Topic: Terry's NEW Redneck CB750 rebuild. The "Swamp Rat". Too soon? Nah..........

[edwardmorris]

I really enjoy following your threads.  They're done thoughtfully and with humor.  I had to smile at your "world's greatest waste of masking tape" pic of your brake rotor.  I, too, used to spend inordinate amounts of time and tape-waste doing the same thing until I found that if I just sprayed the center w/o masking the rotor, I could then just wipe off the over spray with a rag and some lacquer thinner.  Takes about 1 minute.

+1

Here's the great tape waste of 2014

[Terry in Australia]

Wow, that really is a portrait of "Attention to Detail" Raffi, I painted over the rivets and the mounting face of the disc rotor!

[spotty]

 a proper redneck would just paint the whole thing and let the brake pads take care of the overspray

ask me how i know this....

anyone remember the chrome discs from the 70s, notably triumph, just what you need, a nice shiny surface for the pads to try and grip onto , and didn't they look lovely when the chrome inevitably started flaking off

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yeah, I must admit that since I painted the frame my standards have raised a little more than my original intent, but thats ok, I'll try to keep the shiny stuff to a minimum!

[Terry in Australia]

Wow, it's been a week since I did anything on the old rat, and I'm missing it! Oh well, it's warm here, at least, I better stop at the bottle shop tomorrow and see if they sell Ginger Joes here, I've been "on the dry" since Thursday night and I think I'm going thru withdrawal symptoms.......

[RAFster122s]

What is Ginger Joes Terry?

[Tintop]

What is Ginger Joes Terry?

I'm guessing hard ginger beer.

[PeWe]

How many % ethanol additives ? Like US fuel? (10)

[RAFster122s]

Ginger Joan, a feisty redhead...

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yep sorry guys, its a great drink but not well known even in its country of origin. Alcoholic (like me!) ginger beer, 8% proof and comes in a half litre bottle. Thats usually enough (especially when mixed with my daily cocktail of prescription drugs) to put me to sleep every evening.

[Terry in Australia]

Well the weekend has come and gone, and as usual, not as much done to old Swampy as I woulda liked, but that's OK, as long as I'm moving forward, I'm happy. Didn't do anything yesterday (Saturday) as it was my Ma's University Graduation ceremony, it was a huge event for her, and at 90 (91 next month) she is officially Melbourne University's oldest graduate, so the university really put on a VIP gala event for Ma, and she received a standing ovation from the 1000(+) people at the ceremony.

Mum's graduation 27 July 2019 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

She even made the national news:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/video/90-year-old-woman-graduates-from-university-of-melbourne/vp-AAEXIYp

So, sleep in this morning and then breakfast, and decided that I better go outside and twirl some spanners. First I found all the bits I needed to put my front wheel together, once again, from various bits and pieces I had lying around in tubs. The spokes look a tad rusty, but that's just because I washed them with acid and they flash rusted as they dried. I'll hit them with a bit of WD40 and they'll be fine.

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

The axle clamps on the original forks were so badly corroded they were delaminating, so I found some better ones, and new nyloc nuts and stainless washers.

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And finally, it's a roller!

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

OK, so I decided to sort out that back wheel issue from a few weekends ago. I think it was Sean who called it, the sprocket carrier I'd installed was taller than the correct K2 item. I pulled the wheel out, knocked the original out of the hub, and did a comparison.

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Well I'll be damned, quite the difference! OK, so while I had it apart, I decided to install new brake shoes, as even though there was plenty of meat left on the old ones, I had to adjust the hell out of them to get them to work. Now, the nut is only on a few threads on the brake rod, and that's enough to lock up the brake, amazing! I think I better buy another set for my "Bitsa" the rear brake on it is crap.

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

One disappointment was the new tail light lens seal I bought. I don't know if it had shrunk on the shelf, or if it was just the wrong one, but it's too fcuking small, so that was a waste of 40 bucks. I'll get some silicon and make my own.

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, apart from that I also swapped the speedo and tach over, but forgot to take a pic. No problem, next job is to take it down off the bench and install the battery box and the new wiring harness, in preparation for the engine. The prospective buyer crashed his new Triumph 1200 on Friday, so the pressure's on for me to finish this thing because he rides to work every day, and his Triumph won't be back on the road for a while. Hopefully we'll get some more nice days like today, so I can get this one done.

Sunday Swamp Rat building 28 July 2019 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[spotty]

Well done, you got more done than me

And congrats to your mum too

[Tintop]

Congratulations to your mom Terry.  We had a birthday party for my mom on Saturday, 99, and yes she also went back to university to get her degree in Art Therapy.

[RAFster122s]

Congrats for your Mom's new degree and for your progress.
David

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Guys, much appreciated! Wow 99 is a "good innings" Brian, I hope my Mum makes it to a century!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Congratulations to your mom!! Brava!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks everyone, Ma has decided to end her 15 minutes of fame, she's been approached by several magazines who want to pay her for her story, but she's decided to only do one more 10 minute interview for TV, and that's it.

I took my first sick day for the year today, I had a crap night's sleep last night, so by 5am when I usually get up to go to work, I sent my boss a text and actually got some sleep before I got out of bed at 0830. I watched youtube vids until 12 noon, then decided that it wasn't gonna get much warmer (50 deg F) so put on my beanie and another layer of clothes, and went out to do some stuff.

I'd banged my head on the handlebars several times, so decided it might be a good idea to install some grips. to achieve this I'd need to install a throttle assembly, and thanks to the wheeling and dealing I did with Spotty, I had a nice-ish throttle assembly that came off a Honda of the same era as the K2, albeit with a square plug on the end of the harness, but I'll chop the plug off and install the correct bullet connectors when I get to doing the wiring. I also found a couple of good throttle cables (including a shiny new one, no idea where that came from?) and a new set of Oury grips. I also found a really nice front brake master cylinder, so found some hardware for it and mounted it too.

Wednesday Swamp Rat small jobs 30 July 2019 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The switch block for the left side was in pretty good condition, but some moron had filed a slot for the harness (so he didn't have to run the wires thru the handlebars) in the top of the switchblock, which looked sh1t. I did think about running them through the bars, but decided against it and used a die grinder to grind a slot in the bottom half of the switch, so at least the wires will exit from underneath. The next issue was the way he'd  cut and joined the wires.

Wednesday Swamp Rat small jobs 30 July 2019 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Pardon my terrible camera skills, but if you stare at this pic long enough you'll see that the wires have just been twitched together.

Wednesday Swamp Rat small jobs 30 July 2019 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Now if you've seen these things advertised on Face Book and thought, "What a load of rubbish", think again, they work great!

Wednesday Swamp Rat small jobs 30 July 2019 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yep, get ready for another crappy pic, so just use your imagination and imagine some properly repaired wires with soldered joints and a heat shrink sleeve.

Wednesday Swamp Rat small jobs 30 July 2019 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

I was so pissed off with the quality of my pics I gave up and stopped taking them. No biggie, all the handlebar furniture is now in place, less the mirrors. I'm just tossing up whether I'll install the battery box and wiring harness next, or the engine. Time will tell.

[PeWe]

Interesting about the solder within shrink hoses Terry!

A friend showed me that a a few days ago. He must have found that on FaceBook too.
(I have no account, never had and should probably be closed due to writing negative stuff about imported sacred criminals.)


I need clear shrink hoses for the cheap Honda sized connectors, sockets and pins. The clear hoses delivered in the kit will not shrink by fire as they must to stay and insulate the connector.
I have noticed that vulc tape will become as sticky as used warm chewing gum if cabling sit close to oil and heat. NOT good.

EDIT: Why not a better camera/telephone?

[CBJoe]

Interesting....haven't seen those before

[MauiK3]

First, your mom, what a story!! She must really be something, great story.
Second, what is this shrink tubing thing, do you solder and shrink all in one step? I've never heard of such a thing.
Cool if it works well.

[MauiK3]

Yep, learn something every day. Went on Amazon and they have whole kits of these things with good reviews!!
I've messed with wiring, hi fi, all sorts of stuff for many many years, this is new to me.

 https://www.amazon.com/Kuject-Connectors-Waterproof-Electrical-Automotive/dp/B073RMRCC3/ref=sr_1_3?gclid=CjwKCAjw-ITqBRB7EiwAZ1c5U7SY28PWHpXc3JgYm6PLFGy5akXJRudNRZ9zs0c_MrpGHsmKcWR1-BoCB-4QAvD_BwE&hvadid=313731188789&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9032772&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8347132888917841133&hvtargid=kwd-583216376358&hydadcr=3644_9781808&keywords=shrink+tubing+with+solder&qid=1564590550&s=gateway&sr=8-3#customerReviews

[jgger]

Terry when you want to take those close  pics point to it with your finger ( your choice which one). That gives the camera something to auto focus on in the vicinity of what you are trying to show, it works pretty good.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yep those connectors are great, the red ones are just right for CB750 wires, so I just ordered another 100 to go into my auto electrics box, I've got several more projects after this bike, so I'm sure they'll come in handy. They work really well, and as opposed to soldering then heat shrinking, are was faster, and arguably neater too.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend so I can do some more on it. I'm hoping the engine will clean up well enough that I don't have to paint it, I really don't want to half arse it.

[Terry in Australia]

Well I woke up this morning and looked at the clock, and it was 7:54, wow, if that wasn't a hint, I don't know what is! I got up, made a delicious egg and bacon "Banjo" and a coffee, then rugged up with a beanie, extra jacket and gloves, and wandered outside. I decided that I need to install the engine, so I used my patient lifter to pick it up and put it on a table so I could give it a degrease and a scrub.

Saturday Swamp Rat engine re-install by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It still looks old and is not perfect, but it's just how I want it, I want my bike to look like a 47 year old motorcycle, not a shiny new one, so I called it good.

Saturday Swamp Rat engine re-install 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

With my son Tim's help, I dragged it around to my patio, and I was surprised at how easy it was with the top frame section removed, to slot the engine back in. Sweet!

Saturday Swamp Rat engine re-install 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

OK, so what to do next? I found some engine mounting bolts and hardware as most of the bikes engine mounting hardware had been removed by Gary, the PO, who never got back to me with the missing parts, not really that surprisingly. Anyway, I have tons of CB750 parts, so I eventually found everything I needed, and bolted it back up.

I also installed a better chrome clutch cover and Spotty's slightly dented points cover. I took the opportunity to remove the allen head bolts on the alloy clutch cover and replace them with good used OEM phillips head screws. I used my JIS screwdriver, and was impressed at how well the tip fit in the screw head.

Saturday Swamp Rat engine re-install 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I think it looks better.

Saturday Swamp Rat engine re-install 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And so that was my day. Engine is back in, it just needs one more mounting bolt, that I haven't found yet, and the engine is nice and snug. I'll keep replacing all the allen bolts with JIS screws as I go, and I'll start to hang the new wiring harness and the battery box. It is starting to look like a bike again!

Saturday Swamp Rat engine re-install 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

   

[PeWe]

Good work Terry! Soon time for starting it, right?