Restoration of the '72 CL350 from survivor status

Rewrite of the Project Log posted on the Unnamed Forum.:lol:

12-3-2017

This bike started as pieces by saving a '71 CL350 engine from beingthrown out in Redding, CA where I was living at the time. A bunch of pieces came with it that were for building this into adune buggy.

A few weeks later and stumbled into this 1972 CL350 in Sacramento, CA. No front end, bungled engine repair and pretty sad shape from living outside unprotected.


Found a front end from another '72 being parted out and I had all the basic pieces needed to build a bike. So I stripped everything down and built a "survivor" out of all the pieces for my son=in-law to ride.

So some time and effort expended and I had a basic survivor bike thatwas 100% roadworthy for my son-in-law to ride. Things that were done initiallywere to fix the charging system by modifying the wiring harness, I joined theYellow and White wires back at the alternator area and removed all the excesswiring. Switches were rebuilt. Electronic ignition added. New swing armbushings and collars. Sparckmoto regulator. New wheel bearings, brakes, some cables, etc.

Completed


And my 6' 7" son-in-law with my granddaughter


Needless to say he's not a good fit for the bike. I ran out of time to adjust things to fit him since I was leaving for the 2nd US tour shortly after completion in 2014. So it's been camped out here in Vancouver, WA for the last few years while I got resettled here and made decisions about it's future.

Initial plan was correct a starter issue, clean it all up, possibly paint and sell it off.
When I parked it there was a problem with the starter clutch hanging engaged for a few seconds to a minute after starting. So I moved it in to the shop and onto the lift table, clamped and strapped into place. That night there was a loud bang and crash in the garage. Lo and behold the bike was now laying on it's side. Well now I have 6 bent 45 year old spokes because for whatever reason the front tube blew out. Wasn't a very good tube to begin with since it was always loosing air. After checking the rims for run out the front one is wide on both sides at the same spot which indicates it hit a curb or huge pothole. Oh well, it was pretty corroded inside anyway and the rear wasn't any better. So the list of stuff to do so far is new rims and spokes, headlight bucket that's cracked, front fork tubes that are pitted, lots of chrome issues. I've never laced wheels and have very little experience with truing.

12-3-17
So now it's finding spokes, rears are easy but the front's are troublesome. Several listings on eBay for NOS spokes but nothing in new. Those listed look like there's corrosion on some spokes and I can't buy 18 of each part number, some are selling 10 or 5 and some w/o nipples. Looks like I'll end up with Buchanan spokes and since it would look funny to have front one type and rear another, there's a complete set thru DSS available, I'll get rears there too. Ouch. Rims are easy since DSS has them. Next to get a decent truing stand. Then it's refinishing the hubs with the peeling clear coat.
Fork sliders are in good shape other than the finish so those need to be stripped and cleaned up as well. Fork tubes are not in good shape with some pitting in the seal run area and lots of corrosion in the triple tree section.

12-4-17 Reply to Doode
Doode, I'm going to rebuild the wheels I've got for the actual knowledgeto be gained. Rims are ordered and waiting to hear back from Buchanan on the spokes. Sat down yesterday and went through available pieces from Honda and DSS and ordered a whole bunch of known questionable pieces like all the rubber stuff. I'd like to keep the original style headlight bucket so if you have a good one that would be great. The chrome bolts also. So the list so far is:
original headlight bucket
headlight chrome bolts
chrome fork caps
rear turn signal chrome frame bolts

12-6-17
I've got the bike pretty well stripped down. Some things are worse than I remember. One fork ear is rotten thru, the other one isn't great. Looks like they're becoming unobtanium. Tons of parts ordered, 3 pages worth from Western Honda plus the page full from DSS. Sorting out spoke specs with Buchanan.
One question that I have is the front step/pegs. It seems that they don't sit level or even close but there's no apparent damage to the steel indicating that the bike went down hard. So for those that know or have a CL, how level are the pegs normally


This is why I'm replacing the rims, structurally they're OK. I did the hammer/punch routine in the corroded areas and had no deformation or punch thru anywhere. But it won't be long before they are unsafe with the amount of corrosion.

Not a lot accomplished today other than finding the fork ears, getting all the spokes off the hubs by cutting some and removing the VIN plate. Buchanan contacted me and needed to know the spoke hole size for the nipples. DSS didn't know and 4into1.com sells the same rim I emailed them. Not impressed with their response "call DSS". I understand DSS not being able to go check the rim since you're talking to someone in the UK about parts in Pennsylvania but 4into1 sales are in the same building as the parts. Oh, well.
12-15-17
Parts have started arriving. Rims came from DSS and they are the Union Cycle rims. Got the spoke holes measured and info relayed to Buchanan so I should see spokes next week. Only thing I don't care for is they are stamped one one side as Union Cycle and DOT plus some numbers. In the mean time I've played around with cleaning up the hubs. Some of the pitting is really deep and will require a lot of sanding to clean those areas up. I'm not a fan of the highly polished hubs, just looks wrong to me on these bikes, and the only other option would be paint which is ok. Talked with a polishing business and he said he could do a brushed type look but it wouldn't be even so that's out. Looking into coatings like powder coat and I remembered someone did a 350 engine in Cerakote. https://www.cerakoteguncoatings.com...riPS7niPDziThLDwAHgdvL_dzYCPGzrIaAnKZEALw_wcB Having seen the engine in person I like the appearance of it. So I went and visited a local gunsmith that applies it after seeing on their website a picture of a dirt bike that was done. Sure enough they will do it, in fact the told me they have a cleaning tank for degreasing that will handle a frame. So now I'm considering having the frame done as well plus they're cheaper than the local powder coat guy everyone recommends. The hubs and forks will be satin aluminum after I get the rear hub drive cushions out and the speedo drive.


January 2020
Time to bring this thread up to speed since it's been sitting for over 2 years now. I've been buying misc bits and pieces including some almost unobtainium stuff like the chrome fork ears and rear fender mount rubbers. Chrome plating finally got done by Queen City Plating after over a year waiting. The owner did keep contact while suffering a broken ankle that ended with amputation followed by a heart attack. I wasn't in any hurry so it was just a sit and wait thing. While waiting I ended up getting a Cochlear Implant on the left side in July '18 and right side June 2019 after being mostly deaf for the last 15 years.
The engine is mostly completed the rebuild w/modifications, https://www.vintagehondatwins.com/forums/index.php?threads/174, and I'm pretty sure I have everything else except for the seat cover and headlight. All the nuts, bolts, brackets, spacers, etc that were originally plated have been replated in zinc and yellow chromate zinc.
The wheel hubs and fork sliders were CeraKoted and wheels laced. Front and rear brake assemblies completely redone. New Ferodo shoes have been arced to the drums.


Some before and after pictures of the clear and yellow zinc re-plating, cost???? $50 for all of it.



I was expecting a higher price on the zinc plating, seems this place charges by the pound with a minimum of $50. All they asked for was that the hardware was grease/oil free but I ran a tap/die on each piece to be sure the threads were clean. I also derusted everything since plated rust looks bad.

Here's the Ferodo info fo the CL350. It's the same for the CB350.
The only issue I had with the shoes other than the normal arcing/sanding was the round end was poorly cast and required filing to get smoothed out, I've had the same problem with EBC,


Little things take forever to get right. Spent close to an hour last night getting the steering lock to work correctly. Powder coater got a little heavy handed an shot the inside of it housing. So after filing that down, tapping the cover screw, cleaning the lock, lubing the lock cylinder tumblers it finally moves freely like it should, Figured it would be easier to do it off the bike than after it's assembled. That screw is 3mm x .5 pitch

Well thanks to this virus thing I have more time for the bike. Schools are on a 6 week break so I have an alternate dog watcher, my granddaughter.
After fixing the stupid heater tip over switch again, this time I bypassed it, I was able to get the garage up in the 50's, 30's outside.

Reinstalled the VIN plate using the nail rivets I got from HT.net member Yendor 6-7 years ago plus Loctite Stik'N Seal. It's a gel glue that is working really good, took a few hours to dry being so cold but testing by trying to lift edges say it's glued tight. I did lay packing tape over the area and cut out for the plate so any overrun/squeeze out of glue was easy to clean up.


Then on to the triple bearings, All Balls tapered. Races went in fine, lower bearing and spacer washer and seal washer went together nicely. Everything was going fine until I got to the top nut. 1.5 threads grab until tight. Ugh. Go back thru the assembly process making sure I've got the right lower spacer, the races are driven in until bottomed out, the lower bearing is fully installed. Retest = same result. Take it all apart again to check the lower spacer washer and find that for whatever reason it's slightly cupped. OK, file, sand, file, sand until it's flat on both sides. Reassemble all of it and now I have 1.75 threads engaged. Even checked that the top nut fingers that stick down inside where not taller than the top spacer washer. Thought about reducing the lower spacer thickness but there's only @2mm clearance between the lower triple and the frame head. Checked the thread pitch for the top nut and found it's 1.0 pitch of 1 thread per millimeter. So reduction of 1mm will give me 1 thread. Time to reduce the top washer which is 2.5mm. Rough cut with Dremel followed by file and sanding I was able to get to 1.5mm and now have 2.75 threads engaged, I'd like more.

Added the top triple


Replaced the broken SS Allen head upper mount bolts with new ones. Those white Police upper mounts from DSS paint up real nice.


On to the center stand followed by the swing arm. The powder coater really didn't do me any favors. He said he was experienced with MC frames and would mask all the important spots and plug holes. Nothing fit like it should until I honed out the holes like the swing arm bolt holes in the frame and the center stand clamps. Doubt I'll use them again, maybe not even PC again.


Just measured the clearance between the lower triple and the head stock, <1mm/.038". So removing the lower spacer washer is not an option.
I'll look again tomorrow and see if I can do away with the top washer. If so then like Steve says it's Dremel time on the tabs.
Final resolution on the bearings is to toss the top washer and grind the tabs off flush which gave me another 1.5 threads.


Can't really see it in the last picture but the thread is just about to show on top of the nut.

Schools being closed has had a beneficial side effect for me, my granddaughter has dog watch while I putz around on the bike.
Once I got the steering neck bearings sorted out I was able to rebuild the forks I took apart 2 years ago and install them. Took a bit to figure out the assembly of the headlight ears, gaiters and trim ring, it all has to be assembled before setting in between the triples and installing the forks. So new fork tubes, fork seals, chrome headlight ears and reflectors using the old decent shape gaiters and the front suspension is done. Add the re-chromed front fender after sealing the inner lips with clear silicone sealer and it's time for the front wheel ass'y. Oops, the axle doesn't fit after I had is zinc plated. The tolerance is so close that I ended up completely stripping the plating off. The zinc plated parts are the only ones creating fitment problems. The Yellow Zinc, chromate, pieces are all fitting fine like the swing arm bolt.

Since I found the new chrome headlight ears I decided to cure one of the primary failure problems before assembly. They all rot, particularly the left one, just above the lower rubber insulator where there's a metal lip. Construction of it leaves a recessed groove to collect water and dirt. So I filled that area with silicone sealer.


So now with the rear wheel installed after lowering the front end down It's been a case of adding one part after another. Thanks to Partzilla fiches I'm able to sort thru and install each piece correctly instead of relying on memory.

I can say that I will not be using the powder coating place again. I've spent so much time grinding it off of pieces where it should have been masked. I had offered to go in and do the masking for them but they insisted they knew what needed it and what didn't. Frustrating.
Here's a couple more shots of assembly.


BTW,yes I know the front brake bolt retaining washer is missing. I know I have anew one that's in a safe place. Now if I can remember where the safe place isI'll be good. ROFLMAO

Now that most of the big pieces are together it's time for the little nit picky stuff, the minor details.
Switch pods are old and faded. I rebuilt the insides a few years ago but didn't deal with the exterior because it was built as a survivor. Rust-O-Leum Satin Black to the rescue. Then on to the lettering using Testor's model paint, using it on the kill switch also.


The lettering is overfilled and after it dries for a day or so I'll comes back with some #2000 wet paper to clean it all up. At least that's the plan right now. Tried the routine of paint and quick wipe of excess but the 2 paints are reacting to one another and the excess softens the black too much. We'll see if that's successful. The knob was old grungy red w/grease stains. I'm thinking once I'm happy with the paint on it I'll shoot it with some clear and hope that doesn't ruin it.

Worked with the seat lock cylinder cover. It was cracked near the pivot and would never close to the right position. Added JB Weld to the close stop area and after drying it was file time, 2 hours later using a points file I finally got it to close to the right position and with a little more filing on the cover it now snap closed every time. A little paint and that's good now


This photo shows my starting point of the raw JB Weld against the stop. Yeah I used too much but it's really hard to gauge.


Hereyou can see the grey spot on the cover that's the stopper

Andthe finished product


Some other pieces done also like reassembly of the rear foot pegs after getting zinc plated.


Coils,horn, ignition switch all mounted


If someone is in need of a FREE freshly yellow zinc'd horn mount w/bolts for a CB350 let me know. I sent the wrong one and it won't work right on the CL.

All the little rubber bits are installed, at least the ones I previously ordered, missed a couple so they'll be here next week sometime. Partzilla says they'll ship Monday.
Finally found a headlight bucket that's not cracked anywhere and those guys in Houston has a H4 headlight that fits the original bucket and trim ring w/o modification.
Waiting for wiring harness sleeving to get here from Matt so I can re-sleeve the bar wiring as soon as the switches are done and get those installed. Really looking forward to running the wiring thru the bars again, not.

The details are just so time consuming but given current events I've got nothing but time.
Along the way you get to figure out things Honda did for a reason like the engine mount bolts inserting from the right side. The lower rear bolt/nut can't be properly torqued unless it that way because the rear brake pedal covers the bolt head, you can get an end wrench on the bolt head from underneath but you'd never get a torque wrench/socket in there.

A few days have passed since the last update. Finally have the switch pods finished up. I ended up polishing them due to the way they're manufactured and paint issues. I would have resorted to CeraKote but all the gun shops are closed up for now, I may return to this and get it done later. The stamping of the letters leaves a concave section so you're fighting that while trying to get a good clean wipe of excess paint and end up with streaks of color. Then when you try to wet sand those out you hit the high spots of the pods and remove paint you don't want to.

Cut all the old cracked crumbling sleeving off the pod harness's and put new stuff on, Vintage Connections has various sizes. Haven't fought with running the harness thru the bars yet but the new sleeving and a couple missing wires should make it much easier. The missing wires are for the high charge headlight wiring but since I've installed the high output stator those aren't needed so I eliminated them.
Fixed a screw up, rear axle spacers swapped to right position. Also noticed the the rear wheel bearing retainer was unscrewed, I think the guy who did the spokes forgot to tighten it.
Took apart the coils to get the grounding of the bracket and coils 100%. Good continuity checks when done.

Resolved mounting positions for the new and much larger voltage regulator to handle the 3 phase alternator/stator. Plus figured out the mounting for the Ignitech ignition module. Regulator is going under the battery box. SS bar drilled/tapped and epoxied to the old mounts. Still have to grind the head of the Allen screw down after the epoxy dries so the VR will sit flat. Had to grind some of the cooling fins back to get a fit and minimal fender clearance.

TheIgnitech module will mount with Velcro in the old rectifier spot, made a platefor that.

Helmet Holder decals showed up in the mail. Not exactly correct but very close, lettering isn't bold but same @size.
The old ratty one vs. the new


Gotthe shifter mechanism put together and mounted


Here's the part number/picture of the Helmet Holder decal for those doing restorations. It's even foil backed like the original.


Worked on getting the VR to fit with clearance, really hate grinding the cooling fins down but there's no real choice. I did bend the front mounting of the battery box some and was able to slide it forward to the end of the side screws slot. Before and after of that final adjustment.

Added a little bling with the shifter and kicker. Never noticed that the kicker rubber says Kick Starter.


Then on to the seat, ugg. First was to insert all the rubbers, silicone spray really helps and getting it done before the foam is added make it easier. Fitting the protective edging is a pain, heat gun to stretch it some using Super Glue to hold it. The edging is important to have to keep the seat pan edge from cutting thru the cover.


Followedby gluing the foam to the pan and adding a garbage bag over the foam, Super 77adhesive is still great.


The garbage bag keeps the foam dry in the event the bike gets soaked with rain, foam stays dry. It's also suggested by the seat cover people to make it easier to slide/adjust the cover during installation.
Yesterday was getting the cover on and fitted evenly. As you can see there's a lot of stretching to do, only took 5-6 tries before It fit and then I let go and it popped off.


Eventually I got it to hold in the front long enough to get it stabbed onto the triangle tabs. At first you're working with the thin material to get a fit and as the cover stretches and the foam compresses you reset it past the seam of thick and thin. You can see the first stab holes in the thin section, this picture is after it stretched enough to get past the seam.


Once I got that far I noticed that the HONDA on the back was crooked, one side was 3/8" higher. So straighten the tabs and reset to get that even. This is the difficult thing to do because you can only poke so many holes before it's ruined.


This is where I left off. the rear piping is even side to side, front is even side to side, rear sides are even. front sides are uneven by @3/8". I'm measuring from the bottom edge of the seat to the piping. At this point I quit for the day and it's been sitting in the warmer house all night to allow the stretch to settle in.

BTW, did I mention I hate doing upholstery work.
I've been leaving the seat out in the sun to allow the cover to finish the stretch and relieve the 2 fold creases. getting better. Haven't decided if I'm going completely anal retentive and get the piping to match exactly side to side.

CL/CB 350 cable routing

In the meantime I got the cables routed properly by looking at every picture in the FSM that remotely could show them. Honda left that part out of the FSM. So here's the pictures of proper routing:
The front brake cable goes on top of the clutch cable, this allows the cable to move as the suspension does. If under the clutch cable then the brake cable housing is pinched against the bridge.
The throttle cable does not go thru the cable guide, it runs free around the stem tube and down the left side of the frame.


The clutch cable goes thru the coil mount hole in the frame.


The front brake cable is held by the bracket loosely to allow movement. Yes. I know the speedo cable has to go in there still.


Better picture of the throttle cable routing over the clutch and under the brake. Black tube things are the bar wiring harness and brake switch.


Thisis where the throttle cable will be after the wiring harness is in place, heldup by one of the 2 wide bands Honda supplies for $1.75 95014-62300


The clutch cable runs under the plug wire bracket and down the side of the left carb.

Now I'm working on the wiring harness to get that all set up. Wrapped in tape doesn't look good after a few years so Matt supplied me with various diameters of black vinyl sheathing. Cut out and eliminated the Honda charging circuit wiring since it's got Matt's upgrade 3 phase stator and regulator. Pulling some of those wide connectors thru is a chore to avoid breaking connectors.


The tape is holding the center section of the sheathing together, I ended up splitting it to wrap around and It'll get hit with Super Glue to close it up nicely. Tried to figure out a way to not do this but realized I'd have to cut off and replace each and every connector. Ain't bad don't monkey with it.


Snagged a connector protector boot off one of my CM harness's for the rear,

Another week plus and more progress. Finished the wiring harness and installing it. Sanded the headlight bucket down to plastic and repainted, color sanded, painted, color sanded and one last final coat. No picture as it's sitting and curing before install. Fiddled with little stupid stuff a lot like replacing connector ends.
Gauge attack for the last couple of days. New dial decals, painted needles and gauge surround. The gauge covers got PC'd with the frame so didn't have to deal with that. I have figured out how to remove the chrome rings and re-install them without visible damage. I'll do a separate write up for this. https://www.vintagehondatwins.com/forums/index.php?threads/311 I did try new rings from CB750faces.com and figured out I wasted money. Their rings are thin aluminum. the trip meter knob is wrong and the trip meter boot is wrong. Lesson learned. After getting the tach put together I turned it over and said lots of very very bad words. Seems I forgot to blow out any dust that had collected and it was all sitting on the inside of the glass. Tried blowing thru the light hole with compressed air and got 90%, didn't get the big black spots. Irritated I figured that it was better to call it a night rather than break something. So today I took is apart, cleaned everything, blew it all out and assembled. Repeat the process on the speedo and got them actually installed. Here's the dust on the inside of the tach.


Odd thing about the 1972 CL350. There is no gauge bracket, the gauges are direct bolt up to the top bridge. The fiche shows a '71 and earlier bracket that mounts to the top of the fork tubes and the '73 bracket is tilted for better vision but those gauges also have a tilted cable attachment to compensate for the angle. Finally figured it out when I noticed that the attaching bolt is 8x25 and all the others are 8x16. Been trying to figure this out for a long time.


A little more progress, Had to rebuild the high beam indicator rubber, top washer section was cracked and falling apart so I cut that off and glued a new rubber washer in place. Trimmed it to just fit the bezel and looks original. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be red but I like the blue from a later model bike.

Headlight came out good after sanding all the old paint off and 3 good coats of paint applied.

I have been considering paint for months and pretty much decided to go with the '69 scheme using McLaren Orange. Looked at my current tank and one of the 2 dents is beyond my body shop skills. So a visit to eBay looking to see if there was a reasonably priced tank w/o dents there and I found a tank and side covers that were painted 2 years ago. So now the bike will be Tahitian Blue and White in the 1973 scheme which was my 2nd choice for the scheme. Sorry to the '72 lovers but those pinstripes look cheesy to me.


The emblems weren't include, those are reproductions I bought a couple years ago. Tank and covers cost less than body shop dent removal and paint supplies plus the weather here isn't conducive to home paint work yet, avg 50-55 degrees and 70-80% humidity.
Dealt with all the snake heads in the bucket.


and a little more attention to detail


Frustrating weekend. I've been finishing up all the minor assembly bits and pieces which has gone well. All the light work properly, added another ground for the harness so now there's 3.
Opened up the carbs to clean them up since they haven't had fuel in them for several years. Apparently the right carb had collected water in it because the inside looked like this.

Got that all cleaned up nicely, float levels set. Noticed that the cutout that fits in the insulators has a casting ridge that if the insulator gets hard or the clamp isn't really tight could be a potential vacuum leak. So I filed those down smooth, probably nothing but who knows for sure.

Got the carbs installed and basic sync of the cables, rough mixture set, throttle plates bench sync done.

Finished up the seat, no I didn't make both sides exactly even in the end. The rivets I got from Sirius Consolidated are pretty hefty


Finallyfigured out how to set them, pair of needle nose to start the bending and thenfinishing with the straight clamp Irwin pliers I posted with the gauges. Haveto cover the rivet heads with thick material like leather or Naugahyde to keepthem from scarring.

Finishedthat up and made the strap using the original hardware since it was re-chromed.

After finishing that Saturday morning and checking everything over one last time it was fire up for the first time. and the frustration began.
I had installed the same electronic ignition system the old engine was running. Basically it's to magnetic switches triggered by a rotor that fits the stock advance weights. It signals 2 GM old type HEI modules instead of point. Pretty basic and simple system. It even has LED's for each trigger event so timing is simply set the crank, rotate the switch plate till the light triggers and lock it down, done.
Fired off immediately on choke with a proper fast idle, as it started warming up it started misfiring at random. Tried adding a little throttle, choke off, and severe intake and exhaust backfire noted. Sometimes on the same cylinder. Shut down and start sorting this out. First thing of note is the NGK plug caps, or at least I thought they were since I took them out of NGK looking boxes. Really good looking knock offs, only missing the tiny part number painted on the side and a decent stud spring clip inside. They had made the usual clicking sound going on and felt tight. Now they were floating around on the plugs. Fast run to store for caps and a couple more sets of plugs.
Fire it up and can't maintain an idle until a full turn of each idle screw in. Random intake and exhaust backfire happening at idle now. Quick timing check has it jumping all over the place. Shut down again and start checking everything. Some questionable connections between the switch plate and igniter module which get repaired, good ground and power. Restart and now I have zero spark. Throw in the towel for the night, tomorrow's another day and maybe I'll see whatever I'm missing.
So Sunday morning comes and everything is checked out good. Still no spark. I'm glad I don't throw stuff away until it's really dead. Rummage thru boxes to find a points plate, some old rusty points, points wires and screws. I'm going back to basics. Filed and sanded the old crusty points, cleaned everything up and installed. Had to find a condenser and mount bracket too but old stuff in the boxes to the rescue. Points set, timing set and bingo we have a nicely running engine without any notable issues.
So this evening I was able to fire it up properly, sync the carbs and set mixtures w/o the filters. Those will get reset again once I get the rest assembled but all in all I'm a happy camper again.
Have to sort out a helmet pretty quick now, one that will comfortably fit over the CI headpieces. That or ride completely deaf.
I'll be dealing with the Ignitech ignition system once the engine is broken in. I don't want to have the fresh engine spending too much time idling or being run without load and this piece will take sometime to get setup right with the programming and timing.
Yeah, old school tech can be a life saver. I almost got rid of the points plate awhile back when someone needed one but held on to it. Never expected the electronic to fail since it was working great on the old engine the last time it ran.
Fired it up this morning, 1/2 choke and it hit right away and idled smooth like it should. Let it get fully hot and now cooling which makes the 5th heat cycle. Valve adjust in the next couple of days, intentionally set loose to let everything work in w/o getting too tight.
Ordered and received some new mixture screws a week later. I was having lots of difficulty setting the right carb. I hadn't noticed that the mixture screw was missing @1mm off the tip, without a side by side comparison it looks perfectly fine.
Going over all the nuts/bolts for torque I realized I still hadn't gotten the wheels balanced. Was a bit weird when I released the fork caps on the front axle, they came loose w/o a lot of effort so I thought I just hadn't torqued them which is even weirder for me. Cycle Gear balanced the wheels inside 1/2 hour, I was barely home before leaving again, for free. Re-assembled the front and the cap nuts won't reach torque??????? First thought is the studs are stretching before shearing off but turns out the nuts were striping their threads, studs are just fine and with brand new nuts instead of using the re-plated old ones they torque just fine. Lesson learned, use new nuts on critical parts.
While I had the front wheel off I checked range of motion for the cables on full steering lock. All was good except for the clutch cable. I thought it should go under the front brake cable where they cross at the bars so the brake cable could move with suspension travel. With cables in that arrangement the clutch cable binds up on full left and if forced would start stretching the housing. So some rerouting and that's cured.
On to mounting the step. A couple years ago a member was selling off pieces he said were from a CL and had a freshly PC'd step with all new springs, pad, pins, clips for cheap so I bought it. Went to install and it's CB step so the CL shifter won't fit. Back to square one and I'll be fixing and painting my original one. Two steps forward and one step back.
Finally some decent weather and not too many people running around so I took her out today for initial break in. False first start due to extreme clutch slippage. Corrected the adjustment and went for a ride. Accel-decel in each gear up to 6K, then again at 7k. Then ride it like I stole it up to 8K. Zero run problems.
Only issues are the trip odometer isn't working, it was when I went thru the speedo so it's mystery I'll solve when I open the gauge one more time. Need to reroute the clutch cable.
Then it's valve adjust, final tune and carb sync, put the new tank and side covers on and I'm done.

Jim, your post on the cable routing should be its own sticky post, really nice job. Its a question that comes up over and over on this forum. I curse the older Honda manuals all the time for not including diagrams for the cable and wiring routing like the manuals did later on in the early 80's.

HerrDeacon said:

Jim, your post on the cable routing should be its own sticky post, really nice job. Its a question that comes up over and over on this forum. I curse the older Honda manuals all the time for not including diagrams for the cable and wiring routing like the manuals did later on in the early 80's.

Click to expand...

That will be done in the next couple of days

I haven't gotten any further with this one. Went to check and set timing with a strobe and once I started making adjustments one of the salvage set of points started sticking open so that stopped there and waiting on new points.
Prior to that I had played with the mixtures a bit more because it was smelling really rich, left side doesn't want to richen up and right side is way too rich even with the mixture screw all the way in. Probably that corroded float I cleaned up is filling with fuel. Ordered new floats, all new jets and other pieces and I'll be doing a through complete overhaul of the carbs.
Meanwhile I pulled the CB400T1 up on the table to replace the tires that are too old, oversized and lousy handling/grip. Now I'm waiting for tires to get here sometime next week maybe or the week after. Heidenau K34's on a boat somewhere. Ordered a correct front brake cable also since the one on it barely allowed adjustment. Maybe I'll throw the wheels back on it and pull the roadbike in to play with it.

*WOW* that bike has come such a long way. Amazing. I can’t believe how it started.


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Thanks, it's been a journey.
I got the last of the new carb pieces today so that's a to be done that's closer. Had to re-order the left set of points, Honda dealer somehow missed them on the list I gave them and I didn't read the receipt until I ended up short. I did find the throttle shaft felts at the music store this afternoon. So carb overhaul, replace points, set the tune and put all the pretty stuff on.