Author Topic: Resurrection of a cb750 K6 (update 9/28/12) (Read 46759 times)

hoodellyhoo · « **on:** October 08, 2011, 07:06:25 pm »

Observant forum readers may notice that this is not my first K6. I bought that first 750 when I was unemployed and got it running and driving at a bare minimum of expense. It was eventually sold less than 6 months later to help pay for an engagement ring for my now wife.

This bike was given to me as payment for helping a lady sell her husband's motorcycle collection. She asked if I wanted any of them and this is the one I picked. It has been sitting in a building sandwiched between a wall and an immobile ambulance for probably ten years.

As you can see it was missing the headlight and front blinkers. It obviously had a fairing on it at some point. The plan for this bike is to slowly restore it back to as original as I can afford. This bike WILL NOT BE SOLD! I will keep this bike for as long as possible. My 350f is a fun bike but not much of a distance/highway bike whereas the 750's cruise the highways with ease. That is why I am keeping this bike. It will be used for all types of riding and hopefully accumulate many many trouble-free miles.

Fast forward a couple years to today and member Johnie and I went to retrieve the bike from it's dark tomb so I can start bringing her back to life.

Who know how many years it's been since this thing last saw sunlight. Notice the collander holding up the rear fender.

As you can see it's a pretty original bike, but a little rough around the edges. The sidecovers have been repaired. You can see the paint/decal pieces missing from the tank. That seat will be going away as soon as I can afford a new oem one. It has 42,000 miles and since it seems to have been decked out for touring duty I'm hoping that means it was mechanically well taken care of. We pulled one of the float bowls and it looked really clean, so maybe the bowls had been drained before storage. There is old gas in the tank but basically no rust. Some of the wiring has been spliced into but I believe I have replacements for all the tampered wires.

Time to unload it at it's new home

I didn't have a lot of time to play with my new toy today but before I had to stop I made the bike a little more presentable. I blew off the rest of that crud and reattached the rear fender. Then I put on the headlight and front blinkers I had bought over the past year. Finally I took all the dust off the tank and sidecovers to get a better look at the paint. I think it will clean up quite nicely

Damfino · « **Reply #1 on:** October 08, 2011, 07:38:44 pm »

Looks like a real nice find hoo, I'll be watching this one!

ekpent · « **Reply #2 on:** October 08, 2011, 08:19:40 pm »

Agreed,looks like a very nice foundation. Would not be suprised if you got it running fairly easily.
Is that Johnie's new trailer or yours? I remember some cool shots of the other, green I think, 750 you guys went and picked up and had it neatly stuffed into the back of a mini van. Eric

Johnie · « **Reply #3 on:** October 08, 2011, 08:50:06 pm »

That's my hauler Eric. No more hauling in the van unless we bring home a few. Hoo has a nice find there and I can not believe how nice that tanks looks on these pics. I saw it all dirty before he cleaned it off. Trevor that tank looks awesome in the pics. I bet this fires up right away. Appears to have been well cared for and we all know how reliable these bikes are. Keep us up to date Hoo and I bet you have it running next weekend. And if I see another king/queen seat on a 750 I will just puke...

Tews19 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 09, 2011, 12:11:10 am »

You got it for free? I saw it on CL and it was listed for 1k. The owner said he bought it brand new in 76 and I was contemplating on giving an offer but the miles scared me. I looked this morning and it said sold sold sold. I am really becoming fond of the 750's and am really diggin that color. Great buy though... I wish I had friends that were into these bikes...

dhall57 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 09, 2011, 02:28:08 am »

Way to go hoo. I kept track of your first 750 project the one you and Johnie loaded up in the mini van. The trailer is much better isn't it? It's great the two of you live in the same area so you can get together like this and help each other out. Did y'all know each other before or did you meet through this forum? Your going love this candy antares red K6, Ive had mine almost two years and loved every minute of it. These bikes go down the road so good and the one you got looks to be in good shape only needing the years of storage crud and dirt removed. I think you got a good one there. Getting a new OEM seat will change the look of the bike 100%. I had to get one for mine back in 2009 and it really makes a difference and the seat is really pretty comfortable. I got mine from Servicehonda. Great find (FREE) you must be doing something right, when I find one of these SOHC/4 the owner always wants money for it, what I'm I doing wrong??? It wasn't free but back in May I got a good deal on a 750KO $900

Maybe one day it will be as nice as Johnie's KO. Well Good luck and keep us updated with pictures and your progress

dhall

hoodellyhoo · « **Reply #6 on:** October 09, 2011, 06:36:35 am »

Quote from: Tews19 on October 09, 2011, 12:11:10 am

You got it for free? I saw it on CL and it was listed for 1k. The owner said he bought it brand new in 76 and I was contemplating on giving an offer but the miles scared me. I looked this morning and it said sold sold sold. I am really becoming fond of the 750's and am really diggin that color. Great buy though... I wish I had friends that were into these bikes...

I saw that bike too but I think it had original exhaust and still had the fairing on it. This isn't the same bike. I have the title for the last registered owner and he got it in 1982 so he must have owned it for 20 or so years before selling it to my friend's husband.

hoodellyhoo · « **Reply #7 on:** October 09, 2011, 06:41:34 am »

Quote from: dhall57 on October 09, 2011, 02:28:08 am

Way to go hoo. I kept track of your first 750 project the one you and Johnie loaded up in the mini van. The trailer is much better isn't it? It's great the two of you live in the same area so you can get together like this and help each other out. Did y'all know each other before or did you meet through this forum? Your going love this candy antares red K6, Ive had mine almost two years and loved every minute of it. These bikes go down the road so good and the one you got looks to be in good shape only needing the years of storage crud and dirt removed. I think you got a good one there. Getting a new OEM seat will change the look of the bike 100%. I had to get one for mine back in 2009 and it really makes a difference and the seat is really pretty comfortable. I got mine from Servicehonda. Great find (FREE) you must be doing something right, when I find one of these SOHC/4 the owner always wants money for it, what I'm I doing wrong??? It wasn't free but back in May I got a good deal on a 750KO $900 Maybe one day it will be as nice as Johnie's KO. Well Good luck and keep us updated with pictures and your progress

dhall

Johnie and I met through this site. I was helping my sister move into the dorms for college in Oshkosh and I just caught a glimpse of a guy riding by on what I thought was a K0. I could just barely make out the triangular sidecovers. I remembered that a guy with a K0 had just joined the forums so I messaged him and sure enough it was johnie that I saw. It's a good thing we met because otherwise I would have had to push both of my K6's home

dhall57 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 09, 2011, 06:59:04 am »

even in todays world there is still some nice people out there. Like the old sale pitch went- You meet the nicest people on a honda

Stev-o · « **Reply #9 on:** October 09, 2011, 08:03:13 am »

Looks like a great project, really like the Red. My K7 had acseat like that when I got it, first thing I did was take it off and pitch it in the trash! Guessing you'll need a battery.

Tews19 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 09, 2011, 08:19:16 am »

You are correct. It has the original exhaust on that too. Man its weird how I know I am not the only one who scowers CL even though I have 3 bikes still. Honestly that bike is really sharp. Please keep me/us updated I will continue to follow.

ekpent · « **Reply #11 on:** October 09, 2011, 08:22:31 am »

Don't throw those ugly seats in the trash though as most I have ever had, and that's quite a few,did use the original Honda seat pan,hinges etc.May need and original pan someday to mod or trade etc.

Greggo · « **Reply #12 on:** October 09, 2011, 08:26:59 am »

Sweet K6! I'm working on one too, but no original paint

Markcb750 · « **Reply #13 on:** October 09, 2011, 02:08:53 pm »

Don't listen to the upiddy K0 people, the K6 is best...

lucky · « **Reply #14 on:** October 11, 2011, 07:40:21 am »

Quote from: dhall57 on October 09, 2011, 06:59:04 am

even in todays world there is still some nice people out there. Like the old sale pitch went- You meet the nicest people on a honda

That was the slogan when I had my first job in a Honda dealer.
"You meet the nicest people on a Honda"

Then Honda messed up when The next slogan was.....
"Follow the leader"

So Yamaha made their slogan....
"Don't follow anyone" LOL

KRONUS0100 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 11, 2011, 07:47:35 am »

good looking 750. is that the original red paint?

Johnie · « **Reply #16 on:** October 11, 2011, 01:41:49 pm »

Yes, that is OEM paint there on Hoodle's K6. Appears to have not seen much sun either. Great find for him. It will be a cool rider.

andy750 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 12, 2011, 05:37:01 am »

Nice bike Trevor! Good luck in getting it on the road!

Andy

Johnie · « **Reply #18 on:** October 12, 2011, 07:42:32 am »

Knowing Trevor it will be on the road before the snow flies here in WI. He pulled a bowl and it looked pretty clean. I forgot how the tank looked, but I think it was pretty nice.

hoodellyhoo · « **Reply #19 on:** October 17, 2011, 01:55:51 pm »

This past saturday I had some time to work on the bikes. First order of business for the K6 was a compression check. I removed the plugs and noticed that #2,3 and 4 had D8EA's but #1 had a DPR8EA which I believe is a resistor plug??? #1 and #4 had the original plug caps but #2 and #3 had replacement NGK 5 ohm caps.

The results of the compression test weren't too swell.

#1 - 110psi
#2 - 120psi
#3 - 60psi
#4 - 60psi

To go along with these readings, the kicker deffinitely is easier to turn than on the K2. I suppose it's possible I didn't have the adapter completely seated on cylinders 2 and 3 but when I didn't hear any hissing when I was doing the test. I added a shot of oil to #3 and #4 and got #3 up to 80psi and #4 up to 100 psi so it's likely a piston ring issue. I'm not too thrilled either that my highest number was 120. I don't know what a standard reading for a stock 750 is but when I tested my 350 my numbers were all 170+. I guess there's a chance that the rings are a bit stuck and maybe some penetrating oil or trying to get the bike running would free things up but with 42,000 miles and an unknown history I'm betting the engine needs a top end rebuild (which I don't have money for right now).

On the brighter side, I pulled the rest of the float bowls and they all were clean except for a tiny bit of fuel dust. At least I have an easy carb rebuild to look forward to.

Since I may be looking at spending money on a new top end I've been thinking of ways to try and save money. My original plan was to spring for a new stock seat (about $300). Now I'm considering modifying one or both of the king/queen seats that came with the bike. Both seats have oem seat pans and the foam is okay on both so I'm wondering if I can just cut down the foam to the stock shape and get an original style cover. Anyone done this?

Greggo · « **Reply #20 on:** October 17, 2011, 04:40:07 pm »

Don't put too much stock into those compression numbers. You haven't put any miles on it yet, right? Some run time may help free up any ring issues. Try putting a little sea foam in the cylinders for a soak.

Markcb750 · « **Reply #21 on:** October 17, 2011, 05:36:53 pm »

Quote

Since I may be looking at spending money on a new top end I've been thinking of ways to try and save money. My original plan was to spring for a new stock seat (about $300). Now I'm considering modifying one or both of the king/queen seats that came with the bike. Both seats have oem seat pans and the foam is okay on both so I'm wondering if I can just cut down the foam to the stock shape and get an original style cover. Anyone done this?

I made this seat with a Ebay cover and the seat foam from a CB 750F

Johnie · « **Reply #22 on:** October 17, 2011, 06:09:51 pm »

I agree with Greggo...to early to tell for sure condition of rings & internals. Get it ready to fire up and take it for a ride. Use the Sea Foam first to free things up there. Put some miles on it and give it a chance to free itself up. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Good luck with it Trevor.

hoodellyhoo · « **Reply #23 on:** October 17, 2011, 06:28:16 pm »

Quote from: Johnie on October 17, 2011, 06:09:51 pm

I agree with Greggo...to early to tell for sure condition of rings & internals. Get it ready to fire up and take it for a ride. Use the Sea Foam first to free things up there. Put some miles on it and give it a chance to free itself up. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Good luck with it Trevor.

I really hope so $:-\$ $:-\$ $:-\$

Anyone reading this, feel free to say a little prayer to the motorcycle gods for me.

dhall57 · « **Reply #24 on:** October 17, 2011, 06:45:20 pm »

K6 looks to have been taken care of by PO, just been stored up for a while. 42000 miles is not a lot of mileage for a well maintaned sohc4 750. Maybe some of the readings were not that accurate like you said.

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Author Topic: Resurrection of a cb750 K6 (update 9/28/12) (Read 46759 times)

Markcb750

Markcb750