Topic: My CB750K2

[willbird]

The bike has sat since 1996, and some dumb*** (me) did not drain the fuel. Last fall I had moved it into my garage but not done much but rinse the dust off.

So yesterday I pulled the carbs off and started stripping them down, today I got some Gunk hydro seal II (says it is good for soaking carbs)...that stuff kicks ass on varnish in carbs, almost miraculous, cleaned them all up and out...put them back together, got them back on the bike. And I had just happened to pick up some fuel line. Gave the tank a rinse....added some fuel...fiddled a little and it fired up.

Whoo-hoo.

Still have some electrical gremlins to chase down.......

The game plan is to run it some this summer, then pull the engine back out this winter and change the head gasket, it has an oil leak between the head and jug, oils your leg down pretty good. I did not have a battery yet so I had to settle for just running it.

The bike had about 30,000 miles on it when dad died, he had bought it new....I rode it a few years, then did a frame off and the custom paint (1992), added the mac header and the K&N's, and it has 53,000 miles on it now.

Back in 1992 I had the same oil leak and pulled the head and replaced the head gasket and all the top end seals...not sure exactly why it started leaking again, will tackle that this winter.

 With the original action 4's header dad had put on it, and the stock airbox it topped out right at 100mph, with the Mac header and the K&N;s it is good for 110-115 flat out...not bad for pushing that old windjammer ahead of it :-).







The windjammer was an appliance white color, when I painted it corvette cloisonne blue...I painted the fairing and the fork lowers to, as well as the frame.





I think I have some prequel pictures of the bike back when it was corvette red with the white fairing. The bike new was the gold color honda used, in the 70's somebody stole the tank and side covers and dad had a dark green tank on it...back then with a lame local dealer he was unable to find side covers.

[tango911]

another back on the road. good job.

[willbird]

Not on the road yet, probably not even this summer, bit it is ALIVE anyway :-)....needs all kind of stuff, and a battery, and plates and ins not in the budget right now.

Wanted to run it some and find most of the gremlins so I know what I have to do this winter.

Front caliper was binding up when I parked the bike, need to clean up the caliper and for sure clean out the groove the seal fits into, and maybe rebuild master.

The bike got the forks rebuilt back in 96 with progressive springs, and got a set of action 4's clutch springs and new  clutch pack.

[immortal]

Looks like a really good solid bike you got there. Looking past the windjammer, handle bars and the luggage rack if you are going that route.  I can see a really good bike which ever direction you go. Good luck with it and enjoy!

[Johnie]

Wow...that baby is blue as blue can be. Any idea what the original color was? Sounds like you have good plans for it. Cool that you are riding your Dad's bike he bought new. Sort of keeps him with you every time you ride. Cool...

[MrGardman]

Wasn't sure if I would like the frame the body color but after looking at if for a few minutes, I think it looks really good. Nice job!

[JRviper5]

To much blue...It will look nice if you have the frame painted black. Blue is a beautiful color but to much blue...Hahhh! I don't now. Besides the color everything else look nice. Did the faring came with the bike?

[willbird]

I like the blue :-). Doing a frame off was a leap of faith really, and doing the frame blue the same kind of leap of faith, and I could not be happier with the whole deal than the way it turned out...doing what I wanted was sort of taking ownership I guess. Dad died in 1986 but somehow it became MY bike when it all went back together. A buddy swore when I got it done the swingarm should have been blue too...I did not think so then, and I'm still pretty firm now that it should be black.

 The bike did not come with the fairing.  As far as I know the GL1000 was the first bike you could get from the dealer with a jammer, even had a cig lighter. I'd kind of like to have a sohc 750 cafe racer , but this one will not be one.

Looking at pictures I am sure it was originally candy gold. I put the luggage rack on it actually to take a trip from Ohio to the outer banks in 1992, for what I will do with it now the rack will probably come back off. The jammer will probably stay.

 Dad had a vintage rack with backrest on it back in the day...the backrest was nice for the 8 year old boy (me) riding on it, and I had a place to hold on too :-).

Yup needs new bars...I found the bars my dad had on it yesterday, they are in nicer shape than the ones on there now...I measure them up years ago when I wanted new bars and what I got was like nothing Action Fours could get their hands on, maybe I measured wrong.

Riding on a bike for nearly 40 years the thing takes on a life of it's own...it has an inner spirit and identity that defines it. When I was working on this one I had a hankering to have a stable of sohc fours...should have nailed down a K0 back in 1990.

Several times the bike has been down that poor old jammer saved the bike from more serious damage.

[willbird]

The battle scar on the jammer I left there on purpose actually, a lady in a minivan decided she wanted to do a U-turn in front of me, the bike when down and I high sided over it and landed on hands and knees on the pavement, not injured a bit really.

You DO have time in midair to think "holy sh*t I wish I had a helmet on". This was the week before my outer banks trip back in 1992, I got up cursing here...but she was a really nice lady "look what I  did to your poor motorcyle, I am soo sorry"...so I ended up apologizing for my language.

All that really touched the ground was the rear brake pedal, footpeg, the jammer...with no fairing it would have really messed things up.

Bill

[dhall57]

welcome to the sohc/4 forum. It's great you still have your dads 750. Here's a little trick that will help with your oil leak. Clean between the fins at the oil leak area real good with spray brakleen and than take small sections of rolled up paper towel and push in between the fins. This will keep you from having to ring out your jean legs ever time you ride your bike. The paper towel is hardly noticeable between the fins and just replace with new when needed. This should help you get through this summer and than you can fix the problem this winter. Another member here seaweb11 told me about this. Hope it helps.

[willbird]

That is very good info :-).

Bill

[willbird]

Ok I had a "spare" set of coils, grabbed them up and did some testing, of the 4 boots and two coils, one coil was bad (25 ohms primary) and one cap on each coil was bad (0 ohms) the other two caps read 5 ohms and 6 ohms..plus one wire was arcing internally (it is on the bad coil anyway). So I maybe have one spare coil :-).

Fired an email off to Hondaman yesterday about his boxes and he put me onto the plan of getting 2 good honda coils with new ngk caps...and I will probably get one of his boxes. Will keep my eyes open for a set of points...the NOS Honda kits actually pop at garage sales if you look for them.

[Johnie]

Hall has a good idea on the oil leak. I have used a quarter inch nylon rope. I shove it in between the fins of the leak area and it works great. I got this tip off the board too.

[willbird]

Ok I got the front caliper piston pumped out, and the puck was growing attached to the caliper body, per the faq's here I got it all cleaned up, cleaned the O-ring groove out good, in fact far better than I did back in 92, the piston was still pristine, now all I need is some of the good suggested grease and I think it will work :-).

Over the years have seen all sorts of tampons jammed in there to absorb the leaks..but both suggested ideas are good ones. I wonder if you could use an actual valve packing rope type stuff ? The real fix is to get back in there and see whats up exactly and address it. I did not replace the rubber disks under the cam towers and MAYBE that is the source, but it almost seemed like a pressure leak that fires white hot drops of oil out. That is puzzling because there is no pressurized oil out near the ends of the jug according to the schematics I have seen.

Anyway it is hard to leave the bike alone, strong urges to fiddle with it, and that is how these things get done, a fiddle here, a fiddle there....."holy sh*t it is 3 am, where did the time go" :-).

Bill

[JRviper5]

Sometimes, i wish i had the same luck you had with your dad's bike. When my dad pass away my brother sold the bike. I was mad... Keep it up to date, that is what I call, "A miracle bike". 5 to 6 ohms is what you want to see when you ohm out your coils. I found some really cheap on Ebay... I want to upgrade but I need to take a look at the engine first. i broke it down today and found one of the metal o'rings that hold the piston in place on top of the oil pump. I guess i will spend the 4th day weekend inspecting and looking for damage. Keep riding strong...

[willbird]

Oh wow that is not good finding that circlip or whatever they call it out of place, I saw a HD where one of those came out and the wrist pin ate deeply into the cyl wall.

I picked up a battery today, filled it and put it on the trickle charger, it is not anything fancy but I was glad to find it with electrolyte for $35, most other places went up to 45-49 at least.

Pulled the wiring out of the fairing and the mice had eaten it all to bits, so I cobbled up a new harness, learning experience, next attempt will be much nicer, but at least all the electrical gremlins were in the fairing.....easiest place for them to be really.

I put the brake caliper back together sans super duper grease for right now, got it bled, seems OK.

Bill