Topic: Show me your 350/400F, Little F'ers thread? Small blocks Project status reports

[dscri001]

My 72' CB350F. Sat for 20 years or so and has 3248 original miles with the title. Lots of rust and lots of seized parts. I have been trying to refurbish/clean everything and leave it original and minimize brand new parts except where necessary. The exhaust was the one exception. After about a month of work I started her up for the first time last week. Still have to sync carbs and do dynamic timing. Sounds awesome though. I will have to get another picture with everything back together, this was the last picture I took before starting up. Wheels are currently off so I can replace the tires and clean up the chain/sprockets. This forum has been an awesome help for this project!

[MoMo]

^^Perseverance pays off, congratulations...Larry

[Don R]

That's how I feel about some of them, only new parts when needed, some bikes are far enough gone it doesn't matter anymore but when you find a nice one it's best to keep it that way. Just my opinion. My sandcast 750 , as original as possible, my K0 750 had a cut frame, wrong engine, I keep it as unoriginal as possible
 Nice looking 350, enjoy it.

[WhyNot2]

My 72' CB350F. Sat for 20 years or so and has 3248 original miles with the title. Lots of rust and lots of seized parts. I have been trying to refurbish/clean everything and leave it original and minimize brand new parts except where necessary. The exhaust was the one exception. After about a month of work I started her up for the first time last week. Still have to sync carbs and do dynamic timing. Sounds awesome though. I will have to get another picture with everything back together, this was the last picture I took before starting up. Wheels are currently off so I can replace the tires and clean up the chain/sprockets. This forum has been an awesome help for this project!

Looks good, what pipes and where did you get them?

All I need for mine is repainting the tins, exhaust and tires.

I'd be riding......2800 original miles.

[dscri001]

^^Perseverance pays off, congratulations...Larry

Thanks man. This is my first of many and was a great feeling to hear it come alive!

That's how I feel about some of them, only new parts when needed, some bikes are far enough gone it doesn't matter anymore but when you find a nice one it's best to keep it that way. Just my opinion. My sandcast 750 , as original as possible, my K0 750 had a cut frame, wrong engine, I keep it as unoriginal as possible
 Nice looking 350, enjoy it.

Yeah I agree. At first I thought everything was going to be ruined and had budgeted a good amount for replacements. After tearing into it, I was able to reuse a lot. I did however rebuild the MC with new internals, new calipers, and new brake lines. Wanted to make sure I had good brakes haha. Tank surprisingly has no dents and just surface rust. Inside was a different story. Just ordered tires so hopefully will be on the road soon!

My 72' CB350F. Sat for 20 years or so and has 3248 original miles with the title. Lots of rust and lots of seized parts. I have been trying to refurbish/clean everything and leave it original and minimize brand new parts except where necessary. The exhaust was the one exception. After about a month of work I started her up for the first time last week. Still have to sync carbs and do dynamic timing. Sounds awesome though. I will have to get another picture with everything back together, this was the last picture I took before starting up. Wheels are currently off so I can replace the tires and clean up the chain/sprockets. This forum has been an awesome help for this project!

Looks good, what pipes and where did you get them?

All I need for mine is repainting the tins, exhaust and tires.

I'd be riding......2800 original miles.

Thanks I went with the Mac. I love the original 4's but mine were rusted into 2 pieces. Even with the baffles the Mac system sounds pretty aggressive IMO. 2800 is crazy low. Where did you find yours? I don't have much history on mine.

[Rogerrz]

Here is my old girl. a '76, US model. Spent all of last Winter fixing it up. New, it was delivered with high bars, but I changed them over to the low ones that came from the factory. I purchased it as a rough runner, and dumped more than the purchase price on it worth of parts. I did all the labor myself, including the paint work. Hagon shocks and Race Tech springs/emulators round out the package. The engine is stock, with the exception of #38 pilot jets.


New OEM grips
New mirrors
New headlight (the low beam was burnt out, and there was a bad connector under the tank)
New OEM headlight trim ring
New repro headlight bucket
New clutch cable and clutch
New muffler (DSS repro)
New seat (repro)
New paint and decals (base/ 2k clear, and repro decals)
New spokes, front & back, the old ones were beyond polish, and I needed a project where I could pull my hair out, lol
New horn

I put 3000 smile infested miles on it this summer (it reads almost 25k), and the only trouble I've had with it is one rear flat tire (nail), and the occasional fuel overflow on the outboard carb, left side. I have the new OEM needle and seat sitting on the workbench.

[Don R]

I've read so many differing points of view on the sidecover colors and handlebar heights, now maybe  there's a question of passenger pegs, frame or swingarm mounts. The conclusion I come to is in the 37 plus years a lot of bikes were modified to suit the riders of the day. I doubt any passenger pegs were relocated unless a frame swap was done.

[WhyNot2]

My 72' CB350F. Sat for 20 years or so and has 3248 original miles with the title. Lots of rust and lots of seized parts. I have been trying to refurbish/clean everything and leave it original and minimize brand new parts except where necessary. The exhaust was the one exception. After about a month of work I started her up for the first time last week. Still have to sync carbs and do dynamic timing. Sounds awesome though. I will have to get another picture with everything back together, this was the last picture I took before starting up. Wheels are currently off so I can replace the tires and clean up the chain/sprockets. This forum has been an awesome help for this project!

Looks good, what pipes and where did you get them?

All I need for mine is repainting the tins, exhaust and tires.

I'd be riding......2800 original miles.

Thanks I went with the Mac. I love the original 4's but mine were rusted into 2 pieces. Even with the baffles the Mac system sounds pretty aggressive IMO. 2800 is crazy low. Where did you find yours? I don't have much history on mine.
[/quote]

Well got it from my brother for 200 bux.

He got it from the original owner, who happens to be a doctor.

My brother, a painter/contractor, was painting his house and the doctor knew my brother had a bike and just gave it to him.

It sat in my brother's garage a few years, now it's been sitting in mine for a few years.

I did start some repairs, but got side tracked, and been since.

Time to get off my azz and get something done with this thing.

As stated....need exhaust, tires, and already have prime the tins, just need paint.

[dscri001]

That's pretty cool. And very clean. I'm envious of your wheels haha. I might replace mine in the future but for now I just took some tin foil and coke to it and cleaned the rims. Little update, I also just got new tires on today and new chain in the mail. Original chain was very rusted and stiff so I did not trust it. Did some late night work and broke the chain down to correct length and installed everything back on the bike. Just need to recheck my carbs. They kept overflowing so took them back off to reset floats. Not sure what I did first go around but they were 20-21mm so I put them back to 24. Other thing is I checked the rotor and it had a runout of .002" at one spot. Not sure if that will be very noticeable on the road or if I should take care of it now.

[Jp from Oz]

G'day guys...
I am currently building a 1975 Cb400f and am in need of advice with the exhaust system. The bike was a complete rust bucket when I got it but 1.5 years later and I finally got it back to a rolling frame all fixed up and painted by me. Anyway I just want to know peoples thoughts or experiences with the Mac 4into1 pipes, like these:
http://www.yamiya750.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=179_274_195_231&products_id=2733
or Yamiya pipes like these
http://www.yamiya750.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=179_274_195_231&products_id=2733

I was interested in the Carpy's stainless 4 into 1 pipes at $399 a couple of days ago, but today the price is now $499US...apparently due to the rising cost of steel is what I was told in an email from them. But geez they look the goods.
http://www.carpyscaferacers.com/shop/exhaust/exhaust-4-into-1-cb400-4-super-sport/

Anyway if anyone has any reviews or comments about these exhausts, I'd love to hear it.
Take it easy, Jp from Oz.

[strynboen]

i have a deeptone marchall on my 400 ..think they still are in marked..have them both on 400 and 550.(.just to put in a alternative...)

[Jp from Oz]

i have a deeptone marchall on my 400 ..think they still are in marked..have them both on 400 and 550.(.just to put in a alternative...)

Hey mate, yes thanks for the response. I have never heard of the Marchall exhaust but I will do search for them too. How is the sound? Loud?
JP

[strynboen]

great saund..a bit lauter then stock.as they shud be.. ..but full legal..even in denmark....only stock bikes are legal..so no funny builds..from here..

[Don R]

 I read in motorcyclist the 77 400F's came with taller handlebars. Does anyone have the skinny, my 76 had tall ones I assumed the po did that. Handlebars and sidecover colors seems to be a mixed bag of conflicting information.

[MoMo]

I read in motorcyclist the 77 400F's came with taller handlebars. Does anyone have the skinny, my 76 had tall ones I assumed the po did that. Handlebars and sidecover colors seems to be a mixed bag of conflicting information.
[/quote



77 had taller bars because US riders back then did not want the lower bars of the 75/76, cruiser style was more popular. 75 matching color side covers, later models had black side covers.  http://www.motorera.com/honda/h0400/four.htm.... HOpe all is well....Larry

[Don R]

I guess like the 750's,  owners modified them a lot. My 77 has low bars and yellow sidecovers.  The kid I sold it to / bought it back from lost a yellow sidecover so a black set is easier to replace anyway.

The red 76 had high bars and black sidecovers. The high bars weren't too nice so I tossed them and put on low ones. 
 I was going to restore the 77 but no way am I putting the tall bars on it. I think my brother wants the red 76 with tall bars, oh well. 

[HondaMan]

My 72' CB350F. Sat for 20 years or so and has 3248 original miles with the title. Lots of rust and lots of seized parts. I have been trying to refurbish/clean everything and leave it original and minimize brand new parts except where necessary. The exhaust was the one exception. After about a month of work I started her up for the first time last week. Still have to sync carbs and do dynamic timing. Sounds awesome though. I will have to get another picture with everything back together, this was the last picture I took before starting up. Wheels are currently off so I can replace the tires and clean up the chain/sprockets. This forum has been an awesome help for this project!

Nice start!
IMHO, the '72 was the single coolest bike Honda ever made - and, said to be the only one Sochiro himself ever owned! I was lucky enough to meet a local custom-bike shop owner named Axel, Japanese, who worked with Sochiro in 1974-1978 on the production lines: he said Mr. H would ride his 350F right up to a production line, hop off and pull wrenches out of his pockets, just to go see how the "steps" were going in the lines. Then he would move to another spot after a while, riding the Baby Four to and fro around the plant's buildings.

I always felt a little "cheated" when Honda recalled them all (the 1972 version, the ones with the grease zerk on the end of the swingarm bolt) and replaced the original hydraulically-operated cam chain tensioner with the mechanical one: it was American's propensity for not using the recommended oils that caused them to stop working like they should (i.e., 15w40 summer, 10w40 only below 50 degrees F). Those early bikes released the chain tension a bit at lower RPMs, which increased the throttle snap: from a warm idle you could blip the throttle halfway and it would rocket to 7K RPM, then instantly settle to idle again, perfectly. With the mechanical ones, there is more drag at low speeds, and the bikes lost the low-end 'snap' in gears 1 and 2 - and the same "blip" test only went to 5K RPM. I think this had lots to do with the later 400F gearbox changes.

[Flyin900]

Here are a few pictures of a 1976 CB 400F that I am just starting to put back together. It was a Shriners bike and painted white when I picked it up. Unfortunately no pic of the original bike as I am not great at documenting projects other than the disassembly of the bike.

The bike sat for over 15 years and has only 1840 miles on the clock. So unfortunately that sitting was done in a shed that was also in poor shape. The chrome was not good on the fenders and other areas, some worse than others. I decided to paint the fenders to keep the costs reasonable rather than buying NOS or reproduction items. There will be a number of parts that I will need to replace such as the muffler and the right hand electrical switch and those are expensive enough in reproduction form.

So everything is totally disassembled other than the engine which has good compression numbers and a leak down test shows good rings and valve seal. I have learned not to mess with success and leave well enough alone.

The motor and frame are repainted and some polishing has been done to the cases. I did paint the bike back to the yellow and added a gloss black accent strip. This is still in the initial stages and will need some wet sanding and pin stripes to clean up the edges and then many coats of high gloss clear in the spring. I do also have a complete reproduction Honda graphics kit that will finish off the look eventually.

[Don R]

 Nice, I almost painted a stripe like that on my 400f's tank I thought it would look good on the fenders too. I was going red/white. I splurged on used fenders so i just went red on the tank.

[MoMo]

my similar 400f

[dscri001]

My 72' CB350F. Sat for 20 years or so and has 3248 original miles with the title. Lots of rust and lots of seized parts. I have been trying to refurbish/clean everything and leave it original and minimize brand new parts except where necessary. The exhaust was the one exception. After about a month of work I started her up for the first time last week. Still have to sync carbs and do dynamic timing. Sounds awesome though. I will have to get another picture with everything back together, this was the last picture I took before starting up. Wheels are currently off so I can replace the tires and clean up the chain/sprockets. This forum has been an awesome help for this project!

Nice start!
IMHO, the '72 was the single coolest bike Honda ever made - and, said to be the only one Sochiro himself ever owned! I was lucky enough to meet a local custom-bike shop owner named Axel, Japanese, who worked with Sochiro in 1974-1978 on the production lines: he said Mr. H would ride his 350F right up to a production line, hop off and pull wrenches out of his pockets, just to go see how the "steps" were going in the lines. Then he would move to another spot after a while, riding the Baby Four to and fro around the plant's buildings.

I always felt a little "cheated" when Honda recalled them all (the 1972 version, the ones with the grease zerk on the end of the swingarm bolt) and replaced the original hydraulically-operated cam chain tensioner with the mechanical one: it was American's propensity for not using the recommended oils that caused them to stop working like they should (i.e., 15w40 summer, 10w40 only below 50 degrees F). Those early bikes released the chain tension a bit at lower RPMs, which increased the throttle snap: from a warm idle you could blip the throttle halfway and it would rocket to 7K RPM, then instantly settle to idle again, perfectly. With the mechanical ones, there is more drag at low speeds, and the bikes lost the low-end 'snap' in gears 1 and 2 - and the same "blip" test only went to 5K RPM. I think this had lots to do with the later 400F gearbox changes.

Thanks! Thats pretty awesome. I've read a lot of great things about the little fours. Interesting about the recall. I wonder if any of the low mileage bikes still have the original?

I got my new tires and chain on. I was having a lot of issues with the gas tank leaking so I decided to get it professionally restored. I found a radiator shop that was able to weld up all of the holes and cracks and lined the inside. All while keeping the paint untouched. Very happy with the outcome. Worth every dollar. Things have been moving a little slow due to work and it getting colder out. I have no garage and am doing everything on my patio haha. Im still having trouble with the carbs overflowing. If I tap them they will stop but I can't seem to get it adjusted to where it will not leak initially. I guess once I get gas in there the floats will rise and will stay unless I drain them? Clear tube seems to be all over the place. Way below at 24mm. Still have adjusting to do. I was able to take my spare set of drain screws and had a friend of mine turn down the screw to 1/4" on the head. Makes checking fuel level with the clear tube a piece of cake on all four simultaneously. I will report back with more results. Side question, is the clutch cable stiff on all of these bikes? I've cleaned and re-greased and set clutch lever but still have a very tight pull.

[Don R]

 No the clutch isn't always tight, I put a DSS clutch cable on my 76 due to not having one at all.  The PO also refused to believe the throttle slides were stuck and cranked the throttle until the cables were ruined. DSS to the rescue there too.

[Don R]

 Tip, for the "headlight on" bikes, the PO of my 77 installed a toggle on the ground wire of the headlight, it was installed in the existing hole in top of the headlight bucket. It allows the headlight to be turned off while working on the bike with the key on or when it's warming up. A pilot light might be useful to show when it's on/off too.

[dscri001]

No the clutch isn't always tight, I put a DSS clutch cable on my 76 due to not having one at all.  The PO also refused to believe the throttle slides were stuck and cranked the throttle until the cables were ruined. DSS to the rescue there too.

 

Tip, for the "headlight on" bikes, the PO of my 77 installed a toggle on the ground wire of the headlight, it was installed in the existing hole in top of the headlight bucket. It allows the headlight to be turned off while working on the bike with the key on or when it's warming up. A pilot light might be useful to show when it's on/off too.

Oh ok I'll look a little more into it then. I may look into one of those tools for lubing cables. PO also told me that the throttle cable was shot because the throttle was stuck. Turned out to be 3 of the slides completely stuck haha. After a lot of frustration and heat I was able to free them. Thanks for the tip on the headlight. I have one on the way. Took a while to figure out the correct size. The biggest hang up was finding the correct retainer ring.

[dscri001]

I also wanted to post this here instead of making a new thread but I found a good way to do the clear tube test which may or may not have been mentioned here before. Takes 15 mins and costs as much as a set of drain screws. But all I did was chuck the screw into my hand drill. Just made sure it was some what even and took a file to it. Spun it full speed and just kept checking then OD. Got it to about .260 and a 1/4 fuel line slipped over no problem. Did all four since I bought a new set and it made checking fuel level a piece of cake. This may have been posted before but I didn't see anything in recent searches so I thought I'd share.