Strange noises from engine Honda Helix

[PiotrHelix]

Hi Everyone
I'm new here, so greetings to all of you from Poland.
I have few motocycles in my garage like BMW K100, K1200RS and Kymco My Road 700i, but few weeks ago decide to buy something smaller and classic, and here we go Honda Helix. I bought it from Germany like a blind date having trust to the people. And this time someone let me down...but what can I say...*insert favorite curse word here* happens.
Issues:
- first and most annoying is that sound from engine and my guess is starter clutch but waiting for opinion (no drive no v-belt installed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HJmtoBT_nM

- engine wont start when press start button but when short cut "+" cranks, so I guess starter relay is to be changed

- noise like milion nuts close to rear wheel mostly from clutch I guess, did not unscrewed yet but looks like spring or else, any known issues there?
I guess also I need to replace drive pulley, so any suggestions?

Piotr

[zozman]

[quote="PiotrHelix"... (Helix)...Issues:

- first and most annoying is that sound from engine and my guess is starter clutch but waiting for opinion (no drive no v-belt installed)

- engine wont start when press start button but when short cut "+" cranks, so I guess starter relay is to be changed

- noise like milion nuts close to rear wheel mostly from clutch I guess, did not unscrewed yet but looks like spring or else, any known issues there?
I guess also I need to replace drive pulley, so any suggestions?

Piotr[/quote]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Please tell us the year and mileage on the Helix.

Your starting issues can be traced first to the starter relay then to the ingition switch. With the switch on press the brake switch and see if the brake light is on in the rear. All starting goes through the rear tailight brake light switch. The starter clutch could also be involved as its bearing races may be toast and not adequately disengaging from the flywheel.

When idling, or your attempt to run it indicates your clutch can't be the issue because you have stated there is no V-belt attached on it so the rear wheel cannot turn with the clutch engaged.

This leads to me to speculate the noise may be is crank shaft related thus the mileage question.

Report back.

zoz

[PiotrHelix]

So, I did find following issues:

- engine did not start because of STOP gauge malfunction, not starter relay. Now all works and starts up like should.
- noise from rear wheel: i did dismantle driven clutch and first of all friction plates are worn out but the noise was because the plate on the three bolts was loose, so friction clutch must be changed.

- last (so far) issue is still to be detected, the noise from engine. BTW mileage is about 50.000 km so if that is real looks like nothing for this engine. I do stil guess is starter clutch, but will not go any further until reconsider all replys from you.

[blipco]

Try removing the oil filter screen and fishing around the crank case with a small flexible magnet to see if you find any metal bits.
There is a small funky metal clip which is there to hold the starter gear from rotating after the starter has disengaged. This clip is prone to breaking from what I come to understand and from my own experience. I should point out that even though I had the clip break the engine did not make any unusual sounds as yours does.

You may or may not find anything at all.

[zozman]

...- last (so far) issue is still to be detected, the noise from engine. BTW mileage is about 50.000 km so if that is real looks like nothing for this engine. I do stil guess is starter clutch, but will not go any further until reconsider all replys from you.

I wouldn't say 31000 miles for a single cylinder engine "is nothing for this engine." That translates to 248K equivelent miles for an eight cylinder engine. Yours, from the video appears to be "ridden hard." There are some noteworthy exceptions. The world record for this engine is 125K miles (1998 report) with no major engine diassembly. Thomas Martin Smith took Melawend, his 1985 Honda CH 250, around the world accruing 35K miles.

Run a compression test on it and let us know what it shows.


zoz

[trying59]

I dont know if you look at these things 1) check belt and rollers . 31 000 miles on orignal rollers could make that sound . 2) Check the valves to see if they are in spec . 3) check that no hoses are cracked and letting air in but I dought that . 4) Ckeck out the starter to see if it's draging 5) the clutch when your looking at rollers. Lets say it's the head or even the piston . These are only 50 to 300 bucks max off fleabay for used or new ones. Also one more thing time chain inside the head . if that chain skipped a tooth then it could be it's needs replacement.