Topic: CAM type and setting HELP!

[immortal]

Down to the CHP for VIN verification and back over the DMV again...Finally got registered and plates on.

[immortal]

FINISHED!!...but not yet started, she is going to the shop tomorrow to be started and tuned, first time in 28 years!
Fingers crossed.

[immortal]

FINISHED pics.

[immortal]

Dual front disc brakes finished finally too!

[mrjack55]

Strong work sir.  Very nice.
Did you get her out for a run yet?

[immortal]

Thank you!...I have not taken her out yet, I am dropping her off tomorrow at the shop so they can start her and tune her for the first time in 28 years!

[immortal]

She runs great! and sounds great. Took her for a test run and I notice one of my front brake pistons is leaking
so I ordered a new one with a seal so that should also correct the spongy front brake on the original master cylinder.

I have a little oil leaking from the front cylinder head cover "damn" ..I tried torquing her down some and found I still have a little leaking on the right side.  If anyone has any ideas?  I cannot see myself removing the motor and I hear you can snake over a new cover gasket.  How difficult is that?  Maybe I will risk tightening her down a hair more first?

There are a couple of other little bugs such as the tachometer needle seems to be dragging when assembled and the speedometer looks a little off "slow" too and a couple of other minor bugs to be expected and I am adjusting etc.

Any tips or thoughts on the cam cover would be greatly appreciated.

[d1000rr]

wooooowww!!!  Looks awesome man... very nice job!

[dagersh]

Great job!!!

Stupid question, that might already have been answered.  Did you upgrade your stock Master Cylinder to a bigger unit to handle the dual discs?  Might explain your braking issues.

Sorry if its been brought up before...

Enjoy!

Gersh

[immortal]

Thanks guys,

The master cylinder is stock and can handle the dual discs. When I started this project I was of the understanding I would need to upgrade to a larger master cylinder so I did purchase a master for a GL1000. However I was then told by Carpy and then Hondaman that you can if fact use the original without a problem at all. The only difference being is there is slightly more play in the lever prior to brake grab but they work just fine. I since discovered you can in fact even eliminate that slight play if it bothers you by adding a spacer where the lever pushes against the piston.   

The problem I have at the moment is that I have everything set up "but" one of my pistons is leaking and by passing fluid. Because of this my lever is spongy. The new piston will arrive in the next couple of days so I will know for 100% sure but I feel pretty confident this is good information. I wanted to stay with the original master if possible because of the aesthetics.  Hope that is of some help.

[bluesmoke69]

Great work love your bike.

[immortal]

Thanks again guys,

couple of little issues on working out the final bugs is a small leak coming from the valve cover, I tried torquing it down a bit more and it seems minimal but any kind of leak is going to drive me insane right after I just completed the build. I know others have discussed the leaking valve covers on the forum and how you can replace the valve cover gasket without removing the motor. Apparently you snake the new gasket over the top. I decided "reluctantly" to try that and then I found Cyclce-X has a "virtually leak proof valve cover gasket"...they say the design was for Harley's and it "will not leak" they are expensive, $36.00 + $12.00 shipping puts you at nearly $50.00 but I ordered one because I have to get rid of this leak and I figure the risk of tearing a regular gasket in trying to get it on and then the risk of the leak being there still is too great not to, besides it was a new gasket I used that is leaking!

The other thing I noticed is there is a little smoke "not too much" from the valve cover breather hose that I have venting to a chrome filter attached to the frame near my rear brake mechanism.  Not terrble but enough to be visible and looking in the forum it seems this is somewhat normal and perhaps will subside some after I seat the rings over the break in period. 

Another bug is my tacho needle seems a little slow and catches/drags on the way down, I tried some WD-40 and an air hose and it hasn't helped much so I got myself another old tach from Ebay. That leads me to taking all the clocks apart again and repainting the inner cups and then replacing the decals for the 3rd time now as I need to sand the gauge faces to avoid the impressions of the numbers showing through the decals. If anyone has done this they know what I mean.  Also the gauges looked great with the exception of that cream colored rim around the edge of your gauges behind the glass, you can see through the glass the cream color paint chips after all the years. That got to me so it was off to the hardware store for a rattle can and to disassemble and repaint the teal liner the off white color so they will look like and hopefully operate like new.

I expected a couple of bugs at the end so its all good!.

[hapakev]

Keep it up man.  My bike has a way of giving me problems, as soon as I have found a fix for the last one.  That is the name of the game when you bring one of these machines back from the dead, and yours was definitely past dead!  The work you have done to it is amazing and will surely provide you with some fun, so just stick with it and it will all be worth it.

[immortal]

Thanks Hapakev,

By the way I was parked outside Ralph's yesterday off of Santa Margarita and Margarite and a 2007..ish Blue FJ Cruiser parked next to me with a younger woman and a baby. I think part of the plate was DW275. I have a White FJ Trail Teams and I thought it might be your missus grabbing some groceries.

[hapakev]

Thats funny, It wasnt her, but sounds very close.  I have a rackless VDB with bilstien 5100's up front to level it out.  I love the all white TT, very slick looking ride.

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

Congrats on the finished bike! I have visited the thread before and never made it to the end. Good Taste.

[immortal]

Hey, Thank you for the complements. I could not of built this bike without you guys on the forum that's for sure.

With that said I still have "more" bugs to work out before it can be a reliable rider. Almost nothing on this bike has not been restored, refinished or replaced.

My current bug list is:

1.) Leaky front fork....Forks rebuilt with progressive shocks, new seals etc...A case of wet sanding and polishing fork tube..pain in the Ass but not a big deal

2.) After going through the dual disk conversion with stainless lines, new pads, rebuilt calipers and rebuilt master cylinder etc. I finally realized that although you can use your original front master cylinder for a dual disc conversion, as far as I'm concerned there's just to much play in the lever even with a spacer. So finally I spent way to much on a 1975 Goldwing Master cylinder which is the closest cosmetically to the CB750F master...All installed good to go but after 12 miles its leaking. Just got a rebuild kit for it so have that to take care of.

3.) I went with Pods but was too naive and inexperienced to realize the tuning issue and although the bike runs like a freight train with the 811cc kit, 4 into 1 etc...it runs rich and slightly stumbles on acceleration.
I could not figure it out for the life of me until Hondaman finally figured out it was my pods. Not wanting to go back to the original airbox and not being able to afford "Tintops" air filter right now I did find a brand new Chrome Henry Abe breadbox filter from the 1970's in an unopened box. Should receive it next week and I'm hoping it will help solve the running rich and stumble. Hondaman is convinced it will so I'm hopeful.

4.) All the wiring is brand new, as is the electronic ignition, Reg/Rect, fuse box, battery, coils, leads, everything is new and I did this because I wanted the reliability. However my worst nightmare has come true and two or three times I have the main 15 amp fuse blow when turning the key on. If I replace the fuse its fine and I may be able to turn it on or off 20 times but just once in a while it blows that main fuse.  I have to figure this out or it will drive me insane. One time it blew 2 fuses then the 3rd one worked...its very intermittent so for someone electronically challenged like me its going to be a bear to find. The thought of me being out in the middle of no where and blowing half dozen spare fuses and being stranded is a issue for me after all this work.

5.) Last but not least my worst bug is a drip which I believe is a valve cam puck. I have a piece of cardboard folded in the fins to reduce the drip but having wafts of oil burning smoke when I pull up to a stop light or pull into my garage is more than I can handle and I think I will have to pull the motor out to resolve it, I have triple plus checked the tappet covers and have a new cable and rubber grommet in the tachometer and I can see its definitely not that. I even went to Cycle X and purchased on of the $38.00 "leak proof" valve cover gaskets and its not that either. 

This has been a great project though more challenging than I expected. Lots of little mistakes and issues along the way but once I finally these bugs I will call it finished!

Thanks for everyones help and advise!

[lucky]

Very nice!! Good work!!!

[blacknblue_cafe]

Love it...just tore down my '76 SS also...liking what you did with the right brake bracket...may be a copycat...thanks for the inspiration

[immortal]

Thank you!, The rear brake stay arm is off and old vintage Honda dirtbike on Ebay and I just put it on the polishing wheel and used that rather than use the huge stock one.  In order for me to get the 4 into one on I had to cut that rear brake bracket and then I had it powder coated with the frame, and battery box  etc.  Obviously I cut off the rear passenger brackets too.   Good luck with the build, they are great bikes and although I went way over my budget and still have bits to work on I am well happy with it!

[ChuckG750f1]

Stunning bike.  I am new here and new to the CB750.  I want to go one step at a time with my bike and am not sure how far I will go yet.  I am sure that I want to start with the bars.  Do you think the M bars will work with the stock f1 tank without risers?  Thanks.

[lucky]

Hey guys, Thanks for the encouragement and yes this bike was on CL for $650 being sold by a local charity.
I emailed them and asked if the motor was seized and were they open to offers?

They did not respond then about a month later I get an email saying it is being junked tomorrow come and get it for $300. I responded can you go any lower and he responded OK $200.00 come get it!

For anyone that is interested, I wanted to find out more of the history of this bike.
I tracked down the previous owner to the LA area and gave him a call, he picked up the phone and said that's right I did own a 1976 CB750F blah blah. He didn't seem to happy about being bothered but after using a bit of my Cockney charm he came around and told me about the bike.
 
He said today he is 48 years old but he bought the bike when he was 22 years old going to college and working 3 jobs. He saved his money for it and bought it from his buddy who was into drag racing, hence the rear sets, 811 kit, double chain, pods and a 4 into one pipe. 
 
The bike was his sole form of transportation and he loved it! The only problem being were the neighbors would complain about being woken up in the early hours to the sound of him taking off to work. Because of this he would coast the bike down the hill he lived at the top of. One morning he was screwing around coasting slalom down the hill in the early hours and got to close to the curb and smashed the Stator cover against the curb causing the oil to pour out. He pushed the bike back up the hill and that was that. That was 1984 the same year as the tags still on the bike.
 
The owner told me the stator cover was very expensive and so he put it on hold until the summer. The summer came and went and the years slowly started to roll by. Eventually getting married and raising kids, still with the intention of getting the bike running.
 
2010 comes by and he is 48 years old and his wife makes him finally realize the bike will never be fixed so he lists it on LA Craigs list for $650. He gets a call from a prospective buyer asking if the bike is seized? The buyer says if it is not seized he will pay $500. cash for it. The seller agrees but when the buyer shows up they cannot get any movement out of the kickstart so the buyer says its seized and no good to him and does not buy the bike.
 
The owners wife then convinces him to give it to charity and get the tax right off which he reluctantly does. 
 
There I am dream shopping on Craigs list and I come across this bike for sale by the charity, asking price $650.
After negotiating her for $200 I drive up there and cross my fingers, pop her into neutral, put my foot on the kickstart and I feel those lovely pistons in motion as the kickstart comes down.
 
Music to my ears. So I guess the bike was meant to be mine, I have no idea why they thought it was seized, it must of been in gear for them. Lucky for me and I'm going to give her a new life and turn her into a beautiful Cafe racer. 
 
It is really nice to know the history of a bike, especially when you put a piece of yourself into the project.  I got my first bike at 16 years old the first day I was legal to ride on the road in London, that was 1984 and I remember it like it was yesterday. Ironically the same year and spring this CB750 was parked on the side of the house left there to wait for me to come along for 26 years!

I will post some more pics!

I once bought a truck that was in a trailer court abandoned.
I had to do a lien sale (44 pieces of documentation) but finally I owned it.
That cleared up one of the mysteries. Who owns it.
Then there were all these stories,"has a broken rod," Has a broken piston", Ran out of oil etc.,.
I cleaned out all the garbage and filth and that included another van bolted to the top of it and various pieces of timber and finally I got to the engine.
Got a battery etc.,,,checked the fluids and it started up. Nothing . no noises compression ok.  Oil looked clean.
I drove it from California to Tucson and back 50 mph!! all the way. It was an old mail truck.Ex hippie mobile.

Took care of me for a long time.
Never believe the stories - just get the facts.

[immortal]

Stunning bike.  I am new here and new to the CB750.  I want to go one step at a time with my bike and am not sure how far I will go yet.  I am sure that I want to start with the bars.  Do you think the M bars will work with the stock f1 tank without risers?  Thanks.

Hi Chuck,

Originally I had the clip ons for my build and I realized how uncomfortable they were going to be for long rides so looked for a different option. These bars are Norman Hyde M Bars and I highly recommend them and they will work with your stock risers and tank without a problem. I eventually found mine on Ebay.

Good Luck with the build!

[ChuckG750f1]

Immortal-

Thanks for the reply!  I was thinking drag bars (risers for sure)  but I think the M bars are more ergonomic and they have a very classic and distinctive look.  They look great on your bike.

-Chuck

[Really?]

I had better see this bike in the BOTM soon!