The donk is out! Yep, I got the engine out and the frame stripped. Tomorrow it's off to the powdercoaters.
So that oil filter bolt just needed a bit of powertool action. I had to cut the head down to fit a 10mm ring spanner over it. I already found a replacement (400fourbits.co.uk), so no worries there. If I could buy complete set of stainless bolts steel bolts for this bike, I would. I've seen some around for the engine casing etc. Should I get phillips-head or allen-key? What's better? I'm certainly not putting all these corroded soft metal screw back on.
View up into the engine. You can see where the sump filter is connected. I had to take that off to get it the engine out.
Same with the carbies. Need to rebuild and clean these suckers. Will do that when the frame and engine are away.
I had to take the breather cover off too. There's not a lot of room in the frame to move. A lesson learned with this, follow every step of the manual. You can't shortcut.
Next I got the rear drum brake off. Not knowing what to look for, is this safe? Should I replace the pads? What about the bearings? Obviously I'm going to give the whole thing a good clean.
Trying to lube the forks out of their rings. Hard work without a proper stand/work bench.
Nest to come off was the forks and steering assembly. I need to replace the fork end caps/bolts/covers. They're rusty a crap, plus I had to band 'em a bit to get the forks loose.
The headlight mounting bracket. So bad, it really seems like a crappy design. I'll probably buy a new one. Anyone have some good ideas for an aftermarket one? Both a bracket for the bucket a the indicators. Fork ears? Who makes good ones of those for a cafe project?
Look what my friend Rhys caught. I'm going to clean this, reroute as best as possible and try and heat shrink instead of electrical tape everything. I'm anal about clean electronics, it's my computer tech side coming out.
Didn't realize the headstem bearings weren't captive. The promptly ejected everywhere when I took the seal off. Nevermind, I wanted to rebuild this anyway. The least I can do to ensure a safer bike is rebuild the steering I reckon'.
For the life of me I couldn't get this center stand off. I undid the screws and pins, but the inner tube wouldn't give. For some reason the dis-assembly isn't in the manual, so I couldn't check to see if I was missing anything. Never mind, I was going to powder coat the center stand anyways (too chrome is expensive for a part I don't really mind being black) so I'll just leave it in place and powdercoat it and deal with the cracks.
Cleaning up the frame a little bit. I cut off the seat lock (was broken anyways) and took off some redundant wiring hangers. I left the rear pegs and silencer mount, I figure I might need those. I wanted to weld on a bar around the tail like Idaho Doug did, but I don't know what seat I'm going to use so I'll deal with it later if I have to.
Now the frame and every other bit I could think of to get powder coated is in the back of my car. I'm dropping it off tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get the engine hydro blasted too, but I'm not sure if I have it ready yet. Plus I need a new alternator cap and I don't want the colour to mismatch.
On a side note, does anyone know if a CB350F tank will fit on a CB400F? I really like the look of the 350F tank, it has the knee divets and Norton-esque lines. I'm just not sure if it'll a) physically fit and b) look good, it might be too small. Anyone know, I'm gonna buy one on ebay I think.
Well that's it for today. I feel like once I get the powder coating done I'll be in a much better position, as I'll actually be on the way up so to speak. Happy days.
Rick.
P.S. Thanks for the help guys. I'll just JB weld on the fin or leave it, I'm not as concerned about it now that I've slept on it.