Author Topic: 75 CB400f Massive restoration and Cafe project. (Read 32490 times)

straat-toe · « **on:** February 11, 2013, 12:45:50 PM »

Hi All. This is my first restoration. Picked this thing up for pretty cheap. I'm not mad right? ha ha. What should I do first start stripping or try to get her to start first once I've tackled the plugs. She turns over and the electronics seems relatively cool. I would say more right now but I've been having trouble getting this topic up and there's no way I'm typing out my initial rant again.

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2013, 01:16:51 PM »

First try to get it running. That way, you can diagnose any major repair/rebuild issues.

Second, rid the piss out of it -- assuming you are somewhere where you can ride it during this time of year.

Third, go for you restoration/rebuild. The CB400f was the closest thing to a factory cafe. You may just want to keep it closer to original but eliminate extra weight where possible.

RickB · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2013, 07:46:25 PM »

Hmm, you've certainly got your work cut out for you. Your bike actually looks slightly worse than mine when I started!

I'd go through the carbs/fuel and electrics, then see if you can get it started so you at least feel like you've got something. Then the fun begins!

If I can help, let me know.

Rick.

Jore · « **Reply #3 on:** February 11, 2013, 07:51:02 PM »

Congrats! I'm starting a project with the same base as you. As others have told you, get it running and have fun oh and patience a lot of it!

straat-toe · « **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2013, 10:12:34 PM »

Thanks guys! Yeah Rick your build definitely gives me hope. Racer fan I live in Cape Town, South Africa, it's almost always bike weather.

And Jore, I have a vintage bike now to go with my moody girlfriend.

I'll be gently attacking the plugs this afternoon, hopefully they aren't all corroded into the head. And I heard about a 400f getting stripped in town so I might be able to get my hands on a good original header pipe.

Peace.

stuartni · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2013, 03:40:05 AM »

good base for a cafe build

Jore · « **Reply #6 on:** February 12, 2013, 10:36:43 PM »

Then you know what to expect with this old bikes.

If you're going to attack the plugs first, make sure you have the correct type of plugs and plug caps. When I first got mine, the caps where pretty much trashed and I had resistor plugs. Changed those out to 5K plugs and D8EA NGK plugs and the bike was ticking like a clock ,till the kill switch crapped out (that's an easy but tedious fix btw).

Good luck and keep it up!

straat-toe · « **Reply #7 on:** February 12, 2013, 11:21:41 PM »

Yeah, for sure!

I got the plugs out last night without to much effort and the threads all look pretty good! The Plugs also seems to have been burning quite clean which is always a good sign. I got the carbs of and will clean them out and replace the oil in the engine. I'm tempted to take the head off just to clean that out to before trying to start her. She has been standing for ages so I don't just want to try and go for it without knowing what condition the valves and piston heads are in or in case there's some old gunk in there.

Thanks for the heads up on the plugs. I've tried to get D8EA NGK's and the guy behind the spares counter looked at me like I was from Mars. I know I'm funny looking......I'll start phoning around to hear where I can get my hands on those.

Here's some closer pics of exactly what I'm dealing with. Now I know this looks bad...The Rust on the frame is mostly surface rust so that's ok. The rest of it will be getting replaced, and I'm also going to try my hand at some Electrolytic-Rust-Removal at home on the rims to see if it's a viable option. But off course that's only much later.

straat-toe · « **Reply #8 on:** February 18, 2013, 02:26:42 AM »

Ok I've started stripping and cleaning my Carbs. Sheesh what a mountain of gunk to get through. Pretty smooth sailing so far. I'm just unable to get the main jet and the jet seat out. I tried the wooden kebab stick thing to no avail. Blasting it with Q20 at the moment hopefully it will loosen up a bit. These things seriously seem like they have 20 years of accumulated dirt oil and gunk on it. The insides aren't much better as you can see. And a little ball bearing fell out while I was loosening the choke.....where the hell does that come from?
Anyway I'm getting knuckles deep in old grease and carbs. I'm happy.

rb550four · « **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2013, 05:06:00 PM »

That looks like a fun project, lots of clean up and painting to do ,for sure. At least there isn't any chrome left to worry about.
It's all about patience and having fun. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

MoMo · « **Reply #10 on:** February 18, 2013, 05:16:14 PM »

The little ball bearing goes behind the choke lever-it holds it in place so the choke does not come on while riding...Larry

straat-toe · « **Reply #11 on:** February 18, 2013, 10:49:28 PM »

Thanks guys, I'm also interested to see how it turns out. I do have some colour ideas and so on but nothing concrete yet. I'll focus on getting her running before worrying to much about the aesthetics of the thing. That doesn't mean I haven't been drooling over the possibilities and wasted endless hours on-line looking at previous builds. Thanks for the ball advice MoMo.

straat-toe · « **Reply #12 on:** February 28, 2013, 12:18:41 AM »

Hi Everyone out there.

Ok so where to start. This bike man...this bike. The oil really tied the floor together dude. Removing the engine to quote the dude: Strikes and gutters.

Ok so we followed the manual for engine removal. First attempt to get the oil filter case off? Yeah you guessed it. The soft metal just got rounded under the wrench. And the the vice grip approach didn't help. So we decided to get back to it later when Cole would return with his set of Easyouts. So we moved on not to be disheartened by a little @3$%ing bolt! We removed the Sump and the oil thingy with no hick-ups. We got the Cam cover off. I must say the Engine looks really good so far and she turns smoothly on the kick starter. Which makes me feel good about the insides of the bike. The oil also drained out looking nice and clean.

Ok so we return to our scheduled engine removal a few days later armed with the wonder tool easyouts. More like Easybreaks. God what a mission. So we decided to attack it with a angle grinder seeing as the Bolt collar somehow managed to have merged with the oil filter case. Extreme measures. I called my local bike stripper and he confirmed that he has a oil case cover for me at R350. That's about $40 US .Yeah not to bad eh? He also informed me that he has very good condition original header units! For around $120 US. So with the knowledge of spare parts.... we destroyed the oil case. Had a beer and whipped the engine out. And kinda stripped the rest of the "#$%*"of the frame....it's like pringles. Once you start you cant stop. A quick inspection of the bolts on the engine case revealed loads of stripped and destroyed heads. Fun times ahead. And in the process of removing the handle bars the mounting bolts on the one side snapped clean off. It's like one half of this bike was standing exposed to the elements for 20 years with the other half only slightly exposed to the elements. Thank god we had beer on hand!

Carb update! We tried our hands at soda blasting the carbs with some success, but the compressor we have isn't strong enough to do it properly and you get covered from head to toes in Bicarb......so once the engine is split and I have all the parts ready I'll just pay someone to do that. The cost of hiring a bigger compressor and annoying the crap out of my annoying neighbours isn't worth it.....it almost is, but not quite. I have been cleaning the choke handle and all the loose bits and am achieving pretty good rust removal results.

I still cant get the main jets out of the carbs....any secret tricks out there? I don't want to try and force it to much....soft metal and it being a precision instrument of SPEED and all that.

My mate Ross at who's garage I'm using for this project picked up a 81 750f for a song and in pretty good nic. I'll post up some pics on my next post.

Maybe I'll call my bike BUNNY?

MoMo · « **Reply #13 on:** February 28, 2013, 02:49:57 PM »

Use a heat gun on the tower to assist removal of the main jet...Larry

straat-toe · « **Reply #14 on:** February 28, 2013, 09:53:12 PM »

Great Larry, I'm going to give that a try this weekend.

straat-toe · « **Reply #15 on:** March 07, 2013, 06:13:39 AM »

Ok so here's a quick little update and some greasy pics. We got the rest of the bike stripped down without to many major issues after the last episode. We stumbled upon using a wooden dell to get a lot of the stickier parts out with surprising ease, like the swing arm pin and the centre stand. Just bang the dell in there and pull it out. I was having problems with the wheel hubs front and rear. But it had been a long day and I was ready for a beer and Braai (bbq) So I chucked in the towel to return with my heat-gun the next time. And as promised here's some shot's of my Garage Hosts's new old CB750....I know I know. DOHC.

PS. I swear my Mallet is the best tool ever...and the wooden dell.

straat-toe · « **Reply #16 on:** March 07, 2013, 06:34:08 AM »

Two posts in one day... So I finally get to cleaning my carbs....I was able to get one emulsifier tube out with ma Heat-gun. The rest are still stuck in there like stubborn #$%*.

Ross and I had a little Carb party at my place last night. We thought we would give the Ultra Sonic tub a go (q Sonic Youth) I had it running for a while with pretty good results. What a racket though. Jacques 1 neighbours 0. Polished a few things up a bit. Starting to feel good about this thing...not that I ever felt bad.

Now it's time to start ordering replacement parts for the carbs, everything looks pretty good, so I''l just get new gaskets and replace all the actual old Brass and Zinc screws that are close to dying.

Is it generally recommended to stay away from Keyster Carb kits? I also need to replace one jet that I damaged a bit during the strip.
I really still need to get those last 3 emulsifiers out. I'll attack it with the heat again.

Footnote! After looking at the tires on my bike it seems like they were produced in 1995, they still seem in pretty good condition ( I will be replacing them don't worry) I want to conclude that the bike hasnt really been used since maybe 97? Who knows that #$%* is just speculation.

Have a good one!

Jacques.

MoMo · « **Reply #17 on:** March 07, 2013, 07:02:16 AM »

Do you know what a walnut pick is? It makes a wonderful tool (along with heat) to drive the midrange out...Larry

straat-toe · « **Reply #18 on:** March 07, 2013, 01:15:19 PM »

Hey Larry. I've tried the kebab stick. I'll move onto the wallnut pick next. I will not be defeated.

straat-toe · « **Reply #19 on:** March 08, 2013, 06:29:35 AM »

I got em OUT Larry! It may seem trivial to the rest of the world but I got em out. The buggers we're getting to me. My trusty friend Mallet and wooden dell helped. Stoked. This is going to be a grand Friday. Going scavenging for some original parts tomorrow.

MoMo · « **Reply #20 on:** March 09, 2013, 07:12:29 PM »

Perserverance pays off, congrats. Are the two really cruddy ones fron carbs 1 and 2? I have never seen a 400 four that sat for a year or more without crud like that...Larry

straat-toe · « **Reply #21 on:** March 12, 2013, 04:11:09 AM »

Yeah I think they were. I discovered that my one float bowl's overflow pipe is cracked. (I'll post some pics of it later) Is it possible to just repair this with some soldering work? Also managed to get a replacement oil-filter cover, unfortunately the header units they had for sale there are in worse shape then mine.

iron_worker · « **Reply #22 on:** March 12, 2013, 07:28:56 AM »

Yes I believe they can be soldered. I've also heard of a guy just using some heat shrink tubing on it... not sure on the longevity of that solution though.

IW

straat-toe · « **Reply #23 on:** March 13, 2013, 07:40:12 AM »

Ok So here's the pic of my floatbowl's overflow. I think that crack might be to big to solder. Or not. It's worth a try, I'll start looking for a replacement bowl anyway. I also put in a order for some fun Custom machined parts from Kevin at TTR400.com up in Johannesburg. Something old something new blah blah.

Oh yeah the other photo is a human interest piece. This is where I went to get my replacement Oil Filter cover. It's a Mountain of used parts.

Thanks Steelworker. I liked your man-room thread. Still busy reading it.

I have some out of Town visitors. My parents in fact. My Dad's a old hand at bikes and cars, he worked on a few Hondas in his day and on his current stable to this day. So he'll be giving me some advice over the weekend. Time to get the valves out and the head off while there's some experience in the room.

iron_worker · « **Reply #24 on:** March 13, 2013, 07:43:57 AM »

That can probably be soldered. It might be tricky to get the solder to flow around the crack to cover it but not to flow into the crack and plug the standpipe. Careful application of flux to only the areas where you want solder to flow might do the trick.

Thanks for checkin out my thread!

IW

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Author Topic: 75 CB400f Massive restoration and Cafe project. (Read 32490 times)