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

[HondaMan]

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?

Yikes!
I'm sitting here freezing in our subzero, can't imagine that place!

[USCG_C130]

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! 

ive been to a few places in alaska when i was on the ship, but they were all during the winter so i didn't have to deal with the long days of sun, but i know what to expect from seeing kodiak, dutch harbor, Seward and anchorage before, so i will surly stock up on the DEET and black out curtains!


And @HondaMan you are RIGHT i did my first 3 years in the coatguard in Hawaii and my last 5 here in florida, but luckily Kodiak is one of the more mild spots in AK, the  temps are average lows from 25-40 and average highs 35-68 heres a link

http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/alaska/kodiak/

so i wont be riding my nice clean honda a whole lot but i plan on selling my vstar and buy a BMW or maybe a used Ducati Multistrada if im lucky because  the road wont be quite what im use to. but at scenery and flying is suppose to be WORLD CLASS, it just came as quite a shock since i didn't even have it on my request sheet, but they are really short handed up there, and after 2 years i leave with pretty much first pick, so hopefully  Sacramento will be my next spot!

[Stev-o]

Best of luck with the move, USCG. Be sure to give us a full report once you are up there.

[David B]

Never made it to Kodiak but I lived in AK for 5 years from the late 80s into the 90s. My family is still there & I try to get back every couple years. If you enjoy the outdoors you'll love Kodiak!  The fishing, hunting & terrain are second to none.

You might consider something like a Suzuki DRZ650. Goes anywhere, cheap & you can't kill it.

If you ever get to Homer (I know you guys do sometimes) you gotta get a pizza from Starvin' Marvin's.  Thank you for your service, by the way. You guys earn your keep & are much appreciated up there.

David B

[USCG_C130]

i wont be leaving florida until may/june but i plan on doing the drive all the way to homer and then catch the ferry from there to kodiak, most people drive to washington and then take a ferry from there but hell when will i ever get paid to drive from florida to AK heres the rough plan i have although after seattle i am going to back track to Banff and do the Banff to Jasper drive too.


@David B thanks for the recommendation on the Suzuki, i will look in to those, and also ill try to remember the pizza place in homer for when i get there. yea the coast guard has a real love hate relationship, especially in Alaska we do save many many live but also have to write alot of tickets to fishermen, but for the most part you are right they love seeing us flying out there.

[Stev-o]

That's gotta be 3,000 miles?

[tweakin]

Beautiful country you are moving to, definitely a shorter riding season.  I used to go to AK on business, heres a pic from my last trip to homer.

[iron_worker]

That's going to be a shocking climate change! lol

IW

[Bankerdanny]

Adventure bike, you don't need no steenktin adventure bike, stick with the SOHC Honda theme and find yourself an SL350. LOL

[USCG_C130]

That trip is looking like 6200 miles although the first half will be in a mazda 3 <--- my girls car, and then in seattle where im from, ill be buying a truck and new bike to haul up there (don't think my lowered Vstar will hack it) and then do the second half from seattle to Homer with my buddy and I. it is certainly a beautiful place and i will be sure to keep up on here as i move, but keep in mind that move is still  6 1/2 months away!

so untill then ill be rocketing around on my honda as long as i can, all is good as far as oil leaks and the carbs but my battery has had a really hard time keeping a charge, i hooked my voltmeter up to the battery and checked the voltages at several rev points about every 1000 rpm and all the voltages check out, the battery is a brand new yussa battery could it be a bad one? it charges fine with my  battery tender but after 20 miles with all my lights on it just drops the running light, which i do have running through my headlight and headlight relays. my brake light will still come on full bright, along with my brake light and tag bolt lights, i dont know why the tail light is dying off anf the battery is running low.

i think tonight im going to buy a led battery volt meter and hook it up so i can monitor while riding.

[HondaMan]

That trip is looking like 6200 miles although the first half will be in a mazda 3 <--- my girls car, and then in seattle where im from, ill be buying a truck and new bike to haul up there (don't think my lowered Vstar will hack it) and then do the second half from seattle to Homer with my buddy and I. it is certainly a beautiful place and i will be sure to keep up on here as i move, but keep in mind that move is still  6 1/2 months away!

so untill then ill be rocketing around on my honda as long as i can, all is good as far as oil leaks and the carbs but my battery has had a really hard time keeping a charge, i hooked my voltmeter up to the battery and checked the voltages at several rev points about every 1000 rpm and all the voltages check out, the battery is a brand new yussa battery could it be a bad one? it charges fine with my  battery tender but after 20 miles with all my lights on it just drops the running light, which i do have running through my headlight and headlight relays. my brake light will still come on full bright, along with my brake light and tag bolt lights, i dont know why the tail light is dying off anf the battery is running low.

i think tonight im going to buy a led battery volt meter and hook it up so i can monitor while riding.

This sounds suspiciously like either the voltage regulator is not working, or the field coil is not connected (or open? Fairly rare...), or maybe the big white connector for the alternator isn't doing a good job of connecting these wires to the engine?

If you have a stock regulator, make sure the big resistor on the back of it is not cracked, if it was recently removed. Dropping them can break it. Check the rectifier: see if the wires to it maybe look like they are getting hot, a little melted around the connections. That could indicate a shorted pole, which can also be tested with an ohmmeter. If the bike was ever charged with a large battery charger (typically more than 6-10 amps) by having the charger ON and the battery stone dead, the instantaneous voltage of the charger can damage the top + diode(s) on the pre-1974 rectifiers. The later ones, and Honda's present replacements, are higher voltage units and can survive that treatment.

[USCG_C130]

well it must be a miricale because i have been riding it the past few days and now every time i check it it has 12.8 volts, i did remove the tail light from my headlight circut so that i would reduce the load from that who circut and so that i could use my switch to turn my headlight off during day riding, and im thinking something in that did help i dont know if i was shorting or over loading something when i would apply my brake light but now that my head light is totally issolated and my taillight just runs off my big posotive terminal i made it seems to be holding a charge much better, but only time will tell. i also have a battery voltmeter enroute so i will get that put on and be able to see more of what happending.

i was getting so sick of taking my seat off to check my battery voltage and then it hit me!! why the hell am i not just sticking the probe in the tail end of my battery tender?!?! so now i use that method and it seems to be holding a charge.

 also @Hondaman my regulator and rectifier are brand new from the oregon guy so i  am really hoping they aren't bad. also i made my own wiring harness from scratch, i threw the old one out on day one and just sat down in the house and started drawing and laying wires so who knows whats going on  but i am pretty confident in my harness the only downfall is i have no plugs to check wires at which make trouble shooting a PIA!

and the battery i have in there im sure is big enough it a YUSSA 9.1 AH/HR 190 CCA i wanted a smaller one but i really didn't want any issues so i squeezed in the biggest i could under my seat.

so all in all right now it seems to be holding a charge and i will update with anything that changes thanks for the input and help!

[cheftuskey121]

Nominated you for BOTM someone go over there and second it so he can accept!

[USCG_C130]

Nominated you for BOTM someone go over there and second it so he can accept!

WOW! thank you Cheftuskey for the nomination, means a lot to me! i still have to go get some good pictures of my bike at work in front of the mighty C-130, much like  member "Harsh" did with his squadron. again thanks

[cheftuskey121]

Please do! Thanks for your service by the way brother.

[Stev-o]

Nominated you for BOTM someone go over there and second it so he can accept!

Seconded.....

USCG - you need to go over ther and accept.

[tweakin]

When you roll through Seattle look me up.  I am only 20 minutes south in Tacoma and brandEn is about 10 minutes south of Seattle.  We can take you out for a pint.

[USCG_C130]

well until i get over to base with my good camera i figured i would get some good completed photos up on here,  i would really like to wrap my pipes, but that will be  a good project for a kodiak day! i just wanna ride it until i leave! so here they are

[USCG_C130]

and the second half…!

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

The bike looks fantastic.

After going to IMS, I would add the brand new for 2014 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 to your list of adventure bikes (unless you are going whole hog on a BMW, Triumph or Ducati).

[USCG_C130]

Please do! Thanks for your service by the way brother.

Nominated you for BOTM someone go over there and second it so he can accept!

Seconded.....

USCG - you need to go over ther and accept.

 i really appreciate the nomination and the second for you guys it made my day! i was at my coast guard holiday party last night so i wasn't able to accept until this morning, especially after i saw sam on there, lol

Tweakin yea i will be sure to try to hook up with you guys for a few beers while im there, it wont be until june/july but i will be there for 3 weeks or so and im sure ill be in your neck of the woods while looking for a truck and hopefully a used Suzuki DR650 to take up to AK, so ill drop you  a line as time get closer
When you roll through Seattle look me up.  I am only 20 minutes south in Tacoma and brandEn is about 10 minutes south of Seattle.  We can take you out for a pint.

[Buster68]

Bike looks great! Have fun up in Kodiak - I was up at the Coast Guard base years ago for a joint EOD exercise with the USN. Hiked the mountain on the other side of the airfield and the view was incredible.

[USCG_C130]

I though I would put together a condensed story of the my bike and build and also throw in the before and after pictures since she got nominated for the bike of the month.

Well it all started when I got transferred to Florida for the coastguard, I really was hoping to get a hotrod/ratrod/ classic but after looking at many cars from a 49 Cadillac coupe Deville to a t-bucket to a 56 Buick and apparently everyone thinking their rust bucket is gold because its old rust! I decided that a better starter project would be a motorcycle I already had my 2005 vstar which has been absolutely 100% dependable, I went with something more classic and then the CB750 popped up on craigslist, the guy wanted 1200$ for a rusty, non running, flat tire, no electrical was working bike, I looked at it and offer 750$ he took that with ou missing a beat, that was when I knew I should had came in much lower. But none the less my buddy and I loaded it up in my truck and took it home, I immediately took a few pictures and started tearing it down. Finally I got it down to the frame and what do you know the oil filter bolt was seized and stripped!  The next day my buddy came over with his old stick welder and we welded a monster bolt to the head of the old one and eventually we got it out and rebuilt the top end. From that point it took me about 2 years of working on it when I could to get it back on the road.


All the work I did my self except, after a failed attempt at a POR job on the frame I ended up just powder coating it. Also I had the tins painted locally, the seat pan I had professionally upholstered and I respoked my rear wheel and new rim, but I had it properly trued when I had the new tired put on. But pretty much everything else I did.

After my 2 years of work I am extremely happy with it and it is such a blast to ride, this forum has been such a wonderful experience and a tremendous help to many of my questions.

A huge Thanks to all involved and all that have helped through my first project, hopefully I can get my hands on another reasonable SOHC and go a different route with my next one.

Here are the rest of my pictures i took the other day all the before and afters i took

[USCG_C130]

and heres the rest

[David B]

The before & after pics look fantastic. You should be very proud!