Hey yall, I am not quite a newbie yet as I haven’t gone through with the purchase, but I am currently looking at a 1973 CT3 175. When I found this forum and saw that it’s still this active I was relieved since I know I’ll need some help. I have some experience working on cars but am completely new to the bike world. I was hoping to get a project car, but prices right now are insane and I’m fresh out of college so this seems like the next best option. 

Anyway, on to the bike… 
It is fully original with the original manual and some extra bits and it looks really clean. all original paint and decals and only one dent in the gas tank. My main concern is that it has what’s been diagnosed as a crankshaft bearing issue. I realize this will be a big job, but want to know what I’m getting into before pulling the trigger. Especially because the bike is listed for $1500. I was able to talk him down to $1000, but I’m still hesitant that most things can’t be diagnosed since I’m unable to start it.

Is that true, or are there workarounds I can do when I go to check it out and test compression and spark without actually starting it? How many specialty tools can I expect to actually need (flywheel clamp, bearing puller, etc)? Is 1k too much for this bike and the work that has to be done?

Again, really thankful a place like this exists. And thanks in advance for any help y’all can give to a newb.
 

Greetings from Tennessee  
 That’s a great bike can you post pictures also how many miles on it who said it needs crank bearings probably needs crank seals. Seals are not hard if you can work on cars you can do it easily. I’ve been riding for over 50 yrs and never had crank bearing go bad

Sorry, should've added pictures initially. Bike only has 6,000 miles on it and the seller is the one who thinks it's crank bearings. I haven't gone to see it yet but he says there's a grinding when turning the flywheel.

 
 
 

I would have no problem paying a grand for it as is.

Looks like a great deal to me I would buy it has all the good stuff blinkers etc

Crankshaft runs on ball bearings. So not likely to go bad unless engine got water in it at some point... which is possible.

Keep in mind I've done it a few times... but tearing down one of these engines completely can be done in about an hour or less. Once all is ready to go back together, takes about the same amount of time.

It's a lot less time consuming than replacing the injectors on an L98 TPI Corvette.

You do need a flywheel puller and a two-bolt puller (steering wheel puller can work) to split the cases the right way. And then a special puller to draw the crank back into the left side bearing... you can make a crank pulling tool if you're handy out of some pipe, washers, a couple nuts, and some all thread. If you don't have one, a hammer-type impact driver with #2 and #3 JIS bits is almost a necessity. If you bought the special tools including case splitting and assembly tool I don't think they would be more than $200.

You will definitely need a proper flywheel puller like the Motion Pro 08-0026 which is about $20 shipped. You can often find a good used Vessel Impact driver with bits on ebay for $20 or so used and about $50 new.

Lots of help here... and if you haven't found them yet, Service manuals are available in the Tech Library.

You said it makes a noise when turning the wheel, if so that's not the crank bearing, it's your steering bearing which is infinitely easier to change. $1,000? Heck yeah I'd buy it!

Welcome. Does sound like crank or bigend when turning the flywheel & you'd feel & hear it by kicking over on the kick start too. But there's a possibility if like mine when it sat for about a year, it growled & initially was lightly struck which freaked me out because there was no reason. Hadn't washed it & parked but simply parked in the farm shed. Maybe moisture in the air or something in our crazy unleaded blended fuel [In NZ]. So, unstuck it by lightly forcing the flywheel then the mains sounded like a concrete mixer [was almost that bad]. But i ran a Very Oily Mix for a bit & it came right & never looked back. I feel mine was more crank main bearings than bigend & quite possibly was the rings rusted or stuck to the bore that i had to free up. That was a few years ago. So after woffling on i'm saying you might get lucky. Ask the seller if its been parked for a long time [maybe you said]. Bike looks quite tidy & original so gotta be worth a grand just by sight. If the seller got it looking 'that' good, did he do that without realizing motor had issues. Is it an Ebay sale & can we have a link please. I'll see if i can find a very short vid of mine running.

Ok, i found this page of mine to link. Bike sounds worse on vid than in reality & still goes like a rocket. Funny thing too is the clutch used to slip under power & clutch cover has "never been off". But since beating it hard around a track down the farm recently, it stopped slipping--which was an unlikely outcome. By the way it was a 125 1970 then grew a TY175 cylinder a few years ago--& Chinese carb but we won't mention that lol. So--go get yourself a 175 you'll love it. I once had an identical 125, same color & year. Just another one i never should have sold.
www.yamaha-enduros.com/index.php/forums/...-chinese-carb-on-175

I would buy that bike for $1000, even if the engine needs an overhaul.
Worst case the crank is bad, I had this on my DT400E, but all other 4 bikes not.
you can probably gauge how nice the crank bearings are by removing the spark plug and rotating the flywheel (under cover on L side) by hand and feeling for smoothness. But as others mentioned, if the bore is rusty a bit it still might seem a bit crunchy with good bearings. So in this case you probably want to take head off to check.

But I would clean up carb, get spark, put premix in (in case lube pump isn't working) and if you got gas, compression (nice bump feeling when pushing kicker) and spark start her up and let her run!