Howdy! New Odyssey owner here.

During my daily Craigslist browsing I found an ad for an '85 Odyssey in town. Ad said it ran great but it was short on details. I disappear from work and go look at it, and it's not too bad. Runs and drives, but electric start isn't working, and it's badly sun faded. Rear fenders are gone, front fenders/foot area/seat are badly sun damaged. It has Works brand shocks on 3 corners, but what looks to be an OE shock on the RR, and an aftermarket pipe. I bought it for $1000, which I thought was a pretty good deal. He said he had several other people ready go come look at it.

After getting it home it appears to be in pretty decent mechanical shape. The wiring issue is related to no power getting to ignition switch, but I didn't get any further than that. I'm going to get some better pictures this weekend when the rain stops.

Looks like a good deal to me. Welcome to the site.

Thanks. So far I've managed to get the front brakes working (the rod connected to the brake lever was a bit corroded), and I've narrowed down the search for the broken wire. The electric start works if I apply power to the ignition switch.

Looks like a deal to me.

When you get time make sure to bleed the brakes good get all the old fluid out, and inspect the brake shoes in the front and the brake pads in the rear.

Plenty of FL350 gurus on this site that can help you with about any problem you could have with this machine.

More detail pictures please.

I definitely plan on bleeding and inspecting the brakes. I pulled the master cylinder cap off last night, without stripping the screws, and the fluid looked surprisingly good: no clumps of crap, no obvious dirt, and it wasn't even black. The parking brake is pretty gummed up, so the rear pads might be toast.

don't be surprised if you have to do a bunch of adjusting on the front shoes to get them dialed in, once you get them dialed in they will work great and you wont need to adjust them but once a season if that. http://www.pilotodyssey.com/brakes-front.htm

I got some good work done this week. I finally traced down the ignition power wiring problem. Someone has clearly been in that wiring before. There were not one but TWO splices in the red/white wire that goes from the battery, to the rectifier, up to the ignition switch, but both of them were good. At one point that particular wire came out of the loom, and went in between the frame and skid plate instead of above the frame like the rest of them. I found a spot where the insulation was good but you could feel the cooper inside was broken. I re-loomed all the wires properly and now all the electronics are working: starter, headlights, tail light, and the stator is charging.

I pulled the front drums and the shoes looked OK. I made a minor adjustment to the front cable and the front brakes seem to be working properly. I also went ahead and bled the front and rear brakes. I haven't looked at the parking brake yet. I opened the air box and of course there is no trace of an air filter.

Here are some better pictures. I pulled off the nasty seat cover. It sucks how much damage the sun has done to the plastics and seat. You can see where the harness was sitting on the seat. The tub is brittle but not too broken up. There is some damage to the column cover but it's holding together. The fenders are rough, with a few holes and several home made braces. You can see the outline of a "Works Shock" sticker that must have been on there for years.

Got a great deal their looks straight,I'm guessing if their was no air filter they didn't change much oil, them trans's arnt cheap so change the oil in that bad boy soon.you sure did come to the right place many people here will give a lot of helpful advice on just about everything, good luck with your new toy and welcome

Looks like your on the road to recovery wont be long you will be having a lot of fun.

[quote="Mojave"]Howdy! New Odyssey owner here.

During my daily Craigslist browsing I found an ad for an '85 Odyssey in town. Ad said it ran great but it was short on details. I disappear from work and go look at it, and it's not too bad. Runs and drives, but electric start isn't working, and it's badly sun faded. Rear fenders are gone, front fenders/foot area/seat are badly sun damaged. It has Works brand shocks on 3 corners, but what looks to be an OE shock on the RR, and an aftermarket pipe. I bought it for $1000, which I thought was a pretty good deal. He said he had several other people ready go come look at it.

After getting it home it appears to be in pretty decent mechanical shape. The wiring issue is related to no power getting to ignition switch, but I didn't get any further than that. I'm going to get some better pictures this weekend when the rain stops.




Welcome to the site.I'm not too far away from you,I'm in Cypress Tx.I used to ride at a park in Bryan but it close a couple years ago.This is me and my daughter from 2011


Looks like youve got some of old honda 3 wheelers yourself
I no longer own either one of those atvs in the video,I have a Pilot and a Rzr now.I mostly ride at this park,its closest one to my house,not quite an hr away
http://downsouthoffroad.com/" .".." ."..
If your in the area and wanna ride let me know.Everything I learned about my 350 and pilot I was taught by the friendly people on this site.

I miss Soggy Bottom! It was so close to me, made it easy to go ride. I'm jealous, a Pilot and a Rzr is a nice combo! I'll have to check out Down South.

I do have a bit of a 3 wheeler problem. Currently I have an '85 Big Red, an '86 Big Red (getting a 300cc Engine swap), an '85 350X with inverted forks, and just last week i picked up an '86 ATC250R that needs some work but the price was right.

Nice collection of 3 wheelers! I just got into three wheelers and couple years ago,fun to ride
I have been wanting a water cooled 250 R but just never had the bucks to get one.
I had an air cooled 250 or but not anymore. Sold my big red not too long ago when I bought the razor
If you wanna check out down south let me know

I bet you do miss Soggy Bottom,do you know why it closed?
I miss my 3 wheelers,especially the 250r.I sold my fl350,the 200x and the 250r all at around the same time to get the money to but my pilot.Then I didnt have anything to ride when it was too muddy to ride the pilot so i started looking again and found a good deal on the big red.Wish I didnt have to sell it,it was in real good condition,only 2 owners,father passed down to son.

That Big Red looks pretty darn clean.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think Soggy Bottom closed because the oil well guys were paying more to lease than the guys running the park. I don't think the people running the park owned the land, or all of the land, and leased it, but I imagine the oil company paid more and was way less drama. That's my best guess anyway.

Yeah I figured it was something like that.
So what park do you go riding at now or do you have some private land you ride on?

I haven't actually done too much 3 wheeling since it closed. I've been to General Sam's outside of Huntsville once, and me and some buddies have made a few dirt bike trips to Sam Houston National Forest, but no ATV's, only bikes. A friend of mine lives only 6 miles away and has 600 acres, so we've ridden with him a few times.

Bad day....

I let a friend of mine and his gf drive my Odyssey around my yard. I live on 2 acres, not much, no serious terrain or anything. When she was driving I guess she when up a bit of a hill and popped the back tires off of the ground, and then the primary clutch exploded into many pieces :( The belt guard and skid plate got torn up as well. I guess it's time to do some research on a Comet 94c...

Damn that sucks!
I've heard of bad things happening if you get air and don't let off the gas but I think if I remember correctly that was more transmission related then clutch