Howdy guys. A couple weeks a go I saw a CB350 Four for sale on Craigslist. I normally don't see very many in my area, and the ones I do see are expensive. This one was only a couple hundred dollars, and it was easy to see why when I went to check it out. It was missing a couple of pieces, namely a few airbox parts and the battery cover. It had obviously been sitting outside for a while, but she seemed to have good bones. Just some superficial surface rust on the frame, and the odometer only reads 3,664. The kid kicked the engine over and I checked the oil and it looked brand new, like someone had changed it at some point. It still needs a LOT of work though, but that's what I knew I was getting into.
I never did get my motorcycle license, just my permit, and had a couple of bikes over the riding season. I started out on a 250 Rebel and then traded that for a Maxim 750. It was a big step up, but I came to like the standard riding position over the cruiser type, and came to love the sound of a classic Japanese 4. Still, my Maxim felt too heavy around town and I didn't feel like I needed all of the power. The Maxim needed some work too, and I realized I liked fixing it up just as much, if not more, than I liked riding. Last year and this year I didn't do any riding. My permit is expired, so I'll have to get a new one, but the bug to get back to riding and tinkering came back with a vengeance. It doesn't help that I'm a connoisseur of rare and obscure stuff! I'm going to spend the winter fixing her up and hopefully get it running well enough to get my license by the spring. I already bought/ordered a ton of parts to get her going again, but I'm trying to only do one thing at a time. She also didn't come with keys or a title, so I need to get that squared away.
I bought a battery for her and installed it last night, along with the new ignition switch. I was disappointed when I turned the key and nothing, so I turned to the internet to figure out where the fuse box was. Well, it ends up that the fuse 'box' was a single fuse, so I removed it and immediately knew what was wrong. The end cap came clean off. Luckily, I still had a couple of ancient replacement fuses in the left side cover, and popped one of those in and she has a pulse!!! The indicator lights, the brake light, and the turn signals come on, although only the right signal flashes, and very slowly. The left only stays on, no flashing, but I noticed under the seat that some wires have been spliced going to the back indicators, and the flasher only has two prongs, when it looks like the wiring harness was originally set up for three. Still need to figure that one out. The headlight isn't coming on and I haven't tested the horn or the starter yet.
The tank is my biggest worry right now. It's been spray painted black and has a bit of a dent on the right side, but the biggest issue is that it's super rusty inside. I've heard about some rust removal tips, so I'm going to work on getting the tank cleaned out and the petcock rebuilt, but first I want to pull the carbs and get them cleaned out and re-gasketed. All of the cables seem stiff; the clutch cable is really hard, and the throttle doesn't want to return. Not sure if that's a cable issue or the linkages in the carbs are gummed up and the return spring in the carb is just old and needs renewed. I do have a set of CB400F handlebars coming in, since I've read on here that they are a great upgrade to make the bike more comfortable. But I need to figure out what length the replacement cables should be. Will CB400F ones work?
I picked up a great looking pair of side covers that have been painted black (and not with spray paint!), so when I do refurbish the tank I'm going to get a real paint job in it to match the side covers. The brake handle is just flops in and out, it doesn't build up any pressure or return at all, even though the master cylinder still has fluid. The main work I did with my Maxim was rebuild the brakes, and I rebuilt the MC and added stainless brake lines and it turned out really well, so I'm going to go the same route on this. It does seem that this bike uses a pressure switch, and if I go to a stainless line I'll have to install a pressure switch on the MC and I'm worried about how that will work with the shorter handlebars, but I'll figure that out when I get to it. Both the speedo and tach faces are spidered, but it seems that it's not a terrible pain to replace them, but since that's cosmetic, I'll worry about that later. The exhaust is the rust original 4 into 4 so they will need to be replaced before I start riding. Any exhaust suggestions are welcome, but I'm leaning towards a MAC 4-1 at the moment. I want to get the 'bones' of the bike working well before I delve into cosmetics. If I like the bike enough I'll do a full restore on everything. They sure seem like fun, quirky little bikes.
Thanks for having this resource for clueless newbies like me. I'm sure I'll be here to bug you guys throughout the winter.
