Finally!! I’ve been working on my 86 rebel for almost a year now and still running into issues, fuel and spark mainly. Super simple bike but feeling like it’s in need of a performance carb. Loved the video man helped me with a couple of things for sure !! Here’s to more 86 rebel videos 🎉❤
Thanks! I am glad you liked the video. Good luck with the carbs. I haven't heard of too many success stories, so let me know how it goes. A great resource is the Honda Rebel Forum. lots of knowlegeable contributors on there. I don't have any plans to part the Rebels out right now.
I have one. Actually Had 2. Sold one now I have a 87 rebel 450. Take off the carbs and strip them down and put them in a ultra sonic cleaner. They are easy to split apart. Rebuild the carbs. The ignition coil and the cdi sometimes fail on these. Easy to fix. Another thing is be very careful when you take off the carbs. The intake boots are vey brittle and they crack. They are very expensive used. There is one guy who has replacements for them. Other thing to be aware of is the starter clutch goes on these engines. You will have to split the cases In order to fix that / replace that. I’ve done it before. Wasn’t that bad of a job if your into that. Parts are also hard to find but they are available from cmsnl and partzilla
Thanks! Originally I bought this as a parts bike for the other one. After checking it out once I got it home, I was hoping to fix this one up as well, but might go back to plan A and have this be a parts bike, as I am having paperwork issues with it.
The 450 must be a great bike to ride . All the charm of the 250 but more power . I have the 250 but I have never seen the 450 here in the UK . Always enjoy your videos . Happy riding and regards from the UK .
I have a black 1986 Honda Rebel 250 my kids got me for father's day the day it came out. It's all original and has 900 original miles on it. At the time I got it.I had other motorcycles that were bigger. But I had taken it down the freeway doing 70 mph when a semi blew past me picking me up and setting me in the middle lane so I decided to just pu it away in storage for my kids and then my grandkids. But seriously, no one got into riding and now that I can't ride anymore I need to get rid of it.
Thank you for sharing. It is always interesting to hear about how some of these bikes end up with such low mileage (after almost 40 years!). Sorry to hear that you can no longer ride.
Good question! Parts for these are getting hard to find. eBay is probably best bet. Also keep an eye on rebelcatalog.com. The hondarebelforum.com might also be a good place to post and ask.
I picked up the same bike. I plan on teaching myself how to ride. I will say mine is in pretty decent shape and I don't want to dump it learning. Any chance there are numbers on that crash bar? I cant seem to find much on this bike.( they only made it for two years) Have fun with it.
Thanks! I had one 15 or 20 years ago. I thought this would be a fun project. Parts are getting hard to find, we'll see how far I get and what obsticles I have to over come. As far as a crash bar, best bet is going to be eBay, etc. I just checked and there doesn't seem to be much. Hard to find stiff for a 40 year old bike that was only made for 2 years. There might be some universal ones out there that might work. It is unfortunate that 250 stuff doesn't even swap over (gas tank!).
Owning one myself that i bought from the first owner years ago. Hasnt been started since. Only has 9000 miles on it. Looks brand new gets cleaned monthly 😂.
That reminds me of a scene from the M*A*S*H TV show where Hawkeye notices BJ washing a pair of socks that he has never seen him wear, and BJ replies "I never do. If I wear them, they get dirty. If I just keep washing them, they stay clean forever"
@@TheFixitShed the goal is to start it back up. But I need to start with buying a new battery. Then need to take out the old gasoline from the tank. And fill it back with that new. Then thats done. I need to see if it starts but i doubt it will as i have a throtle that doesnt want to twist or barely, indicating i probably have very dirty carbs. Which is my big fear as I dont know much about carbs cleaning
@@TheFixitShedso im back with an update. Long story but here it goes. I tried to start it, but it didnt start. Checked al parameters as in your video. And got it started with some fuel directly in the cylinders just like you did. And it started imidiatly. But then it dies as it gets no fuel trough the carbs. Anyway now I need to remove the carbs. So do you have any advice or vid where you remove the carbs of your 450? 😊
Thanks for the update! I haven't gotten around to this yet, so I don't have any first hand tips. I highly recommend the HondaRebelForum. Lots of knowlegeable and friendly people on there. I did find this posting ( www.hondarebelforum.com/threads/450-carburetor-pictorial.126675/?post_id=1277474#post-1277474 )where it starts with a disassembled carb and then puts it back together and installs it on the bike. Maybe you can do it in reverse, and post questions if you have problems. Let me know how it goes.
I just got cmx450c 1986 from Germany, imported from the USA. It started with the petcock on and choke on, after 2 minutes I turned off the choke and the bike stopped by itself shortly after. Any ideas, please? Should I let the choke on longer? Should I close the petcock first?
The "choke" is not a tradional choke that reduces air into the carburetors. On the Rebels, it is a fuel enricher, which means that it adds more fuel instead of reducing air. It adds more fuel by opening a different passageway in the carbs. So if your bike runs and the you close that passageway (choke off), and the bike stops running, that tells me that it is no longer getting fuel. The main jets are clogged and need to be cleaned.
If the bike has been sitting a long time, and it only runs on choke even after warmed up, your carb needs cleaning as the idle jet is probably clogged. The carbs are a job to get in and out. Not impossible, and the more you do it, the better you get at it, but still... daunting the first 10 times. If you can drive it around on choke, but it bogs down when you accelerate, it's definitely a clogged idle jet. I've taken mine off and put it back on several dozens of times to get all the pinholes inside and jets cleaned out, every time I did it, I was like, finally, this has to be the time, I got them all... nope! Always one more I had no idea it existed and where. In my case the last one to be found was the accelerator pump jet. So if you've never done it before... maybe find a motorcycle grease monkey expert to do it, as they clean carbs all the time, or show you how. Or watch a ton of videos here on cleaning carbs. No shortage of those on here. What part of Germany are you in? I'm in America, but my half my family lives west of Gelnhausen / Frankfurt. If it weren't for the Atlantic ocean, I'd come over and do it for you and show you how, because.... OMG I've done mine like 30 times in a row, off, and then back on again, test... still don't work right... grrrr... try again... lol
@@TheFixitShed Thank you for the reply, my father will take care of it and I will be assisting with watching how to do it :)) Your video was a big help for him since he only worked on even older bikes that were way simpler than the Rebel for him, but he got around. Big thumbs up for your video.
@@dysnomia-anarchia Thank you for the comment. I will let my dad know what to look for besides cleaning the carburators and I will try and learn from what he is doing + watching vids together :)) Regarding Germany, only my parents live in Germany. The bike and I are in Romania now, parents visited and dad can't get enough of taking the bike apart :)) since I wrote the comment he cleaned the fuel tank (which was naaaasty and all of the yuck was going into the carburators as well), cleaned one carb, next one tomorrow. I don't really know what else he did to it while I was at work, but one thing is for sure, it once idled with no choke for around 7 minutes which I consider a great start.
I'm perplexed how someone would let a unique motorcycle like this cmx450 get in this condition. The cmx450 line produced only two Years. Good luck with your project.
I have the same rebel 2015 i have no neutral light, battery is good fuses near battery the 20 amp and 3 glass fuses are good what am i missi g also i dont know if i have a neutral pin thing on kickstand, i was told they get dirty in there, can you do a video on the kick stand switch or what ever is cUsing a no neutral light, all other lights come on but no start with button also lights dim when pressed
Looks like more people call it "bump" start. It is easiest if you can roll it downhill or have a friend push you. If you have a hill: turn the key on, make sure kill switch is in the run position, set the "choke", put the bike in 2nd gear, pull in the clutch and start rolling down hill. You don't need to be going fast, maybe like a person jogging. Once you are up to that speed, let the clutch out. That will turn the engine over, and hopefully start it. Repeatedly starting the bike in a short span of time with the starter (if you were cranking for long periods) may have killed the starter. That is what it sounds like to me, with the info you have given.
Anyone have a Rebel 450 for sale at a reasonable price, hit me up. I have three old Honda cruisers of the same time period. The major downside of the 450 is it was only made for 2 years, making parts for it unobtanium. As far as I'm concerned, Honda should of kept making it to this very day right along side the 250.
Honda does currently make a 300, 500, and 1100 Rebel, but they are, sadly, completely different. I wish the had made some parts interchageable between the 250 and 450 Rebels. (gas tanks would have been nice) You may want to check out the HondaRebelForum. Lots of knowlegeable people on there, and they may be able to help you track down parts. What are you looking for?
@@TheFixitShed Yeah, I dont have any interest in the new Rebels at all. Have an 85 cmx250 and an 82 cm450. I bought a 2008 Honda Shadow 750 this month and already it wont start and I am h8t1ng it. It's a super pretty shiny brick. Its either a safety kill switch, the coil, computer, a connection, or the fake gas pump. Haven't figured it out yet, wakting on some ebay parts on the way.
I love these 450s, but the problem is, you can't get many parts for them since they were only made in 86 and 87. If the gas tank is rusted out (they rust out from the inside especially if left sitting and the tank was not full of gas) that's a problem because you cannot get a new one. It would have been nice if some of the parts from the 250s were interchangeable, but that isn't the case.
Finally!! I’ve been working on my 86 rebel for almost a year now and still running into issues, fuel and spark mainly. Super simple bike but feeling like it’s in need of a performance carb. Loved the video man helped me with a couple of things for sure !! Here’s to more 86 rebel videos 🎉❤
Also would love to buy that battery cage and the stock tank if you’d be willing to sell!!
Thanks! I am glad you liked the video. Good luck with the carbs. I haven't heard of too many success stories, so let me know how it goes. A great resource is the Honda Rebel Forum. lots of knowlegeable contributors on there. I don't have any plans to part the Rebels out right now.
Great content, I really enjoy watching these. I will be picking up my first motorcycle this year and it will be a Honda Rebel thanks to your content.
They are a great choice as a first bike! Very light and manuverable, also easy to work on. Best of luck with yours!
That bent tail light repair is epic.
Yeah, I can't wait to find out what is in there
I can't remember the last time I saw a 450 rebel? Plenty of 250s, but a 2 year production, couldn't have been a large number.
not many of them around, and parts are getting hard to find. TBD if this was a good idea or not.
I have one. Actually Had 2. Sold one now I have a 87 rebel 450. Take off the carbs and strip them down and put them in a ultra sonic cleaner. They are easy to split apart. Rebuild the carbs. The ignition coil and the cdi sometimes fail on these. Easy to fix. Another thing is be very careful when you take off the carbs. The intake boots are vey brittle and they crack. They are very expensive used. There is one guy who has replacements for them. Other thing to be aware of is the starter clutch goes on these engines. You will have to split the cases In order to fix that / replace that. I’ve done it before. Wasn’t that bad of a job if your into that. Parts are also hard to find but they are available from cmsnl and partzilla
Thanks! Originally I bought this as a parts bike for the other one. After checking it out once I got it home, I was hoping to fix this one up as well, but might go back to plan A and have this be a parts bike, as I am having paperwork issues with it.
The 450 must be a great bike to ride . All the charm of the 250 but more power . I have the 250 but I have never seen the 450 here in the UK . Always enjoy your videos . Happy riding and regards from the UK .
I hade one a long time ago (2007ish) that I bought with 11k miles on it and sold it with 29k miles, 2 or so years later. Had a lot of fun with it.
Looks like a good project. I don't see too many of those on the road.
Thanks! They are becoming more rare.
Lol i was waiting for you say...."ok lets get the seats off"
I have a black 1986 Honda Rebel 250 my kids got me for father's day the day it came out. It's all original and has 900 original miles on it. At the time I got it.I had other motorcycles that were bigger.
But I had taken it down the freeway doing 70 mph when a semi blew past me picking me up and setting me in the middle lane so I decided to just pu it away in storage for my kids and then my grandkids. But seriously, no one got into riding and now that I can't ride anymore I need to get rid of it.
Thank you for sharing. It is always interesting to hear about how some of these bikes end up with such low mileage (after almost 40 years!). Sorry to hear that you can no longer ride.
Where can I find one of these racka you have for mine? Tried Ebay but cant seem to find one! Willing to part that peice out keep me posted! 😂
Good question! Parts for these are getting hard to find. eBay is probably best bet. Also keep an eye on rebelcatalog.com. The hondarebelforum.com might also be a good place to post and ask.
In my head I said, "It's dead Jim", and then the words popped up, perfection
LOL! Thanks for becoming a member!
I picked up the same bike. I plan on teaching myself how to ride. I will say mine is in pretty decent shape and I don't want to dump it learning. Any chance there are numbers on that crash bar? I cant seem to find much on this bike.( they only made it for two years)
Have fun with it.
Thanks! I had one 15 or 20 years ago. I thought this would be a fun project. Parts are getting hard to find, we'll see how far I get and what obsticles I have to over come. As far as a crash bar, best bet is going to be eBay, etc. I just checked and there doesn't seem to be much. Hard to find stiff for a 40 year old bike that was only made for 2 years. There might be some universal ones out there that might work. It is unfortunate that 250 stuff doesn't even swap over (gas tank!).
Owning one myself that i bought from the first owner years ago. Hasnt been started since. Only has 9000 miles on it. Looks brand new gets cleaned monthly 😂.
That reminds me of a scene from the M*A*S*H TV show where Hawkeye notices BJ washing a pair of socks that he has never seen him wear, and BJ replies "I never do. If I wear them, they get dirty. If I just keep washing them, they stay clean forever"
@@TheFixitShed the goal is to start it back up. But I need to start with buying a new battery. Then need to take out the old gasoline from the tank. And fill it back with that new. Then thats done. I need to see if it starts but i doubt it will as i have a throtle that doesnt want to twist or barely, indicating i probably have very dirty carbs. Which is my big fear as I dont know much about carbs cleaning
@@TheFixitShedso im back with an update. Long story but here it goes. I tried to start it, but it didnt start. Checked al parameters as in your video. And got it started with some fuel directly in the cylinders just like you did. And it started imidiatly. But then it dies as it gets no fuel trough the carbs. Anyway now I need to remove the carbs. So do you have any advice or vid where you remove the carbs of your 450? 😊
Thanks for the update! I haven't gotten around to this yet, so I don't have any first hand tips. I highly recommend the HondaRebelForum. Lots of knowlegeable and friendly people on there. I did find this posting ( www.hondarebelforum.com/threads/450-carburetor-pictorial.126675/?post_id=1277474#post-1277474 )where it starts with a disassembled carb and then puts it back together and installs it on the bike. Maybe you can do it in reverse, and post questions if you have problems. Let me know how it goes.
I just got cmx450c 1986 from Germany, imported from the USA. It started with the petcock on and choke on, after 2 minutes I turned off the choke and the bike stopped by itself shortly after. Any ideas, please? Should I let the choke on longer? Should I close the petcock first?
The "choke" is not a tradional choke that reduces air into the carburetors. On the Rebels, it is a fuel enricher, which means that it adds more fuel instead of reducing air. It adds more fuel by opening a different passageway in the carbs. So if your bike runs and the you close that passageway (choke off), and the bike stops running, that tells me that it is no longer getting fuel. The main jets are clogged and need to be cleaned.
If the bike has been sitting a long time, and it only runs on choke even after warmed up, your carb needs cleaning as the idle jet is probably clogged. The carbs are a job to get in and out. Not impossible, and the more you do it, the better you get at it, but still... daunting the first 10 times. If you can drive it around on choke, but it bogs down when you accelerate, it's definitely a clogged idle jet.
I've taken mine off and put it back on several dozens of times to get all the pinholes inside and jets cleaned out, every time I did it, I was like, finally, this has to be the time, I got them all... nope! Always one more I had no idea it existed and where. In my case the last one to be found was the accelerator pump jet. So if you've never done it before... maybe find a motorcycle grease monkey expert to do it, as they clean carbs all the time, or show you how. Or watch a ton of videos here on cleaning carbs. No shortage of those on here.
What part of Germany are you in? I'm in America, but my half my family lives west of Gelnhausen / Frankfurt. If it weren't for the Atlantic ocean, I'd come over and do it for you and show you how, because.... OMG I've done mine like 30 times in a row, off, and then back on again, test... still don't work right... grrrr... try again... lol
@@TheFixitShed Thank you for the reply, my father will take care of it and I will be assisting with watching how to do it :)) Your video was a big help for him since he only worked on even older bikes that were way simpler than the Rebel for him, but he got around. Big thumbs up for your video.
@@dysnomia-anarchia Thank you for the comment. I will let my dad know what to look for besides cleaning the carburators and I will try and learn from what he is doing + watching vids together :))
Regarding Germany, only my parents live in Germany. The bike and I are in Romania now, parents visited and dad can't get enough of taking the bike apart :)) since I wrote the comment he cleaned the fuel tank (which was naaaasty and all of the yuck was going into the carburators as well), cleaned one carb, next one tomorrow. I don't really know what else he did to it while I was at work, but one thing is for sure, it once idled with no choke for around 7 minutes which I consider a great start.
I'm perplexed how someone would let a unique motorcycle like this cmx450 get in this condition. The cmx450 line produced only two
Years. Good luck with your project.
Thanks! Yes, it is unfortunate.
I have the same exact one trying to bring it alive.
Best of luck to you. Keep me posted on your progress!
Do you have any parts for sale; I need a rust free tank, mint original exhaust, rear carrier….sissy bar?
Sadly, I can't help. My tanks are also rusted through, exhaust is nowhere near mint, and I plan to use the one rack I have.
I have the same rebel 2015 i have no neutral light, battery is good fuses near battery the 20 amp and 3 glass fuses are good what am i missi g also i dont know if i have a neutral pin thing on kickstand, i was told they get dirty in there, can you do a video on the kick stand switch or what ever is cUsing a no neutral light, all other lights come on but no start with button also lights dim when pressed
If your lights are dimming, that makes it sound like power is going to the starter, but the starter is not turning. Can you compression start it?
@@TheFixitShed don't know what that is
@@TheFixitShed forgot to mention that before I left the bike kept stopping and I had to restart like 6 times, it kept cutting off
@@TheFixitShed also I have a rebel 2015 250cc cmx, not like the one in this video
Looks like more people call it "bump" start. It is easiest if you can roll it downhill or have a friend push you. If you have a hill: turn the key on, make sure kill switch is in the run position, set the "choke", put the bike in 2nd gear, pull in the clutch and start rolling down hill. You don't need to be going fast, maybe like a person jogging. Once you are up to that speed, let the clutch out. That will turn the engine over, and hopefully start it. Repeatedly starting the bike in a short span of time with the starter (if you were cranking for long periods) may have killed the starter. That is what it sounds like to me, with the info you have given.
Great job guy, saludos desde México
Thanks!. Glad you enjoyed the video
Anyone have a Rebel 450 for sale at a reasonable price, hit me up.
I have three old Honda cruisers of the same time period.
The major downside of the 450 is it was only made for 2 years, making parts for it unobtanium.
As far as I'm concerned, Honda should of kept making it to this very day right along side the 250.
Honda does currently make a 300, 500, and 1100 Rebel, but they are, sadly, completely different. I wish the had made some parts interchageable between the 250 and 450 Rebels. (gas tanks would have been nice) You may want to check out the HondaRebelForum. Lots of knowlegeable people on there, and they may be able to help you track down parts. What are you looking for?
@@TheFixitShed Yeah, I dont have any interest in the new Rebels at all. Have an 85 cmx250 and an 82 cm450.
I bought a 2008 Honda Shadow 750 this month and already it wont start and I am h8t1ng it. It's a super pretty shiny brick.
Its either a safety kill switch, the coil, computer, a connection, or the fake gas pump. Haven't figured it out yet, wakting on some ebay parts on the way.
p45fec6
perfect size commuter
If it weren't for the smaller diameter, those side swept pipes would be sick.
They sound pretty good too
Хороший мотоцикл в надёжных руках!!!
Thank you! I appreciate your support!
Would you be afraid of an 87 Rebel 450 that has been sitting for 7 years in an enclosed garage?
I love these 450s, but the problem is, you can't get many parts for them since they were only made in 86 and 87. If the gas tank is rusted out (they rust out from the inside especially if left sitting and the tank was not full of gas) that's a problem because you cannot get a new one. It would have been nice if some of the parts from the 250s were interchangeable, but that isn't the case.