Topic: Chef's 78 F'er (paint!)

[cheftuskey121]

Well. I've gone and done it. Headed up to Atlanta to see Bill Benton and Sam Green and pick up a frame for Yolanda. What a lovely pair of chaps! On the way up there I stopped by in east Atlanta to check out a 78 750F. I've mentioned more than once I wanted that to be my next bike. Well after looking it over and taking it for a test ride I was sold. Very GOOD condition, 16k on the clock, all stock parts. Inside of the gas tank looks brand new. Chrome is almost immaculate. New battlax tires on it. Yay!

So she runs and will ride but man is she cold blooded. I can start my k1 with no choke, set the idle high ad then after 5 minutes take off and while I'm at a stop light can set the idle back on. This girl has to run with choke on for at least 15 minutes and any throttle you give he shuts her down. I know this means a good carb cleaning. Oh joy. Need a new chain badly too. The two big issues are the fact that the starter button does not work, but jumping the solenoid starts her up. Better than my k1....my starter motor doesn't even work in that one I am so used to kick starting Yolanda that I'll just kick the F'er for now.

The other big issue is there are two vertical studs in the frame where the hinge for the seat pan goes. One of them is sheared off. The other is bent near the tip. I cannot mount my seat pan and seat obiously. Very frustrating. I missed it when I was looking over it because I was not familiar with the design. Kinda kicking myself but live, learn, and move on. My first question to the community is what is the best procedure for fixing/getting around this???

I have a whole new set of parts to learn on this F, so I will be reading, researching, and asking many dumb questions. My goal is not to cafe this bike because it is far too nice but to do more of a resto-mod like "tweakin" did to his. If anyone can link good build threads or random F threads that would be great too. I don't have a full vision in my head but I want to utilize this sportier feeling bike and have a louder 4-1 exhaust and lower bars. I'd like to avoid cutting any frame so I may get creative with rear section fab and mounting.

Thanks for all of the support so far with Yolanda, parts are on the way for her and hopefully I'll have this F street ready soon so I can rebuild yolanda, then get this F'er on the work bench! Pics to come later.

[70CB750]

Very good!  Congratulations!

Here is  eFing thread  :

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=55178.0

[brandEn]

Congrats! F's are fun. I love mine.

[tweakin]

Congrats! F's are fun. I love mine.

+1

[Bankerdanny]

The '78 F (my personal fav F bike) has an accelerator pump. So if it's running lean, which needing the choke for so long would indicate, then twisting the throttle would squirt in gas when there already isn't enough air, which would cause the stumble.

So clean the carbs, confirm the needle postions, and check for vacuum leaks.

[madScientist]

F's are by far my favorites! For fixing the pedestal...if you have access to a welder...what you could do is first bend the remaining pole so that it's relatively back inline. Put your seat hinge on the pole and get it aligned properly. Mark and drill a hole for the broken pole (grind it flat if there is some remnants so you can get a good bite for the drill bit. Mark the location of the pedestal (scoring with a knife works...but not Wusthof or Global knives...they are too nice to mess up). Then (scary part) cut the pedestal welds and remove it.

Put a bolt with the same thread pattern and approximate length in the hole you drilled, tack weld it into place, and then re-weld the pedestal back on. This is what I would do.

I'm anxious to watch this build!

[lwahples]

Nice,glad you were able to find an F like you wanted.Will be watching with interest.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Welcome to the F'n club! 

Sorry I missed you at Bill's. I'll be there tomorrow. Arrived ATL yesterday.

[cheftuskey121]

thanks guys, great replies so far! wow guess I'll be reading through that BIG F'n thread tonight

I am looking forward to this build too! first things first, and you make chuckle at this. I took it out for a little shake down ride now that I am back on my turf and can think straight. I HATE this thing.

I said it out loud after I was on it for about 3 minutes and I actually laughed a little bit. it is very uncomfortable trying to ride a new bike. I forgot how tall the stock height is (I have 1.75in shorter shocks on mine). I could barely get my toes on the ground. the clutch did not let go until the last hair of travel, the throttle is stiff.....whew. my hands ached after 10 minutes. the brakes work....very well. not used to such braking power, and the whole time I felt top heavy. so I have a lot of "core" work if I am going to be making this MY bike.

things off the top of my head I want to replace before I deem it road ready:
-chain and sprockets (chain is rusty, sprockets better safe than sorry)
-lower rear shocks (looking for good quality 2" shorter shocks)
-throttle cables, throttle sleeve, grips
-handlebars (these are too high, I miss my K1)
-clutch cable
-figure out something with the seat...

things I NEED to do ANYWAY before its road ready:
-points
-valves
-cam chain tensioner
-clean carbs and more than likely get new gaskets
-check carb and airbox boots
-new air filter
-drop oil pan, change oil.
-new oil filter
-more fresh gas
-register/tag

[cheftuskey121]

Welcome to the F'n club! 

Sorry I missed you at Bill's. I'll be there tomorrow. Arrived ATL yesterday.

yeah Jerry thats a shame. it was so awesome to see such a collection of 750 parts. I have never seen so many bikes, motors, frames, and parts in one place. I could have poked around for hours

[Stev-o]

Congrats Chef.  Your slow jets could be clogged causing your starting woes. Been there.  I'd suggest ordering a new R control, if you want to keep that stock, that will fix your starter button. Been there too.

Not sure I understand the seat issue?

[cheftuskey121]

Congrats Chef.  Your slow jets could be clogged causing your starting woes. Been there.  I'd suggest ordering a new R control, if you want to keep that stock, that will fix your starter button. Been there too.

Not sure I understand the seat issue?

I'll post up some pictures now that I was able to finally take some! the "for now" long term goal is to make this my cafe bike. not a hardcore cafe racer with stripped bits and stuff, I just want a sportier old 750, without changing my K1, I love that as is!

I'd like to get or fab a seat pan with a short foam seat (damn vertically challenged legs!) and a shorter tailpiece. I want lower bars (not necessarily clubmans), and a loud exhaust (with jetting of course!).

this way in the end I have a stock bike to ride, and a sportier one. I am not sure how I am going to go about all of this yet, I dont even have a final vision.

for RIGHT NOW I want to get this thing road ready because I'll be able to do that faster than being able to fix up the K1, and I am itching to ride

[cheftuskey121]

Pictures!

[cheftuskey121]

annnnd the first hurdle
maybe I was a bit too harsh when I said the good stud was bent. its slightly bent at the tip, not mention it just needs to be re tapped for a good nut. the threads are shoddy looking.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Nice looking mostly unmolested ride! Pull back handlebar risers. Those are NOT stock bars either. The seat Corbin makes is definitely lower and looks really cool but it sounds like you may ask them to narrow it some if you found it to be an interesting option. Seat stud only a minor issue, an inconvenience initially. I think you did great! Jealous. 

[cheftuskey121]

Nice looking mostly unmolested ride! Pull back handlebar risers. Those are NOT stock bars either. The seat Corbin makes is definitely lower and looks really cool but it sounds like you may ask them to narrow it some if you found it to be an interesting option. Seat stud only a minor issue, an inconvenience initially. I think you did great! Jealous.

Yes, the fact its pretty unmolested is what grabbed me in. I do NOT want to modify anything in any way that I can't redo in a day or two and take it back to stock. I will be the third owner of this bike. I picked it up from a guy who got it in Ohio. Came with a title (don't need one in GA to register the old bikes). has 16,000 original miles on it. seems to run well once it warms up. there are just too many sensory issues with it right now for me to remotely feel comfortable on it. it needs TLC, a vision, and a crazy guy like me who has no idea what he is doing, but loves doing it

[cabrala]

Welcome to the club! Looks clean.

[Stev-o]

+1 take the handle bar risers off. Those are funky bars, some super bars would look better. 

Looks real good, you needed another bike.  One is never enough. 

[brandEn]

Wow I'm a little jelly.... Nice clean bike!

[Tews19]

Great find Chef and she is super clean! Order yourself some superbike bars for 17 bucks from Z1...

[cheftuskey121]

thanks for the positive vibes, I am glad to have another bike. even though both are needing wrenching, it will be nice when both are needing riding

I am torn betweem m-ars and the superbike. I want low bars and from what I've gathered the m-bars are in between clubmans and superbike bars.....I think I will order the superbike bars since they are so cheap and if nothing else I am out a few bucks.

I want to change to a 530 chain, and since I am replacing sprockets I figure this is an easy route. I like the chain and gearing on my K1, 17/48 and it seems to be the closest gearing to the stock F3 (15/43). I know people convert them, I just want to make sure I am not crazy and that ratio will work out. that's all that is needed for the chain conversion correct? the sprockets should mount right up and the chain goes on?

Branden I will be bugging you about all sorts of things so prepare yourself for potentially dumb questions

[brandEn]

Bring it on! Haha

[lwahples]

Great find! Makes mine look like toast.

[tweakin]

Thats a great starting point, wish my 78 was that clean when I got it.

[madScientist]

That thing looks real nice. My last one and the next one dont look nearly that clean.

You are right these F's sit up there a ways. When I switch over to the stock seat from the cafe cowl it feels really weird and a tad top heavy. I hate it so being able to switch seats has become moot for me  . To add...i'm 5'8". Riding with the cafe cowl and seat made for it shaves off close to 2 inches out of the ride height right off the bat so you might want to wait before purchasing lowered shocks until you get the cowl or have fitted the cowl up. You might find that the ride height works for you like I did.

I love my M bars...no experience with SuperBike bars or clubmans (yet...the Cl350tracker will have clubs i think).

For the 530 you just need the sprockets and chain. Mine bolted up fine with no alignment issues. I used 17/48. Part numbers: JTF288.17 and JTR284.48. Total for the sprocks was about $50 i think.