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Thanks to a friend who needs to buy a tractor, I've purchased a '71 Honda CB450.  My goal is to toot around from 25-45 mph in-town on weekends and learn to wrench on this thing for when society collapses. I want to update it enough that it's a reliable runner, but not take it to the point where it's no longer a "UJM" bike (no café mods or ape-hangers....maybe scramblerfy it down the road). It'll start with a battery charge, will run with throttle - doesn't quite want to idle. Both cylinders firing and carbs synched. A few pops when cold. It does go into gear, and all the flashers and lights work. 14k on the odo, clean title, last registered in 2014. It was an Austin bike so not much rust to speak of. This is the picture that got me to make a provisional offer:  $2300 and free delivery to my back porch (minus the cost of a coldbeer). I don't think that's too much money given the market right now, but I could be wrong. I was going to buy a Genuine Roughhouse 50cc scooter, but to me this is a better overall choice, for less money. I'm 6'2 ~280 so riding a 50cc was already going to be a joke show, at least now I'll be able to keep up with traffic and won't be limited 100% to my local downtown. Finding a convenient basic rider course is difficult where I am, so I'm going to get the learner's permit, let my buddy do shake-downs, and trailer it to the nearest big parking lot to get comfortable - with experienced rider supervision. I plan on completing the BRC and having my endorsement before riding it for real, so for now I'm treating it as a wrenching project. My last project was a 78 IH Scout II that became too much to deal with when I moved to a spot with no outside electricity or covered parking. I don't mind buying the occasional NOS part but a decent OEM-style replacement is fine - I'm not a brand purist. I would like to keep it stock and nice, and fix some of the things that 50 years of progress have mostly solved. I'm large, but I'm not bottoming it out. I'll have to check the adjustments for the rear suspension, maybe replace the shocks with new ones. Imgur isn't saving edits right now so behold my beauty in full riding gear:  PO put about $1000 into it: front and rear brakes rebuilt, right hand controls and starter circuit re-built, new tires, new petcock, new seat (current one says Honda but isn't OEM). He didn't like the skinny rear tire so he put on a larger one. I like the look so I'll keep it. The airbox boots and the intake manifold rubber looks newish. A local shop did some work, so he's getting the sheet for me so I don't re-do some stuff they did within the last year or so. This picture was before the larger rear tire was put on:  Here's the rear tire fitment. Chainguard still fits, and it fills out the fender better than before. I haven't looked at the old catalogues enough to know if this is the actual size of the original tire.  Here's the new petcock. All the fuel lines look this new, so I'm sure that was something that was done.  There's some oil around the bottom. The right-hand side has Allen bolts on the crank-case cover so I think some stuff in there was fairly recently serviced. The oil filter cover screws are rusty, so that's on the list.  The bike was built 11/70 - so a 71 model K4:  I have long-term plans to build a keg carrier as a sidecar. Partially to carry kegs for my local, partially to turn a keg into a sidecar for the pup-dog Kevin.  Planned mods: Solid state regulator/rectifier - to fix voltage/charging issues Common-Motor Shockwave electronic ignition (down the road) LED signal/brake lightbulb upgrade kit H4 headlight upgrade w/ LED bulb Immediate todo list: light clean w/ mild detergent Acquire new/nicer tools (JIS screwdrivers, impact driver, new feeler gauges) Oil change/inspect right side case - it was pretty well taken care of so hopefully no surprises Timing Scope tank for loose rust, do a carb bowl/floater inspection and do a carb service if needed. I'll get the tank professionally coated if it's bad. I have some seafoam to run through it if it's not that bad. $$$$$$$$$$$$ purchase: $2300 Regulator/rectifier: $69 (nice) Oil change gasket/O-ring kit: $25 Punisher stickers: $100
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Sep 27, 2022 03:50
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 16:18 |
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I was able to visit the shop that did the most recent work on this bike. He was unable to give me the full ticket, since the PO still is carrying a balance (lol), but he let me know a few things:
If the PO doesn't pay off the balance in the next week or so I'll just go in and do it, and consider it part of the project in order to get the super-detailed notes they took of the whole process! Should be a fun read. I'm still treating the thing as a wrenching project with a cool payoff, not as much of a "have to ride right now" thing. Depending on what I uncover putting in the regulator/rectifier I'll decide on a full re-wire. Should be here tomorrow or friday. Links: https://www.common-motor.com/honda-cb450-cl450-cb500t-shockwave-electronic-ignition-system https://www.common-motor.com/honda-motorcycle-gemini-ignition-condenser strangeless fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Sep 28, 2022 |
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Sep 28, 2022 19:21
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Update. Was feeling rich as hell after payday the other day, so I finally went to Lowes and bought some new tools!  Now that I was mostly equipped to do it, I was able to install the rectifier/regulator from Common Motor with no troubles. Not many good pictures but here's a couple random ones: Here's the under-the-seat area. The rectifier is the stacked cube thing there on the top left of the photo:  This is a close-up of the starter solenoid. I don't know if it's original but it looks pretty gnarly:  Here's the regulator, and the below the battery and air cleaner tunnel location for the install of the combo solid state one:  I'll try to get a good picture of the new location when I'm back out there. After getting the thing back together, unfortunately, only one side wanted to start, and it wouldn't idle at all. When checking the carb bowls for fuel something important fell out...  This is a little spring loaded valve that stops the fuel flowing into the bowl when its full. I didn't notice at first and it was pouring gas out the bypass every time I turned on the flow. Fortunately I was able to find the correct parts diagram and get the thing put back where it belongs, though it took some doing while everything was still on the bike. I'm working my way through the ignition system before attacking the carbs for now, since they were recently serviced and I don't want to mess with them just yet. A few days later I went back out to start again from spark on the right side. The spark plugs were looking just a little dirty...  So I called it for the day and ordered two new plugs, plug boots, and a new condenser while I was at it. Everything came in yesterday. This morning, I trimmed the ends of the ignition wires, screwed in the new boots, and replaced the plugs. After a quick charge on the battery we got fired up and idling on both sides. Hooray! So now with good spark it will start in one tick when warm, but right now I don't know if the voltage system is fixed. I'll go over everything with a voltmeter once I get further in, since I eventually want to replace the wiring loom and add the solid state ignition from Common Motor. On to the current issue: it will idle with some really slight self-revving for as long as I don't touch the throttle. When I give a little gas, it will dip below 1k rpm before recovering. If I go a little harder on the throttle it will almost shut off when letting up, and if I get on the gas it won't rev past 3k, and then will die. Here's a video (I swear this was in landscape mode when I shot it!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USNRRDIxqQA Reading online, this is could be a condenser issue, which I had already planned to be a replacement. Now that I have it idling I can get in and check the points while running to see if they are acting strange, but I'll probably just go ahead and replace it either way. I'm running some Seafoam through everything each time I idle it, and it was a little smokey at first, but seems to have settled down. I'll pull the spark plugs to check them once it cools down. EDIT: WOW WHAT AN IDIOT: While re-watching the video one more time I noticed a spark plug on the ground. I thought it was the old one. I went back to check the plugs (pretty fouled already so I'm sure I will get into fuel fairly soon) and it was the new plug, which I gapped and put on the ground, but I must have put the old one back in when I was done gapping the other new one. It idles now around 1.5k and settles down without dipping, will run up to about 3k just fine, but more than that will still die when going back to idle. I feel like the throttle grip sticks a little too but I'm not sure. $$$$$$$$$$$$ Previous total: $2394 spark plugs: $8 spark plug boots: $8 ignition condenser: $20 Total so far: $2430 Not included in project total: Craftsman toolkit on sale at Lowe's: $99 Various other tools: ~$60 Seafoam: $12 Skull helmet from Amazon: $45 strangeless fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Oct 15, 2022 |
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Oct 15, 2022 19:14
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New tool day rules. It’s Christmas for bike nerds
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Oct 15, 2022 20:09
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Final update for today: I had the bright idea to run the starter for a bit with the fuel off to drain the battery down, then idle for a while to see if I could then shut it down and get a good start. Well short answer is I'm not sure. Long answer is I used the charger to "jump" the motor and let it idle for about 5 minutes. I was going to go more, but I noticed a drip coming from right near the kickstand. Gas. So either it's flooding and getting bypassed (but the carb itself is not dripping) or I'm not getting a complete burn and I'm not just a little rich but a ton rich. It's only on the left side, which was the side that was running earlier, but also the side that the check valve thing came out of. I'll sleep on it, but looks like I'll need to get the carbs off sooner rather than later.
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Oct 15, 2022 20:54
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 16:18 |
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The carbs you should clean out/replace the main jets, those are the ones that are active when you are higher in the rev range. The other thing that could stop it from reving is not getting enough gas into the bowls - which could be floats/needle valves/petcock All things that mean take the carb off, poke something in all the little holes, and clean it out. After that, then you can start troubleshooting again as most carb things (for bikes that used to run but now do not). are just them needing to be cleaned, when they sit for a while residue blocks the ports (that have to be precisely sized) and it doesn't run well.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:42
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