YAMAHA CS3C
It’s gonna cost Scoop more than he wants to spend! Is this the Stinger all over again?
Scoop gets a little stuck this month! Or something is!
Oh the best laid plans of small rodents and old geezers eh? As John Lennon once ventured: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” And when it comes to the Yamaha CS3C up on the bench, the ex-mop top is right. Little of late has gone as either proposed, expected or desired. Spannering on the little green street scrambler, it’s obvious some parts of the bike are better than others. As reported previously the wheel rims cleaned up much better than I’d hoped and both exhausts and their heat shield aren’t too shabby either: which in a way is a shame because the left-hand unit is definitely the wrong one and was originally destined for an earlier YCS1C. With both units liberated it’s obvious the left-hand exhaust manifold is totally goosed. And staying with the exhausts it’s now apparent that someone has twatted about with their mounts because there should be five specialist fittings on each side. Their purpose is to mount the chamber part of the unit such that it’s not under strain and remains remote from the vibrations that can kill these high mounted pipes. To illustrate this very point, one of my ropey spare exhausts has already been brazed where the weld has failed. And one of the baffles I’ve removed has suffered a similar fate so I’ve made a mental note to see if, when it’s all back together again, there’s a way to damp out the worst of the vibrations. The rear shocks have been sprayed rattle-can satin silver in an attempt to cover up corrosion and they look pants! They’re torn down and placed in a box marked ‘chroming’ which is something I really didn’t want to do en masse with this bike. The front guard is held to its tubular
mount with 14 (yes 14) 6mm bolts. All but two come apart fairly easily which is good as I’d planned (that word again) to simply polish it. Stupid, stupid me eh? The four U-brackets that hold everything together have rusted underneath and this has nibbled into the actual blade. Discovering battery acid fumes have eaten through the chrome of the rear guard and into its steel base does little to lighten the mood of the workshop. Why-oh-why don’t owners grasp the importance of breather pipes please? The fork legs are also pitted and they along with the bars go into an ever fuller box. On the plus side both the gear and kick start levers are good enough to not need re-plating but the former annoyingly won’t come off its splined shaft until the footrest bar has been removed. Another component enters the box of parts to be cleaned. Tempting fate as you do I’ll go out on a limb here and say the wiring is actually better than I’d expected. Other than a few cracked pieces of sleeving, the obligatory electrical sticky tape etc. it’s better than okay. One puzzler that’s causing some head scratching is the location of a fuse holder which is currently dangling in mid-air but should sit in its dedicated mount behind the tool box. That’ll get looked at when the tin ware is all off. And talking of which that’s another potential expense I hadn’t planned for. At first glance the tank appears okay with just some stone chips but looking closer there’s a tracery of lines running under the paint which is actually rust. As it’s candy paint just spraying the tank will never work, so all the panels will needs sorting at the same time or the bike will just look odd. My predicted time frames are once again taking a direct hit. With the outer covers off it’s time to remove the starter/dynamo. Following