Shocks

Swapped shorter chopper shocks for a rusty par of shocks off Andrews 1976 CB750F Supersport

Started cleaning them, they are full of rust.

Before



After

Slowly Coming together

Monday and Tuesday consisted on trying to put the bike back together in a form to get it started.

Have figured out that the oil pressure switch is bad. Borrowed the switch from Andrew 78 SuperSport, and the oil pressure light went off after I got it started.

At this point I put back on the original mufflers, side covers, chopper handlebars, fuel tank.

A couple of items:

• The petcock hose is leaking a small bit on the left side, does not seem to matter which line I hook up to the connection.
• Put original mufflers back on but need bolt and nuts to reattach mufflers and footpegs to the back of frame. The current bolt is 19mm, and short, need two total.
• Need a new oil pressure switch to replace defective one.

Bike is idle-ing poorly but it is running, with no side effects at this point.

Failed Start

I hooked up the starter switch, and indicator lights.

Tried to start, start is working but it will not kick over, a few of the pipes were warm like there was some ignition going on.

Carb bowl on the left side pulled it was full of fuel.

Will probably wait until I can get handlebars, and roll outside to try to start.

Will Reconnect seat for now.

Carbs cleaned

The carbs have been cleaned in simple green dunk, no gaskets have been replaced yet.

Airbox and carbs reconnected to bike

Fuel tank filled and fuel lines connected

One of the carb cleanout ports is now missing an o-ring. Need to but o-ring kit.

Front Forks redone

The front forks are in and redone. Had to use complete fork from Andrews 1976 Honda CB750K6. The oil piston tube were different fro mine. I now have left over springs, lower tubes, piston's, allen bolts, etc since I'm selling the chopper kit.

Added 4.7 ounces of Castol 10W-30 oil

Need torque setting, and socket for these nuts, I think they are 23mm. Need to measure and check.

Steering toward the Hills

Decided with the forks off, the handlebars off, I would repack the bearings on the steering head. I was shocked to see that my 1973 actually used loose ball bearings in a open tract system. I loosened up the main nut on the steering head and then the fork nut. You have to use a special wrench which I had in my 2000 BMW R1100RS onboard toolkit. Got luck.

After pulling all the hardware off, it revealed a gunky set of 18 ball bearings. I quickly popped the off, and dropped the lower triple tree to find the other 19 ball bearings.


I then proceeded to clean everything in Gunk and wipe down the inside of the head surfaces.

I went ahead and smeared lots of Moly Grease in the bottom tract, reinstalled the 19 ball bearings, and pushed it up through the steering head, then repeated up top for the other 18 ball bearings.




Here is a picture of everything re-assembled and loosely tighten, I will re-aligh the triple trees once I get the forks installed.

Some ugly pics

Bike's front end is stripped down to the triple trees. I will be working on forks next which Andrew decided to sell to me. I will try to generate some funds by selling the old chopper tubes as a kit, spacers, brace, and handlebars.

Tally of the damage

If I were to buy all new switch housings, handle bars, and control cables, which really need replacing, were in over $300 in NOS parts.

Need to start searching salvage yards for handlebars, switch housings, or start saving.

A wiring harness new is also $75 which is not absolutely nessecary, but would not hurt.

Right Fork Removed

Finished removing the forks, need to clean them up, take some pictures, and try my shot at eBay.

Wiring Issues

Oil Pressure Light

I noticed the oil pressure light was not coming on when the key was tuend on, it should be on before starting the engine.

Looked at the wiring diagram, this is a blue red wire coming from light going to the oil pressure switch. This wire had been disconnected up near the headlight bucket. This may be a bigger issue yet to come, the PO might have ignored a problem by just unplugging the wire. I hope not.

I plugged it back together, and the light came on. I have the carbs off so starting to see if it will disappear will have to wait.


Starter Button

I'm not a electrical guru, and wiring has always been a trouble on old bikes. So here goes. The start button would not engage.

First thoughts, broken starter button, put test lamp on button wire, getting juice (Green/Red) wire. Next Yellow/Red wire leading from start button to start relay unconnected and getting current.

I noticed that the wiring from the turn signal switch had been cut off when turn signals were removed. This created a short when the light switch was on, which is tied to the ignition switch, which is then tied to the start relay, ah hah.

So this is all tied together in this scenario.

• When light switch off, engine start button worked
• When light switch on, starter button did not work

The start button is also wired for hot to the start motor safety unit. The clutch switch had been broken on this bike, so the PO jumped around that wire and got hot from somewhere else.

I put back the brown/white wire off the start button to the brown/white wire junction.
I put the green/red wire back into the connection off the clutch switch like original.
Bike was in neutral anyway, start button work with lights on or off, like it was suppose to.

Removing handlebars

After all that success I decided to remove the handlebars which has all the wiring buried in it. Well, I unconnected all the junction connects and labeled left and right. Proceeding to remove the right switch housing (horn, signals) were good, wires came out easily, right side switch housing (starter, kill switch, light switch) different issue, all the wires had been sliced and rejoined near the switch housing, a real mess.

Some order to this madness

Thinking of an approach. Lately I have been just attacking things in random order. Found a good article about the head gasket issue. It recommends a good cleaning, then use talc powder to find leak, they suggest it leaks on the sides where the oil passages are, also the blown gasket issue might not be an issue, just a leak issue.

Here are my current thoughts.

Forks

• Finish fork removal, and inventory.
• Group fork tubes, spacers, cross brace together as a chopper kit and sell on ebay, they run $150 new.
• New forks tubes with seals run $150 new.
• Look into salvage yards, bikeboneyard has them for $75.00
  
• Finish forks to get rolling chassis back together

Carbs

• Carbs are now removed.
• Next action is to individually clean all carbs, remove gaskets and o-rings
• Inspect for damaged if needed order gasket kit.
  
• Order new gasket kits in parts catalog, around 15 a carb, or 60 bucks
• Intake hoses look ok, need to fiddle with those.

Prepare Engine for idle test/start

• Have already tested battery to see if start would move engine and it did
• Clean starter button contacts
• Oil pressure light did not come on, I believe it is suppose to
  
• Next test would like to have clean carbs and fuel running to engine to see if it will run on own, might run rough but wanted to see if it will idle.

Parts Needed to get basic running condition

• Forks
• Seat
• Handlebars
• Shifter
• Clutch Lever
• Possible Clutch switch by-pass the wires
  
• Turn Signals (Need to verify relay and flashers work)
  
• Possible right switch (starter button not working)
  

Battery, Carbs

Today consisted of buying, and charging new Everstart battery. Walmart stocks them for $33.00, so not bad.

Everstart ES14LA2 battery worked for this bike.

I also reconnected throttle cables, and right grip in prep to try to start the bike.

Cleaned chain briefly, not fully, but enough to get some chain lube on to prevent further rusting, etc.

I think I can get some money for these +6 Chopper style fork tubes. Still searching for a standard set cheap, found places that will sell new, Forks by Frank.

Charged up battery, hooked it up

Working:

• Horn
• Neutral light
• High beam light
  

Not Working:

• Low beam light
  
• oil pressure light
• Starter button
• Turn signal indicator
• Clutch lever broken, so it will sense clutch switch open
  

Hot wired, and it tried to crank, decent sign, since no gas I was just seeing if the pistons would move, and the start engine would work. Could here the pistons moving, so that is good.

Carbs

The carbs are gunked up in the bowls, floats are all stuck. Andrew helped me remove the whole carb unit. I need to read up on cleaning and overhaul kits. It took a bunch of pentrating oil and some presuasion to get these off.

Fork in the Road

I have been working steady on the forks, after removing the front tire, and brake, I need to drain and remove the fork to figure how the previous owner modified this for a chopper look.

I went to remove the left fork. Some trial and error, and after borrowing my neighbors Clymer manual I figured it out.

Removal

• Remove top screw, mine had a extension tube for the longer fork inside between the cap and the spring
• Remove fork from triple tree by loosening bolts
• Remove fork from frame
• Unscrew the 6mm bolt on the bottom after removing the axle bolts, and clamp
• Remove the spring, oil piston, and smaller spring
• the extension to the down tube will remain if you do not remove the oil seal. My oil seal looks OK, and the fork was not leaking

After all this I was able to remove the tube.

The chopper tube is XXXmm or YYY inches. I need to figure out how long the stock tube are.

Big note
I noticed that all these parts are from a 750F bike, and look different than the original K3 bike, will verify these parts.

Changed Oil

Today I decided to drain the remaining oil from the oil pan and oil filter, and inspect the oil filter.

The remaining oil has about 2 qts. I inspected the oil filter, no shavings, I will leave the filter in for now.

I bought four 1.05qt of Castrol 20W-50 4T Motorcycle oil. I drained and added exactly 3.15 qts. The owners manual says 3.7qts is the max. I will check the level tomorrow after it has had time to settle.

Some Supplies

AutoZone $69.70

Metric Hardware
Hand Cleaner
Brake Fluid
Penetrating Oil
18mm Socket for spark plug
Tire Valve Stem covers
Engine Oil (4 qt), Castrol 20W-50 (On Sale $2.99 qt)

More breakdown today

The chopper style forks need to go. My plan is to drain the forks, remove, measure and inventory, then find out how to replace, refill, and remount to stock version.

Front Fender

• Removed Front Fender bolts
• Needed to remove stays to fully removed fender
• Left lower bolts in forks
• Remaining hardware labeled and bagged.
• Rubber grommets need to be refreshed.

Front Brake Caliper

• Removed Front brake caliper
• Two bolts need to removed to pull caliper off.
• Did not use a spacer but left fluid in brake system for now.

Forks

• Drained fork oil from right and left.
• Removed fork caps on the top.
• Spacers popped out once caps were removed.
• Once these spacers were remove the forks lowered a bit (might be on to something here)
• The forks had a cross brace on the lower forks, which I removed and saved.

Unconnected Speedo Cable (In Box)
Screw on bottom which holds it on seemed hard to restart

Front Tire

• Removed front wheel brackets from bottom
• Removed front wheel to continue work on forks, wheel bearings seem fair.

Starting the breakdown

First the cosmetics

• Removed dried out Saddle bags, found missing side cover "750" emblem inside.
• Removed custom sissy bar which has re3d bullet turn signals mounted, will save the lights in case I need some until redone.
• Removed front custom highway pegs. This was a twisted bar with folded up foot pegs on the end, connected to the front frame.
• Removed the custom "gun fighter" chopper seat, removed hardware which is needed for a new seat. Saved all hardware.

Tank

• Removed the tank, the tank did have gas in it, but the inside after drained looked pretty good. Petcock looked a bit sticky, will need to rebuold or drain the screen.
• The tank tube were not connected when I removed the tank.
• The rubber molding holding the back of the tank, ribber was stiff and tearing.

Side Covers

• Removed left and right side side covers, rubber grommets holding them on were all present, and seemed in fair conidtion.
• Left side is missing emblem, bu I have the part.

Airbox

• Remove the airbox, screws on top holding on tabs.
• Removed the wingnuts on the bottom, and removed the entire box.
• Had to unscrew the bans holding each carb output to holes.
• Airfilter looked dirty but might be ok for a little while if blown out.
• All hardware with airbox.

Carbs

• Tried to remove carb package, first needed to remove throttle cables
• Throttle has a pull and push throttle cable. The cables were already un connected from throttle plate.
• I reconnected to see if throttle worked. Carb slides seemed stuck, I sprayed carb cleaner which helped a little bit, but carbs seem stuck.
• I decided to go ahead and unhook throttle cables from grip.
• Dis-assembled right side switch housing, and un-released cable.
• Top cable labled and removed.
• Lower cable stuck on for now.
• Removed left throttel grip, stored in box.
  

Mufflers (RIGHT SIDE ONLY)

• Removed short exhaust/mufflers from right side.
• Wingnuts are easy to remove, but rusty and need to be cleaned.
• Right side muffler lower unit (exhaust #3), left hardware with muffler.
• Right side muffler upper unit (exhaust #4), hardware is on bike, connects on foot peg bolt.
• NOTE had to remove brake pedal, with siwtch spring to remove muffler.
  

Cosmetic Evaluation

Engine Evaluation

Controls Evaluation

Front End Evaluation

Another Bike !! 1973 Honda CB750K3

Got a vintage 1973 Honda CB750K motorcycle. Found it on oodle.com, not my usual search function. Oodle scans classified, and newspapers, unlike the normal craigslist listing.

This 1973 Honda CB7K350 is in fair condition, it has a leaking head gasket, sticking front brake, some owner modifications to seat, turn signals, forks, and headlight, but other than that it is a classic 750 which turned the motorcycle market back in 1969 when they were first released.

From 1973 Honda 750K