How-To: Reviving a Dormant Honda CB175

By Keith Fellenstein
Published on October 11, 2022
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by Keith Fellenstein
Our bike for this project is a 1971 Honda CB175 that got parked in the back of a garage and forgotten for too long!

We’re starting a series to document the revival of this CB175. It’s not exactly a barn find, more of a garage re-discovery. We’ll show you the steps taken to get it back on the road. I’m at the owner’s garage for this job and he doesn’t have a lift, so some of this will be slightly awkward.

First off, we have to get the fuel system clean. That entails cleaning the rust out of the gas tank and cleaning and rebuilding the carburetors. We’ll also inspect the throttle cables and twist grip to assure smooth operation.

This gas tank isn’t badly rusted, so it should clean up with minimum effort. There are several ways to remove rust, and I prefer to start off with the least aggressive method and ramp up if needed.

We’re going to be using a non-corrosive de-rusting agent so simple rubber caps can be used to plug the crossover tube on this Honda tank. You can usually find packs of these at automotive parts stores sold as vacuum caps.

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