So awhile back I picked up a 1978 CB750 from some kid up in the mountains for $1200 bucks, he had gotten a DUI and had to sell his toys to pay for courts/lawyers/etc and this was the first of them to go. Ive been a fan of the cafe stuff for years, and now that I'm in a house with a garage and have a good steady job I figured its time to start a project. Its amazing how fast tear down goes, and I know that I didn't get as many pictures as I should have, so expect lots of "what the hell am I looking at now" type posts, haha. Since this is my first tear down/rebuild of anything larger than a lawn mower, so I'm taking my time and trying to document everything.
to kick things off i spent a butt ton of money at cycle x. they bored out my jugs to 849cc, and are doing a port job as we speak. they are shaving my crank down to their "pork chop" which lightens it ~7 pounds. new APE studs, new valve springs, titanium retainers, C2 racing cam, heavy duty cam chain, over-sized valves, they're pressing in new guides, cycle X rods, whole new gasket set, new cam chain, new primary chains, they coated my new pistons with a heat barrier/skirting, rocker arms and shafts coated with the same good stuff, spin on oil adapter w/adapters for an oil cooler, electric ignition, and high voltage coils.
next shipment is going to be their 4-2-1 race exhaust, a set of mikuni rs 34mm, and a frame splice kit (since no one here will make the gordon kit anymore. i tried contacting voxonda and he got back to me once, 3 months ago, no word since).
when i get the head back ill be going down to
Performance Coatings to have my head, jugs, and valve cover sprayed with a thermal dispersant.
lower cases and frame will get powder once i decide on a color scheme, and i'm going to have to twist
brandEn's to find out who did his gorgeous paint and seat.
in the interest of making this a looker, i picked up a bunch of the joker CNC stuff, the alternator cover, the clutch cover, the starter cover, the points cover and the gas cap.
just took delivery of a
benjie's whale tank w/knee cutouts. Going to take the stock seat pan and cut it up till it looks good, add a bump out and hide electrics in there.
i picked up a gsxr 600 front end, and this weekend im going to grind the welds off the stock stem, press it out, and follow
industrial cafe's lead and swap out the front end on this beast for something a bit more modern. only difference is ill be either using a set of ducati sport classic wheels, or the tubeless alpina's. wanted to have something with a bit more rigidity and larger contact patch then the harley narrow glide stuff, but want to keep the spoke look.
ive got one of
carpy's dresda style boxed swingarms coming, and will be modifying it a bit to accommodate a rear caliper.
i would like to run an
m-unit from spiegler, if anyone has any experience with them good or bad chime in. i'd love to hear it.
i think that about covers my plans, now lets look at some pictures:
the kid i bought it from had "cafe'd" it, but to him that mean flattening out the seat, pulling out the air box to put pods on, and slapping a set of clubmans on her. its a shame, but this is the earliest photo i have. got so excited to tear her down i forgot to document her humble beginnings.
im definitely not the first one to tear into this engine, and i found all sorts of fun stuff inside, dead moths, a bunch of metal shavings, the retainer spring for the kickstart pawl broken in two, weird stuff. luckily the top end looked pretty good to start with:
original studs, couple of them were stripped on top but they all came out. pistons look like we've been running rich for awhile:
pre-porting:
time for the fun, the lower half. she was leaking oil in a couple of spots that whoever rebuilt it originally screwed up the liquid gasket, but she was all there. pretty clean for the most part, considering the metal shavings/other possible grenade sh|t that was in that lower case.
on transmission, second gear from the left, there is a thin indent in the cent of the gear. is that normal/stock? time to replace it? also ive heard rumors that there is someone out there making a billet clutch basket, and mine has seen better days. anyone know who makes that, and what kind of cost?
this shifter arm has a bit of wear toward the end of its arm. should i replace that bad boy or is that cool?
(ignore the metal shavings there, had two stuck screws i had to drill the heads off of and twist out.)
and this was something i just wasnt sure about. to tell the truth i didnt see it until i slapped the empty cases back together and on the bike to get an idea of which mounting brackets i wanted to keep and what i wanted to shave off. in the hole where the transmission came out of i spied a bit of a rough edge to the metal. it looks like there once was something there and it either broke out or was removed. any thoughts?
side note: ive got parts that ill be selling if anyone is interested. make me an offer and if its reasonable there yours. much rather dudes here get these parts then ebay them. will expand this list as im ready to sell more.
front master cylinder, front caliper, mounting bracket. prefer to sell as a package
front forks
rear wheel with sprocket and drum brake insert
front wheel with rotor
original alternator, starter, and clutch covers. a bit dented but ill give them to you for the cost of shipping. seriously.
front headlight ears w/original turn signals
rear turn signals
