Author Topic: Terry's new new redneck K0 "Special".......... (Read 54380 times)

grcamna2 · « **Reply #75 on:** October 30, 2020, 11:31:34 AM »

That's a nice industrial oven Terry

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #76 on:** October 30, 2020, 03:43:17 PM »

Thanks Bill, it was another dumpster save, I'm always amazed at what some folks throw out, it works perfectly, and I've used it regularly for loosening engine parts, popping out cylinder sleeves, and baking engine enamel onto cases. There's nothing worse than spilling gas on newly painted cases, to see the shiny new paint ruined when a leaky carb drips on it.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #77 on:** November 01, 2020, 04:22:40 AM »

Well it was back to winter yesterday, but a good day to do some parts cleaning. I found the box with the K0 crank, which was so clean I didn't need to clean it up before install. I'll give it a wipe with an oily rag and call it good. I also found the K0 specific shifter drum which I'll use because it's in better condition that the one I pulled out of my engine. I'm pretty sure there's a K0 shifter mechanism somewhere in my garage that I'll need to find too.

I went thru my tubs of parts to find a better gear cluster and a main shaft assembly. Of course all the K and F parts are stored in the same tubs and it took lots of comparing before I was confidant that I had the right parts, so dumped them in the tub of stagnant fuel to give them a degrease before assembly. I found a heap of nice clean parts that Eric sent me (thanks mate!) that I dumped in with the dirty stuff just to keep it all together. I dropped a couple of main shaft assemblies in the tub so I could give them a clean and decide which one to use, making sure I use a K shaft, and not an F shaft, of which I have both. I've got a really big job today of scrubbing everything and selecting the best parts.

Also, the the top case needed a good clean before fixing the chain damage, and paint. I used a little wire toothbrush to scrub all the loose material off the outside and inside of the case, the cylinder studs etc, and compressed air to blow everything away. Next job was the chain damage. The first pic is how it looked when I first opened the box a week ago.

K0 cases 21 Oct 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I used my dad's dremel with a burr to quickly grind away the 50 year old (?) Araldyte Epoxy that had been slopped on when the damage was done. It actually held up well and took a bit of work to remove.

K0 Case repair Sat 31 Oct 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As you can see, it didn't break a piece of the casting right out, but it shoved it forward, leaving quite a gap. I ground it out with a little conical burr, without taking any metal. It's no wonder it would have leaked.

K0 Case repair Sat 31 Oct 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

My mate Fred rang to talk about all things Honda 750 and I told him that I was in the process of trying to fix this hole. Fred is a few years older than me and had a couple of CB750's with chain damage that he had to repair back in the day, and reminded me to use heat to slightly soften it as I tap it back into place. I went and found my old gas butane torch as I've run out of Mapp gas, gave my 10 years out of date bottle a good shake to mix it up after years of sitting, and gave the errant chunk a good heating, while gently tapping it back. This also helped to burn any old epoxy out of the gap

K0 Case repair Sat 31 Oct 2020 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, I softly tapped it with my copper hammer until my nerves failed me and I decided that it was close enough.

K0 Case repair Sat 31 Oct 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I stuck a little aluminium tape around the inside to catch any JB weld, but in hindsight, it was so cold that the JB weld wasn't really flowing like it does on a hot day.

K0 Case repair Sat 31 Oct 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I slopped some JB Weld into the area after roughening it with the burr and cleaned it off with compressed air, then some acetone.

K0 Case repair Sat 31 Oct 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I could have just left like that as it can't be seen with the sprocket cover on, but my OCD couldn't leave it, so this morning I used a variety of dremel sanding drums and flap wheels to smooth it out a bit.

K0 Case repair Sun Nov 1 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also used some sandpaper wrapped around an alloy block to get the case mating surface flat. I couldn't initially work out why there was still a layer of JB on the mating surface, until I put a steel ruler over it and confirmed that it was flat. What I should have realised of course, was that the chunk had been pushed in at an angle, and as close as I could get it, it was still tilted in a bit. Anyway, I'll check it against the bottom case tomorrow to make sure there's no obvious gaps.

K0 Case repair Sun Nov 1 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I forgot to take some more pics after I finished cleaning it out, but I did paint it, and it's been cooking all day at 70 deg C.

K0 Case repair Sun Nov 1 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I spent the rest of the afternoon bored out of my brain cleaning about 3 engines worth of gearbox guts, and around a million 6mm and 8mm screws in preparation for reassembling the bottom end. I've ordered a set of new Phillip's screws and "Big 8" bolts, engine mounting bolts etc from Yamiya, but I've heard that shipping is super slow from Japan right now, so I might have to use whatever I have until they arrive. It might not be pretty, but it'll be functional.......... More tomorrow.

grcamna2 · « **Reply #78 on:** November 01, 2020, 07:52:06 AM »

The cold temps will make it a longer cure Terry,looks good.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #79 on:** November 02, 2020, 03:11:27 AM »

Thanks Bill, well it was winter on Saturday, Spring on Sunday, and Summer today, so good old Melbourne is slowly moving forward to the weather I like most, in fact it got to 29 deg C (85 deg F) today, so a magic day. I did the F2 tank "fix" (fingers crossed) then it was time to start filling the K0 cases with mechanical guts.

Yesterday I spent all day washing parts in my tub of stagnant gas, which I don't recommend to anyone. It's a great degreaser, but my hands still feel like they're sunburned, even after washing them regularly yesterday, then having a shower, then rubbing some medicated moisturiser into my skin. The trouble was, I washed LOTS of parts, and literally hundreds of bolts, washers and nuts, some I'll use on the K0, and some on the K1, the next (last?) CB750 project build. All up I was washing parts for 5 hours or so, so didn't feel real good afterwards.

CB750F2-K0 Mon 2 Nov 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Today was a better day though, with all the scrubbing behind me, it was time to start filling the guts. I remembered to install the primary chain tensioner first, as it's a b1tch to get at once the crank is in place. I installed the new main bearings, gave them a sloppy coat of redline assembly lube, and dropped the crank in place, once I'd installed the new cam chain and primary chains, and the ignition end crank seal. The original gearbox gears were a little too far gone for my liking due to rust, so I found one much better set, that had a little surface rust, which I scrubbed off with a little wire toothbrush. I used lots of engine oil and WD40 to coat all of the gears and bearings, then installed the selector drum and selectors.

I've done this a few times, so didn't need to refer to my Honda workshop manual, until I got to installing the kick starter gear assembly and couldn't remember how to pretension the return spring. The sin of pride had me farting around with it for a good 20 minutes before I gave up and referred to the instructions, and it took only 30 seconds to do.

Anyhoo, all the guts are in, everything appears to work as it should, so tomorrow I can put the top case on, and bolt it all together. So far, so good!

CB750F2-K0 Mon 2 Nov 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #80 on:** November 03, 2020, 04:39:39 AM »

Another magnificent day again today, near enough to 90 deg F, and quite pleasant in the sheltered workshop. I'd put the gears in the bottom case yesterday, so as I had the whole day off from work to do bike stuff, (something about a horse race...) I decided to close it up. I found all the bearing mounting rings (and a heap more, it's great to have spares!) but almost choked up my breakfast when I couldn't find a K0 specific output shaft retaining ring? WTF? One bonus was that the cases came with a minty output shaft, complete with the seal, and as the ring sits between the outer bearing and the seal, the ring should have been there?

I referred to the parts manual and discovered that KO's don't have a full circle bearing retaining ring! Cool! Yep, they only have a half ring like all the other bearings, I guess they must have decided to beef it up after the K0? One other frightening thing was that the big rubber seals in all my new seal kits don't fit a K0 as it has a smaller output shaft by a couple of mm, so had I used one, it would have pissed out oil. Luckily, the 50 year old seal was still nice and soft, so I recycled it. I did a "dry" (no case sealant) test fit just to make sure it was all good before I added a thin layer of blue RTV, and it was all good.

F2-K0 Tuesday 3 Nov 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

F2-K0 Tuesday 3 Nov 2020 4 by Terry
Prendergast, on Flickr

F2-K0 Tuesday 3 Nov 2020 9b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I know, I know, the 6mm bolt heads are disgusting, blah blah blah, but they're only temporary until the shiny new "Big 8" K0 specific bolt kit arrives from Japan. I did clean all the 8mm lower case bolts and they'll be fine, plus they'll be underneath the engine, so no one (me) will care......

Anyhoo, the bottom end is together, the alternator rotor is on, and with the help of my parts manual I was able to work out how to assemble the K0 specific (again.....) gear shifter assembly.

F2-K0 Tuesday 3 Nov 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Everything is torqued down, the crankshaft still turns, I can select gears, so life is good. I probably won't get a lot done tomorrow because I have to go to physio after work and the weather's turning to sh1t again over the next few days, but I hope that I can find four good stock sleeves as I found a new set of genuine rings and 4 new wrist pins, and I think I've got some good pistons, so I can start putting the top end together. Isn't building an engine from disparate parts fun?

The good thing is I checked all of the external engine pieces that I had vapor blasted a couple of years ago, and they all still look great, this clutch cover hasn't been painted, it's just how it came up after the vapor blasting, so I won't be polishing anything, and with the new Yamiya screws, it'll look lovely. More soon.

F2-K0 Tuesday 3 Nov 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

grcamna2 · « **Reply #81 on:** November 03, 2020, 09:30:45 AM »

Very good progress;I like that vapor blasted cover,clean and shiny

I see a black box with a new cam chain,what brand is that Terry ?

PeWe · « **Reply #82 on:** November 03, 2020, 09:58:44 AM »

Looking good!
Fun to assemble clean good parts.
Hopefully no bad threads that can show up when assemble parts never taken apart by yourself, remember the bad threads.
My ongoing engine build has got cases and all sidecovers test mounted to reveal bad threads in time.
Maybe not an oil pump and oil lines.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #83 on:** November 03, 2020, 03:05:48 PM »

Thanks Guys, the camchain was one I think a member here sent me years ago, an old “Tourmax” brand, says “OEM quality, Made in Japan” on the box, I never used it because it came with a rivet style joining link (from back in the day where we’d swap out a stretched chain without splitting the cases) but as it was the only one I had, I summoned up the courage to rivet it together before installing it, and was actually quite happy with the result.

Per, I didn’t bother mentioning it but I ran a 6mm and 8mm bolt thru every thread as part of the clean up, and again post painting, and they’re all good. The box the cases were in had shed python skins in it (pythons are common in Brisbane where the parts came from) and apart from snakes living in the cases, rusty gears and lots of greasy dirt, there were dried wasp nests inside every orifice too.

I sent the seller a pic last night and he couldn’t believe how quick it was progressing and how new everything looked, he says I’ve done more in a month than he did in 20 years, so I was chuffed. I’m waiting on some candy red rattle can paint to arrive so I can paint the airbox, and if the colour is closer to the OEM colour I’ll do the headlight ears again, as they’re a much darker shade.

If not, it’ll be “The KO of many colours”, which worries me not, as long as it’s a good reliable old bike, it’ll do me.

grcamna2 · « **Reply #84 on:** November 03, 2020, 03:43:46 PM »

Terry,Could be that PO wants to purchase the bike when you're done with it..

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #85 on:** November 03, 2020, 04:14:50 PM »

Thanks Bill, I don’t think he’ll have deep enough pockets mate, these things sell for silly money here. I’m not sure he’d want to anyway, he bought it when he was a salesman at a Honda shop, one of the customers had restored a K0 and was selling all the “Leftovers” cheap, so he grabbed them, but shortly after got married, produced a couple of kids, had a mortgage etc, so the K0 resto never happened for him.

I was just lucky that I had some spare cash to buy all his bits, and had the majority of missing bits in my garage., I had to sell a K0 (in bits) a couple of years ago, and that hurt, but the cash came in handy. Thats the good thing about CB750’s, they’re easy sellers.

PeWe · « **Reply #86 on:** November 04, 2020, 07:09:42 AM »

RC had their Cobra engine!

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #87 on:** November 04, 2020, 01:13:32 PM »

Very true Per, I bought the remains of a Cobra engine from a seller in the US, he parted the engine but didn’t know what he had, I bought the ported K0 head, 836cc Arias pistons and cylinders, stock crank with modified stock rods.

I sold them all to a young guy here along with an RC magneto and a heap of other go-fast parts for a drag bike he and his brother were building. I never saw the completed bike, it should have been a beast when done.

754 · « **Reply #88 on:** November 04, 2020, 03:49:26 PM »

What ? An 836 Cobra ?

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #89 on:** November 04, 2020, 05:07:21 PM »

I'm definitely no expert on RC Cobra engines Frank, I can only go on what I was told when I bought it. I thought I still had the pistons in my garage somewhere, but can't find them, I ran them in my K1 using the sleeves that came with them, but the clearances were a little too large, so took them out and swapped in some Cruizinimage 836cc pistons which were a much tighter fit, and got rid of the piston slap. The Arias pistons were around .005" smaller in OD than the CI pistons or even Wiseco's that I had, maybe the extra clearance was for expansion at max RPM's?

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #90 on:** November 04, 2020, 06:22:01 PM »

Speaking of pistons for the K0, I've been ratting thru my collection of pistons and have found some good HM300 pistons, and these CB77 pistons that I bought many years ago from an old road racer in the US who used CB77 pistons in his race bikes to get a bit more performance from bikes that were limited to stock capacity, via higher compression.

K0 piston choices by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

My new stock wrist pins and rings are a good fit, so I'm thinking seriously about using these in the K0 if the sleeves I have come up well with a hone. It probably won't make much of a difference overall, but with the new Delkevic 4 into 1 I ordered yesterday, and an electronic ignition with a nice fat spark I can run 98 RON fuel in it, for just a little more poke.

grcamna2 · « **Reply #91 on:** November 04, 2020, 06:55:48 PM »

Terry,do you have a set of 4) same pistons that measure to your cylinder bores within spec ? They like a nice,tight fit for the best,matched even compression numbers later.I like those high-dome CB77 pistons !

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #92 on:** November 04, 2020, 07:01:34 PM »

Thanks Bill, yep the high dome one’s are a slightly tighter fit in the sleeves I have, which need to first be honed nice and clean and shrunk back into the cylinder block before I can take a measurement with my feeler gauges. I’ll do that once I finish work for the day. If they’re good, I should (fingers crossed) have the top end on by Sunday, woohoo!

grcamna2 · « **Reply #93 on:** November 04, 2020, 07:04:55 PM »

Quote from: Terry in Australia on November 04, 2020, 07:01:34 PM

Thanks Bill, yep the high dome one’s are a slightly tighter fit in the sleeves I have, which need to first be honed nice and clean and shrunk back into the cylinder block before I can take a measurement with my feeler gauges. I’ll do that once I finish work for the day. If they’re good, I should (fingers crossed) have the top end on by Sunday, woohoo!

Oh,you have many spare sleeves? Nice.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #94 on:** November 04, 2020, 07:11:14 PM »

Yes mate, probably a dozen or so stockers, then some big bore ones as well. I do have a new CycleX 849 kit, that I can bore a set of worn 836 sleeves out to, but boring cylinders is a boring process, (I have my own boring machine) so as I’m not looking to building a hotrod, the CB77 pistons might be just the ticket.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #95 on:** November 05, 2020, 02:24:22 AM »

So after I finished slaving from home today I found 4 good sleeves and chucked them in the lathe, and gave them a honing, more to remove the surface rust. Rather than use WD40 (a lubricant) I used a spray can of degreaser (cutting fluid) to remove any crud.

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

They all came up nicely, and using my trusty feeler gauges, on the thrust faces of each of the high comp pistons I could do the "Go-No go" dealio with a .001" and .002" feeler gauge, so I'm gonna say that the average clearance is .0015" (I'm drunk as I type this, so I'm saying one and a half thou) so they're pretty well perfect..

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I probably didn't need to pair each piston and cylinder sleeve as the clearances were uniform right across all 4 cylinders, but I did anyway.

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I found my K0 cylinder block. It still looked lovely after a couple of years since I had it vapor blasted, you gotta love that finish, I wont paint it, I'm told that if I just keep it clean and hit it up with a little WD40, it'll stay nice and shiny. Nice.

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I shoved the block in the industrial oven @ 150 Deg C, and (with the help of my wooden mallet) popped the sleeves into the block.

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 8a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I sprayed some WD40 into each sleeve to stop any surface rusting when the block cooled, and called it good. I must find that bag of rubber buffers that the guy who did the vapor blasting removed, and put them back in place tomorrow. I think they're still in the console of my car, 3 years on....

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

OK, so thinking ahead, once the engine is together I can lay the frame over it and install the forks, swingarm, wheels etc. I've gotta strip, clean and rebuild the forks, install new bronze swingarm bushes and find some crappy repro rear shocks I bought last year to install while I'm cleaning up the Koni's that were on it when I bought it. I pulled out the K0 front wheel and K1 rear wheel and cleaned them up before getting new tyres installed on them, and my F2's Comstars, tomorrow.(?)

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 9e by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I do have the original K0 back wheel, but it needs to be stripped and re-spoked before I can use it, so as this build is a rolling project, i'll use the K1 back wheel while I'm rebuilding the K0 rear wheel. The K1 back wheel won't go to waste, it'll go on my K1 when I rebuild it, next year.

Anyhoo, hopefully my Yamiya parts will arrive shortly, they're using UPS as their organic mail system has been ravaged by Covid (thank you, China, you POS....) so I'm expecting them very shortly, as I need all the engine mounting bolts etc to get the engine strapped into the frame.

I sent an email to Marcel at CB750faces.com about getting my K0 gauges reconditioned, but haven't received a reply as yet, I hope he's OK, Europe and Great Britain is almost as fcuked as the US is with Covid right now, so I hope he's OK, he's a member here, and we (inadvertently) got his business started when he bought a very rare (but not all that valuable) "Transition model" K0 from it's original owner, but we told him the K1 gauges were incorrect for his K0 (in fact, they were correct for the very last 100-ish K0's) so he bought some sh1tty K0 gauges and reconditioned them, and did such a good job, he turned it into a business. I can get them done here in Oz, but I like Marcel, plus he can convert K1 gauges into K0 gauges, so I might get a couple of sets done, and sell one set to help offset the couple of grand I've blown in the last week on new parts. Oh well, he who dies with the most toys wins.........

K0 piston - sleeves 5 Nov 2020 9d by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

grcamna2 · « **Reply #96 on:** November 05, 2020, 09:21:15 AM »

Very nice looking vapor blasted cylinder block you just happened to have around Terry,those CL77 SuperHawk pistons look nice in there.I hope Marcel is still in business over there as he does a complete,great job on our gauges.

lash · « **Reply #97 on:** November 05, 2020, 04:57:25 PM »

Quote from: Terry in Australia on November 03, 2020, 04:14:50 PM

Thanks Bill, I don’t think he’ll have deep enough pockets mate, these things sell for silly money here. I’m not sure he’d want to anyway, he bought it when he was a salesman at a Honda shop, one of the customers had restored a K0 and was selling all the “Leftovers” cheap, so he grabbed them, but shortly after got married, produced a couple of kids, had a mortgage etc, so the K0 resto never happened for him.

I was just lucky that I had some spare cash to buy all his bits, and had the majority of missing bits in my garage., I had to sell a K0 (in bits) a couple of years ago, and that hurt, but the cash came in handy. Thats the good thing about CB750’s, they’re easy sellers.

How much is “silly money ?
Maybe I should send a couple over...

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #98 on:** November 05, 2020, 06:14:32 PM »

Quote from: lash on November 05, 2020, 04:57:25 PM

Quote from: Terry in Australia on November 03, 2020, 04:14:50 PM
Thanks Bill, I don’t think he’ll have deep enough pockets mate, these things sell for silly money here. I’m not sure he’d want to anyway, he bought it when he was a salesman at a Honda shop, one of the customers had restored a K0 and was selling all the “Leftovers” cheap, so he grabbed them, but shortly after got married, produced a couple of kids, had a mortgage etc, so the K0 resto never happened for him.

I was just lucky that I had some spare cash to buy all his bits, and had the majority of missing bits in my garage., I had to sell a K0 (in bits) a couple of years ago, and that hurt, but the cash came in handy. Thats the good thing about CB750’s, they’re easy sellers.

How much is “silly money ?
Maybe I should send a couple over...

You won’t get much change out of $20K USD for a good original diecast K0 mate, and maybe another 15 for a sandcast?

Not fast sellers at those prices though, if you want to make some easy money send me as many K1’s and K2’s, they’re going for upwards of $10K USD here, and I see guys my age (60’s) looking to buy one all the time now. Same/same for Kawasaki Z1’s here, 20K USD all day.

I’m happy to broker them for you, I have a secure rented storage facility to park at least another 5 bikes, so PM if you’re serious, and we’ll work something out.

scunny · « **Reply #99 on:** November 05, 2020, 06:59:41 PM »

Terry, purveyor of fine motorcycles.
Prices can be stupid here too, Graeme Crosby is selling CB750's and Kwaka Z1's for 40grand NZ. Does (or should I say his work crew) do make some nice machines tho.
He's my hero so I aren't going to diss him.

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Author Topic: Terry's new new redneck K0 "Special".......... (Read 54380 times)