Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[marsbound]

Removed, rebuilt, and reinstalled the carbs on my CB400F...and yet it STILL leaks gas out of the overflow tubes! It's driving me crazy!

[grcamna2]

The K0 is looking good Terry.

Thanks Bill, it’s a lovely old bike, one day once I’m retired (14 months to go) I’ll strip it down and restore it again, but for the time being, I’m just looking forward to riding the wheels off it.

Have you taken it for a spin today Terry ?

[Terry in Australia]

The K0 is looking good Terry.

Thanks Bill, it’s a lovely old bike, one day once I’m retired (14 months to go) I’ll strip it down and restore it again, but for the time being, I’m just looking forward to riding the wheels off it.

Have you taken it for a spin today Terry ?

No it’s at Spotty’s place Bill, so won’t be riding it until the weekend.

[Terry in Australia]

Once a year we here in Melbourne, Oz, get the Friday off before the football (no, not soccer or gridiron, or rugby etc, something a bit different) Grand Final, so folks can gather in the city and watch the two teams being driven past in open cars so their fans can see them and wish them/plead with them, a great win. Personally I think the Monday after would be much better, so we could see a post Grand Final parade of the winning team with massive hangovers vomiting into the open cars, and being booed by the losing team's disgruntled supporters. Maybe they will, so I've taken Monday off as well, just in case.

But I digress. (I'd call it "the weave", but someone else has already used that excuse) Today Spotty and I did more trouble shooting on the K0. We fired it up, and it was clearly running on 3 cylinders, #3 pipe was as cold as ice. (One of my favourite songs, by "Foreigner", which of course I am to most of you who read this drivel) We pulled the plug, (again) and confirmed that it was wet with fuel, and was happily sparking. Spotty suggested a compression test, but sadly we couldn't get the compression tester screwed in (too much frame/horn etc in the way) so he kicked it over a couple of times and I could feel air coming out of the spark plug hole. (better than one cylinder in my Suzuki T500, which I'm guessing has a hole in one piston. Ooops, there I go again) Spotty then suggested dropping the float bowl and checking the jets weren't clogged? Great Idea, I removed the bowl which had plenty of fuel in it, a little bit of dirt, oh, and the main jet, and holder assembly. Well, that's yer problem.........     

He suggested that I check the rest of the carbs, and sure enough, the main jets were all loose. Now I know that I should stop blaming the "Expert" carb rebuilder who I bought them from. Sure they were $1000 USD plus shipping, and sure, his ad said they were tested and ready to go straight on, but I know, I should have checked everything, like whether or not he'd installed the top gaskets (he hadn't) or whether he'd tightened the jets, (he hadn't) so they wouldn't fall into the float bowls and confuse the fcuk out of Spotty and I. Anyhoo, we reinstalled/tightened the jets, checked the pilot jets (they were all tight) turned the fuel back on and hit the button, and it ran great. Thank God. I took it for a ride around the block, and called it good. I rode over to the storage unit and Spotty followed me over to 1. Make sure I arrived, and 2. to give me a ride back to his place. It ran great.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna take it for a decent ride. Hopefully nothing else will fall off. (but I'll take my phone with me, just in case....)

[newday777]

Ah yes Terry, the story of many who have bought carbs ready to run, rebuilt by professional carb ahhh, rebuildeerrs.....pronounced dee errs. They, the twerps, should be hung upside down from the mast.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Stu, as annoying as it was, we were both relieved that the engine didn’t have to come out again.

[newday777]

I'm sure you were.
I'm dealing with a set on a friend's K8 that have been running me in circles too.

[spotty]

Well, after yesterday's excitement ( Terry may have neglected to mention there's still an oil leak from somewhere around the head gasket but as they all do that he's not going to worry about it )
So I'm back to the dirtbike today. A while ago Terry drilled and tapped holes to use for the steering stops ( CB900 triple clamps have the steering  stops in the same place sohc:s have them on the frame ) so I've used what we ( and possibly you guys too ) call connectors ( imagine a nut about 2 inches long ) screwed onto an M8 S/S Allen bolt then screw the whole thing into the lower triple clamp.
It worked fine but looked wrong so I countersunk the end of the connector, turned down the outer edge of stainless countersunk Allen bolts, put it all back together and it still works great and looks much nicer.
One photo has a before and after, the other has both new ones installed. They're both set so the flats of the connectors meet the flats of the steering stop at the right angle.

[spotty]

Did this a while ago, the stock bolts for the fork clamps of the top triple are 7mm, totally unobtanium in stainless allen bolts so I very carefully jigged the clamp up in the drill press and took them out to 8mm

[spotty]

And back to the triple clamp, Terry also converted it to take normal bars (CB900's have clip-on like arrangements that clamp round the forks which are consequently longer as a few inches stick out above the triple clamp ) which involved making fill in blocks for the big holes in the triple then bolting them in from the back. Next was drill them to take the bolt on bar clamps ( aftermarket ones for the MX fatbars)
Again this all worked fine but looked a bit clunky ( not Terry's fault of course, he just did what I asked ) so I took it all apart, countersunk the threaded holes, turned down the bolts and put it all back together. Works fine, looks a load better.
Made fittings for the tank breather, drilled out two alloy nuts to thread to M6, drilled out two M6 bolts to thread through them from underneath through the tank cap and steering centre nut. It took 5 attempts to get the two bolts right but all good in the end. I'll use better hose in the final build but happy with the results

[spotty]

The rest of the pictures

[spotty]

New rear guard nearly done. It's making the seat sit too high but the heat gun should fix that.
The two ends of frame rail will have to be cut off and plugged though I could put rear indicators inside them

[BallAquatics]

Front brake was hanging up on the '74 CB550.  Pulled the caliper and removed the piston side pad.  Cleaned out the corrosion and all is well.   

[grcamna2]

New rear guard nearly done. It's making the seat sit too high but the heat gun should fix that.
The two ends of frame rail will have to be cut off and plugged though I could put rear indicators inside them

Rear indicators inside them 

[spotty]

New rear guard nearly done. It's making the seat sit too high but the heat gun should fix that.
The two ends of frame rail will have to be cut off and plugged though I could put rear indicators inside them

Rear indicators inside them 

it'll have to wait until after roadworthy and registration as having them that close together is illegal here, they have to be 12" apart centre to centre

[grcamna2]

New rear guard nearly done. It's making the seat sit too high but the heat gun should fix that.
The two ends of frame rail will have to be cut off and plugged though I could put rear indicators inside them

Rear indicators inside them 

it'll have to wait until after roadworthy and registration as having them that close together is illegal here, they have to be 12" apart centre to centre

You might make some small adjustable ones that mount inside there and could be on a swivel w/ joints that can be tightened and allow them to stretch outward or be close in 

[eastern]

Disassembled and cleaned the carbs.  Adjusted the valves.  Set the cam chain tension.  Removed the inline filter the PO had installed.  I'm actually wondering if these were the cause of my problems.  They left a massive kink in the fuel line.  It HAD to be causing running issues.  Either way, bike is running WAY better.  First time doing all of the above.  Was very satisfying to have the bike start and then run so well. 

[fire113]

...checked the parts that arrived here today.

[MauiK3]

Earlier in the week I installed new oil lines from Yamiya, my old ones sprouted a leak at the crimp near the engine, not wanting to take a chance I decided to replace both lines. I'm keeping my old ones because of the fittings. Yamaha's replica lines are fine, they are black, but one of the fittings needed a little massaging to get the socket on the bolt head to torque it.
We were out on a ride and didn't notice the leak until we were just getting back. The back tire was wet with oil, good thing I didn't do any serious right hand turns or things may have been different. I didn't lose enough oil to endanger the motor, thankfully.
In the photos are the two fittings that are a bit different.
All good now.

[MauiK3]

I also finally put the tank trim back on. I delayed because I thought I liked the look but I realized the original look was better, Honda knew what they were doing.

[newday777]

I rode the wing 2.5 hrs to Rutland VT to buy a F/2 tank. It has sun fade, minimal rust inside so a quick couple of days filled with Evaporust will clean it up.
A great ride with some foliage still on the trees and warmed up to 67° from 42° at one point this morning.
Just received my Hungry Burger, a farm to table dinner

[Don R]

 I checked the brake fluid on the sandcast and noticed that it's turning brown. Been a while since I rebuilt it.

[fire113]

...did the seat, took off the unpainted original gas tank and took the CandyBlueGreen gas tank in original paint.

[newday777]

...did the seat, took off the unpainted original gas tank and took the CandyBlueGreen gas tank in original paint.

Did you paint the tank yourself?

[fire113]

...original paint from 1969