[Harsh]

Well I picked up a couple of 1972 CB350's. These are in much better condition than the CB750 that I built, but I amstill going to tear them down and build them back up. I am going to start with the burgundy one and use the red one for parts if need be. However, I am hoping to be able to build the red one for my daughter.

I have been poking at the wife for years to learn to ride a bike. I tell her she needs to get a scooter or one of those three wheel jobs. Always met with a NO from her. Then one day she made the cardinal mistake and said that if I got her a bike like my CB she would learn. Well I just happened to know a guy that was selling two of them.

So here we are...the starting platform(s).

Kicking the bike over it appeared to have compression, I checked the petcock bowl and screen and they were nice and clean. Put some fuel in the tank, took out the float bowl drain screws, and opened the petcock. Fuel started to flow and I let it go until it was clean fuel coming out. Feeling good about what I have seen so far I decided to try and start her up. I jumpered it from my truck, but the only thing that lit up was the tail light and nothing happened when I thumbed the starter. Looked around noticed a bundle of electrical tape. I removed that to see what was underneath and found a some wires just twisted together. According to the wiring diagram there was suposed to be a 15amp fuse there. I had a single ATC blade fuse holder and fuse in my electrical parts bin so I hooked that up.

Since I wasn't getting anything other than the tail light I decied the jump the starter solenoid. As expected the engine started to turn over, but never even attempted to start. I realized I had turned the key one too many clicks and was in the park position vice run position.

The bike still wouldn't start. So I pulled the plugs to check for spark. Right side check. Left side...we have a problem. The plug looks like it had never been used, but it got spark. So that leads me to a carb issue. I checked for fuel flow and I wasn't getting any. I pulled the petcock and swapped it with the one from the red bike. Filled it back up with gas, and checked for flow...all good again.

Now that I had fuel flowing I tried to fire it back up again. WOOT WOOT she fired right on up, but is only runnig on one cylinder...the right. So I dropped the bowl on the left side then turned on the petcock. Fuel flowed out of the float valve, but it wasn't as fast as I thought it should have been. However, unsure as to how fast it should flow I thought it was good. At first fuel was very limited coming out so thought that maybe it was just a little clogged and that everything would be good do go so I put the bowl back on. I took off the bowl drain screw so I could visually see if the bowl was filling up. Cracked open the petcock and nothing. A big fat plate of nothing.

I took the bowl back off and took a good look at the float valve and float level tang. There wasn't very much movement of the valve from fully open to fully closed. Just a tiny bit of movement of the float caused the flow to stop. I decided to adjust the tang a little bit to see if that made a difference. Well it made a world of difference. Flow increased a lot and it took a bit more movement of the float before fuel stopped flowing. I buttoned everything up and gave it another whirl. When I opened the petcock I could hear the fuel flowing into the bowl.

I decided to see what happened when I started it. The bike roared to life and I could see some white smoke coming out of the left tailpipe. The exhaust gasses were warm and the header pipe started to heat up nicely. So I think I have that part semi licked. The carb will obviously need to be thoroughly gone through and cleaned, but it works.

I guess I can now start the tear down.

 

[Harsh]

I pulled the engine. What a pain that proved to be. Getting the cotter pin out of the brake rod was probably the worst part. I have no clue how I am going to get it back in when the time comes. When I took off the cover for the front sprocket it looked like a mouse tried to make a little home in there. I don't think it succeeded, but you could see some of the stuffing it had brought in. When I took off the left exhaust there was a fair amount of oil inside the pipe. I figure it was because the engine had been only running on one cylinder for a while. The right header was an absolute pain in the arse to remove. The collars were rusted in. A lot of WD-40, cussing, twisting, and bumping and I finally got it to come out.

Got the engine cleaned up a bit before I proceeded with the tear down. Wow was the grit and grime thick. I didn't really notice it last night when I took the pic, but the grime was so thick it covered half of the shift shaft. I thought something was a bit odd when I took off the alternator cover yesterday since the screws were replaced with hex head bolts. It didn't really dawn on me until today when I took off the points and tack covers that someone has been in the engine. The screws that hold on the head covers were completely chewed up. It took me a while to cut some grooves into them so that my flat head impact driver would remove them. After I saw that I figured no one had been in the engine since they couldn't get the screws out, but I think I might have been wrong. When I looked at the right head cover I noticed a little marring to the surface that rides against the cam shaft. It wasn't until I got the cam shaft out that I realized the spacer was on the wrong side. So it was either initially assembled wrong or someone along the way messed up. However, a closer look at the head cover shows that there might have been a spacer there. If you look in the lower right hand corner you can see a chunk of something. I picked at a corner of it and a little piece flaked off. I didn't notice any wear on the cam shaft though.

Here you can see how the left cylinder wasn't firing.

Head looks good. There was lots of clean oil at the top so that is definitely a good sign.

 

[Harsh]

Can anyone say parade rest.

My crappy numbering system for the transmission dogs.

A guy from the SOHC4 forums drove down from Richmond and picked up my parts, drove back to his place and bead blasted them then returned with them the next day. I was amazed at the generous offer.

 

[Harsh]

Decided to do some polishing of parts.

Well this is what two hours worth of sanding and polishing will get you. I started out with 400 then moved to 1000, then 1500, then 2000 wet sanding. After that was done I moved to the buffing wheel. Started out with black course media then moved to brown, then to green. They aren't perfect, but I think they will work nicely. Not sure if I should try and repaint the black background behind HONDA.

I forgot to take a pic of the small piece before I started working on it, but it had the same patina as the piece next to it.

All Done

Spent all day cleaning the engine parts to get rid of any left over glass bead media. I ran a tap through all of the threaded holes in the case to clean them out thoroughly. I also drilled out the rivets that hold in the windage tray so I could thoroughly clean under it.

Originally (not my case since I forgot to take a pic of it before I removed the tray)

As it is now.

All clean underneath.

I spent some time lapping the valves. The seat on the valves looks good, but not the ones on the head. I will do a leak check after I get the head milled to accept the new cam chain slipper. I stopped by a machine shop this morning that is just down the road from me to see if they would do it and how much. The guy was supposed to call me back, but as of right now I have not received a call.

I took apart the starter to clean it out and check the brushes and what not. There was A LOT of dust inside, but everything looks to be in good working order.

I also spent some time working on the mating surfaces. It is amazing what is brought to life when you remove a little bit of material. There are all kinds of little casting flaws. I guess I have some more work ahead of me to try and get a few of the scratches out.

And a pic of the upper case half.

 

[Harsh]

Spent a good part of the day filing and sanding the edges of the fins. I still need to hit them with some 1k and 2k wet sandpaper to get them nice and shiny.

After the wet sanding. It is kind of hard to see how shiny they are, but if you look at the corners you can see the shine.

 

[Harsh]

Dropped the head off at a local machine shop yesterday afternoon with some pictures that had the dimensions laid out on them of what I need done. I really hope they don't screw this up. Below is what it should look like when all finished. This is so I can fit the new cam chain tensioner in place. Should be ready tomorrow. Cost me $50 which I think is a fair price.

 

[Harsh]

Well it looks like the build is going to be stalled for a while. I still haven't gotten the head back from the machine shop. The guy that owns the place has been out of town because of his ailing father. Next Tuesday I go in for neck surgery so even if I get the head back in the next couple of days there simply won't be enough time to finish prepping for paint, paint it, and assembly. I was really hoping to have the engine done before I went in for surgery.

 

[Harsh]

Well wouldn't you know it the machinist finished the head yesterday. I go to pick it up and I instantly knew it wasn't correct. I provided detailed measurements, instructions, and pictures with the measurements yet he still messed it up. He didn't make it long or deep enough. Story of my life. It was 1.5" long and .5" deep. I needed it 1.8" long and 1.5" deep. He got the width of the cut correct.

He is supposed to fix it first thing today. Needless to say he won't be getting any more work from me.

 

[Harsh]

So pissed off right now. I went to pick up the head from the machinist and he completely ****** it up and it is now ruined. He went about 1/8" too far out on one side which blew out the wall. He attempted to cover it up using some epoxy, which when you press on it you can feel it move in and out of the hole. It looks like a 2 year old went at it with a dremel. Which amazes me since the first time I went to pick it up everything was nice and smooth, but the dimensions weren't correct. So it looks like I am in the hunt for a new head.

The dark spots are where it blew through the wall and you can see where he didn't clean up the epoxy on the mating surface.

 

[Harsh]

Figured since I was waiting on my new head to arrive that I would do some cleaning and taping. I started with lots of scrubbing with acetone to remove any grease from the surface. I then moved onto taping the places I don't want paint to get. Tomorrow I will do a final wipe down with acetone and get everything painted.

Prepped and ready.

 

[Harsh]

Got everything sans head painted. I forgot how much a pain in the arse doing the fins is. It is just tedious work. I don't have access to the powder coat oven I used when I baked the 750 engine and the wife won't let me use hers so the paint will just have to fully cure by use. I used VHT paint. The black is the GM satin and the silver is there universal aluminum. I can now start to assemble the engine.

I have to do a little bit of sanding to the 325cc to remove some of the black paint I couldn't wipe off.

 

[Harsh]

I basically assembled the engine today. It was a pain going through all of the seals noting which one went where. While I was at it I decided to label all of the o-rings and remaining seals to make things a bit easier later on. The memory card I was using to store the photos of the tear down some how became corrupt so I had to go from memory, a blury copy of the shop manual, and pics gleamed form the interwebs. It proved to be a little bit of a pain in the arse to say the least. Hopefully I will have the engine completely assembled (minus the head which is on its way) tomorrow.







Didn't get nearly as much done today as I had planned. I was really only able to get the starboard side done. The loss of the pics I took of the tear down really took its toll. There were a number of little things that the manual just doesn't make note of so I had to do a lot of searching online to try and find the answer. When I went to start the port side I couldn't get the chain that attaches the starter to the crank on. I ended up having to remove the rear wheel from the bike so I could use the axle to thread into the generator so I could remove it. That allowed me to pull the gear off the crank so I could get the chain on.

I was able to hone the cylinders, put new rings on the pistons, and get the jugs installed.






The red stuff on the gears is Redline assembly lube. Since I won't be starting the engine for a while I wanted to make sure things had a nice coating of lubricant so that everything is good to go until oil can make its way through the engine and lubricate everything as required. I used it on the trans gears and any moving parts on the inside except the cylinder walls.

 

[Harsh]

The replacement head arrived today. I spent some time scrubbing it down to get rid of most of the grit and grime. A few of the fins are damaged, two of which have cuts in them like some one took a dremel with a cut off wheel to it. They aren't very deep, but deep enough that they would definitely show after I sand and polish the fins. I will probably fill the cuts with some high temp JB Weld. After it cures I will be able to sand and polish it hopefully to a point to where it isn't noticeable.





Broke the frame down and removed all of the little parts and brackets from it. When I went to loosen the nuts from the top triple I noticed a major problem on the right side. It was cracked and when I removed the bolt holding it, it fell apart in two pieces. So now I am in the hunt for another triple. For the time being I am going to pull the one from the other bike, but I will eventually need one to replace it.




I met with the guy that did the bead blasting of the engine parts today. He snagged my replacement head and is going to bead blast it then have his machinist do what needs to be done. He also picked up a bunch of parts that attach to the frame that he is going to bead blast for me. All for the low low cost of...nothing. He said the machinist owed him a bunch of favors. This guy is pretty awesome and when this is all said and done I am going to have to figure out some way to repay him for his kindness.

Since I can't do any engine work until I get the head back I figured I would get to work on the frame. So I stripped it down to bare metal. It was a bit of a pain because of little nooks and crannies, but I got it done. There was a bunch of mouse fluff stuff on the inside of the frame, but I got it all out.

 

[Harsh]

It was a bit of highs and lows over the past couple of days. I cleaned up the frame a little bit (well a lot) more. I took a wire wheel to it and removed any imperfections and gave it a bit of a tooth for the powder coat to grab a hold to. I actually thought about just clear coating it and leaving it as raw steel, but the wife said no. Also spent some time sanding the rear brake plate and then I polished it up nice and shiny today. Took the rear tire off the wheel and at some point instead of using a rubber strip to cover the spokes they wrapped a couple layers of duct tape over them. Spent some time with the wire wheel on the inside to remove the glue and rust. I will soak a towel in Prep-N-Etch and lay it over the inside of the wheel to take care of the rust. It will take a bit working the towel around the wheel, but once done it should be just fine.

I pulled out the Japanese grease fittings to replace them with some standard zerk fittings. I drilled out the holes in the swingarm pivot bolt, but when I went to tap them my bit broke. I tried to get it out, but failed. Luckily the SL350 I picked up for free uses the same bolt so I was able to swap them. A new tap and some extra cutting oil and all is good now.

The rear wheel had the bearings replaced at some point with sealed bearings. They spin nice and smooth so I thankfully don't have to mess with them.

Before


After

 

[Harsh]

Not sure if this will show up well via pics, but in person you can really tell a difference. I decided to try and document the polishing process a bit more. All I did today was wet sand the part. Tomorrow I will hit it with the buffing wheels.

Start:






After 320.




After 600.




After 1200.




After 2000.

 

[Harsh]

Wire wheeled the center part then moved onto the polishing. Again, not sure if the differences will show up via the pics, but when looking at it in person you can see a change.

After black compound




After rouge compound




After green compound

 

[Harsh]

And the polishing continues. Moving to the front hub and wheels.

Before




After. Now that I have seen the pic it looks like I still have a little bit of work to do. it doesn't look nearly as bad when looking at it though, but I guess the camera pics up on things.



Wheels. They were spotted with rust and the insides had a fair amount of it. I used a brush dipped in Prep-N-Etch and coated them. I let it sit for a little bit then hit them with some 0000 steel wool which polished them up nicely.




I had to give the frame a good coating of Prep-N-Etch today as well. When I went in the garage this morning there was some flash rust on it. I guess the extra moisture in the air last night took its toll. The frame is no longer nice and shiny, but it is now sealed from the elements enough until I can get it powder coated.

 

[Harsh]

Here is the daily update.

Sanded and polished the brake side of the front hub. What a pain this was. All of the nooks and crannies wore my fingers out.




Took the forks apart. The insides were nasty nasty nasty. Getting the locknut at the top loose proved to be a bear because the rod kept spinning. I wound up having to slide in a pair of needle nose vice grips to hold the rods while I unscrewed the nut. The nut only has two flat side to it and is fairly thin. I didn't have anything to slide in so I had to go to the store and buy a cheap 19mm wrench and grind it down to the point where it would slip in between the spring and the top nut.



In order to get the snap ring out I had to slide off the fork cover. Great googly moogly that was tough. I just kept working my screwdriver around and slowly worked it off. Both the fork cover and the top nuts had a lot of rust. A soaking in Prep-N-Etch and some lights scrubbing with some steel wool and they cleaned up nicely. They are a bit pitted, but should work.




Tomorrow I will move onto getting the fork lowers polished up.

 

[Harsh]

I am almost done with polishing stuff.

Completed the lower fork tubes today. Removing the casting marks around the screw bosses was a nightmare.






Also shined up the front fender. It was in pretty good shape so just some light polishing was needed. The inside however was nasty. Filled with dirt, grease, and rust. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started, but oh well. After I scrubbed the dirt and grease off it it there was a lot of rust so I treated it with...you guessed it Prep-N-Etch. All clean and ready to rock.






I met up with my buddy Cal and picked up all of the stuff he media blasted for me. He also had my new (to me) head that his machinist did a proper job on clearing out the cam chain tunnel for the KA cam chain slipper.

 

[Harsh]

Placed a number of orders for parts so I am mainly waiting on them to arrive to move forward. I was going to replace all of the cables, but none of the aftermarket stuff matches up to the dimensions of my cables and the OEM stuff is stupid expensive. The inners of the cables work just fine it is just the sheathing that is ugly and sun faded. I lubed of and cleaned the cables then decided to hit them with a coat of PlastiDip. That stuff worked like a charm.

Worked on the new head today. Doing it once was a pain, but having to re-do all of the the fin sanding & polishing proved to be a frustrating all day endeavor. Regardless I got it done. I forgot to lap the valves to the new head before I cleaned up for the evening so I guess I will do that tomorrow before I do the final cleaning and paint.


Got the head cleaned and painted today. I am glad that is done with cleaning the fins is a royal pain.




Also took apart the gauges to prep them for some overlays I purchased. Just as I was about done cleaning them when the overlays arrived in the mail so on they went.

Before



After




I also cleaned and painted the needles. They were very faded.



This is what I used on the tips.