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

[Tintop]

Some really nice stuff in the Gallery(s).  That American flag job is very nice.

[MCRider]

Some really nice stuff in the Gallery(s).  That American flag job is very nice.

Yeah he has a nice portfolio. Too bad he's booked till May and maybe later. Didn't get a good feeling from him. Though that was purely personal.

Looked some more and came up with Henley's. Much closer to me, less than 10 miles. The other would have been 115mi+, 2.5 hour drive. henley's is called the best kept secret of Indpls Custom paint. He's done the Lucas oil bike and a bunch of corporate bikes and hotrods. Talked to him a few days ago. He said its his busy season and he couldn't get to it till the end of April. That would be fine. So after i visit him soon, maybe he's the guy. Got a real good feeling from the conversation.  Amazing shop, in the pictures anyway.

http://henleyskustompainting.com/

[MCRider]

Another shop day in the life. Got the header back on. Still takes some grunt and groan, but much better with the mods we made to the header clamps and collector. For some reason the muffler bracket did not come out under the tab as we had anticipated.

It was supposed to be right below the tab. But mockups don't always make it right. So much for measure twice...

So we made a bridge bracket that will be fine. The plan was always to have a custom bracket made anyway. We can get started with this.


Finally got the oil tank on. We mocked it up a few months ago. The stainless steel lines really resisted bending into place. May have been because it was so cold. Today at 60deg+, and with a coating of WD-40 they went into place pretty easily.

Someone earlier this week had a thread on having stripped out on of the 4 oil line holes into the cases. This prompted me to be sure ours were clean before running the screws in. Turns out they had a fair amount of plastic bead media in them. Luckily they are blind holes so repeated blasts of air and running the tap in, cleaned them out.

The real problem presented itself in getting the 3 tank mount bolts in. Ordinarily this should be a slamdunk. The top two would go in, but the lower one wouldn't line up. The lower one would go in but the top ones wouldn't line up. I was blaming the stiffness of the lines, though that really wasn't a problem as mentioned above. We chased all the threads, ran the die over the shoulder bolts. Really burned up about an hour and it was time to quit.

Not able to give it up, I went back to the shop to say WTF? This shouldn't be this hard, in fact it should be EASY!  After looking at it from several angles i found it. The brake light switch bracket had to be modified to fit with the new motormount I'd bought from Voxonda. (No blame here, the part was never inteded to be used on a street bike) When we put in the top bolts, the tank would shift just a tad on the switch mount where it contacted the oil line, and the bottom hole wouldn't line up. Then put the bottom bolt in first, the tank would rock just a bit the other way and the tops wouldn't line up! Sheesh.

So I took the switch mount off, bent the dang tab down at a 45, put it all back together and bolted up the tank. Good f--king grief.



I wrapped up putting the sidecover and locking dipstick in just to see.



Hard to believe the last time this thing ran was 1995.

[Ecosse]

so ron did ya ever nail down your (paint scheme) design? i know it to be an updated iteration of p1, and that it has been discussed in your thread, but beyond that i'm in the dark.

[MCRider]

so ron did ya ever nail down your (paint scheme) design? i know it to be an updated iteration of p1, and that it has been discussed in your thread, but beyond that i'm in the dark.

Well me too sort of. 

I want to incorporate a lot of 70s elements. I had a Plum Crazy Purple triumph Bonneville. So the main color is to be Purple. Metal flake, flames, for sure, the Wolf's heads on the sides with "Phaedrus" in script. Preferably something in gold leaf. I'll show the painter pictures of P1 and a few other ideas and let him run with it, assuming he's that kind of guy. Some pin striping if it can be worked in. I'm not concerned if it is gosh, actually almost expect it. I'm a pretty plain vanilla guy other than this.

I've been saving up for it, so the budget is pretty good. Remember this is my lifetime legacy project. 

[MCRider]

I would have been happy with this had i not let it sit on the shelf so long it rusted thru.   

[Rookster]

Hi Ron,
The bike looks great.  I think your feed line from the oil tank is a little too long.  It shouldn't have that big sweeping bend in it.  It should tuck in closer to the frame.  Like this:



If you're running stock footpegs your feed line is going to foul the footpeg.

Scott

[MCRider]

Scott:
Thanks!
Good eye. Yeah we realized that it appeared too long, but i didn't have anything to compare it with. Compared to yours, wow, mine is too long. But yours is custom too? I can't quite tell in the photo. I'll need a shot of a stock line to compare and go back to the maker.

They were bot from a reputable supplier who is a member of the forum. I expect that if asked they would make it good.  That was a little of the problem of getting the tank on. We had to pull the slack out of that line to help get the bolts to line up.

My peg is off the bike right now. There is enough slack in the line to get the peg on and tight. And get the bike started, which is the top priority. But the line will likely be touching the peg, and long term I don't want that.

[Rookster]

Hi Ron,

Yeah mine are custom as well. I cut them to fit nice and tight in the space.  I actually trimmed both of them once I got them on, so they are probably shorter than stock.  Mine aren't stainless braid either but just nylon braid so they bend alot easier.

Scott

[Tintop]

Given those are swedged lines, it will have to be shortened at a shop.  It's not a home repair unless you have the proper equipment.  Probably easier to do it at the tank end though, as it has a smaller crimped collar.

[MCRider]

Given those are swedged lines, it will have to be shortened at a shop.  It's not a home repair unless you have the proper equipment.  Probably easier to do it at the tank end though, as it has a smaller crimped collar.

Yeah that was the reason I bought these over the others, they are swedged like OEM rather than clamp ons. So I'm asking the manufacturere for an adjustment. The back line seems to be perfect, its just the front line that's too long. They used my original ends, I think. I sent them to them, but they may have been switched out with someones elses. Don't really care about that.

[Tintop]

I'd ask Rookster to get you a measurement of his.  As the fittings look the same, from the centre of the inlet hole, through the centre line of hose, to the tank side of the nut.  Then compare that to your's.  That would give you a better idea of how much 'over length' your's is.  Your local hydraulic shop should be able to do that while you wait; if getting the original guy to fix it becomes a pain.

[grcamna2]

I would have been happy with this had i not let it sit on the shelf so long it rusted thru.   

Ron,
   That's a Very solid passenger grab bar and should let you're passenger certainly enjoy the ride w/o worrying about falling off..Nice Corbin Too !

[754]

 Ron try running the strap from muffler to footpeg, would look cleaner.. yeah I know you wont use the bracket then... are you sure muffler cant slide on further? did you rechrome it or something?

[Tintop]

How about an alloy 'tipped V' that uses both the foot peg & the extra bracket.  It would offer more support.  If the bracket on the muffer is also bolted on just make the 'V' deeper to P/U the three points.  Would be an easy piece to waterjet cut.

[MCRider]

754 & TT: The rear peg mount, the end of which you can see as a square gold end, is welded, not bolted to the modified frame mount. So it is not available to double as a muffler mount point. Strong though. 

I'll get a smoother looking one piece bracket made up.

754: don't know for sure how I was so far off. Happens. 

[MCRider]

I would have been happy with this had i not let it sit on the shelf so long it rusted thru.   

Ron,
   That's a Very solid passenger grab bar and should let you're passenger certainly enjoy the ride w/o worrying about falling off..Nice Corbin Too !

The grab rail is actually part of the Ventura Rack System. From NZ, when I called them one of the owners said the CB750 was the bike they first started with, the rack i got was the last or near last in their inventory. If you look to the right of the "grabrail" you'll see the luggage platform, though its small.  I think they still list them for K2 and later.
http://www.ventura-bike.com/

The seat was a one off from Corbin in 1995. I actually had it on the 1st Phaedrus and it was very comfortable. It has the removable backrest.

All in keeping with my build theme of it being a "standard".
Thanks.

[MCRider]

Well this is what happens when your goal is to change everything, hopefully for the better, but change nevertheless. Things tend to bump into each other.

Last week we realized that the combination of the double wide motor mount interferes with the brake light switch bracket which in turn  interferes with the stainless braid oil lines. A separate issue has now become that the new oil lines are slightly too long and while I thought we could use them, on closer inspection, the footpeg simply won't fit and the lines must be replaced.

Today we went to mock up the gas tank. I'm changing from the totally illogical right side petcock to the later and logical left side petcock.

Another advantage to the change is that it is a 1 spigot cock, vs the 2 spigots on the old rt side cock. The VM29s have only 1 inlet. On the old Phaedrus I had to run a T to bring the lines together.

My fear was the cock might foul the choke. No problem there. But what we did find... the tank fouls the new position of the ig switch. !!

My bad, poor measurements. After the initial depression, Bruce suggested modifying the key. I really didn't want to move the ig up to the handlebars. On P1, it would foul the tank bag when turning. So I cut half of the T of the key off and it fits OK. If we JBWeld a small extension to what's left, should work fine.
Putting the tank on we discovered it tilted to the right, fouling the #4 carb top and the Valve Cover cap. On closer inspection we see that its actually the left side at fault. The petcock was hitting the #1 intake valve cover cap, pushing the tank to the right. Grinding down a prominence on the petcock brought us closer.

But pursuing that approach ultimately would not fix it, as we discovered moving the cock lever to OFF, it fouls the cap.

Final fix is to use a stock cap.

That fixed everything. The right side is fully clear. I may have the top of the custom valve cap machined down but for now, we have a fix.

We messed with some other systems. Gasket on the gas cap, Kickstarter found cleaned up and installed.

My work schedule should open up in the next few weeks and I'll try to bear down on this project.

[MCRider]

After much thought and contemplation, I've decided to sell this project for whatever i can get and buy a sailboat. 

[Damfino]

Buy a dinghy...

[andy750]

After much thought and contemplation, I've decided to sell this project for whatever i can get and buy a sailboat. 

Nice April Fools

[MCRider]

RATS! Can't fool anybody!   

[Damfino]

87 pages and 10+(?) years of blood, sweat, & tears...No Ron, you hadn't fooled us! 

[RAFster122s]

Ron, sorry for the frustrations on the bike...ruins an otherwise enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Are you going to remake the ignition switch bracket to move the switch down and back more? You could add a spark plug wire standoff/bracket to keep the spark plug wire from chaffing.

Keep plugging along you'll cross the hurdles and finish it before too much longer...

[MCRider]

Ron, sorry for the frustrations on the bike...ruins an otherwise enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Are you going to remake the ignition switch bracket to move the switch down and back more? You could add a spark plug wire standoff/bracket to keep the spark plug wire from chaffing.

Keep plugging along you'll cross the hurdles and finish it before too much longer...

Thanks Rafster. We'll do something with the ignition, don't know what yet. I really wanted to avoid putting it on the handlebar, for the clutter, though that's where it had been for decades. Remaking the bracket with a standoff is likely. But for now we have a workaround.

Recent posts have been downbeat, but we're excited about getting it started. Spike said of one of his bikes, he had touched every nut and bolt during the rebuild. Same thing here. Every nut bolt, oring, seal, bearing, etc. Its one thing to tear one down and reassemble it with the same parts. Another to tear it down and reassemble with virtually all different parts, even though it looks nearly the same. The parts just bump heads.

My main goal is to get the engine started. I don't really want to put oil in the lines till I hear from the manufacturer about getting a shorter one. So in the meantime I've bot some OEMs from eBay. I had already sold the 2 pair I had for salvage of the ends to the same manufacturer, or I'd use them.

PS: Just got an email from the manufacturer, they are shipping, fast way, a new line, but its coming from Germany. Mistakes happen, replacement is all I can ask.

Stil getting the OEMs, just in case.