Topic: 1980 CB650 Custom "In Progress"

[coldwave007]

Soooo....I finally decided to start polishing the aluminum tonight, and after an hour and a half of that decided it was time for a thread for my bike. 

In short, it's a 1980 CB650 Custom that was purchased in the dead of winter (December) 2010, frozen and non-running.   Jan-March I did a basic tear down to get the basic essentials cleaned up and fixed, and come spring got it fired up and basic tuning done.  I've been riding it on and off all summer since then - upgrading parts or fixing others as I go.  And now the Pics!!  I'm breaking them up by month/build day.

[coldwave007]

Hell hath frozen over! (December 2010)

As she looked the day after I picked her up.  She spent the night in my Dad's garage so that all of the ice and snow could melt.  We put some fresh gas in and managed to get her to fire.  Ran like crap, but hey, it was a start!

Not too shabby for a start.  Missing the side cover, and as I would learn, A LOT of hidden damage to the right side.  Turns out she had "been down". 

[coldwave007]

January 2011 (Day 1)

This was the real start of the tear down.  Didn't remember to take pics until after I was about done for that day, but oh well.  Here's what I've got!

Carbs about off:


Stripping the front end.  The bars were bent to hell from being dropped, as was basically the entire headlight assembly and turn signals.  It even snapped the speedo cable!




Replaced the entire rear tree.  Old one was snapped/mangled/horribly welded.

[coldwave007]

Day 2 of the tear down in January. 

Front tire all the way off so I could get to the ears.


Redefining the term "naked bike"


Ready to start digging into the carbs


The right ear was pretty damaged.  We straightened as best we could, but still not great.  Later on I managed to score a better one off ebay and swapped it.

[coldwave007]

After languishing in the back of the garage for 2 months while Dad and I finished snow machine prepping (Tired Iron Races), I finally returned to the CB650!  And once again, I forgot to start taking pics until it was half back together.  :-/ 

Going back together nicely - much cleaner, and the previously bent bar is definitely better.  I later managed to get one of the original bars for the bike so that it would, you know, CLEAR THE TANK!!!  (Swears at PO)

Carbs going back in.  SOOO much shinier!  They're clean on the inside too!  ;-)



ZOMG!!! It's a real bike now!!!!!  Got it all back together again pretty much.  Battery was low so left it on the trickle charger over night. 

[coldwave007]

After the assembly, most of the rest of the time was just getting the bike "run and tuned."  Adjusted the valves, cam chain, replaced spark plugs, new air filter, tracked down airbox side covers, the stock bars, etc.  Didn't take any pics of that stuff though...so here's a couple shots of her after riding for like 2 weeks!  Taken out back of the apartment complex I live in.

[coldwave007]

So after riding for a few weeks, I finally had a real problem.  Was going to go on a ride to the local hotsprings (50 miles each way) when she "sprung a leak".  Looked down in the Safeway parking lot to find a nice puddle of oil.  Checked the level - plenty good enough to get home, so rode the mile back to the garage.  A couple of weeks laster I had two shifter seals in hand!

Got the sprocket cover off.  Just NASTY.  The sprocket and shifter rod was just as bad.



As I quickly discovered, turned out that CB650s have an infinite chain.  Go figure.  Sooooo I browed my Dad's grinder.  Oh, how the sparks flew!!! What's left is below.




Cleaned up the cover and sprocket




Back together again with a brand new chain and shifter seal pushed in place. 

[coldwave007]

I spent the evening yesterday adjusting the floats and pilots on the carbs.  The bike hadn't been right since I went from stock > to Keyster rebuild kit > back to stock jets but with the newer seals.  The carbs even started overflowing.  So I did the rebuild and was *very* happy with the result. 

Tonight I had planned to check the sync on the carbs, but after work I really wasn't in the mood to think - needed something mindless - so I decided to try my hands at polishing!  I've never polished aluminum before, but I'm pleased with the results!  There's some pretty deep scratched on the covers (curse you PO!!!!), but I was surprised how much of the damage came out!  Pics aren't the best - taken with my cell.

Before pic.  There were quite a few scuffs and discolorations that the pic really doesn't show.


After!! (1.5 hours of polishing)  Soo much better!!!



View from the front.  You can really see how much shinier it is on the left compared to the untouched right.

Tomorrow I'll start on the shifter cover.  Pulled the shifter any to get at the stator cover, so might as well start there next!

[coldwave007]

And with that I'm up to date!  I really wish I had done this as the build progressed cause I know I'm forgetting a lot of stuff I did in between.  But I'll try to keep this thread up to date from now on, and take more pictures!!

Things done off camera:
Replaced headlight, ears, bucket, and lamp ring.
Replaced Tach and Tach Cable
Replaced Speedo cable
Rebuilt Master Cylinder/blead brakes
Rebuilt front forks w/Progressive springs
Replaced front fork seals/wipers (now THAT was a project)
Replaced rear shocks/springs with Progressive
Swapped crappy handlebar for NOS one
Replaced all four Head-to-Carb boots with new ones from Honda
Replaced both coils - old ones had massive cracks and worked, but didn't trust them for wet weather
Replaced both spark units - old ones were burnt up
New spark plugs


Normal Maintenance I need to get back to:
*Check the sync on the carbs, haven't done that since May.
*Check valves again
*Adjust cam again

Fixes/Upgrades still needed:
*Need to source new spark plug caps/wires
*Tank dent still needs to be fixed/painted...might outsource that
*Side covers need painting - thinking I'll source it same as Tank
*Upgrade to tapered bearings in the steering column
*Check out the wheel bearings.  Couldn't get into the rear bearing cover off without a special tool to remove the plate.  For now greased the hell out of the axle shafts.
*Get new sprockets and a good o or x-ring chain.  I have a fairly basic, but new chain on it right now with a normal master link.  Want to switch to a riveted one while she's down over the winter, that way I can really figure out what I want.
*Getting blue smoke after she warms up out of 1 and 4.  Not sure if it's the valve stem seals (have on hand already) or if it's rings.  Last time I did compression (plugs out, throttle open) it was good, with 155 being the highest and 145 being the lowest.  For now just going to ride it and watch the oil level.  Tear it down once riding season is over (barely a month and a half left).

And that's about it.  Thanks for reading!  I'll bump this again as I go.

[scunny]

looks like a pretty good start. don't sweat the blue smoke just yet, those comp numbers look ok. the rings etc might bed in, don't baby it, these bikes like to rev.