New toy FL-350

[Rarerat]

Just thought I would post a few pics of my new old toy, an 85 Honda fl-350. I have owned 2 of the fL-250's back in early 80's & started to buy one of these new when they first came out, but never did because I thought they were to expensive. Anyhow fast forward 25 years or so, we bought a Yerf dog 150 for my daughter for Christmas. I have had so much darn fun out riding with her in that thing I just had to get something for myself.

I started looking for an FL350 a few months ago and finally found this one west of phoenix in a town called Goodyear. The seller sent me pics about noon on Tuesday and we made the deal. I told him I would meet him at 7AM yesterday morning so I hit the highway a couple hours later. I got to Phoenix about midnight grabbed a room and met him on time the next morning, loaded it up and hauled tail back home. It was 1040 mile round trip and the seller was shocked i would drive that far to get one. I told him I have been looking for months and his was the closest I have found.

Anyway here are a few pics, It is a little rough around the edges, mostly cosmetics, but in good condition over all & runs very strong. I have heard these things will run close to 60mph but I dont know how true it is, but I can say I can't hardly wait to find out.







I dont know if this really qualifies as a buggy or not, but I hope you all dont mind the post.

[BuggyMaster]

definately a buggy and one of the best ever made. Arizona is the place to find good clean toys. No rust.

[JakeTheSnake]

That's a sweet find Rarerat! Yep it's a buggy alright, thee classic mini-buggy in fact! It was my failed search for an old Honda Odyssey that lead me to what I'm buggying in now. Lil over 2 years ago, I missed a real nice 250 by about a week localy, and a week after that I got what I have now! lol

[KID4LIFE]

tell you what, i'll give you my hammerhead and you give me that camaro......
nice toy.

[chuckorlando]

Looks clean to me. Thats the first and one of the best buggies right there

[Rarerat]

Thanks guys. I took it out a bit earlier with my daughter in her yerf dog. It runs pretty dang strong but I need to re-jet it, it is running pretty rich at the altitude and the plug looks like crap. I had a little scare though, I think my daughter might have been showing off a bit and she laid her yerf over on it's side going around a downward dip corner to fast.

It was a left hand turn and she laid it down on the left hand side. Yes you read that right. she cut the turn a touch wide and the right front tire hit a hump combined with the speed launched it over. Her yerf was still running laying on it's side and I was yelling at her to turn it off!! It scared her pretty good and my heart about stopped, I never saw that coming.

Anyway I pulled the carb apart and it has a 142 jet in it so I may run to the Honda shop tomorrow and see if they have a 138 jet in stock.



Thanks kid, would you believe I own 3 of those Camaros, 2 68's & a 69.

[KID4LIFE]

i've got a 70 chevelle that's been in a garage for a while.......basically since i bought my hammerhead... i've been spending time doing mods on the buggy and forgot about my poor car. oh well, spring is here....time to bust it out baby!!

[Rarerat]

Originally Posted by KID4LIFE

i've got a 70 chevelle that's been in a garage for a while.......basically since i bought my hammerhead... i've been spending time doing mods on the buggy and forgot about my poor car. oh well, spring is here....time to bust it out baby!!

Very cool, i would love to see a picture of it if you have any. IMHO, the 70 Chevelle has to be the very best looking Chevelle the general ever made.

I built a 70 Malibu about 15 years ago, my wife & I drove it for about 6 months and some guy saw us out in it, & just had to have it for his son. He gave me more than I thought it was worth at the time, so I sold it to him.

I just bought a 65 Chevelle project about a month ago or so on Feebay, but I have yet to touch it. It is a major project and most all of the sheet metal needs to be replaced. I am not kidding, if you look up rusty in the dictionary there is a picture of this 65. I bought it out of Colorado but after seeing it, it had to have spent most of it's life back east parked in the ocean.


Here is a video I did a few months back that shows some of my cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLWA9L-bJSQ

[KID4LIFE]

here's one from last summer.

[Rarerat]

Originally Posted by KID4LIFE

here's one from last summer.

Very Nice

my old '70..

here is what it look when I bought it..


and when i sold it..

[EJ Mac]

Nice find on the Oddy. It is in real good shape.

[Rarerat]

Thanks, I took it this afternoon to try it out after the jet change and it ran better but still feels sluggish in the lower rpms. I pulled the new plug after an hours riding time and it still looks really rich to me. I think I need to drop it another jet size. It has been many many years since I have messed with a 2 stroke so my memory is a little fuzzy on jetting them.

here are a couple of pics of the plug after an hour and a short video of it running. you can hear how soggy it is down low when you lug it.

Any advise tuning this thing for 5500' of altitude would be much appreciated.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5vE_AVNC1Y

[KID4LIFE]

yea, that looks rich to me. it's pretty dark......

[Rarerat]

Originally Posted by KID4LIFE

yea, that looks rich to me. it's pretty dark......

Yes I agree, I might drop one more jet size and see what happens. The Honda shop talked me out of the 138 jet so I followed their advice and went with a 140. I went ahead and drained the tank yesterday and mixed up some fresh gas and it did make a difference it the way it runs. I took it back out for about a half hour with out my daughter & her Yerf and really opened it up through the river bottom. This thing is a rocket on the big end. It did seem to run better all around with the fresh premix and the plug cleaned up a bit also. I was told the position of the needle can effect throttle response, but I am not sure which way to really go here. Anyone have any idea?

[BuggyMaster]

What kind of oil are you mixing it with. While that plug does look a bit dark, you have to consider how much of that is oil.

You move the needle based on throttle response. If you raise the needle up (i.e. lower the e-clip) that will bring more fuel in sooner.

Essentially, I typically will tune via needle moves when I've got a mid-range throttle issue.

[Rarerat]

Thanks, the pics of the plug are with the old gas and he was running Castrol 2T in it or at least that is what he told me. It had a full tank when I got it so I was just running it on his mix and I never thought to ask how old the gas was? The new gas I mixed I used Motul 2T and 91 octane Super unleaded. With the new premix the plug did clean up a bit, but I ran it harder also since I was just by myself.

It seems like the mid range is where it is lazy and the throttle response is slow. I don't really know how to really explain it but it doesn't sound crisp & clean to me. In all fairness I guess I should admit, I am a pretty big guy at 260lbs, so I can imagine hauling my fat butt around in all that deep sand can't be easy.

So if I move the needle down a notch that will lean it out a bit until full throttle and could improve throttle response?

[BuggyMaster]

That's correct. Move it one notch one way and go out and run it. If it impoves, you know you went the right direction. If not, go the other way and see what that does. There are other things you can do such as replacing the needle itself with one with a different taper and such but you would typically do that in a custom set up. The chances of you having to do that on the mighty Honda built machine is very slim.

[Rarerat]

Sounds good, Thank you.

[Rarerat]

Thanks Again Rick for your help on the needle position of my carb. I went both ways with it and it runs the best in the second notch position.

One other thing I did figure out was the clutch was hanging up a bit intermediately. Not always, but ever once in a while, & when you would try come to a stop it wouldn't release and act like it wanted to kill the motor. It would also make it hard to get into the power band when moving slowly though deeper sand.

This afternoon, I was laying under it and fiddling with it and it looked like the rollers & such were very dry and had a touch of surface rust, I noticed one of the weights or sliders?? was stuck sticking out, & when I started pushing on it and it finally released and about took the end of my finger off when it did. I sprayed the rollers & sliders with just a touch of Lithium that I would normally use on window regulators and it made all the difference in the world. The throttle response is flat awesome now since the clutch doesn't lock up immediately like it was, and now the buggy is a whole new animal to drive. Hills where it would lug to get up before, now it rips right up like they aren't even there. Dang this thing is fun!

Thanks again for your help

[BuggyMaster]

No prob! I miss our Pilot. One of the best toys ever made. I would probably take that variator apart and clean and inspect it. Probably never been done.

Enjoy! Be sure to post vids if you can. I love watching those things.

[EJ Mac]

Man sounds like you got that thing running strong. I never got to drive one of those just a few fl250's may have to drive one one day to see what I missed.