climbing bike I ever had. My friends called me the Wheelie King... right up to the point when I flipped it over backwards on the pavement.  Then they called me the Road Rash King.  😁

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The first pickup I bought was a 1960 Chevy C-10, manual transmission and without power brakes or power steering.  I bought it so I could leave my new Ford convertible home and not let fallout at the job site destroy the paint on it.  A few nights after I bought the pickup I drove it to work on the night shift.  Came out the next morning and started it but could not get the transmission in gear.  No clutch.  Shut the engine off, put the truck in reverse, and started it in reverse.  When It got far enough back for me to go forward, I cut the engine off again, put it first gear and started it back up; then shifted it in to second without the clutch and drove off the parking lot.  I made it through the first traffic light but the second one caught me.  I hit the brake pedal and had no brakes.  I eased into a service station and discovered the truck was out of brake fluid.  I put brake fluid into the truck and lo and behold the clutch worked.  I only kept the truck about 3 or 4 months and had to put brake fluid in it periodically.  I never wanted another hydraulic clutch.

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I actually had (2) 1972 Honda 450CBs up until  about 6 years ago. I paid 0ne hundred bucks each, for these back in the early 90's which was what they went for. I sold the pair together for $ 2K. One was in great shape and the other was a parts Bike.  I carried in my 69 C10 SWB Chevy .

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18 minutes ago, TerryB said:

The little 4 stroke singles were the kind most all of us early riders enjoyed first.

 

That was true for me too.  My first bike was a '68 model CL90 scrambler (below). Followed by a CL305 scrambler, a CB400T, and my last Honda was the XL250 dirt bike.

 

1053413504_LikeRonsfirstmotorcycle.JPG.7ec720d4d82abe06cb6e30b0a429c199.JPG

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I commuted to work on a CB160 for years until a Monte Carlo driven by an illegal alien rearended me at a stoplight. Worst pain of my life and most welcome pain was when they straightened me out on the X-ray table. Just had to sleep on the floor for a few months.

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3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

 

That was true for me too.  My first bike was a '68 model CL90 scrambler (below). Followed by a CL305 scrambler, a CB400T, and my last Honda was the XL250 dirt bike.

 

1053413504_LikeRonsfirstmotorcycle.JPG.7ec720d4d82abe06cb6e30b0a429c199.JPG

 

Ah yes, my first Bike was a 1965 Bridge Stone 90 2 stroke rotary valve. Then in 1969 I bought a Bridge Stone 175. These were excellent  Bikes and very fast.  Production was forced to stop soon after because Bridge Stone was selling Bridge Stone Tires to Honda and the other Japanese Motor Cycle manufacturers, their biggest customers, who complained about their competition and threatened to cancel their orders. I then switched to Hondas 350's and 450's.

Edited by Doug Novak
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On 6/19/2019 at 7:53 PM, John348 said:

Hey Joe,

The Chevy pick-up's had a factory hydraulic clutch. The original cylinder shared the same casting body as the master cylinder but had two separate chambers, one side for the brakes and the other for the clutch. The cylinder that they are using on this truck is not the same coveted screw top.  

 

Got it, thanks.

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About 30 years ago I worked with a guy that worked for Honda back in the early 60's when Honda was trying to break into the larger displacement US motorcycle market.

He said a friend of his was a Dept supervisor and got him a job testing motorcycles on a track they had out behind the corporate offices in Gardena.

One day he was given the task of test riding a prototype bike on the test track.

Said he was busy beating the snot out of it when he saw his friend furiously waving at him to stop.

His friend was with a few Japanese men. One of those men was Mr.Honda and the friend was sure they would both be fired because he had hired the guy that was beating the snot out of a valuable prototype.

When he finally rolled up to where the group was standing and saw that Mr. Honda was there he was also quite sure they would be fired.

He started to apologize profusely for being so rough on the one and only prototype and Mr. Honda wouldn't hear of it.

He said if that is the way Americans ride motorcycles then Honda must make a motorcycle that would stand up to how they are ridden in America.

 

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17 hours ago, zepher said:

About 30 years ago I worked with a guy that worked for Honda back in the early 60's when Honda was trying to break into the larger displacement US motorcycle market.

He said a friend of his was a Dept supervisor and got him a job testing motorcycles on a track they had out behind the corporate offices in Gardena.

One day he was given the task of test riding a prototype bike on the test track.

Said he was busy beating the snot out of it when he saw his friend furiously waving at him to stop.

His friend was with a few Japanese men. One of those men was Mr.Honda and the friend was sure they would both be fired because he had hired the guy that was beating the snot out of a valuable prototype.

When he finally rolled up to where the group was standing and saw that Mr. Honda was there he was also quite sure they would be fired.

He started to apologize profusely for being so rough on the one and only prototype and Mr. Honda wouldn't hear of it.

He said if that is the way Americans ride motorcycles then Honda must make a motorcycle that would stand up to how they are ridden in America.

 

That's a great story—it explains some of Honda's success in the US.

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