72 CB350 For the Daughter

Alright I have to send out a huge thank you to Cal on the SOHC4 forum. He bead blasted a bunch of parts for me. His kindness simply amazes me. After some thorough cleaning I should be able to start on getting the engine painted and put back together.

So now that I have the bead blasted parts back I was able to attach the rear fender in its correct location to get a good look at how things will sit. I think (fingers crossed) things are going to work out. The cross brace as I originally had it wouldn't work because the fender made contact with it. However, if I put it at an angle complimentary to the fender it will not only act as a brace, but a place to attach the fender to. I put the seat on and traced along it where the seat would be. It looks like I will be able to provide a lot more protection under the seat that I previously thought. I was originally going to cut it at the seam. Another added benefit of extending the fender under the seat is that it will provide me a place to attach a bracket for the tail light and license plate. Cutting/grinding off the upper lip on the frame will allow me a place to weld on some tabs to attach the rear of the seat to.

 
I got my rotor back today from being surfaced and having holes drilled in it. Tom at TrueDisk did an amazing job.




And of course a quick mock up of the front end. I have a buddy that woks in the R&D machine shop at Chrysler. He milled out the pockets in the stock triple to accept the clipon brackets. He also made me a bracket for the gauges and added a bit of flare to it. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am at how awesome this is.







 
So I have run into a bit of an issue. I picked up some steel to weld in to brace the rear of the frame and secure the front of the seat. Lets start with the front. In previous mock ups I didn't have the rubber piece on that holds down the rear of the tank in place. Even without it in place the front of the seat was sat a little high. Noticed it was sitting on the hooks that the strap that holds the battery down attach to, so those had to go. Then it was sitting on a rolled edge at the front. The opposite side of the frame didn't have it so off it went. That is when I noticed it sitting on the rubber piece.

So this is my thought. I can cut off the bracket that secures the rear of the tank and weld in a flat piece of stock. That will drop the tank almost an inch. In order to secure it I could weld in a bolt or a flanged pin with a hole in the shank to insert a cotter pin. Of course the flat piece of stock would have some rubber on it for some soak up some of the vibration. I understand this would impact the fuel getting into the petcock, but I think it would only change or be an issue at low levels. I don't think it will impact anything else though. The crossover tube and fuel lines as they come out of the petcock would be close the the carbs, but looking at the wife's bike they should clear.





A little blurry, but you get it


Cut that off and weld in a flat piece in its place across the frame.




Now the rear brace isn't going where I had hoped. It needs to be closer to the hole. Where it is at I don't see it adding any cross support strength. All it would do is be a place to attach the rear fender. Not really sure what to do other than cutting the fender way back or denting in the fender in to accept the brace further back sort of like the fender is dented in towards the rear of the last pic. there is pleeeenty of clearance in the wheel well.



 
All right, I got the rear brace made. It was a bit of a pain to get the bend in since I don't really have the tools for metal working, but it is done.






The front is another story. I am terrified of cutting off the rear tank mounting bracket. However, I don't see another way. I am going to post this and bounce my thoughts off others before I go to cutting. Maybe someone will have another idea or confirm my thoughts.



OK...There is 1/2" between the underside of the tank and the peak in the frame.
15/16" from the frame where the bracket is welded to to the top of the bracket.
The flat stock I would weld on is 3/16".
Subtract the flat stock from the total distance of the bracket and I am left with 3/4".
The peak is 3/16".
If I were to grind it down I would be down to 9/16".
The rubber cushion for the rear of the tank is 5/16".
That would give me 1/4" of clearance under the tank.

If I were to leave the peak I would have 1/16" of clearance under the tank.
 
I may have figured out another way. The first pic is how the seat sits with the rubber piece in place and the second one is without the rubber piece. I noticed that without the rubber piece the seat actually contacts the frame. The difference is 5/8". The legs on the bracket are 1/2. So if I were to cut the bracket legs off and weld the bracket directly to the frame I would be in a much better position. I like this idea better because it allows me to keep the stock mounting bracket and rubber cushion. And since I just thought of it, if I were to weld the bracket to the underside of the frame I would eat up that extra 1/8". I think I would have to slide the bracket back a hair to clear the down tube, but there is plenty of room to still secure the tank in the rubber cushion.



 
Well it has been a while since I have provided an update. I seem to be really bad about it during this build.

I figured I would rather cut the seat than cut the frame. So I cut a small notch out of the base pan and foam at the front of the seat so it would slide over where the rear of the tank gets secured. Figuring out the rear mounting points for the seat took a bit of deep thought for me. I ended up cutting and shaping some square tube and some flat stock to match the frame and angle of the mounts of the seat. Since the seat mounts aren't flat it would be damn near impossible to use the supplied bolts. So I used some threaded pins. Once I get everything done I will cut them down to size and drill a hole in the pin and secure it with a hairpin cotter pin. That will allow for an easily removed seat if/when I need to gain access to the battery.


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Moving on to bracing the rear of the frame. I decided to use the stock bridge and just weld it in place. I used some flat stock on the inside of the frame and ran it up into the inside of the bridge for a bit of extra support. It is extremely strong and there is no twist. I cut the rear of the frame at the same angle as the seam on the seat for a bit of symmetry. Made some plugs for the rear of the frame so it isn't an open eyesore.

All welded and ground.

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I did go back and weld in the divots from where I drilled out some spot welds.
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With the fender installed. It uses the stock mount at the front bottom, but I have it bolted to the cross brace.
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With the fender installed. I cut it down to match the shape of the seat.
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I cut down the front fender, although I think I may have cut it a bit shorter than I wanted to. It looked good mocked up with tape for the cut lines, but after it was done I think it is a tad too short. Oh well...too late now. It isn't horrible, just maybe an inch or so shorter than I would have preferred.

Scrubbed down the engine. Getting the bead blasting media out of the passages, nooks, and crannies is always non fun, but obviously has to be done. When I was done there was enough media in the bottom of the basin to fill my cupped palm.

Proceeded on to blocking the head and jugs. The head has a fair amount of casting flaws, but it should seal fine. I also honed the cylinders and lapped the valves. I am starting to get excited about getting the engine back together. I just hope there is a semi warm day in the near future so I can get it painted.


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Spent the last two days cleaning the engine parts with acetone and getting them taped up for painting. I also drilled and tapped the holes for the oil splash guard. Tomorrow should be just a quick acetone wipe down then on to the painting. Tomorrow is probably going to be the last good temperature day for the year so I have to get it done tomorrow.

 
What a mad dash rush of a day. While the temperature is warm the skies are overcast and threatening of rain. I felt a couple of sprinkles when I was setting up the table, but nothing afterwards. Needless to say I was in a rush to get the painting done before the rain moves in.

All primed




And painted

 
Stopped by a cerakote shop today. He wants $70 to do the headers. I think that is fair. I was also able to look at some of his powder coat chips and I think the color I was looking at to do the frame in will work nicely.

Spent a little time this afternoon putting the lower half of the engine together.

With the guts in it.




Case halves assembled.







 
I received some confirmation that the missing piece on the right outer engine stud as viewed in the 3rd picture above is only there to quell some vibrations. So I set forth last night to assemble more of the engine. I am changing out the stock cam chain tensioner wheels for a set of picked up from a guy in Poland. He makes a metal gear wheel to replace the stock smaller rubber wheel. Somehow when I was futilely attempting to drive out the center rivet I managed to bugger up the whole thing. So now I am in the hunt for a replacement. I can still continue to assemble all the stuff that goes on the sides of the engine, but what a disappointment.
 
I thought for a bit that I may have kept the tensioner from the wife's bike when I installed a KA slipper, but I guess I threw it away. I have sourced a replacement though.

Figured I would install the clutch basket, primary drive gears, and oil pump. Well that came to a screeching halt due to the incomplete gasket kit. It is missing the oil pump gasket. So the engine is officially done until I get some parts in.
 
Since I was at a stopping point I decided to do some cleaning of parts that way when I am ready for them I can just install them and go. Well the hits keep coming. I think I figured out why the PO could never get the bike to run.



 
Well now I am not sure mine is bad. I was looking last night and found this NOS. The wire not being connected looks a lot like mine. I did some quick measurements this morning before heading to work. A-B=.7 ohms B-C= 1.1 ohms A-C=1.7 ohms.

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The good and the bad tonight. Checked the stator when I got home and it is indeed good. Well at least it ohms out good. My local dealership had a oil pump gasket in stock. They actually had three and the last time they sold one was 1987. They have done their annual inventory every year since then and accounted for them. A whopping $1.01 a piece.

Managed to get the clutch basket, oil pump, oil slinger, and stator installed (in the cover). However, when I went to put the cap on the oil slinger I couldn't get the snap ring to seat fully. Then I took a good look at it. Sometimes I will never understand people. Whoever was in the engine before decided it would be better to grind down a snap ring vice getting the correct one. So another part I have to go get.

 
Received my replacement cam chain tensioner wheel and was able to remove the rivet without boogering it up this time. A co-worked made the mandrel last night for me so I can set the rivet. Tonight I should be able to assemble the tensioner which will allow me to finish assembling the engine. Tracking shows the snap ring is at the post office so hopefully it will arrive today.

 
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