Author Topic: Noblehops makes a 400F pretty for his wife (Read 102892 times)

nvr2old · « **Reply #150 on:** February 16, 2014, 08:13:36 PM »

A very informational post. Thanks for that. Your (wife's) 400 is coming along really well. There's gonna be a real nice batch of newly finished 400F's this Spring, I think...

NobleHops · « **Reply #151 on:** February 16, 2014, 08:15:58 PM »

Quote from: nvr2old on February 16, 2014, 08:13:36 PM

A very informational post. Thanks for that. Your (wife's) 400 is coming along really well. There's gonna be a real nice batch of newly finished 400F's this Spring, I think...

Thank you and you're welcome! I am closer then it might seem to having a roller - that's always a big boost!

thirsty 1 · « **Reply #152 on:** February 16, 2014, 10:01:05 PM »

Lookin good bud loookiiinnggg goooooood....

NobleHops · « **Reply #153 on:** February 17, 2014, 09:44:27 PM »

Waylaid with the flu or some other plague, I am low on mojo, but I did get my tires mounted today, progress of a kind. Soon, a roller.

Will post more when I'm not seeing spots every time I stand up.

snowman · « **Reply #154 on:** February 21, 2014, 01:46:20 PM »

Quote from: NobleHops on February 03, 2014, 11:04:45 PM

Alright, with a medium-sized ass-kicking I got my wheels laced tonight, big thanks to Thirsty1 for some crucial coaching to get me started correctly. Once you get started it's actually fast and easy, the 5th time you do it, that is. The rear wheel went fast - 20 min? Go figure.

Sort the spokes, prep:

First side of inside spokes:

Flip it over, second side of inside spokes - your wife said it was OK to use the bowls, I already asked her.

First row of outside spokes, opposite direction from the inside spokes:

and done:

Again, big props to Thirsty, for the tutorial he linked me to, and the clutch coaching tonight. Much appreciated.

would it possible post the link to spoke lacing tutorial I'm about to try lacing my wheels. Much appreciated

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

inv3ctiv3 · « **Reply #155 on:** February 21, 2014, 03:17:39 PM »

Love this thread! Great work!

NobleHops · « **Reply #156 on:** February 23, 2014, 06:44:49 AM »

Here's a link to my pal Thirsty1's kickass thread, including a quickie on the wheel building.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=127295.25

Note one thing, in his second step he (MIS)says to start from the outside in - he means to say you start from the inside out.

Few other pointers:

These wheels are NOT cross-spoked, in other words, the left side of the rim laces to the left side of the hub.

There are two different spokes on these SOHC wheels, referring to inner and outer spokes. Inner means the spoke runs from the inside edge of the flange to the rim, and has a shorter neck. Outer means it runs from the outside edge of the flange to the rim, and it has a slightly longer neck so it will fit around that longer bend around the flange. This will make more sense when you start handling them and test fitting.

The protrusions in the rim need to face the same direction as the incoming spoke. IOW, if something doesn't make sense, it's wrong :-).

Do everything loosely, evenly, as you go. When you're threading your first set of spokes, just catch the threads one full revolution on the nipple, no more, and do it the same all the way around. Do the same with the following sets of spokes.

Go get yourself a tube of Permatex or similar copper anti seize and some cheapo acid brushes from an Autozone or something. Brush the threads of the spokes with a light even coat of the anti seize before you begin.

You should NOT have to bow or bend any spokes to get them into position if you're doing it right.

Once it's all the way laced, you can put the wheel (plus axle and spacers) into a swingarm clamped in a bench vise as Thirsty did to tighten and true it, and of course you're going to need a spoke wrench.

I sprung for a Tusk wheel balancing stand which worked great, Rocky Mountain ATV sells these.

Speaking of Rocky Mountain ATV, search YouTube for their videos. They are done using dirt bike wheels but still, very helpful.

Rear is a teeny bit harder than the front, only because you need to temporarily undo some of the inner spokes you just did to get some of the outers in position.

Go slow, be methodical and consistent, have fun, it's a satisfying project once you get into it.

Hope that all helps,

N.

NobleHops · « **Reply #157 on:** February 23, 2014, 01:45:18 PM »

We have a roller :-)

More later...

NobleHops · « **Reply #158 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:18:26 PM »

OK, had a very good day and a half wrenching, good progress. As usual, some stuff sailed by and then I'd get bogged in trying to refurbish one little part, etc. Such is the way it goes at times, part of the fun.

Did a bunch of mini projects along the way.

This is the inner fender. Yes, I know, it's the inner fender, but it looks like #$%*e.

Clean it really well, then sand it to break the glossy surface. 100 was a mistake, should have used finer, I made more work for myself sanding out my sanding marks.

Wetsand it with 320, then 1200

Paint it:

Done:

thirsty 1 · « **Reply #159 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:22:34 PM »

Pics or it didn't happen

Quote from: NobleHops on February 23, 2014, 01:45:18 PM

We have a roller :-)

More later...

NobleHops · « **Reply #160 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:26:44 PM »

Still wasn't happy with how my brake panel looked, more or less punted and did the resurfacing over, finishing with wet/dry. Much better - nevermind my greasy thumbprints. Put in the new brake shoes that arrived, cleaned up the brake torque arm, dug out some new hardware.

Had overlooked my speedo drive when I was sprucing aluminum, so there went another half-hour getting this looking good.

Mounted it up on the front wheel, put the fork tubes and new lower clamp hardware on, mounted the front wheel. Humina humina.

...

thirsty 1 · « **Reply #161 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:29:40 PM »

Nice. Those wheels like awesome!

NobleHops · « **Reply #162 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:34:38 PM »

On to the rear wheel, installed the brake shoes, fussing around with it all to get the brake shoe lever in the right orientation, teeny shmear of high temp brake grease on the pivots, good to go.

Cleaning up the hardware, things stand out like a sore thumb now, I can't get away with ANYTHING :-)

Installed the rear wheel. Humina humina.

And THAT would be a roller. Happy moment.

...

NobleHops · « **Reply #163 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:35:16 PM »

Quote from: thirsty 1 on February 23, 2014, 08:29:40 PM

Nice. Those wheels like awesome!

Lacking imagination, I went stock. Your wheels look COOL.

NobleHops · « **Reply #164 on:** February 23, 2014, 08:48:22 PM »

Now this guy is suddenly lying on his back and asking for a belly rub.

I pulled the pins, lifted it out of the hoist frame, dropped it onto my engine dolly, unbolted the carriage from the engine, wheeled it over to the lift, dropped the lift, and called my landlord in.

I can't imagine how I made such a mess of extracting this, we had it up and in in about 3 minutes, one teeny nick of paint on the sump. We rotated it till the top end was pretty parallel with the frame downtube, stepped the sump in first, raised the transmission end a bit and it eased right in, easy peasy, on top of the pipe insulation I had around the frame rails. Popped in the top engine hanger bolt, put the jack under it, supported it and eased it down till the other bolts were lined up. Totally without drama.

Yeah, that was a lot better than this was.

NobleHops · « **Reply #165 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:03:40 PM »

Now back to slower fussing stuff.

Install the kickstarter mechanism:

Sorted my stainless socket head cap screws for the engine. Yeah, it's not stock, but I did this to my 400 back in 1977, so I just think it's 'period' and I like the look of them, as well as the functionality.

Dug out the clutch cover gasket, cleaned it off, cleaned the mating surfaces within an inch of their lives, installed the dowels and matched up the old hardware with the new, and made sure I knew where the longer and shorter screws were going to go.

Hit all the screws with a thin smear of antiseize:

Installed the gasket...

Grabbed the refreshed clutch cover, eased it over the kickstart spindle, installed it.

...

NobleHops · « **Reply #166 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:31:13 PM »

Alright, clutch cover, done and done, plus points cover and clutch adjuster cover cleaned up and installed:

Generator cover installed.

Light rust in there - should I fuss with it? How hard is it to get that off?

Front sprocket installed, high strength Locktite. Question on this - it's got some side to side play, Normal?:

On to the new insulators - chasing out some paint in those bosses with a tap to make certain everything goes together easily:

...

NobleHops · « **Reply #167 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:39:47 PM »

Prepping the new insulators. Scratched my head for a few minutes about why there were two types, looked more closely at it all, parsed that the center two were slightly angled to flow more smoothly into the angled intakes. Frickin Honda, thought of everything.

Installed, good to go:

Like these socket heads!

Brake looking good, wheel turning freely.

Back end looking tidy.

...

NobleHops · « **Reply #168 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:47:25 PM »

Oil filter in:

Rear brake spindle cleaned up, pondering how to refinish this:

This just looks cool

Airbox, next to get the wetsand and repaint treatment.

Cleaned up the shop, swept it out, put all the tools away, soaked and laundered my gnarly rags, cleaned up the parts and the lift, ready for more fun later this week.

And that's all for tonight.

MoMo · « **Reply #169 on:** February 23, 2014, 11:47:31 PM »

Nice looker. Side to side play is normal on the front sprocket...Larry

NobleHops · « **Reply #170 on:** February 24, 2014, 06:38:49 AM »

Cool Larry, thanks. What about that minor rust on the alternator rotor? Should I be concerned with that? How easily does that come off?

N.

nvr2old · « **Reply #171 on:** February 24, 2014, 09:57:13 AM »

Mine was the same way. I took a red Scotchbrite pad to it and it cleaned right up.

NobleHops · « **Reply #172 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:03:28 AM »

Quote from: nvr2old on February 24, 2014, 09:57:13 AM

Mine was the same way. I took a red Scotchbrite pad to it and it cleaned right up.

Thanks - did you do it in place, or remove it? And is that pressed-on the end of the crank? Or just spin off that bolt and pull it off?

Now I will go read the manual, but they are a little skinny in some respects WRT info like this as we know...

N.

nvr2old · « **Reply #173 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:22:23 AM »

I just did it in place. Took about 5 minutes of scrubbing then I blew it out with compressed air. Good as new.

NobleHops · « **Reply #174 on:** February 24, 2014, 10:29:28 AM »

Very cool, thanks. I will stop overthinking this and do the same, maybe give it a wipe with WD40 when I'm done.

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Author Topic: Noblehops makes a 400F pretty for his wife (Read 102892 times)