Made some progress and stirred up some mud. First pleasant surprise, while gone, the buddy I helped to clean out his late Father-in-law's garage, left me a care package on the breezeway. A box full of parts. Spark advancers, points, plugs, all kinds of gauges, oil pressure, fuel, temp, etc. But the creme was 2 original honda tool kits. Looks like a CB750 and maybe the one for his old CL77. A Honda bag with the number tag, of 6 brand NOW peg rubbers. I need 2, will sell the rest. AND... 12 NOS main bearing shells still in the wrappers. I think I can use them.
So I got the front wheel trued finally. There is a real good FAQ on this so I wont say much more. Only that aluminum rims true up a lot easier than stock steel ones, if you didn't know.
Got it to within .25mm in and out and side to side.
Mounted it up on the fork, the 18 will look a lot better than the 17 which didn't fit and the original 19 which was Huge:
Mocked up the brake brackets, and they fit the 18" wheel. That was the big unknown.
had to trim down some unnecessary bits, it will be cleaner overall.
But here's the bummer. Somewhere in the last 10 years, i have mixed up some parts. I originally had my homemade dual disc setup on this bike for many years. Everything fit fine. The 2nd side needed the spacers we all know about, but no problem there. But now, the 2nd disc and bracket don't come near lining up. About 11mm off.
Could be the fork legs, more likely the hub is a different one. Anyway, I'll get Saldana to machine the darn thing until it lines up. It'll cost a few bucks, but i ain't turning back now.
Hope to get to the tire store tomorrow and get the new BT54 mounted. Then I can disconnect the whole front end and roll it into Saldanas for the fork brace/fender mount, the fender, and now the brake bracket sizing up. If past is any indication they'll turn it around quickly.
The engine goes up on the bench next.