Topic: 73' CB750 complete rebuild, DONE! just in time to be moving to KODIAK ALASKA!!!

[USCG_C130]

okay well i have put about 50 miles on the bike and shes a little rough when she cold but once shes warm its like a whole new, smooth running animal. i have one question though, my exhaust is so quiet that i can hear much more than i did with the headers, is it normal for the bike to have a ticking noise coming from  under the  clutch cover area? i originally thought it might be the cam chain but after listening a bit more im pretty sure it sounds like its from around the clutch area.


also i finally finished up all my wiring, i had to make my license plate bracket first so i could put my lighted tag bolts on then wire them in. and heres what i ended up making because i wanted something different, tucked close to the bike and wanted to find a more unique place for it. so here it is and the lighted tag bolts also have 2 extra LED brake light on them for a little more visibility

[USCG_C130]

also i called the upholstery guy who does seats for dime city around here and has done cafe seat like mine, but he wanted like 250$ to make a seat pan and do the upholstery work, so i spoke to him on the phone and asked if i make the seat pan what would we be looking, that brought the price down to more along the lines of 175$ so i was stuck at work on duty and made this little guy which im pretty proud of, it was my first time using a metal roller and i think i did alright. it still has painter tape on it and is left a little bit large so he can trim it as he needs.


and in the last picture heres what i am thinking for my tank badges, but i still have to redo them i have painted them like 4 times trying to decide, but my girl doesn't really like the gold she thinks it will look better with a white background and gold letters

what do you guys think?

[brandEn]

Just found your build thread. Nice bike! It turned out great. I don't know how I keep missing out on project threads like this. This is the third or fourth one in like a week.  Better late than never I guess.

As for your ticking. Are you sure it's the clutch? Hearing some ticking under the cam cover is normal and is just the sound of your valves and cam working away. Usually the clutch has a rattle and that is just the clutch plates making some noise when the engine is cold.

[seanbarney41]

Hi USCG, build is looking good.  I had my license plate mounted where you have yours, but I had to move it 'cuz I kept hitting my leg on it when mounting and dismounting...ripped pants, bent license plate...   Hopefully you are more careful and less clumsy than me.

[USCG_C130]

thanks guys! i appreciate the input and i think that ticking might just be the cam its hard to tell and its not overly loud but ill be keeping my eye on it, and seanbarney41 i also have hit my leg on my plate, but only twice so im becoming more accustom to it now, and hopefully it wont be an issue.

but i am having charging issue, i wired it all my self and am very confident in my wiring, plus i have brand new R/R, i did test the stator for continuity and thought it was all good but am now worried, its still ridable, but i have to throw my tender on it after every ride, so ill be sorting that out soon.

 also i have been riding it more like my vstar and keeping my RPMs way to low, so my last ride i kept them at about 4k-6k and usually shifting about 6k, it was much more fun to ride and rode even smoother

[750 Cafe Commuter]

Nice build!  Love the seat.  Subscibed

[USCG_C130]

HEADED TO THE UPHOLSTER' TODAY!!!! and heres my finished seat pan, i originally was just going to use 2 sided velcro the attach the seat but after emailing and speaking to the upholstery guy he convinced me that its kind of a cop out and a lame way to go about it, plus it will make the pan stan up a too high off the seat. so i spent some time thinking about it and this is what i came up with:

The back rest has a hole and rubber grommet that a pin will slide into, just to keep it in place, and the bottom is held down with 2 rivnuts, which are just a threaded insert that i counter sunk into the pan, and the upholster' will be able to go round those. I also still have to be able to get to the 3 screws that hold the fiberglass part of the seat to the bike, so by simply removing the 2 screws under the seat my seat pad will just lift out and i will be staring at the 3 screws that hold down my seat. heres some pictures of it.

now im going to ride up to the upholstery shop and pick out some leather, im leaning towards a brown, i think black is just to plain.

[cheftuskey121]

I like the idea of brown but I would prefer to see a dark chocolate brown. Enough to catch the eye after looking at it for a bit. I don't think a lighter brown or tan would be well suited to your color scheme. Unless you can find some worn medium to light town bomber jacket leather

[USCG_C130]

well i just got back and i ended up deciding with black, after putting brown on the seat it just looked out of place being the only brown on the bike. so i had him only use 1/2 of foam on the pan, he wanted 1" and then another half inch for the pleats, and i wanted it just a bit thinner so in the end it should be about 3/4" of an inch thick with pleats across the seat in black vinyl instead of leather cut the cost in about half, so i made the seat pan and mounting which saved me 75$ from him having to make it. end cost should be about 150-175$

[USCG_C130]

oh and also got this new Torc helmet with their built in HIFI headphones and jack and i must say i like the helmet alot, its very quiet, and pretty light, although the headphones arent the loudest things around, at least i can still hear whats going on around me. Riding with tunes is a nice change too.

[USCG_C130]

well a few new pictures with her custom seat on and mounted, i went with black because brown just looked kind of out of place, but the guys did a great job and only ran me 150$ so i am happy with that!. i still want to wrap the pipes but that will be down the road, all i want now is to ride it, but my #1 plug runs WAY WAY rich at start up and idle, i put a new plug in it and started her up and only ran it for 30 seconds and then pulled the plug and it was already dripping fuel and carbon was starting to build up. i rode her for about 100 miles the other day to a vintage bike show and changed the plug twice on the ride. it seems to foul out with in 40-50 miles! so time to start diagnosing and i will put up a thread in the tech area too.

all my other plugs look perfect! but #1 is just really rich.

[spdjnky]

Beautiful bike. You should be proud of it!

[cheftuskey121]

thats gorgeous mate. great flow and curves. happy for you!

[EricHa]

Great build man! I just picked up a K6 and your bike is sweet inspiration.

[mono]

nice work!  love it!

[iron_worker]

Is your #4 similar? Is it a misfire on the #4 causing excess fuel and poor burn? You would likely feel a misfire while riding though.

If it's just #1 then it's gotta be a fuel problem related to just that one carb. Float sticking?

IW

[USCG_C130]

Is your #4 similar? Is it a misfire on the #4 causing excess fuel and poor burn? You would likely feel a misfire while riding though.

If it's just #1 then it's gotta be a fuel problem related to just that one carb. Float sticking?

IW

Iron worker, #4 runs perfectly with a nice brown plug, my only problem is #1, to day i checked the float level again and it was about 1 cm off, so i re-adjusted it, then took it for a spin, i can back from about 2 miles, and again it was very black and damp with fuel. i never got really above 1/8 throttle or so.

i had the carbs cleaned and synched and all the clip positions and jets are the same, i also have my A/F screw set at 1 1/2 turns out on all my carbs. also i checked the spark which is good and also have ran 3 new plugs in it and all do the same. what else could be causing so rich at idle?

also i have moved the float around a fair bit and it doesn't seem sticky at all.

and thanks for the compliments on the bike, i am very happy with it!, just kills me that i cant ride it much yet.

[KayOne]

If the ignition checks out and the float level is correct you may have an air leak in the #1 carb rubber.

Although it has never happened to me , the main jet may have worked itself loose and may be in the bottom of the float bowl.

[USCG_C130]

If the ignition checks out and the float level is correct you may have an air leak in the #1 carb rubber.

Although it has never happened to me , the main jet may have worked itself loose and may be in the bottom of the float bowl.

funny you say that about the main jet, i was reading that on another thread but i have checked it twice and it seems to be holding its position, but i will check for an air leak, will it matter which side of the carbs it is on for running rich? the airbox and boots from the box to the carbs are brand new, on my build thread you can see the box i am running, it is a bread box.

[USCG_C130]

went and looked at my #1 carb boot and this is what it looks like, so i would assume its got a crack somewhere, although im running out the door and cant inspect further, what are your guys' thoughts, i see no visible crack but would it make that big of a difference? so here is #1, smells like fuel and wintergreen oil, lol

[Trevdawg]

Liking this build but man. It seems like the money is just building up to.

[USCG_C130]

Liking this build but man. It seems like the money is just building up to.

 you can say that again! just ordered a bunch more stuff today to fix a leaky gasket and carb boots and jets.

damn it adds up, but worth it!!!

[BobbyR]

and i had a question there are some welds that you can see on the picture with out the tank they do not look stock and were kind of crappy weld i cleaned them up a little but why are those there? and are they stock? its on the top rails  about half way dow,...

Everyone asks about those factory welds.
They did not have TIG welding at that time. But they were sound welds.
It is just that now all the young guys have gotten used to perfect TIG welds even on a muffler.
They are plug welds in overlapping parts of sheet metal stampings.
They are factory welds. They have lasted 33 years.
Do NOT grind them down!! You can SAND spatter off,
but do not do anything to the weld or the height of the weld. Only sand NOT grind.
The frame is only .062 thickness. A grinding disk can take off half of that material in a split second!
The crown of the weld is a structural part of a weld
I know what I am talking about.
I am a certified welder and a certified welding inspector through the American Welding Society.

It is good to strip the paint off of the frame and inspect for cracks.
If you find a defect(crack), have a competent welder make a TIG weld repair.

Not true, grinding a weld reduces pressure ridges. At least according to theThe International Institute of Welding.

 "The primary aim of the grinding is to remove or reduce size of the weld toe flaws from which fatigue cracks propagate. At the same time, it aims to reduce the local stress concentration effect of the weld profile by smoothly blending the transition between the plate and the weld face."

You can read the whole paper here:  http://www.meng.ucl.ac.uk/www/dept/ISSC/RECOMM2001-08.PDF

[USCG_C130]

well a few big news updates i got my bike back together and running very well, after replacing 2 of the needle jets its running outstandingly, all the plugs looks good, also i fixed my stator oil leak to realize i have a small one that appears to be coming from the seal behind the sprocket, but im going to let that slide and just enjoy riding it now because come june/july i am being moved to KODIAK ISLAND, ALASKA!!! lol what a change from hawaii and florida, so i figure ill have plenty of time to wrench on my bike in the winters out there and wont be riding a whole lot.

so on that note i am looking at buying a dual sport/ adventure bike for up in alaska, anyone have any suggestions?

[brandEn]

I have been to Alaska but never Kodiak Island. I do have two suggestions though. Blackout curtains! Those are long summer days. Deet bug repellent by the gallon. In the summer Alaska has crazy mosquitoes. Sounds like your in for some huge lifestyle changes. Exciting!