Topic: Kentucky 750 Project - working on the carbs

[JPW]

I picked up a real basket case of a bike, a 1973 CB 750, really cheap, with the intention of building a nice reliable bobber. The real prize, for me at least, was a solid frame I could title and do what I wanted. I am not in a particular hurry to get this done and I have a 2004 Harley Heritage Softail to satisfy my riding urge.

This is what it looked like when I first picked it up.



I started to disassemble the bike and see just how bad it really was, some of the items were pretty obvious, like the melted wiring, and the electrical box held on with metal water pipe brace.There was speaker wire going all over the place and wrapped all around the loom. The rear wheel, was on backwards, just to make it a roller and had a hideous spray paint job,like the rest of the bike.

So on to the carbs, which were painted all over as well.



I am going to try and remove the paint, via blasting, and see what happens, but I have feeling I will be buying another set, but you never know, it would be really nice to bring them back.

I then started on the front end to keep it balanced on the stand, the first thing I noticed, after cutting the rubber water holders off, was the rust.



Then something else popped up, notice anything interesting about the top of the triple tree?



The wiring was a total loss, so I just ended up cutting it off to remove it.



All, or most, of the engine bolts are Allen head, barely above finger tight, obviously the engine has been apart before, this may be good, or bad, only time will tell.





So this is where I am at the moment, depending on my time schedule tonight I may get the engine out.



I know I will be asking for a lot of help as I have never rebuilt anything like this before.

[Burnboy]

Where in ky are you located? Im from Lexington.

[iownahearse]

that's going to be different a bobber that is not black subscribed! (nice project)

[Roach Carver]

some of those trees had a light mounted there. Import model I think?? anyway, its worth a bit of $ and should not be crucial to your project. I would sell it to someone doing a 69-70 resto and get a cheaper/cleaner one.

[JPW]

Burnboy - I am in Lexington too

Iownahearse (interesting name BTW) - I was originally going to do the black and red, but now the burnt orange look has kind of grown on me.

71cb750 - The top tree is cracked, so if anyone wants it they can have it and I will throw in the bottom tree as well, for the price of shipping.

Right now I am cleaning some of the parts and I am waiting on my bigger compressor so I can soda blast the carbs to get the paint off.

The engine oil looked pretty silvery when I started taking everything apart. I hope to get the engine out of the frame in the next day or two.

More pics to come.

[Burnboy]

hit me up if you need any help im off tates creek, I have a set of triple trees if youre looking for a new set

[JPW]

Thanks, it may be helpful to find someone else to bounce stuff off of, plus I this is the first one of these I taken to this level.

Shoot me an email  at james underscore wellman at hotmail dot com and let me know what you want for the triple trees

James

[JPW]

Started disassembling the carb tonight and it was pretty scary. The choke connectors (not sure what they are really called0 were held in with two types of wire and a small nail. I completely disassembled one carb to see how bad it was and it was totally trashed as the pictures show.

I think I will be able to get the paint off via the soda blasting, but every single gasket needs to be replaced, plus new jets since I plan on letting it breathe a bit better. Is there a comprehensive gasket or rebuild kit? I am kind of interested in seeing if I can revive these from the dead.

[JPW]

As you can see by the new picture I could not wait for my larger compressor to do the soda blasting, so I used my smaller one and glass bead to clean one carb. It looks good and most of the paint came off pretty easy and the chrome on the bowl and ring came off like paint.

I will need to replace every gasket and o-ring on each carb. I found some different kits online that seem to have all, or most of what I need. However I am not sure about the two items that are circled. Any input would be appreciated

[dhall57]

I'm happy for anybody who gets a Honda 750, but JPW this bikes in pretty rough shape. I hope you did get it cheap, because its going to take $$$$ to get this one road ready.

Good Luck!!!

[JPW]

"Only" paid $200 and I was mostly interested in getting a solid frame that I could title, which I did, as I plan to use a TC Bros hardtail kit on it and make a roller frame.

I have no idea how bad the engine is, probably will need to be re-bored, which would probably mean an 836 kit.

I am not in a particular hurry and I am having fun with it so far and learning quite a bit about these bikes. It would be nice to get it going using as many of the original parts I can, which is why I am blasting the carbs and rebuilding them.

[JPW]

OK, still looking for some carb help, I have found and order the connector o-rings and I am ordering the rebuild kits this week. I still have a few items to find and I started the basic polishing of the carbs themselves. I have removed all the old chrome and did some basic polishing on the bowls and I will do the retaining rings (not sure what they are called) as well. The carb bodies will get a light buff as well, but not to much. I am still thinking about painting them.

The pics show the four of them at different stages.

[Roach Carver]

The piece that you have circled in red will most likely be something you will have to scavenge. I dont think they are available new, but who knows. carbs look good so far.

[JPW]

The carbs are coming along nicely and cleaning up very well, I still need to find some parts and pieces, but it is coming along. Started taking the engine apart and after the soda blasting the pistons they seem to look OK, with no scoring, I just need to see if they are all within spec. Cylinder walls had no damage and no marks or damage there either.



I like to never got the cylinder head split. The top cylinder was toasted with broken fins and and stripped cam hold down screws and even smacking that with a dead blow hammer did not budge them. I eventually was able to drive some hard maple wedges in between them and get them apart. I have a couple cylinder heads in route, via ebay.



I also bought an old mustang style gas tank for less than $30 via ebay. The seller said it had some bondo on the top,but I liked the look and the price. I stripped it when it arrived and it had no dents or damage and the bondo was someones attempt to smooth the seam where the tank was welded together. The tank was exceptionally strong and seemed very well built.



When I cleaned the bottom I noticed some markings on it



I managed to pick up a very solid, vintage Paughco tank for cheap.    The address is for North Hollywood, with the phone number and it appears these tanks were late 70's, early 80's make since he moved around 1983.