c.1970 Ding How, Taiwan Mini-Bike: Information, Specifications, & Restoration Project

MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#1
#1
Just picked up this early 1970s Ding-How MiniBike today! DingHow? I'm not sure is what way one should properly "Ding" but this Mini Bike is a mostly original survivor down to the original paint that is halfway decent, good original front and rear "Ding How" tires, kewl steel remote gas tank, and nice original seat with NO rips! (and with a neat thumbs up logo flanked by "Ding How").

This mini does have non-original handle bars currently and an incorrect engine setup. However, it appears everything else is more or less there and unmolested.....yay!!!! Checking it out, it has interesting front "mono shock" suspension and a nice rear drum brake that uses a scrub brake like lever.

So far I had deduced that these minibikes were imported in the early 1970s from Taiwan and that there are a lot of variations in them. I believe they are supposed to use Tecumseh engines originally but not totally sure as there seems to be a lot of different information and opinions on them.

Anyways, starting this thread as a new restoration project and trying to amalgamate all the information of it that I can to put here to help others (as the information I am finding is kind of scattered all about and sometimes contradictory).

Here she is, as purchased....I just spent a bit oiling everything up as it appears to have been sitting in a barn for a long time. The guy I got it from did a bit of cleaning on it, swapped handle bars, and put in this Briggs engine. All it needs to run is a new throttle cable and proper engine utilizing the remote tank (of which we have several perfect candidates). Should be zipping around the yard with it within days first then do the nitty gritty of making it REAL nice.





















 
MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#3
#3
Hiya! Been working my tail off.....lots of swap meets (that time of year) and also trying to help Rick (my guy) fix stuff up on the house and cars. Busy busy busy.... :(

I should be back around more now that I am all re-energized with a new project. .. .this is such a fun little mini.

buckeye said:
Nice! Where ya been?
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buckeye

buckeye

Well-Known Member
#4
#4
:thumbsup:

What about the poor ol packmule? Now it will be put in the back of the garage to collect dust.:laugh:
 
MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#5
#5
buckeye said:
:thumbsup:

What about the poor ol packmule? Now it will be put in the back of the garage to collect dust.:laugh:
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ha ha. .. . nope, was just working on it over the weekend actually! the Pack-Mule just needs some more welding and is just ending up being a rather long term project.

This mini needs so little to go, we are going to do this project to have something fun to zip around in the yard on in the breaks of working on the Pack-Mule. :)
 
MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#8
#8
So here is today's progress so far:


Briggs 2HP out - engine just didn't fit right, especially with goofy blue gas tank.


Love this tool....has removed many a pulley, etc. off of small engines.


Going with this engine for now-not quite right as it is an '80s Tecumseh but at least it is closer than the old engine. Going for a white 5HP '70s Tecumseh eventually or possibly a 5HP Briggs (of which we have some VERY nice ball bearing versions from the '70s already).

Headed back out to the shop! Hope to have this drivable within a couple of days. . .he he (as excited as a kid on Christmas morning here, lol)
 
MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#10
#10
Tecumseh H35 3.5HP Engine Cleaning & mock-up in the Ding How.

Here is what I was up to last night...checking out and cleaning the Tecumseh 3.5HP and putting it in the Ding How as a mock-up.


The Tec looked good. . .just the usual grime and I had to take an air-cleaner housing off of a parts H60 we had. Also took the gas tank off (won't be needing it) and removed the head for de-carbonizing.


Set the engine in for a mock-up... looks much better than the red and blue Briggs. I wish it was a 5HP though, might still go with a Briggs 5HP at some point (we have several early 1970s Briggs) or find a Tecumseh H50.


Needed this after all the work late into the night . . .MOOSEHEAD! One of my all-time fave beers.. . .yum! :drinkup:

That's it for now. . .still have to tighten various loose hardware, probably clean the tank out, and replace the throttle and cable. Should be ridable soon!
 
jeep2003

jeep2003

#12
#12
nice work looks real good with the small tec on there. you can bump that 3.5hp to about 7 with a little valve adjustment. file that compression release lobe off the cam and loosten up the clearances so you can get more compression out of it and youll have all the power you would want :thumbsup:
 
MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#13
#13
thanks! this was our only white engine and from what I have been reading, the original engine on the Ding Hows were Tecumsehs so we went with this engine.

kewl. . . .good to know! I'm on a crash course in reading up on the Tecumsehs as I thought they were pretty much the same as Briggs (which we are very familiar with) but there definitely seems to be some kinda big differences between the two.

jeep2003 said:
nice work looks real good with the small tec on there. you can bump that 3.5hp to about 7 with a little valve adjustment. file that compression release lobe off the cam and loosten up the clearances so you can get more compression out of it and youll have all the power you would want :thumbsup:
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MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#14
#14
09SEP2013 UPDATE-Gas Tank Clean Out, Fender Repair, Rubber Engine Mounts

Here is what all I got done on 09 September.....



Here is the old Taiwan throttle on the right with broken piece of the metal throttle tube. On the left is a NOS Cherry, Japan throttle I had originally bought for the Pack-Mule project that I didn't end up using (going with a motorcycle sized throttle on the Pack-Mule). Almost a perfect match except that it is chromed and has a plastic throttle tube instead of the metal one. The grips are even an almost perfect match and I re-used the original cable on installation.




Here I am cleaning out the original gas tank. It was in pretty good shape but still had some rust inside so I cleaned it out using "Phosphoric Prep & Etch". I have used this stuff for many a motorcycle gas tank and it is amazing. Don't use that dollar store toilet bowl cleaner crap I see a lot of people talk up, Prep & Etch is WAY better as it is Phosphoric Acid actually meant to be used on metal and it's only like $8 at Home Depot Not does the Prep & Etch eat away the rust carefully but it then it leaves a real nice dull grey zinc coating that prevents flash rust! Basically, I dilute it in the tank with water(strength depending on how rusty the tank is) and let it set for a few hours usually, sometimes over night if it is really bad. Then, I rinse it out with water, then rinse with alcohol solvent (to get the water out) then with Naphtha (also to get water out) then with Marvel Mystery oil a couple of times, then finally coat with some ATF to keep it all nice and rust free. Works like a champ and the zinc coating really helps prevent rust. I did my CB500 gas tank this way like 7 years ago and it STILL doesn't have a speck of rust anywhere, even after riding through many a rainy Oregon winter (also doesn't come off in the gas as I have never seen any weird deposits on the spark plugs).




Here I am making neoprene engine mounts from scrap neoprene I pick up at the best hardware store in Portland, Parkrose Hardware. An easy way to drill nice and clean holes in neoprene is to take a metal tube the size you need for the hold and sharpen it real nice on a bench grinder. Then, using a Dremel, cut opposing notches in the end and put in the drill chuck. Use a bit of oil or water to keep it cool (or you will burn the neoprene and it will STINK) and you have nice clean holes....MUCH nicer than trying to use a drill bit.




Here are the finished engine mounts....they actually ended up being too thick as the chain then rubbed on the brake rod so I made another thinner pair. Oh well, these ended being used on my Briggs engine stand, so they didn't go to waste. They really help tame up the vibration on these thumping single cylinder engines!




LOL. .. .here I am looking like a post-apocalyptic character in a movie or video game. Hey, I didn't want to breath that nasty neoprene dust from sanding them!




Here I am tapping out some dents in the Ding How's fenders using a neat old railroad track anvil (note its nice grey color....I cleaned up the anvil in a Prep & Etch soak after I got it at a swap meet, as it was kind of rusty....cleaned up REAL nice, eh?) Tapping out the dents worked good..... good enough for now but I might eventually get some better replacements, if I can find them.

DING HOW! :thumbsup:
 
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MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#15
#15
14SEP2013 UPDATE-Rear Axle Thread Repair

Here is what all I got done on 14 September.....

Not a lot of time to work on it on that day but I did repair the mucked up thread on the rear axle. Someone had banged on the end with a hammer for some reason and the thread was all screwed up preventing the nut from coming off. You can't really see it well in this earlier picture, when I first got the bike, but the last few mm of the axle were trashed, thread wise. Also note the vice-grip chewed up nut (NOT me).



I tried to just run a die over it and first wondered why none of the metric dies fit right (and I have a pretty large set of both Metric and SAE taps & dies). Finally, after actually measuring the axle with my digital calipers and a thread pitch gauge, I realized that unlike all the rest of the hardware on the frame, the axles are SAE?!? Yep, that's right, they are 1/2", 20tpi. Every thing else is metric. . . .of course the entire engine is SAE so it's a bit of a Franken-bike in that regards, I guess? :shrug:




Here is what I ended up doing to really clean up the axle end. Since this side protruded out a lot more than the opposite side, I just went ahead and used a Dremel cut-off disc to slice off 2-3mm (the damaged end). Then using the disc I flattened it all out nice and beveled the edge. After all this, the axle nut came off and a new one went on fine. I also went ahead and replaced the axle nuts with wider, better metal lug nuts in the same 1/2-20 thread (the originals were chewed up from vice grip use?! by same previous owner ......ugh).


DING HOW! :thumbsup:
 
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MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#16
#16
22SEP2013 UPDATE-Gas Tank Straps, Rubber Mounts, & Installation

22 September saw a good bit of work completed. .. I didn't think I was too motivated but once I got out in the shop and got going (and had a beer or two :drinkup: ) I ended getting a bunch of things done. :smile:




Here are the original Ding How gas tank straps. They had traces of some kind of a plastic coating on them when I took them off. I cleaned that all off and did an mild acid tank bath for a while to remove some patches of rust. After they were all cleaned up, I dipped them into clear "Plasti Dip" rubberized coating. The several previous days I dipped them in 3 layers total and hung them in different directions when drying, so the coating was even. I also sprinkled a bit of Naphtha on them while drying to thin out runs for a nice even rubberized coating on them.

So, by this evening they were all dried and cured and I took this picture.




The next step was replicating and improving the original rubber "donuts" that are on the gas tank studs and between the straps and the tank. The originals were all hardened and squished down plus they were really too thin at about 3/16". I took thicker 1/2" neoprene and used a quarter as a template for the diameter (which was about the width of the straps).

I cut out the four pieces in rough circles using heavy shears. Then I used the same drill bit I made and used earlier on the engine mounts, in the drill press and drilled holes in the rough round pieces. I then put on all my post-apocalyptic looking safety gear and started sanding the neoprene on the belt and disc sanders. I eyeballed it to make the pieces into a better roundness. Then, the final step was to put the neoprene "donut" onto a shower curtain clip and let it buzz along on the belt sander like a little tire. The pieces then sand themselves into a near perfect round shape!




Here are the completed gas tank rubber mounts and after taking off the several layers of safety mask, hat, and goggles and shaking off the neoprene dust, a fine beer was needed. :drinkup:




Here is the final gas tank install. I did have to sand the rubber donuts down about 1/8" to get them to fit as I wanted to also use the over-sized fender washers to help not tear the rubber up on the straps. I also used new nylok nuts so I don't think the gas tank is going anywhere now!




The rubberized coating on the gas tank straps held up amazingly and didn't tear anywhere even though I had to use these home made no-mar pliers to "persuade" the straps to fit right. It was a bit tricky getting everything to line up right and have the donut, strap, large washer, and nut all fit on the tank studs but it finally did and just! The nuts are all right at the end and everything fits tight and looks good (even though no one will see all this work underneath the tank....lol). The gas tank straps won't mar the original paint now, either. When I first took the straps off, there was just masking tape around the paint, as protection under the straps!




On a side note, here is how the engine mounts turned out, they should smooth out the ride nicely. Also, here are a couple of my favorite tools I use around this bike and the Briggs and Tecumseh engines a lot. Both old-school "Plomb" brand, the shorty pebble finish one I use just all the time. The wrench is really great too and I guess they are both from the 1940s! Pretty cool having antiques still doing their thing, kinda like what this mini-bike will be doing soon! (hopefully!)


DING HOW! :thumbsup:
 
MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#18
#18
Just need to hook up the fuel tank valve and filter, shorten the chain and line it up with the clutch, and tune the carb up and it will be good to go! :scooter: Hope to finish it up this weekend. :thumbsup:

buckeye said:
Very nice. You do real good work. Great tutorial as well.
You shoule be riding soon huh?


Finally got my picture.:laugh:
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MoTo-BunnY

MoTo-BunnY

Member
#20
#20
lol. . .there ya go, more in line with the origins of the mini, for sure! I guess with the Anchor Steam I was thinking more of the Port of Entry? :drinkup:
 
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