Topic: Terry's NEW Redneck CB750 rebuild. The "Swamp Rat". Too soon? Nah..........

[Terry in Australia]

And Per and Jerry, yeah it was a good score, and cheap (I think) at $129 USD. I'm always surprised at how people don't know what stuff is worth, some folks want $300 for a rusty old wheel with rusty spokes and a rotten rim, and then something like this came along at a bargain price. I don't know if I'll use it or not, but it's a nice piece of period memorabilia. I quite like the period artwork on the box too, very reflective of the times.

[Terry in Australia]

OK, so the weather hasn't been as good as it should be this time of year, but I got a break in between rainfalls yesterday, and got stuck into pulling the engine out of the K2 "Bitsa" to install in the Swamp Rat.

Swamp Rat engine swap 30 Nov 2019 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I've lost 68 Kg (150 pounds) since I built the Bitsa in 2017, and I must have been a hell of a lot stronger then, because undoing all of the engine bolts took all my strength yesterday. Anyhoo, with help from my little patient lifter, (and my angle grinder, I decided that I'll fit a frame kit in all my 750's from now on) I had the engine out after an hour or so.

Swamp Rat engine swap 30 Nov 2019 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I shoved it straight into the Swamp Rat, I need to fix the cam cover leak before I do much else today, good thing is it won't be hard with the frame kit.

Swamp Rat engine swap 30 Nov 2019 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also installed the Bitsa's oil tank and shiny new Rafi oil lines, I haven't cleaned out the Swamp Rat's oil tank as yet, so I didn't want to risk contaminating the oil in the new engine, plus it's added a little bling. OK, lots more to do, so I better get off my butt and get it done. More soon.

[PeWe]

Correct lenght of both oil lines?
I must recrimp one of them after cutting off 10mm. Right now the too long line will kink and stop oil flow. Not good for the engine.

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Per, yeah, I had Rafi make me one an inch shorter than the ones he was making everyone, because it was just too long. I don't know how they would have worked for anyone, but he said he had no comments from anyone else? They're really good quality hoses, but that inside one was way too long.

Anyhoo, the rain has just chased me back inside, but I almost got the old Swamp Rat back together, so I'm a happy camper. I installed a new oil filter  and filled it with new oil, hooked up the fuel tank, pulled on the choke, gave it two kicks, and VAROOM! I've got to do a "cut/shut" on the #4 exhaust I bought from the US, and throw it back on, and it'll be done. Runs really well too!

 

[web]

Wow! One day engine swap. That's making some serious progress.

[PeWe]

Possible when something urgent happens or strong will to undo a mistake.

I did mistake with cam chain 1 cog wrong back in -84 after retighten head gasket (1000km done). I heard the ticking idle. 4-1 and pods shorted time a little.
 Engine out on garage floor by laying down the bike. Corrected cam timing and back in again with engine  on its side on the floor, wrapped bike around engine and back in again. Bent bike back on side stand.

Cam and sprocket had punch marks made by the shop where to sit at 1:4 T and notch upwards as usual. I did not double check first time. Not with tensioner tightened.  After that rotate crank several times after install. I was lucky with valves kissing the pistons that time. No bent valves. I took a chance when the ticking sound was very light. Like pinging ignition.

[Terry in Australia]

Hmmnn, well I don't remember making any mistakes, so it must have been the urgency? I think more likely I had plenty of time but no work was needed on the engine going in, except to re-seal the cam cover gasket and I even swapped the points ignition across, keeping my 30+ year old Dyna ignition for the engine I'll install back into my "Bitsa" bike.

I need to graft a good header pipe to the rust free Ebay USA #4 muffler before I install the exhaust, that was the only thing that bugged me about the exhaust previously, that I could hear it "popping" when idling, due to the poor seal betwixt muffler and header, caused by a rust hole.

I've decided to put a "4 into 1" exhaust on my Bitsa bike, just trying to decide between an Aussie built "Tranzac" pipe, or the default Delkevic system. I'd prefer the Tranzac, if I don't have to wait to have one made.

[Terry in Australia]

Well the old Rat is all back together again, and today is ride day. Hopefully I'll do more than 28 miles, and return under my own steam. I would have had it finished earlier, but I had to do a little engineering task first, basically grafting a good header pipe onto a better muffler that I bought from Ebay USA. As you all know, good pipes are getting hard to find, and are expensive, especially if they're rust and ding free. The pipe I bought was rust free and the muffler and heat shield were dent free, but the header pipe was badly damaged.

The original intention was to lop the header off my pipe with it's rust-holed and dented muffler, but then I saw that the header pipe that I'd just taken off my K2 Bitsa (which was already cut to fit to the 4 into 2 exhaust) wasn't going to go back onto the Bitsa, as I've just bought a new Delkevic 4 into 1 pipe for it, so I decided to use it.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

First of all, I had to mark it reasonable accurately, to make sure it all fit when I was finished. I used a hose clamp and a sharpie to ensure the cut was straight.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 1a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I used my old exhaust pipe cutter to get a nice clean cut, I've had this tool for many years, and am always impressed with how easy it is to get a straight cut.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 2b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I needed to use the offcut as an insert inside the pipes, so I ground the chrome off, and took a section out of it, then used the hose clamp and my vice to squish it together, to retain it's basic shape.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 2a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 5a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 3a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I cut the damaged header off the good US sourced muffler, and made one out of two.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then installed it on the bike to make sure it would fit, and that the header was at the correct angle etc. Not perfect, but good enough.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I disconnected the battery before doing a couple of heavy spot welds to lock it in place, then took it off again, to finish weld and grind.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I just like this pic, taken after I welded the header on.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, I ground it flush, then etch primed it, and painted it with some engine enamel in a fetching shade of metallic silver. Not wonderful, but it won't rust, and being that the brake pedal kind of hides it, it doesn't stick out like dogs balls.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I put everything back on, and gave the bike a kick in the guts (I haven't hooked the electric starter up yet) and it started on the second kick. Looked good, and sounded pretty good too.

Saturday Swamp Rat Exhaust repair 7 Dec 2019 4c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Ride day today, I just remembered that the Bitsa engine has a 17T front sprocket as opposed to an 18T on the previous (dead) engine, so I either need to change it over, or adjust the chain to take the slack out of it. I'm tempted to do the latter, just to see if the smaller sprocket gives it a bit more oomph down low. We'll see. More pics after the ride.    



 

[RAFster122s]

its all good, it missed his brain by a good 3 feet.....

Spotty that is so mean!!...but so accurate! 
Sorry Terry it just came out... I don't feel that way.
I have my acct on SOHC4 setup to max# posts per "page" of a thread. I am only 3 pages behind on the thread... Up to 150 posts if I recall the page size setting as 50 posts.


The Swamp Rat is looking nice...hope your face is healing nicely...still haven't read the three pages.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, and yes, Spotty can be cruel, but probably quite accurate. Face is going well, Last night I went to watch a boxing tournament with my son (the boxer in the family) and I thought what an opportunity this would present for someone to rearrange my face if I was to say the wrong thing, or look at someone the wrong way, so I spent much of the night looking at my feet............

Anyhoo, having survived that, today was ride day, woohoo! I've decided that "Ride Day" beats the arse out of "stay home and work on the bike day", of which I've spent so many days this year. To be fair, at least half of them have been sh1t weather anyway, Victoria is Australia's second coldest state in winter, just behind Tasmania, so between June and August it's miserable, but only when compared to other Aussie states, compared to the US, Canada, or Europe, it's still very good riding weather, but the older and skinnier I get, I'm really not enjoying winter at all, I need to do some sort of deal with Mick in Darwin, where I can somehow spend some time in the winter camped in his palatial garage with a hammock strung between a couple of his old CB750 project bikes. Maybe I could help with one of his builds, between rides?

But back to reality for a moment. The weather was a magnificent 82 deg F, so I raced out to the garage, quickly adjusted the slack out of the chain (see my previous post as to why) and kicked it in the guts. As usual, it fired up on the second kick, and idled away happily, with the oil pressure gauge reading 70 - 80 psi. I donned my old Marlon Brando Jacket that I bought in 1992, which is way too big for me now, even though I was a handsome special forces warrior when I bought it, it's hard to believe I've gone from a 7XL down to a Large, in fact last night I was wearing one of my son's medium windcheater, fcuking unreal. I rolled the old Swamp Rat ("Christine") thru the gates, wound the odometer bacck from 28 (how far I got last time) to zero, and took off.

The 17T front sprocket did give it a little more pep, and wasn't annoying at 60 MPH, ticking over at around 4500 RPM. I did accidentally get it up to the ton, even though I wasn't intending to, I just had a bit of a downhill run after overtaking a slow moving "Sunday Driver", and just held that throttle on a little too long. Oh well, no harm done. I stopped at my usual photo site to take the standard pic that I do with every bike.

Sunday Swamp Rat ride 8 Dec 2019 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I did a quick walk around, and the only thing that pissed me off was the light oil on the top fin, which tells me that the cam cover is still weeping. Only a tiny amount of oil, but annoying, just the same. I don't think it's the gasket, I think it's probably one of the rocker inspection ports, but they're stuck tight, so I might have to just swap the cam cover, fcuk it. I took off again, and it just hummed along, the brakes worked well (still sh1t compared to a modern bike, but predictable, so good enough if not riding at stupid speeds) and instead of taking the short route, I kept heading north, and rode to Broadford.

Sunday Swamp Rat ride 8 Dec 2019 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Still going well, but you may have noticed the pool of fuel underneath. I remembered that it happened on my Bitsa bike (same carbs) the day I rode it over for it's roadworthy inspection, and I pulled the carbs apart, to no avail. This time it was coming out so fast that I almost ran out of fuel. As I coasted into the gas station I switched the petcock to "off", and when I popped the cap I heard a vacuum "whoosh", so maybe the cap breather is blocked, and the heat caused the fuel to expand, forcing it into the carbs? Who knows, but after the stop at the servo, no more fuel leak? Interesting......

I got home, parked it, found a Ginger Joe and pulled up a chair in the shade to stare at it. It was then that I noticed that the right rear blinker lens had disappeared? Bugger. Oh well, no biggie, I've got plenty of spares, but it was odd, how did both screws loosen themselves like that? It's an X File. I checked the odometer, I did 93 miles, so the 28 mile jinx has been broken. More soon.

Sunday Swamp Rat ride 8 Dec 2019 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[seanbarney41]

Sweet!  I have had those turn signal lense screws loosen up on me before, but never had both totally disappear!  Weird.

[jaytee-nz]

Looks great Terry.
Are you still going to sell it to the the guy you work with or will "Christine" become one more for the collection ?

[WhyNot2]

Sum beech.....wish I had the gumpsum you have..........geeesh I have 2 sohc bikes sitting here that need no more than carb work, I think.

Maybe a little electrical work on the 750.

Been sitting like that forever, too.........

Good on you for keeping on keeping on...........good work.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Yes, sadly it looks like it'll be gone sooner rather than later as the prospective buyer cornered me today to organise a viewing and a test ride on Wednesday. Hopefully he'll hate it and tell me that he doesn't want it, but I won't get my hopes up, and anyway, extra cash this time of the year is always handy, so either way, it's a win/win.

Today was a stinker, 100 degrees in the shade, of which there was very little. The cool change has just come thru in the last hour, so I sneaked out to take a peek at the blinker. It looked a bit worse than I first thought, and the reason I think the lens fell off is that the pot metal is so badly corroded, there were no threads left to speak of. The fact that it worked at all is something of a miracle.

Monday Swamp Rat Meandering by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

No biggie, like all good 750 parts hoarders, I have a tub full of "Not quite right" blinkers to cannibalize for parts, so I grabbed one with a good body, and another with an unbroken power cable, and pulled them apart.

Monday Swamp Rat Meandering 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I managed to build one good one, but then remembered that I'd left the keys inside the house so couldn't raise the seat, and as it was starting to get dark, I decided that tomorrow is another day, and came inside to finish my Ginger Joe, and update the thread. Tomorrow I'll install it, try to sort the non functioning electric starter, fix my airbox ("wing screw" doesn't want to thread into the nut, for some reason) and tidy anything else I can see, before I ride it into work on Wednesday to show him. I hope he hates it, but I'm not holding my breath........  

Monday Swamp Rat Meandering 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

I hope you make him pay a fair price to you for taking a Rat and turning it into a Mink!  Were you to sell it on the open market in Australia it would command a princely sum, or is that a “princessly” sum...we are talking about a she after all.
Doesn’t matter if he asked you to build it for him in that regard, you have invested a Ton of effort, time, and money into the bike. Replacing your bin of parts used, while it won’t be done it is the concept of that cost to do so is the current value of those parts used. It has cost you to buy them and store them. Passing along the price you paid for them would be foolish because of future value vs present value of money in economics. Those parts have accrued value, higher price in the time since you acquired them because as time marches on prices rise and the cost of shipping has all but exploded (growth in expense) in the past decade.  So, keep these things in mind before you give him the price.  I hope you have listed all the NOS stuff you have put on the bike and recent purchases listed as well.

You cannot realistically give him a price for the bike that doesn’t include the combined total for all the new parts, a fair price on the used parts and then your time spent ordering and searching for parts  and labor ...then their is the machine work or third part bills for the machine work...

Hopefully you

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, and you're right, even though this should be considered a "budget build", there was a cost blowout at the end, which added around $2K AUD to the cost to build.

I reckon that it cost me close to $4K AUD to build, which includes the original $500 wreck, the rear wheel, chainguard and fender I bought from a guy on FB, the repro seat, original paint tank, the #4 exhaust ($200 shipping, ouch!) etc.

Then from my garage I found a front wheel and fender, the rest of the exhaust system, carbs, airbox, cables, new repro wiring loom, NOS ignition switch/seat lock/steering lock, forks, footpegs, handlebars, switches, gauges and mirrors I bought from Bill Benton, side covers and badges, battery box, tool tray, nuts and bolts, electrical components, and of course eventually, my engine from the "Bitsa" bike.

We've agreed on $7500 AUD, which when I think about it isn' t particularly profitable, but it was a good way to spend my winter (apart from the hospital visits) and nice for me to see it finished and back on the road. Of course if he doesn't buy it, I get to keep it, which is even better again.

[vik351]

Thanks David, and you're right, even though this should be considered a "budget build", there was a cost blowout at the end, which added around $2K AUD to the cost to build.

I reckon that it cost me close to $4K AUD to build, which includes the original $500 wreck, the rear wheel, chainguard and fender I bought from a guy on FB, the repro seat, original paint tank, the #4 exhaust ($200 shipping, ouch!) etc.

Then from my garage I found a front wheel and fender, the rest of the exhaust system, carbs, airbox, cables, new repro wiring loom, NOS ignition switch/seat lock/steering lock, forks, footpegs, handlebars, switches, gauges and mirrors I bought from Bill Benton, side covers and badges, battery box, tool tray, nuts and bolts, electrical components, and of course eventually, my engine from the "Bitsa" bike.

We've agreed on $7500 AUD, which when I think about it isn' t particularly profitable, but it was a good way to spend my winter (apart from the hospital visits) and nice for me to see it finished and back on the road. Of course if he doesn't buy it, I get to keep it, which is even better again.

Maatee, fair dinkum...!!!

Your gut (whats left of it) is sayin ,tell him to stick it... so tell him to stick it...!!!

You know you want to... dont forget it owes ya a nose as well FFS...!!!  (and a tow home bill)

It does the ton , now enjoy the fun...!!!

vik... my two bob's...

[web]

On the other hand, what's Terry supposed to do with all those finished bikes taking up workspace? Better make room for more of what he does best: another project

Already looking forward to reading the next one! But please don't get hurt again okay?

[vik351]

On the other hand, what's Terry supposed to do with all those finished bikes taking up workspace? Better make room for more of what he does best: another project

Already looking forward to reading the next one! But please don't get hurt again okay?

First, looks at the Vic's poxy weather, then out to the shed, which one shall I ride today... Tough decisions... 

vik...

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yeah, I don't think I've ever been so keen to keep a bike before, I was trying to work out how many CB750's I've built from random parts over the years, I'm guessing maybe 6 or 7? I've sold or traded all of them without too much separation anxiety, but for some reason, this one is different. Maybe it was the blood and broken bones as well as the usual sweat and tears.

No matter, I really am struggling with so many bikes, I suppose I could squeeze another one into my self storage locker, but if and when I retire I won't be able to afford the $4K annual rent, so better I let some go to folks who will (hopefully) love them. We'll see.

[bear]

 
Geeeez ...I must be living in a different world out here in the sticks.

[Terry in Australia]

What are you angry about Brian? What have I done now?

[PeWe]

So, the Rat has left the garage to enjoy the roads with another dude?

[bear]

What are you angry about Brian? What have I done now?

It's all good mate.
Not angry, just grumpy.
Apparently I'm just a grumpy old man these days.

[vik351]

So, the Rat has left the garage to enjoy the roads with another dude?

Dont yet... he gunna tell the nudda one bloke to nick off ... 

Too much in love mit the rat...!!!

vik... !!!