Topic: cb400f "Project Resurrection"

[-CB-Jamie-]

Well this is what I'm starting off with  I've basically picked up two engines and frames and a load a bits and pieces



The plan is to try resurrect a bike out of the parts you can see above + bits picked up on ebay or from david silvers, the plan is to go for an original bike but i probably wont keep it an original colour.

I've started doin a bit of work now, got it stripped down to the frame and painted up the frame.
I've ordered a few bits and pieces now and the plan is to put the engine back in the frame and see if I can get it started  next week as it hasn't ran for years and I'm not sure what kinda condition its in internally.


Had sump off getting it out of frame and things got a bit messy

[Kwality]

Good luck!

[rickmoore24]

Nice lot of parts you got there, keep at it! Good luck!

Rick

[-CB-Jamie-]

Thanks for the comments, well i've done a small bit more now, i picked up a complete air assembly (airbox, air filter housing, air tunnel) locally so got that painted up and on the bike now, i washed down the heavy dirt off the engine and have it back in the frame so its now a rolling frame(after robbing a rear wheel of the cb200 for a while), cleaned out the carbs, so fingers crossed it'll start in the next few days.

Heres a few pics:







Oh yeah when i opened up the carbs i came accross a little repair job that had been done by the previous owner. the part the that the float pin slides through had broke off and the PO had wrapped a piece of wire around to hold the float pin. its kinda hard to explain so i took a few pics to show, could be a handy little fix for anyone else who has a similar problem.

[-CB-Jamie-]

Well it ran anyway , couldn't beleive it as this engine hadn't ran in about ten years I think and I've never had any experience getting something like this going after its been idle so long.

Had a bit of a problem first with the points and it only started on two cylinders the first time round, I set the points gap right but for the some reason the points weren't actually closing, I'm guessing from wear. I had a spare set lying around though and threw them on and it fired right up.

I am getting a lot of blue smoke from it though but I'm hoping that would settle down with a bit of a run but unfortunately thats not possible at the moment. I was only able to leave it running for about 20 mins at a time as I have no fan to keep it cooled.

I did a compression test on it too while it was warm and I got readings of between 102psi and 110psi across the four cylinders so I'm happy with how close together they are and I'm hoping my low reading is from the compression gauge with a big hose like was pointed out in the engine FAQ's.
Came up with a nifty little temp petrol tank too just for running purposes.



Heres my temp "petrol tank", just kept it topped while i was running the bike

[Goosehead]

Awesome work mate, we need more CB400's on the road for sure.

[-CB-Jamie-]

Update time,

Well i stripped it all back down anyway and sent my engine, hubs and carbs to be soda blasted, should have them backin the next day or two and they'll be ready to paint straight off.

I've stripped my M.C. and got it all out undamaged with a bit of a struggle so I'll probably reuse it, stripped my caliper and used the grease gun method to get the piston out after finding this method on the forum.

Painted the M.C., caliper and yokes.

Installed steering taper bearings.

Had major problems getting the pin out of the centre stand, i had previously cut the pin on both sides to get the centre stand off the frame and so this caused major headaches trying to get the pin out of the stand as it was fairly well seized. I had been putting penetrating all on it every now and then over about 3 weeks but this did nothing to help and so i eventally came up with the idea of putting a hack saw blade through the pin and cutting the pin right down the length twice and this weakened it enough for me to drive it out of the stand but it still took a lot of effort. It was dry the whole way through so obviously the penetrating oil had gotten nowhere. well I'm happy I don't have to go looking for another centre stand anyway.

Just watched a completely mint NOS 400f exhaust and header go on ebay for £1111 sterling yesterday, really wish i had the money for that.

Heres a few pics anyway:







I'll post more pics as soon as i get my engine and stuff back from soda blasting.

Jamie

[strynboen]

good work..have heatet /olied...hamred and heatet over and over. vith my senter stand..now i vill try that hack saw metode....but have long way to reatch you..mine gear box have an pittet tandveel..looking for an spare engine,,or gearbox

[Really?]

subscribed to watch this build.  This will be kewl.

[-CB-Jamie-]

good work..have heatet /olied...hamred and heatet over and over. vith my senter stand..now i vill try that hack saw metode....but have long way to reatch you..mine gear box have an pittet tandveel..looking for an spare engine,,or gearbox

Ya hope this works for you too , I had to grind down the back of the hacksaw blade a bit alright cause it was a bit too big to fit through the centre of the pin. I had tried heating mine a few times as well and this didn't work for me either. I'd say I'd spent about two hours trying to get this pin out over various times before this worked for me. good luck anyway. I've come accross your project thread as well and its looking well too.

subscribed to watch this build.  This will be kewl.

Glad you like!

[Greggo]

Cool.

I like that red paint on the frame.  Or, was that just a primer for the black?

[Really?]

I wanna say the pics are out if order, cause it looked like it rusted after you painted it. 

I am curious.  It looks like you spent the time painting the frame.  Why did you put everything back on and not cherry out all the stuff first?

[-CB-Jamie-]

Cool.

I like that red paint on the frame.  Or, was that just a primer for the black?

Ya that was just primer for the black.

I wanna say the pics are out if order, cause it looked like it rusted after you painted it.  

I am curious.  It looks like you spent the time painting the frame.  Why did you put everything back on and not cherry out all the stuff first?

Well when I picked it up it was just the engine in the frame with no wheels as in the very first picture. I took it apart and painted the frame at the start and then put it all back together to try start the engine as I hadn't started it previously. I was after picking up a front wheel in the mean time and I took a loan of the rear wheel off the cb200 as this is taken apart as well just for testing purposes. I had been planning to do everything up first like you say and then put it all back together but I thought I better check the engine is ok before I put all the time, money and effort into it.

By the way really like that 750 in your sig, really nice

[supersports400]

Hi,

Following this rebuild. Interesting way to solve the carb issue, but it won't last I'm afraid.
There are a lot of CB400F carb clusters out there, maybe pick up another one for spares.

Jensen

[RickB]

Hey don't worry about missing out on that NOS exhaust. DSS are making reproductions for $400 odd. Crazy considering how much it'd cost to even rechrome a set. If they're any good, I'm buying a spare set!

[-CB-Jamie-]

Hey don't worry about missing out on that NOS exhaust. DSS are making reproductions for $400 odd. Crazy considering how much it'd cost to even rechrome a set. If they're any good, I'm buying a spare set!

Ya I definately didn't have that kind of money to spend on an exhaust anyway, just shows how rare the originals ones are getting though. I've seen the DSS ones too and I'll probably end up getting a set of them.

Been following your build as well, starting to look good now can't wait to see it finished.

[-CB-Jamie-]

Hi,

Following this rebuild. Interesting way to solve the carb issue, but it won't last I'm afraid.
There are a lot of CB400F carb clusters out there, maybe pick up another one for spares.

Jensen

You mean the wire wrapped around the post in the carb? Ya I got two spare sets of carbs with this bike so' I'll probably swap it for another, the only thing is these carbs were working great together when i had them on the bike and I don't want to jinx it.

On another note got a nice package in the post today, have a look at my new rims below. I have a set of chrome spokes from thailand I ordered a few weeks ago so gonna have a go at respoking over the next few days. I got my engine, carbs and hubs back from soda blasting as well yesterday and have to say they look well.
I'm after replacing the bearings in the hubs now too and had no problems getting the old ones out or the new ones in without having to heat the hubs or freeze the bearings. Just have to stake the retainers now. I started painting the hubs too straight away so I've no pics of them after soda blasting.



Engine and carbs after soda blasting



Hubs painted and with new bearings installed, painted the stands too.

[strynboen]

hey..the senter stand. .is it a bit velvet on the legs..or stright..mine hit the chain,,think the legs are mowed back..have to press it vith the hydralik press..but how mutch..sorry for my laungish..dont think i ever get it,,,vith all this wwwww and vvv

[tortelvis]

hey..the senter stand. .is it a bit velvet on the legs..or stright..mine hit the chain,,think the legs are mowed back..have to press it vith the hydralik press..but how mutch..sorry for my laungish..dont think i ever get it,,,vith all this wwwww and vvv

Your English is a lot better than my Danish! 

[-CB-Jamie-]

hey..the senter stand. .is it a bit velvet on the legs..or stright..mine hit the chain,,think the legs are mowed back..have to press it vith the hydralik press..but how mutch..sorry for my laungish..dont think i ever get it,,,vith all this wwwww and vvv

Not 100% sure what you mean here but I think you mean are the legs of the centre stand straight or slightly bent?
If it'll help I can take more detailed photos of the centre stand and post them so you might be able to tell from them?

[HedNut]

You're doing some great stuff here! Cheers!

[Verdevoices]

Jamie, Mark in Cottonwood, Arizona. We are on a similar quest. I too am doing a 400F resto. My story is a little different in that I bought the project bike 17 years ago and have been aquiring NOS parts for about the same time. I have a boatload of new stuff which is hopefully going to pay off in the longrun. As I view the pics it would appear we will be implementing several of the same procedures. I have restored about 3 older hondas over the past 35 years so if you need some tips please dont hesitate to ask. Stay at it! I will be checking in from time to time!
Mark, aka, Verdevoices
P.S. the pic is of of of the piles of new stuff I have been salting away for 17 years!

[-CB-Jamie-]

Thanks Mark,
I'm only after getting in to bikes in the last year and it's unbelievable how you can just get addicted to doing this kinda stuff. Never even drove a bike before last december when i picked up a 78 cb200 and did a bit of a restore to that as it wasn't too bad to begin with. I then sold that and picked up a 02 rebel 250 which I now use as my daily driver. I then picked up a cb350f which is in really good condition and just needs a respray around the same time as buying the rebel. I've also picked up another cb200 really cheap which I'm kinda working on at the same time. I then picked up the 400f stuff at the end of the summer. I just think the older bikes are much nicer than most modern bikes. I suppose thats why I went for a rebel too as they kinda look slightly like the older bikes but you have the modern brakes and what not. So now in under a year I'm on my fifth bike, as I said you just get addicted to these things.
Thats a nice lot of parts you have there alright though, any chance you could send some my way???

Heres a few pics of my bikes anyway

The cb200 before I sold it, after restore


cb350f


rebel 250


Dont have pics of the other cb200 yet

[-CB-Jamie-]

Thanks hednut I've been following your project bio-hazard too since way before I started mine and you did some amazing stuff. My favorite part of your bike is the clocks though, the bio-hazard symbol on the clocks really set it off, they look fantastic.

Well had a bit of fun lacing and truing my wheels anyway, took me about four attempts to get them laced with the correct pattern and I didn't figure out the pattern was wrong til the very end each time. Got their in the end though thanks to jonesy's post in the FAQ's. I got the wheels trued then by using a spare set of forks I had clamped upside down for the front wheel and a spare swinging arm for the rear, again thanks to jonesy's post in the FAQ's on truing. This really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but its just time consuming to get them spot on. Anyway once I had them all trued up turns out the spokes for the front wheels were a tiny bit too long and so they were sticking into the inside of the rim above the spoke nipples by about 3-4 threads. After posting in the main forum to get more replies I found out that this is fairly common and that they could just be grinded down so thats what I did.

I painted up the front brake disc I got from 400fourbits too and have that fitted.

I've been working on my forks too on and off over the last few weeks and their finally finished too, I poished them and replaced the seals and I also had to get new fork tubes as the old ones were rusty and hard chroming is really expensive to get done in Ireland as only about one or two places do it in the whole country so it was cheaper to replace them.

Getting my tyres fitted tomorrow, Pirelli city demons are the tyres I'm going for, so hopefully will have a rolling frame for the weekend. Plan on getting the engine painted too over next few days so I can get that back in the frame as well.


Wheels all laced up


Truing


Spokes too long


Forks finished

[-CB-Jamie-]

Things are starting to look good now , got my tyres fitted and got the wheels back on the bike,
I also got the engine painted and now have that back in the frame so its now you can see things start to come together.
I used the same colour for the engine that I used on the hubs and it looks pretty good so I'm happy with it.
Anyway heres some pics:




Engine primed


Engine painted