Topic: Phaedrus: CB750 RestoMod - Update: 09/23/21 w/ new video

[MCRider]

While waiting on the clocks and chrome to return, we turned to the temporary rats nest of wire under the tank. IT was keeping me from installing the tank easily, not a one man job as it should be.

The main culprit was the horn relay harness from Eastern Beaver. I bot the large universal version, and its long enough for a really big bike. Other things needing sorting were the ignition/coil wires the Main switch wire/coupler.
A little work and shifting around got the main harness in a better place, and the ignition coupler followed.

The key to the relay wires was to route them on the right side. And pull a few coils into it hidden behind the side cover.
Now tank install is a one man job.

Cleaned up the Hondaman transistor pack wiring and routed the breather hose.

All for now, waiting on Santa.

[seanbarney41]

Hi MCRider, wiring cleanup looks really good but your pics reminded me that I have questions for you.  You are running Mikuni vm29's, correct?  I recently picked up a set of Mikuni vm26's and intake adapters with the intention of using them on a cb750.  I have them mocked up on a parts bike and managed to get the stock pull throttle cable to work with some major re-routing.  The push cable is way wrong.  I am curious what you did for throttle cables?  I am guessing the info is somewhere in this very thorough thread, but I don't know how to search for it.  Any info or a point in the right direction would help.

[MCRider]

Hi MCRider, wiring cleanup looks really good but your pics reminded me that I have questions for you.  You are running Mikuni vm29's, correct?  I recently picked up a set of Mikuni vm26's and intake adapters with the intention of using them on a cb750.  I have them mocked up on a parts bike and managed to get the stock pull throttle cable to work with some major re-routing.  The push cable is way wrong.  I am curious what you did for throttle cables?  I am guessing the info is somewhere in this very thorough thread, but I don't know how to search for it.  Any info or a point in the right direction would help.

I bot the VM29s from an outfit selling them for CB750 use back in 1980. I 'd guess it was the now defunct Action4s or someone like them. They came on a rack with the bell crank. Both cables hooked up effortlessly and the carbs worked flawlessly from day 1, with only minor tuning from the set up they came with. I told the sellers I was using them on an 888cc engine with mild cam and pipe, and they set them up.  On that setup I used the stock cables. now I'm using a motionPro braided cable but still a replacement for stock CB750, just cut to length. The OEM cables were a trifle long for low bars.

I've only heard of people using the 29s on CB750s never the 26s. Only app I know of for the 26s were like 650 Kawasakis.

Get some 29s?

[seanbarney41]

From your pics and what I have seen of other Mikuni VM carb racks, 26's, 28's, and 29's are basically identical as far as the throttle bell crank, so I have no idea why your stock cables work and mine don't.  Thanks for your answer though.

[MCRider]

From your pics and what I have seen of other Mikuni VM carb racks, 26's, 28's, and 29's are basically identical as far as the throttle bell crank, so I have no idea why your stock cables work and mine don't.  Thanks for your answer though.

Yup, good luck.

[Ichiban 4]

Hi Ron..

Guess the mods don't want me to post on this here..my previous post dropped mid-sentence..for some reason.

Anyway..was just wanting to convey in nice way..that would appreciate moving-on with the Phaedrus II thread..to perhaps stuff about how she rides..where you go..trip stuff..et al.  Have appreciated the years of build thread on P II..but has felt lately like has become exercise in redundancy..about the mechanical..related stuff.  Hmm./still here writing this..perhaps this doesn't sound so critical??

Finally..just wanted to say that feel I'm much the same way about going over stuff in fine-minute detail at times (40 years in Dentistry tends to do that).  Would just like to see how Phaedrus..and you do out on the road nowadays..if may suggest..

Take care Bro..

Al / Ichi

[MCRider]

Hi Ron..

Guess the mods don't want me to post on this here..my previous post dropped mid-sentence..for some reason.

Anyway..was just wanting to convey in nice way..that would appreciate moving-on with the Phaedrus II thread..to perhaps stuff about how she rides..where you go..trip stuff..et al.  Have appreciated the years of build thread on P II..but has felt lately like has become exercise in redundancy..about the mechanical..related stuff.  Hmm./still here writing this..perhaps this doesn't sound so critical??

Finally..just wanted to say that feel I'm much the same way about going over stuff in fine-minute detail at times (40 years in Dentistry tends to do that).  Would just like to see how Phaedrus..and you do out on the road nowadays..if may suggest..

Take care Bro..

Al / Ichi

Yeah Al, I feel the same way, sort of. At least recently, since the 2nd rebuild, to cure the smoking, and start up. There hasn't been decent weather to even start it up, let alone ride it around.

I certainly have my plans for riding it and would much rather talk about such experiences at this point. I've had plans for long trips, overnighters and week longs, like I used to do. But it may not happen.

You may not have picked up on this, but I've contracted a disease (peripheral neuropathy) which may preclude me from ever giving a ride report. Many things are difficult for me to do, and riding again may be one of them. I haven't ridden anything since I totaled my FJR back in Aug, 2012. I'm going to try, but I don't know how it will go.

So be prepared for more shop talk. Hopefully I can do that for years to come.   

[Tintop]

...........So be prepared for more shop talk. Hopefully I can do that for years to come.   

Given you've been doing that for the past 5 1/2 years, no reason to stop now.

[MCRider]

...........So be prepared for more shop talk. Hopefully I can do that for years to come.   

Given you've been doing that for the past 5 1/2 years, no reason to stop now.

I know. Al's just a little impatient, I am too. He's been on board since the beginning.  Nothing would thrill me more than to write a ride report from the Mountains of N Wyoming.  But things are what they are and we'll make the best of it.

[andy750]

Hey Ron if you are needing a test pilot to take Phaedrus II on a long road trip just let me know and Ill be right over when the weather warms up. A ride back to Boston or around Lake Michigan would be the ticket! This way I can get a few scenic shots for next years SOHC calendar

cheers
Andy

[MCRider]

Hey Ron if you are needing a test pilot to take Phaedrus II on a long road trip just let me know and Ill be right over when the weather warms up. A ride back to Boston or around Lake Michigan would be the ticket! This way I can get a few scenic shots for next years SOHC calendar

cheers
Andy

What an idea! There is a well known scenic highway up the west side of Michigan. Tunnel of Trees or something like that.  Not sure how comfortable I would be, if something happened to you while on it, I'd feel terrible. Nevertheless, we'll think on it. Thanks!   

[seanbarney41]

Hey Ron if you are needing a test pilot to take Phaedrus II on a long road trip just let me know and Ill be right over when the weather warms up. A ride back to Boston or around Lake Michigan would be the ticket! This way I can get a few scenic shots for next years SOHC calendar

cheers
Andy

What an idea! There is a well known scenic highway up the west side of Michigan. Tunnel of Trees or something like that.  Not sure how comfortable I would be, if something happened to you while on it, I'd feel terrible. Nevertheless, we'll think on it. Thanks!   

wow, way to pick the most treacherous road in Michigan!  M119 north of Harbor Springs, about 10 miles worth of narrow, blind curves with 2 real hairpins, cliff down to L. Michigan on one side, dense forest on the other...2 out 3 times I've ridden it, someone got spat off.  (1 of those times was me!),

[andy750]

Wow that sounds like a challenge!

[nccb]

Hey Ron if you are needing a test pilot to take Phaedrus II on a long road trip just let me know and Ill be right over when the weather warms up. A ride back to Boston or around Lake Michigan would be the ticket! This way I can get a few scenic shots for next years SOHC calendar

cheers
Andy

What an idea! There is a well known scenic highway up the west side of Michigan. Tunnel of Trees or something like that.  Not sure how comfortable I would be, if something happened to you while on it, I'd feel terrible. Nevertheless, we'll think on it. Thanks!   

Just make Andy750 put a hefty insurance deposit down with you first. . .and his soul.

[MCRider]

Wow that sounds like a challenge!

If I can do it safely, its my trip. (I thought it was a longer stretch than 10 miles).

But if I can't, we'll talk.   

[seanbarney41]

Wow that sounds like a challenge!

If I can do it safely, its my trip. (I thought it was a longer stretch than 10 miles).

But if I can't, we'll talk.   

technically, the Tunnel of Trees is only around 10 Miles.  It has been designated an American Historic Road because it has not been changed for a very long time, thus why it is so curvy, narrow, hump backed, and dangerous for anything more than about 40mph.  Hundreds more miles of scenic rides along Great Lake shorelines, though.

[MCRider]

Wow that sounds like a challenge!

If I can do it safely, its my trip. (I thought it was a longer stretch than 10 miles).

But if I can't, we'll talk.   

technically, the Tunnel of Trees is only around 10 Miles.  It has been designated an American Historic Road because it has not been changed for a very long time, thus why it is so curvy, narrow, hump backed, and dangerous for anything more than about 40mph.  Hundreds more miles of scenic rides along Great Lake shorelines, though.

Oh, that makes sense, thx!

[seanbarney41]

MCRider, and anyone else here for that matter, if you are lookin' to ride in Michigan, look me up!

[edwardmorris]

Ron, I'll be on your way there, so ping me as well if I can get it running soon.

[Tintop]

This is starting to sound like the "1st Annual Phaedrus II: CB750 Super Standard Michigan Ride".

[MCRider]

This is starting to sound like the "1st Annual Phaedrus II: CB750 Super Standard Michigan Ride".

All this because Al was getting a little impatient?       

[MCRider]

No run or ride reports this week. (Sorry Al) 

Brown's box came. Delayed Christmas:
Packed like meat from the butcher




The after market oil filter bolt won't thread in all the way. Looks like the die they used to cut the threads was worn out and the threads aren't deep enough. I'm using a narrow file to painstakingly file into the threads to make them deeper. I've got an hour into already and making little headway. An example of why this project is taking so long.

Marcel confirmed he is in receipt of my gauges. He will do what the first outfit should have done to begin with. The pots were dry and idiot lights weren't even glued to the faces. I thought they looked funny. The internal edges of the holes and odometer cutouts weren't blacked out either.

[Tintop]

That chrome looks really nice MCR.   Do you not have a die you can run down the threads??

[MCRider]

That chrome looks really nice MCR.   Do you not have a die you can run down the threads??

Not one that big. I top out at 12mm and that bolt's threads are  17mm. I've got a steel adapter for an oil cooler and it threads on alll the way. But try to thread it into the threads of the crankcase and it gets real tight abut half way. I could probably put a wrench on it and really screw up the crankcases. But the first bolt threads in smoothly all the way. Mate the two male ends together and it becomes obvious the one I had chromed (just the head) doesn't settle into the threads of the non-chromed one. So the threads are just two nubby.

[Tintop]

Forgot it was that big.  Running a nut down it with some WD40 might work.   It would need to be a good grade, and a metric one that big wouldn't be cheap.  Hand filing threads is a pita.  At least it's not sunny and 70 outside.