ANOTHER toy to fiddle with...

[RaWarrior]

A Honda Odyssey. No...not the pedestrian vehicle preferred by soccer moms across the country, the cool 80's buggy.

I'd kind of had my eye on one for a while, but because they're quasi rare and an off road toy(so they got beat on a lot), people that have ones in decent shape usually want stupid money for them. I've seen ones in "fair" shape go for $1500-$2000, and a mint one fetched almost $2500 on ebay recently. Lot of money for something that's almost 30 years old (made from 78-84).

But I saw on craigslist someone who had one who wanted a straight across trade for a quad. I thought of my 1990 Blaster that hasn't been ridden once all summer. We set up a deal and I went down to get it.

It needs a bit of work. The most annoying thing is the recoil is gone, so you have to go all 1920 on this thing and wrap a rope around the recoil basket to start it. As I've quickly found, people want stupid money for odyssey parts since almost everything is NLA from honda. $180 for a used recoil that needs a new rope put in. No thanks. It starts and runs, but runs kind of shitty, its waaaay too rich and I can't adjust it because the air screw is essentially welded into the carb body with corrosion. It bogs bogs bogs and will idle for about 5 seconds before the plug fouls. Tried cutting off about 1/4" of screw/body and re-grinding a slot into the brass but still no dice. So I found another Keihin 28mm carb on ebay for $35, off a suzuki 250 dirt bike. If the jets are different I can swap them over but the carb itself looks almost identical, and it was for a 250 2-stroke, same as what I have here. Motor has good compression and it's an 83 so it has the CDI ignition instead of points. It'll run, just gotta get the carb figured out.

The original seat is gone, there's a chintzy little rusted out boat seat in there. Someone had put in a 5-point harness at some time, except the strap with the buckle is missing so it's useless. Got a generic poly seat and new harness on order from Summit.

The bigger plan is to put a Yamaha 485 Phazer engine in it. Buddy has one collecting dust in his shop from a sled that was crashed but motor was still fine. Apparently it's pretty common to swap sled engines into these things, since there's lots of space for "additional" motor, already uses a snowmobile CVT system, and has a very convenient spot for a radiator.

I'll grab some pics in the next day or two. Not real pretty as it sits but a little paint and TLC and it'll be a cool little toy.

 

[DakRatFink]

That is gonna be an awesome project.

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

Sounds cool. I had one back in 91 that I had bought as a rolling chassis. I put a 292 Rotax engine from a Ski Doo snowmobile in it. Ran like a scalded cat! It was a blast to ride in, but its downfall was that it had no reverse....had to get out and push it out of any tight spots. I ended up trading it for an 86 Honda 250R 3 wheeler. Good luck and have fun with it!

 

[Rusty McNeil]

Awesome fun that's gonna be....Those things were the bomb.....and they are rare indeed....

My brother's got a a pair of 'em he bought about ten years ago, in one of 'em he also grafted a 600cc out of some sportbike and said it rips big time....I don't see him very often so don't know exactly what engine he put in there.....I'm sure it took some fabbing to get it done, but he's pretty handy.....

 

[85 MAX-fan]

A Honda Odyssey. No...not the pedestrian vehicle preferred by soccer moms across the country, the cool 80's buggy.

I'd kind of had my eye on one for a while, but because they're quasi rare and an off road toy(so they got beat on a lot), people that have ones in decent shape usually want stupid money for them. I've seen ones in "fair" shape go for $1500-$2000, and a mint one fetched almost $2500 on ebay recently. Lot of money for something that's almost 30 years old (made from 78-84).

But I saw on craigslist someone who had one who wanted a straight across trade for a quad. I thought of my 1990 Blaster that hasn't been ridden once all summer. We set up a deal and I went down to get it.

It needs a bit of work. The most annoying thing is the recoil is gone, so you have to go all 1920 on this thing and wrap a rope around the recoil basket to start it. As I've quickly found, people want stupid money for odyssey parts since almost everything is NLA from honda. $180 for a used recoil that needs a new rope put in. No thanks. It starts and runs, but runs kind of shitty, its waaaay too rich and I can't adjust it because the air screw is essentially welded into the carb body with corrosion. It bogs bogs bogs and will idle for about 5 seconds before the plug fouls. Tried cutting off about 1/4" of screw/body and re-grinding a slot into the brass but still no dice. So I found another Keihin 28mm carb on ebay for $35, off a suzuki 250 dirt bike. If the jets are different I can swap them over but the carb itself looks almost identical, and it was for a 250 2-stroke, same as what I have here. Motor has good compression and it's an 83 so it has the CDI ignition instead of points. It'll run, just gotta get the carb figured out.

The original seat is gone, there's a chintzy little rusted out boat seat in there. Someone had put in a 5-point harness at some time, except the strap with the buckle is missing so it's useless. Got a generic poly seat and new harness on order from Summit.

The bigger plan is to put a Yamaha 485 Phazer engine in it. Buddy has one collecting dust in his shop from a sled that was crashed but motor was still fine. Apparently it's pretty common to swap sled engines into these things, since there's lots of space for "additional" motor, already uses a snowmobile CVT system, and has a very convenient spot for a radiator.

I'll grab some pics in the next day or two. Not real pretty as it sits but a little paint and TLC and it'll be a cool little toy.

I remember the Odysee well. You could say it left a permanent impression on me. Back in '82 a couple of squids driving a pair of them came to the track we used to ride dirt at. Ignoring any basic and common sense rules of direction several riders had near collisions with them.
I can vividly remember being airborne off a steep down hill at the top of third gear on my YZ125 and seeing them pull out of the weeds and freeze in horror right in the middle of the track where I was landing. Broke my arm in three places and very nearly my leg too. If I had hit that sucker dead center I probably would have died. First day I had my YZ out on top of it.......What a bummer.

 

[dannymax]

I remember the Odysee well. You could say it left a permanent impression on me. Back in '82 a couple of squids driving a pair of them came to the track we used to ride dirt at. Ignoring any basic and common sense rules of direction several riders had near collisions with them.
I can vividly remember being airborne off a steep down hill at the top of third gear on my YZ125 and seeing them pull out of the weeds and freeze in horror right in the middle of the track where I was landing. Broke my arm in three places and very nearly my leg too. If I had hit that sucker dead center I probably would have died. First day I had my YZ out on top of it.......What a bummer.

Well, doesn't THAT suk!! :damn angry: And with a broken wing, no way to squeeze off a blast of bear spray at the dicks either!! :bang head:

 

[KJShover]

Spanky Spangler was to set some jumping records in one. In one of his attempts he had a good wreck, He went ass over ears on the landing. It busted him up pretty good and broke both of his legs.

Back in high school a friend of mine had a couple at his house. He and his dad would race around the logging trails with them.

 

[RaWarrior]

Here's a couple pics....probably gonna paint it in a flat black/green/brown camo sort of look.

And the motor, the carb is off as I'm waiting for the replacement from ebay.

 

[KJShover]

unk: Nice, your going to have a perma-grin on your face.

 

[RaWarrior]

Well, the cheezy seat and missing harness have been replaced, as well as a new carb put on (off an old Suzuki 250 dirt bike). Made brackets for the seat out of bar stock I salvaged out of outboard motor shipping crates at work. Rattle can pant job cleaned it up a bit, and I just lost the rear fenders since they were all cracked and broken anyway.

Next up is cleaning up/painting the wheels and some small parts and dialing in the jetting. I got it started and idling with the new carb OK, but I couldn't take it for a ride since at the time there was no seat. Can't run this thing around here on weekends....too many people to complain and it is not quiet by any definition. Tomorrow I'll take it for a test drive.

I also got my hands on a Yamaha 485 snowmobile engine, twin cylinder fan out of an 80's Phazer. For free. It's got the primary and a working recoil, single carb so I won't have to mess with the throttle cable, and will easily fit inside the roll cage. Hasn't run in probably 5-6 years, but it ran fine when it was taken out, and the carb drained/cylinders fogged before it was stashed so I don't anticipate any issues there. Winter project anyone?

Here's how it looks now...

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

You'll have to make sure you graft the snowmobile engine into location correctly. If the primary is out of location left and right, or too far forward or rearward, you will eat through belts. Take your time, I'm sure it will come out nice.

 

[85 MAX-fan]

If that thing has the imprint of an old 80's era plastic Scott motocross boot in the left side down tube in the back and an Ulna shaped dent on the upper I may have met one of the previous owners.

 

[GREEN light BLITZ]

My buddy has one with an XS650 parallel twin in it, ganna be fun for you man!

 

[RaWarrior]

Well the original 250 smoked it's rings while it was out the other day. Got it running good, and felt confident enough to take it for a ride. Made it maybe 5 miles, running great and having a blast with it. Motor started to lose power and began to rattle. Both problems got much worse quickly until the motor just shit the bed. It was smoking hot. Wasn't seized, but had virtually zero compression. It had 30:1 premix in the tank, so it wasn't that. I had wondered how these things ever really cooled, since it's a free-air motor and the seat blocks almost all the air from blowing on it. Pulling the plug later, it was still running fat.

My guess it since it sat outside for a long time, with the carb open, is moisture got in the motor and rusted the rings. They held up for a little bit but then quickly disintegrated.

The motor's salvageable, but I don't feel like putting the $$$ into honing, boring out, new piston/rings, ect. Especially since parts for these are really tough to find, and the people that have them want crazy prices for them.

So in goes the Phazer motor! Picked it up from my buddy. Hooked up the fragments of the wiring harness that came with it, pulled it over, and it's got bright blue spark and 150psi of compression on each cylinder. The carb was a mess inside, but an hour in the sonic tank and a bit of carb spray, and it looks practically new inside, I think it'll be a-ok.

Anybody have a clutch puller for Yamaha, or a puller for Comet clutches? I need to find a way to get the Comet clutch off the old Honda motor and put it on the Yamaha motor. Both clutches are the kind that are press-fit and need the screw-in type pullers to remove. The belt and secondary are a bit narrower than typical sled belts, so the Yamaha clutch is too wide and wouldn't work with the existing system.

I suppose the other option is to see if a Phazer secondary would fit on the Honda chaincase, but that'd probably require an adapter that doesn't exist since it's not too likely the splines would match up.