29r Posted February 19, 2007 Report Share Posted February 19, 2007 Hey All , Got a project coming coming my way from my Buddy's ( whose passed away ) Son , to get the Ol' girl running again . Apparently needs a kick start shaft for starters ( no pun intended ) . Couple questions . Wasn't that a 1987 model and where might be the best source here in the States ? Any worthy mods anyone might be aware of ? Cheers , Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaylael Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 (edited) I was a victim, (or) owner of one of these horrible machines. I have resisted making comments because "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all", however I feel compelled to try and share my terrible experiences with this awful ******* of a motorcycle. Where does one begin to explain how an isideously horrible bike can unwind your riding success and almost your very life. I took delivery of my 1988 Cota 307 and was delighted to uncrate the machine out back of the local Montesa dealership, on a thursday evening, just before heading up north to the Canadian Nationals. That was my mistake, believing I could uncrate and assemble a new bike and go directly to the toughest trials event around. The minute details of the whole adventure are trivial, but the large picture amounts to a list of heartbreaking failures including, the front disc bolts came out, sawing a hole in the lower fork leg, dousing the front disc with fork oil, while very high up on mountain, the electronic ignition was going out causing bad missfires and frequent plug fouling, the timing was off as well as the jetting so it lacked power and ran poorly, then the pilot jet came out while riding a section. That was only the first day. Once all these little problems were solved I had the idea that my troubles were behind me and the fun could begin. That is when I found out about the king daddy of the problems this bike came from the factory with. The snap ring groove on the end of the mainshaft for securing the kickstarter idler gear was machined too shallow, resulting in the gear coming off the shaft, thus breaking the related gears and filling the clutch cover with broken gear teeth and other crunchy metal bits. This was "repaired" thrice, before the cost and availability of Montesa kickstarter idler gears became an insurmountable problem. I can assure you this problem could have been repaired before the carnage began, if I had the knowledge patience and good sense to completely go through the bike before riding it, but in my defense I feel this should not have been needed. Now that Montesas are made with oversight from Honda engineers, they are the toughest, best running bikes around, but the earlier Spanish ones seemed to really suffer from employee apathy around 1988 when the HRC takeover was being implemented for the first time. Thank God those days are passed. JL Edited March 6, 2007 by JayLael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toofasttim Posted March 7, 2007 Report Share Posted March 7, 2007 So it wasn't your favourite bike then Jay? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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