1974 CB360 - first bike/build

Sounds like you may be adjusting the valves on the wrong stroke or the wrong part of the stroke.
 
Also, it might just be normal operation. The top ends of the Honda twins are a cacophony of mechanical noises.
 
like Sonreir said - they are usually pretty loud. But a clacking sound would concern me... while I could hear the "mechanical craziness" of my 360 it never made a tapping sound - check for vacuum leaks? sometimes those can sound like a valve tapping but it's just the exhaust
 
It is a lot more noticeable than the typical clicks I was hearing before I took the engine out of the frame for paint.

I am going to go through my valves again tonight - making sure that I am just coming off the compression stroke for each side. If I still can't get it to quiet down there is a local guy that I just found out about from a buddy at work that works on older Hondas. He told me to bring it by his home shop tomorrow morning before work.

Even if he tells me I am hearing things, I will ride easier.
 
You need to be TDC compression, probably set on overlap if really noisy?
May be exhaust leak if you tightened things in wrong sequence or didn't have all the bolts in place when re-fitting it
 
I took it out to his shop this morning - he listened to it for about 10 min. Told me that there was nothing there that concerned him. So I just need to solve my electrical problem, and get my seat & battery box made - then I should be back on the road.

But I am really glad I went out there - he has some beautiful bikes tucked away in his shop. His 1982 CX500 Turbo looked like it had never been ridden. He let me know that it was his favorite bike he owned, but hardly ever rides it. He also had an immaculate 1974 750. He traded some carb work to a guy in order to have the engine polished to a mirror. He couldn't have been nicer, spent an hour just walking around his shop talking about all the places he has ridden. He rode up to Alaska and back a couple of times on his Goldwing when his son was stationed there with the Coast Guard. That is a long ride from Mississippi.
 
crazypj said:
You need to be TDC compression, probably set on overlap if really noisy?
May be exhaust leak if you tightened things in wrong sequence or didn't have all the bolts in place when re-fitting it

I made sure to sit at TDC on the compression stroke - rotated the engine until I could feel pressure coming from the spark plug hole. So I know that isn't the issue.

I had no idea that there was a proper sequence for tightening the exhaust. I fitted everything loosely and made small adjustments all around to get the exhaust in the right spot. I haven't seen any exhaust fumes leaking out from the cylinder head. But there is a good bit of condensation at the muffler. I may need to drill a hole to give it somewhere to drain.

If there is a specific set of steps, I would appreciate the info.
 
Like I mentioned, the guy I took it to said nothing concerned him. You may have to click on the image to get the video to play (don't have it hosted on YouTube). I may have just been off my bike for too long and forgot what it was supposed to sound like. But since it is the first time I have put it back together - I am being hypersensitive.

 
You have one slightly loose tappet, probably left exhaust?
Not serious, maybe 0.001"~2" over?
Cam chain sounds okay.
As for exhaust, as long as front is tightened even so gasket crushes properly and isn't too far off for rear mount to stress joint it should be OK. It isn't a two stroke and back pressure is low at idle so leaks only show up as 'pops' or 'cracks' and not visible 'smoke'
 
I am glad to know that I am hearing things.

I did end up moving forward with a new design on my electronics tray and battery box. I know that I want to eventually move away from my stock air boxes, and that I need a more snug battery box for my smaller battery. To give myself the ability to experiment with a few different options I decided to create a more modular style than my previous rigid model. The slots will let me attach the battery box in three different orientations by threading 1" webbing through the battery box and doing the same on the tray. The box should be ready by Wednesday, but the tray will have to wait till next week.


You can view a few other angles on my flickr album.



 
I also needed a little more length on my headlight brackets, and also needed to make-up some width because I bought the wrong size headlight. The brackets are two separate pieces attached using an M6-1.0 socket cap bolt, threaded through a press-fitted hex-nut on the interior of each bracket. I am having these printed in carbon-fiber, and they should also be ready by Wednesday (so long as the prints don't fail). They are only going to take around six hours to print, but the lab is closed down tomorrow so they can pull out some asbestos tiles to make room for the plasma cutter.

I might end up using a different angle to give a little more straight-line look, because these will point at a steep angle.





 
I didn't get the tray or battery box printed last week - they were closed down for almost the entire week. I did get the headlight brackets back though. They fit great, but they are ugly as sin. There are some changes I plan on making before having them printed again. The press fit nuts took a few turns on my vice.

  • Space out bolts a bit more
  • Move my turn signals forward about 1/2"
  • Change angle of bracket
  • Soften a few of the lines and create a lot more space in the bracket itself by reducing the amount of material





 
I am still having issues with my LEDs flickering. All of my grounds checked out for continuity, and I am still not seeing any voltage spikes/drops with my battery. I cut all of my soldering points for my top clamp and am waiting on some new bullet connectors to try and go straight from the 20 gauge wiring to my harness without soldering.
 
huck_finn said:
I am glad to know that I am hearing things.

I did end up moving forward with a new design on my electronics tray and battery box. I know that I want to eventually move away from my stock air boxes, and that I need a more snug battery box for my smaller battery. To give myself the ability to experiment with a few different options I decided to create a more modular style than my previous rigid model. The slots will let me attach the battery box in three different orientations by threading 1" webbing through the battery box and doing the same on the tray. The box should be ready by Wednesday, but the tray will have to wait till next week.


You can view a few other angles on my flickr album.



So what you have is an electronics tray, and then the battery separately? That's genius. Great work in fusion too I love that program its gold.
 
huck_finn said:
I am still having issues with my LEDs flickering. All of my grounds checked out for continuity, and I am still not seeing any voltage spikes/drops with my battery. I cut all of my soldering points for my top clamp and am waiting on some new bullet connectors to try and go straight from the 20 gauge wiring to my harness without soldering.
LED's may be sensitive to charge voltage fluctuation if your using too small a battery? It won't show up with a normal meter unless you have a PVA (peak voltage adapter, make one, Snap-on has a problem with the $28.00 one they sell) PVA's are actually 'fun' when your doing various voltage tests(12v side of ignition coil 'see's' around 320v spikes)
Fitting smoothing capacitors should cure any flickering. It's simple enough to get some 16v 1000 micro farad caps from old electronic components (Cathode ray TV's seem to be on every street corner when people have switched to flat screen LED TV's, 'dead 'surround sound, amps, clock radio's etc) Worst comes to worst you could always buy some, Radio Shack has a permanent sale on until they get rid of enough old stock to close various locations
I made alloy brackets for the 41mm forks, using XS650 headlight (maybe?)
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=11736.200
reply 241~244
Kat-YamL.jpg

Kat-YamR.jpg
 
I figured that I change my mind so much that I might as well make my tray and battery box as flexible as possible. This way I can still run my stock air filters, and when/if I change to a different filter setup I can just rotate the box. I am hoping to pick the tray and box up by Wednesday afternoon. And I just dropped off my new headlight brackets - which should be ready at the same time.

And for anybody that is wondering - the carbon fiber used in the brackets is pretty strong. It has some flex to it, but I have to white-knuckle the thicker bits to get to give. Here is the new design (I finally got my math right on the width I needed - adding a slight curve at the attachment point to give me the space I need):

Inner View


Outerview
 
I love the design, except I don't like that you can't have washers. If the nuts are captured, that means you're turning the screws on the piece and digging in.
 
Personally I think it looks a lot better with some 'shape', does the arm need to be so long?
Looks like it cold be at least an inch shorter?
As for bolts and captive nuts, not a problem as it's pretty much a 'fit and forget' part.
If it was something that needed removal on a regular basis then it could be an issue but even then it wouldn't be a big deal to either incorporate washers or enlarge counter bore slightly so washers could be fitted (or have special smaller diameter washers made)
 
It is long, just under 140mm (roughly 5.5"). But the headlight bucket I have is 5.25" deep, so I am hoping the length won't be as much of an issue with the bucket to fill in some of that space. My previous brackets (off the shelf) were 4 1/2" and were putting pressure on my throttle cables. Or at least that is what I told myself when I pulled out my checkbook to pay for these to be printed.

If I didn't have such easy access to the printers, I would have probably done something a lot more universal (or kept what I had) and not used the press-fit nuts. Since I will have a new set of brackets in the next few days, I will do some stress testing to see how much torque it takes to get the nuts to move. The space the nuts sit in were undersized by .55mm.
 
crazypj said:
LED's may be sensitive to charge voltage fluctuation if your using too small a battery? It won't show up with a normal meter unless you have a PVA (peak voltage adapter, make one, Snap-on has a problem with the $28.00 one they sell) PVA's are actually 'fun' when your doing various voltage tests(12v side of ignition coil 'see's' around 320v spikes)
Fitting smoothing capacitors should cure any flickering. It's simple enough to get some 16v 1000 micro farad caps from old electronic components (Cathode ray TV's seem to be on every street corner when people have switched to flat screen LED TV's, 'dead 'surround sound, amps, clock radio's etc) Worst comes to worst you could always buy some, Radio Shack has a permanent sale on until they get rid of enough old stock to close various locations

It is killing me that I can't see of your pictures. As far as the capacitors are concerned - do I just need to solder them as a bridge between my harness and the light? Or would my connections be more secure if I used a small bread board?
 
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