Topic: CB400 Four resto/mod----done and on the road!!

[spuds]

Oh believe me----if I could figure out a seat pan, that cowl would be going on!!!

Your angle suggestion though---- might be worth considering.....I'll stare some more.

[calj737]

Spuds I tend to be agreeing more and more with Cal these days ( don’t worry I’m calling a doctor tomorrow).

Ah, maturity finally comes to us all...

[calj737]

A quick idea for you FrenchFry: before you go sanding any more foam off, shoot the foam with a colored primer or something suitable that won't eat the foam. If you could evaluate the shape with color contrast, it will reveal the angles and lines better than a light color. You may already be where you need to, but can't quite see it because of the manilla foam.

[spuds]

Merci beaucoup Cal!!!!

That is absolutely now on my to do list ----great suggestion!!

Vinegar, ketchup, or mayonnaise with your frites?  I'm salt and vinegar...all the way.

"Spuds" comes from another forum I was on many years ago.   I had been away from biking for a dozen years or so, but knew the "itch" was real in late 2004 when I spent all Fall looking for an old beater.   My wife ended up knocking my socks off when she surprised me with the ownership to a brand new leftover '03 Buell xb9r on Christmas morning.  A bunch of folks on that previously mentioned forum suggested I change whatever "handle" I then had to spuds....in honour of that infamous potatoe-potatoe rhythm that HD engines have.

[calj737]

Mayo, always mayo. Truffled mayo to be clear  Glad you appreciated the chiding 

[spuds]

Quick update.

Applying some colour to the seat foam did in fact show me that the left / right rise to the rear portion could be more symmetrical....so that's on the to do list.

Seat pan got painted.



Played around with some 0000 steel wool and some metal polish to see where the header pipes could potentially go...


And in other news, took a few things off the frame.



That battery tray / air filter box is quite the little work of art isn't it?

[spuds]

More bits removed-----but nothing here that I'm sure MANY of you have not already seen...

Drained the engine oil and removed the oil filter.

Oil filter cover as removed


and after a short soak and scrub


Sprocket cover....should clean up nice


This area will need a little more elbow grease


And the sprocket area  will need some cleaning, but it isn't that bad


Also poked away at the swingarm that I'll run.   Had bought a spare unit, and I had already shaved off the passenger peg mounts, but after deciding to run without a chain guard, I shaved off, and filled in the area to smoothen, the guard's mount bracket stuff, and filled in the bolt hole at the rear of the swingarm.   Have some sanding to do, then will respray with primer.   
Stumbled on the shock bushings that I had bought, so tried my hand at installing those via the bolt/washers/nut method.  Worked pretty well.   I will mask these off when it comes time to paint...figured I'd get them installed prior to paint to avoid having to repaint afterwards 'cuz I know darn well what will happen!!   Will sort through the pivot bushings/ etc parts next and get those installed.  Then paint.

Thanks for reading along....!!

 

[spuds]

Quiet, "little job" week.

Engine is ready to come out - just waiting to finish up a table to sit it on.

In the meantime, shaved the chain guard mounts and guide off the swingarm I'll be using, and got the shock and pivot bushings in.   They'll be masked for painting.




The dust covers were black----would they have been black from the factory?   The paint was coming away, so got rid of it all.


Cleaned up the sprocket side of the rear hub...it will be disassembled to lace it to the 2.15 rim I bought.


Also drilled out the lock key switch from the lower triple (so now have a bolt hole for a bottom mount headlight bracket), cleaned up the surfaces a bit and did the satin black thing to it.

[spuds]

.......and we have an engine on a table and an empty and scrubbed frame



Pulled the front wheel, forks, triples and center stand, and knocked out the original steering head rearing races.







Also got a call Friday that my powdercoated front rim is ready to be picked up, so dug out the hub and gave it a little polishing







Gotta clean up/replace that rusty side stand spring too.

When I look at the pics of the frame, I feel so "this isn't ready to bolt things back on to" yet....   I'm leaving the frame as is...not powdercoating/painting...'cuz once that's done you can never go back right?   Need to be firm and convince myself that "it'll be fine once it looks like a motorbike again!!"  So many little scratches though....

[spuds]

Got the front rim back from the powdercoater, ready for lacing and all laced up.







That's a KZ400 18x1.85x40 rim and spokes (new) on a CB500 Four's bub.

Tackled the steering head bearings and triples.   All Balls Tapered bearings, CB500F stem and triples (using the shaved and polished top triple until a stock one arrives (decided against clipons...will run a handlebar instead)), and ran the 500F's forks in as well.  Had to reshape the lower triple to clear the 400F frame's steering lock tab too.  The 500F's stuff does "swap right in" to the 400F's frame, but the tapered bearing outer covers could not be used....a couple of washers take up slack and seal up the bottom though, and the OEM stem nut and a washer round out the upper pieces.   Tightened everything up and it all feels real nice.









The 500F's forks have been serviced/rebuilt and have emulators installed (thanks Fantino!!).

Also got the swingarm painted up (after shaving the passenger peg brackets and chain guard tabs etc).

[spuds]

Some small tasks tackled:



Had bought a can of CRC heavy duty degreaser which tackled the material build up on the rear of the engine cases quite nicely.   Spray it on, it pulls up the material, turns it all into small little clumps that simply wipe away.   




Got the swingarm pivot bits greased up and installed, and installed the swingarm on the bike.  Original shocks there just until new ones arrive.   Can certainly tell that the swingarm's been painted and the frame not....again---hoping at all blends into the background as the frame becomes a motorbike again.



Also cleaned up and repainted the three engine mount brackets


And....I think my journey here requires me to get at the gasket under the cylinder head-----I know there's word of these engine's allowing some oil to seep through (them they're somewhat porous??), but I think I should get in there and replace some gaskets.



I am a complete NOOB at engine work...so am carefully and slowly taking the top end apart.   Pulled the breather cover off the other day, and the valve cover off last night.  Anything look obviously awry in the cover's internals?



...In the cam area?

[calj737]

On your upper right, rear motor mount, the battery GROUND cable gets pinched between it and the motor. Best to have that circumference clean, bare metal for full ground contact. A little dielectric grease applied to the mount will prevent corrosion.

Rocker looks good, just use some Assembly lube on the tappet faces and cam journals for extra measure when you reinstall.

[spuds]

Thanks!! Really appreciate you taking the peek at that stuff----I kinda have a sense of what all goes on in there, but have no reference points to know if something looks weird.

Will absolutely expose some bare metal on that bracket when the time comes, and thanks for the tip on the assembly lube..

Also got the front wheel trued up.

Gotta sort that noise out...internals likely needing some grease (), but it was kinda therapeutic to go through the truing process.     Will need a couple of spacers made up to shove the wheel to the (rider's) left by about 7/32" to center it in the forks (running a speedometer drive plate adaptor to allow for the second brake disk, which (unless I'm overlooking something?) must be a different thickness than the OEM part that it replaces....).  I'll post more pics when that's all sorted.   

Dropped my fuel tank off with the lad who painted my T500 tank ---  he's gonna see what his dent removal guys can do with a couple of shallow dings ---the HOPE is that the dents can be removed without affecting the paint---if they can, we'll just "freshen up" the finish a little and call it a day.

[spuds]

Learn something new every day, they say!!

So that front wheel was not centered because after lacing I snubbed up the spokes by hand while the whole wheel was laying on its side----so, ya......the rim was not centered on the hub from the get go, and truing up the wheel didn't fix it.   Thanks Rangelov for answering my general question on the use / installation of the adapter plate, and for asking me if the hub was centered....   that's what sparked the discovery.

With the front wheel now centered, I did a quick mock up of wheel/rotors/brake calipers to make sure there were no deal breakers hiding....there's clearance and nothing (to my eye) looks wonky!!!



Also got around to painting and installing the top triple I got from The Machine (thanks again!).   CB500F forks are about 3/4" longer than CB400F's, so they're run up in the triples a little.  Will fine tune as I go.



Also disassembled rear wheel to get it ready for the 2.15 rim.  Ordered up some new spokes from the local dealer here...should be in early next week.  In the meantime, cleaning up the hub...







So, I guess most of this thread is not that exciting....most of you have seen bikes taken apart into bits, and then the resulting bits cleaned up, and ya...bikes getting put back together.   Thanks for stopping by and visiting the thread....hopefully it gets more oomph now that it feels like we're more in a rebuild mode.

Have a good weekend all!!

[calj737]

Be careful running your fork tubes through the top clamp too much. Raise them high enough, and the bars will be restricted when turning the bike.

[spuds]

Will watch for that for sure.
thanks

[spuds]

Friggin' cold here the past couple of weeks---making it real uncomfortable to be in the garage for any length of time.   

Progress?---seat bits are ready to go to the upholsterer (thanks again DonR for the DSS cover)



And the tank and side covers came back from the paint shop tonight...

[calj737]

Check the inside of the fuel fill neck and make sure that there's no paint. There should be a bare metal lip from the top, downward on the outside about a 1/4" of the way. This prevents fuel vapor from getting behind the paint and bubbling it off.

Its hard for painters to leave that exposed metal because it looks unsightly, but it is in the best interests of their paintwork and yours for longevity. Be an absolute shame to see that paint spoiled from fumes 

[nvr2old]

Its hard for painters to leave that exposed metal because it looks unsightly, but it is in the best interests of their paintwork and yours for longevity. Be an absolute shame to see that paint spoiled from fumes 

I agree 100%.  If it's not bare metal from the top of the neck opening to about a 1/4" down..I would sand it back to bare, then I always put an 1/8" wide swipe of JB Weld over that paint line.  It will prevent it from ever peeling back from fumes getting underneath.  Guaranteed.  So many painters won't take this step, and pay the price down the road with angry customers with bubbled paint.

[spuds]

Thanks fellas for that comment----   

Here's pics of what it looks like now:



Just so I'm clear - we're talking about sanding back a bit of the top rim and 1/4" down on the outside of the filler neck?

[nvr2old]

Yes.  Exactly.  Just sand it back to bare metal.  Put a piece (or 2) of masking tape 1/4" down first to use as a 'stop' for your sanding and to create a hard line.  Then mask 1/16" of an inch above and below that hard line so you have an exposed 1/8" total.  Mix up some JB Weld, smear on with your finger just enough to cover the hard paint line.  Pull the tape off immediately before it has a chance to kick-off.  See that small chip it already has?  That's where it will start bubbling and peeling back.  All gas fumes need is the slightest invitation before it's too late.  Believe me, I've done this many, many times and it really works.

[spuds]

Thanks!!

[calj737]

Spuds - see that small chip in the paint? It’s exactly where fumes will attack the paint and get under it. That’s why it’s critical the paint stop outside the neck, below the filler cap line. Then, now chips are ever a starting point for the fumes. Don’t worry, it’s the way they are stock and will be authentic. Just use care sanding it down so as not to damage the paint that should remain.

[nvr2old]

Here's a couple of pics of a Suzuki tank I did.  It's not as tall as your 400 tank's neck, but it's a good example of what I mean.  1/8" or 1/4" masking tape is needed to be able to do the bends and to keep it clean.  With the cap on, you don't even see it.

P1010002 by Larry Pearson, on Flickr

P1010001 by Larry Pearson, on Flickr

[Andych]

Lovely build so far... I am picking up my 1975 400F project next week so I am keen to see how this one turns out.