Hello hello hello! I am stuck in the real world until Jan 31. That is the deadline I gave myself. Come then I am taking a two week CB350F full focus "vacation" where I can really dive in and make some more ground on the ol gal ~~ I hope you all are excited, I know I am!!
Some parts arrived for the CL350 today so I took a brief hiatus to make some ground there. Todays project: Pamco install.
I am definitely ordering that
Motion Pro two way valve. Despite MoMo's tip about plugging both ends and lifting the tank I still managed to dose the place in gasoline --
ordered.
an interlude, we dropped the front cross member on the P1800 and were able to remove the oil pan. This gave access to the connecting rods. Now we have the pistons out and have ordered new rings. None broken but significant blow by. Cylinder walls look exceptional with little to no ridge at the top of the stroke after nearly 100k miles.
Now back to our scheduled transmission
To install the new ignition the old points, advance, and condenser had to come out. They didn't put up much of a fight, but the condenser mounting screws are in a dastardly location (like much else on this bike). The two screws holding the bracket in place are inaccessible by about 1/3 of a mm. Really, really, annoying. This bike likes to tempt you with it's easy to find screws, brackets, etc, but then smash your dreams when you try to get a screw driver in there and
just can't reach. Okay I'm being melodramatic. I grabbed a pair of vice grips and went at it from the side, that did the trick. Maybe hex head bolts would be a better approach here..
I will need a new points cover gasket. Surprisingly hard to find..
While I was hear I decided to finally measure the spark plug cap resistance as Calj77 had recommended. The results were quite telling...
!?!? I was reading around and found 9.5k ohms to be the service ceiling for these 5k ohm spark plug caps. Yikes! This are both nearly there, the right one especially!! And to think they simply screw off..Cal I want to say sorry for delaying this so long, what an easy easy job and very informative. Figure this..more resistance through cap = weaker spark, weaker spark = more unburnt fuel = rich mixture. This could be what is giving us that excessively rich mixture! Or at least contributing. I will be ordering new spark plug caps.
These NGK 5k ohms should do the trick. The wire also looks..rough
Is this reusable? As with most of these early Hondas the plug wire is affixed to the coil. If I were to replace the wire, would I need to replace the coil with a removable type? Is there any way to test the wire without removing it from the coil?
Moving forward, it was time to get soldering. I took my loose wiring diagram (copied from
http://www.cb450ignition.com/Installation3500.htm) and mapped it out. I ordered a handful of 3.5mm bullet connectors, male, female, and double female + sheathing and heat shrink to work with. Plan of attach was tin the wire, slip on the connector and heat shrink, crimp, load with solder, cover with sheathing, seal with heat shrink, and finally close up with electrical tape. It may be no CalJ job...but it should do for me!
My soldering station..this garage is a MESS
Starting with the double females off the e-advance (sensor side). One black and one red from each electronic point pickup unit connect in here.
Then a single female bullet for the white and green wires. These go to the remaining wires on the electronic points.
Moving on to the new ignition, all six wires here got single male bullets. I had a decent flow going by this point so they went on without much fuss.
Now back to the e advance unit. On the coil side I installed two male bullets. These go to the existing coil pickups, (L & R) one blue and one yellow. The harness has a dual female bullet on the ends now, one where the old points hooked up and one for the old condenser. I will only be using one side of the dual bullet with the new ignition.
The final step is to solder on a bolt hook for a frame ground, and tap into the black w/ white stripe wire for +12v.
There is a dual bullet on the black w/ white stripe wire now, with one bullet going to each coil. I'll be snipping the current connection and in it's place installing a triple female bullet. This will allow the new ignition to be fully "plug n play". The owner should be able to convert back to the OEM points with no splices or changes required. Nice! Just have to order the 3.5mm triple female or see if a local electronics store has one or 10.
All in all good progress! I am amazed at the results of the spark plug cap resistance check. Wow. Thank you Cal for the heads up on that I will now be going vehicle to vehicle and checking!!
Friday we will install the two way motion pro valve and finish up the Pamco installation. Until next time
