Hacking: Honda CJ360T

One night, whilst in the Student’s Union bar, I caught sight of a promising advert - Honda CJ360T, T reg, 22000 miles, £250ono. In fact, the advert seemed so promising I decided no-one was going to get to see it before myself so pocketed the ad.

At the time, I wasn't sure what a CJ looked like but I figured insurance would be cheapish, running costs low and the price very reasonable for a two year old bike (this was 1981). Grabbing a lift from a mate I went off to see the bike. I wondered what the huge chrome exhaust was doing on a bike, it looked like it should be on one of those big American trucks. Nevertheless, the colour scheme was very smart (red and black), not faded, the chrome shone and the bike started first kick After a test ride and a ritual attempt at getting the price down, a deal was agreed, full price but with various spares thrown in. I suppose I could not complain at the time.

I cant remember much about the first 10,000 miles (very useful - Ed) except that I changed the oil religiously at 1500 mile intervals, filled it with petrol, kept an eye on the camchain tension and rode on. The only fault I can remember was a too small rear Roadrunner which slid far too easily in the rain and took most of a sunny afternoon to remove when it wore out.

Warned by a friend of the regular demise of G5 cylinder heads (the earlier version which had an extra gear, electric start and 2 into 2 exhaust system), I kept a regular check on oil pressure by removing the rear right-hand tappet cover and seeing how much oil was thrown out onto my hand. It works and gives peace of mind, or not.

Between 30,000 and 35000 miles the CJ started to use oil and performance gradually diminished, although fuel consumption remained the same at around 60mpg. Borrowing a mate’s compression tester showed compression well down and, after making sure the valves were not to blame, I resigned myself to the worst. Actually, the engine comes out easily enough and the strip down was routine. I recall the surprise of a perfect cylinder head when I removed the rocker cover as opposed to the heavily tarnished piston skirts when I removed the barrels.

Checking barrels and pistons for wear, I decided I could get by with just new rings — these were duly purchased and installed, no problems and no shock at the price. I did, however, install a new camchain tensioner blade as the original had deep cracks and spat off bits of rubber when I flexed it.

Another 5000 trouble free miles went by, the bike used in all weathers, until one night in a particularly persistent rain fall, it went onto one cylinder, the other showing a mini electrical storm in the dark. We limped home and the next morning I wound insulating tape around the HT lead. This problem kept returning until both leads were covered by PVC tubing (Boots Homebrew syphon tubing). Next, the bike wouldn't run beyond 6000rpm - a split carb diaphragm, which was repaired permanently with Superglue.

Approaching 50,000 miles, the front brake became ineffective and vibration from the previously smooth engine increased dramatically. The loss of effectiveness of the front brake was caused by the caliper pivot pin seizing - it was freed and cleaned. Unfortunately, I didn't look too hard for the cause of the vibration which led to the failure of the big-end, which caused seizure of the engine sufficiently dramatic to nearly throw me over the bars.

Stripping down the engine again revealed a sorry sight - shot big-end and broken piston, its skirt hitting the flywheel, not to mention barrels only fit for scrap. Lady Luck smiled in my hour of need and I bought a complete engine from a local breaker for £50. This was a beauty, better than my original engine and with only 15000 miles under its belt according to the speedo of the bike it came from.

Back on the road, the Koni shocks started leaking oil and were replaced by a pair off (I think) a CB900, these gave adjustable rebound and compression damping with the added benefit of being slightly longer, giving more ground clearance. The original silencer wore out and was replaced with a pattern megaphone which looked good and sounded better. It had, however, a short life, falling off on the local dual carriageway. I stopped the bike and rushed back to see it compressed to half an inch thick under the wheels of a huge artic.

This leads me nicely to my closest escape from the Grim Reaper. The clutch works by a mechanism on the left engine cover, through a push rod to the clutch on the other side of the engine. fine when new, but wears quickly leaving the clutch dragging and no effective adjustment left. One day, stopped in the central reservation of the same dual carriageway, waiting for a space to cross the road when a bolt fell out of the engine cover, letting the clutch engage and shoot me across the road right in front of an artic. The closest l have ever been - the closest I ever want to be - to being a fatality and jam on the road...

The swinging arm was replaced by a chrome plated CB400/4 item (£3 from a breaker) and the front master cylinder replaced by a Suzuki GT750 item which flowed more fluid and saved fingers from being trapped during two finger braking. These were done mainly for personal preference, although I felt they made the bike look better and stop quicker.

Various other mods were made, some working better than others. One of the best was the replacement of the corrugated paper air filter by a foam filter - I cut off the paper and wired oiled polyurethane around the metal body - done because new elements are incredibly expensive and I knew the mod worked well as I did the same to my CB125S.

The bike cruised at seventy, was reasonably economical and if opened up would hold a steady 85mph on the clock until you either came to a hill or got tired of the wind pressure. Acceleration was OK but not startling, which, at least, meant the bike was always easy to control on slippery roads and could even be used without fear on snow covered roads. The bike handled OK, never well, but always controllable without any major exertions. Rear tyres lasted for about 8000 miles, the front tyre I gave up waiting for it to wear out, although it eventually did.

It just seemed as though it was on forever. At the time, Roadrunners were cheap, lasted and gripped as well as any other, although at various times I tried Dunlops, Metzelers and Pirellis. Disc pads lasted about 10,000 miles, the rear shoes were never changed. Chains and sprockets had a short life and i remember difficulty in obtaining a rear sprocket. The electrics were generally reliable but the leads to the rectifier tended to corrode. the first sign being a flat battery.

Overall impressions - well, for the money I paid, the miles covered and the fun I had, I can’t complain. I’d probably have another but not for everyday work - I now run a CX500 which is much better in every department. For care-free fun at the right price, they can be a bargain. Against this, insurance is quite high as it's 356cc and thus over the 350 limit. Running costs are quite low.

Any oil seems to work, there are no oil filters to wear, only one pair of disc pads to change, no fancy tyres needed - you get the general idea? I would not recommend them to everyone, people with some concept of regular maintenance and mechanical sympathy. Yes, all I can say is that I'd probably have another.

P.Slater