I originally posted back in December when my son brought home a basket case CB350F. It ran but had so many issues it was completely unsafe and would not have been dependable, not to mention it looked like crap.
So I decided it would be fun working on it with him and getting a chance to relive my high school years, (I had a CB400F). After tearing it apart the problems kept coming and coming. It leaked oil about as fast as you could dump it back in. So I tore it down and found that it had recently been rebuilt however the quality of workmanship was really bad. There were no less than four bolts snapped of in it, they had left the original head gasket in and just put another one in too. They had used a dremel tool to remove the old gaskets and marred up the case deck so badly I debated what to do with it. As luck would have it I looked on the local Craig's listings and what do you know I found a rolling 350F chassis with an engine that had good compression. The guy lived about two blocks away and I gave him $150 for it. I took it home and put the carbs from the original engine on it and it fired right up and ran good in the garage. So we took it out polished all the chrome and inserted it into our painted frame. Sorry I don't have more pictures of the process, I swear I took many but cant seem to find them right now.
So moving on I spent the next couple months fixing the other parts of the bike the PO worked on including the front brakes and bearings which he had damaged the bearing retainer when replacing the bearings and when he put them back in couldn't get the retainer seated all the way in due to the damage he did to it taking it off with a punch
. The front wheel wobbled badly because the bearings weren't sandwiched in. The brake caliper had stripped mounting bolts we replaced. The Cam tensioner was broke off so I drilled it out and threaded in a new bolt. The rear sprocket was worn badly and only held on with three bolts, the others were loose!
I feel a little lucky because I rode it home originally.
So now the bikes in order with the exception of turn signals, tail light (on order), welding in a rear structural support, possibly a sprocket alignment and oh who am I kidding it will never be done until he takes it out of my garage.
. Oh and last night we made a new seat!