Thanks guys, well it was a magnificent (almost) spring day today again, sunny and almost warm. My intent was to pull the pan and oil pump, and give them a clean, clean up the clutch, stick on the carbs, fill it with oil and make some noise. Well, that didn't happen, but I'm way closer than I was. My problem is I kept noticing missing parts, so spent more time ratting thru my parts bins and finding the parts I needed before I could move on to the nitty gritty. The original chain guard was very much like the tail light, rooted. I found another one that had been painted, but it was still better than what I had, so I put it on
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I also installed the sprocket cover, using genuine rusty Honda screws, to match the rest.
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
It was starting to look like a nice original rat.
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Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I was missing the choke cable and bracket and couldn't find one in any of my tubs, so Spotty's poor old K7 got ratted again, along with the throttle assembly including cables. I still had my cables, but they were rusted in place, and no amount of WD40 was gonna unstick them. It was a good thing I did too, as I'd forgotten that the last of the CB750's had big plastic plugs instead of individual wire connectors like the K1-K6. At least I didn't have to test my poor color vision and work out which wires were connected to where, like I usually do.
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 9b by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I've ordered a new front master cylinder, but when I found a really clean K2 item, I had to give it a try. In Cliff's box I even found the OEM hand grips, slightly chewed, but they kind of matched everything else.
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Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Next problem was the headlight's chrome rim. It, like all the other chrome, was knackered. No problem, I had a tub full of old Honda headlights, so I pulled them out but found that one of them fit? Then I had that "Aha!" moment, when I realised that the headlight wasn't original! another pointer that it might be my old beast, as I'd mentioned previously, the bike had a big touring style fairing on it when it was traded in, and the mechanic told me that they'd taken it off as it was pretty ugly, so I'm guessing that they threw on an aftermarket headlight. Luckily, once again I had Cliff's OEM headlight shell, so found a half decent rim,and shoved all the wiring into it and gave the headlight ears a cleanup with some stainless steel wool, added some shiny new stainless mounting bolts, and called it good.
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Ok, so I'd kind of run out of things I had no intention of doing when I'd wandered out 4 or 5 hours earlier, so I finally got down and dropped the pan. Happily, there was nothing in it but a bit of a build up of black oily goop, but nothing creamy or watery, and best of all, no metal. I took a pic up the F2.2's skirt (mechanical "upskirting"?) and was impressed by how clean it looked.
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Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
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Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Much cleaner than the swamp rat engine, and several other engines I've had apart in recent times. I filled my little tub with stale gas and flushed it thru the pump and it felt that everything was working fine, so sprayed some degreaser thru, then filled it with oil and pumped it around the, er, pump, and re-installed it, and the pan. I also dropped the oil filter and discovered that the spring and washer were missing, so ratted around in the garage and found some of Spotty's spare engine bits, so once again righted a previous owners wrongs.
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 6 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
By now I was getting a bit tired, but I wanted to pull the clutch before I packed up for the night. Happily my JIS screwdrivers have been very successful in removing all of the "Cheese Head" Honda screws, so it didn't take too long to get them all out and the cover off. Many years ago I ground a socket to make the clutch nut removal tool, so putting the bike in gear and leaning it on it's sidestand so as to lock the clutch. I used the socket and my rattlegun to remove the nut, and then pulled the inner hub, and separated all the plates that were well and truly glued together after sitting for 10 years, or so. While most of the friction plates were in pretty good condition, a couple were delaminating, so tomorrow I'll have a rat thru my large collection of clutch plates and find some better ones.
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 9 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Unlike the Swamprats steel basket though, once again, not a skerrick of rust or gunge, so I was pretty happy with that.
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 8 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
By this time I was tired, thirsty, and it was getting dark. It's not gonna rain overnight, so I left everything out where I'd dropped it, ready to go again tomorrow. I did put a bike cover over it just to keep the spiders out, but all going well, the clutch will be back together tomorrow morning, and I'll be able to fill the bike with oil, and start thinking about carbs and ignition. All going well, the bike might even be running by end of play. Sweet...........
Terry’s Effing F2 29 Aug 2020 9a by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr