1974 Honda CB360 - Complete winter tear down (VERY pic heavy)

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Got a couple of new parts in yesterday. Stainless steel bolts for the engine from AlloyBoltz, loving how organized the package is.



Also got me "new to me" tank/seat combo from forum member checko. Awesome guy to buy from, I must say. Packaging was great, I got a free towel, and it got to me in only a few days from payment which includes USPS being closed on Monday.

Although the seat is solid, I'll be making a few changes. The cracks on the sides need repaired and I'll be filling in all the various holes in the rear. I plan to go with a completely different color on the tank and seat, different turn signal setup, brake light, and a side mount license plate. I've never done ANY fiberglass work, but figured "fixing" this will be easier than starting from absolute scratch (and cheaper as well).










Frame obviously needs detabbed now and the rear end shortened. I'll be doing all of that once the seats repaired and ready to go on, my primary concern is still the engine. I just couldn't pass this deal up since my stock tank was dented, petcock leaked a bit, and there was rust on the inside anyways.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Started tearing into the engine a bit today and soaking various cover in cleaner. Noticed some grooves in the rocker arms. Is this something I can sand out and polish or should I find a source for new rocker arms?






I was also sad to see I indeed, never got the recall on this motor.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

After a good bit of research, it seems I can just DIY on the resurfacing. It'll take some time and patience, but since I can't just order some brand new arms, it's a good bet. I'm also starting to search for used heads to steal parts from.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

I would not DIY your rocker arms. You can get them resurfaced. Many machine shops can point you in the correct direction.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

I wouldn't do it yourself, either get a good set off ebay or here or get them machined

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

I weighed out Time VS Money and getting a "new" used set off eBay won out. $45 for a complete '75 valve cover with what appears to be great condition rockers was just the easier option. They should be here early next week.

The past few days have been spent parts shopping (I absolutely love having a girlfriend that works in the parts department of a Harley dealership. Cheap everything!), degreasing various engine parts, and tearing into the engine more for inspection.





Nothing will be polished because I'm just not a fan of the shiny look. The motor will be painted matte black with caramel brown accents once everything is put back together.

Tore the engine down to the pistons since the lower gasket needs replaced (it had a bit of a leak) and I wanted to inspect the cylinder heads and piston rings. Closer inspection of the cam shows two lobes having a few scuff marks, so I'll be trying to source a new part to replace that.




Tensioner is out and looking good still.


Valves will be getting the carbon cleaned up from them.



Cylinder walls are flawless.


Here you can see a bit where the gasket was failing and there was a tiny bit of an oil leak.


Pistons are good and will have the carbon removed before everything is pieced back together. Measured the rings and they're all within spec.



That nasty mess of the engine will be tackled once I button it all back together.




At this point, I'm in the process of cleaning up all the parts I'll be keeping on the bike. All new oil seals were ordered, and this weekend I'll be ordering a 2-1 Exhaust, new gaskets, fuel line, all new cables for everything, 16t and 34t sprockets with a 530 chain, fork seals, dust boots, and a few other misc things. I'll be sending my carbs out to crazypj to inspect and mod for K&N pods since I don't want to source new stock air boxes.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Did you consider the 520 conversion from motomadness?

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

I considered it, but it's not worth the $150 + shipping to me when I can get the OEM specc'd options for less than $45 (I get a nice parts discount). That, and they don't have the stock rear sprocket size available on their website, only 36/38/40, no 34's.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Wow 45$? Lucky bastard!

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Great pictures.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)



[/quote]

This is a cover I made for a cb350, you think the cb360 would be the same size? I started making them out of aluminum....and just wish there were some pics of one mounted on a bike... ;D

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

I have no experience with any other engine outside of this one so I have no idea. However, I've seen these covers before and always wanted one, so if you do end up making one for the 360 let me know.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

frankenstuff said:

This is a cover I made for a cb350

Click to expand...

Frankenstuff, do you sell those alternator covers for the 350?

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Got some work done over the long holiday weekend.

All the tabs are finally removed thanks to borrowing a grinder from my father. Which, turns out where he works can do powder coat completely free of charge for me, so I'll be taking advantage of that. There's only about 12 colors I can choose from, but I'll certainly take limited options and free over what I was expecting to spend.

Made some progress on the seat as well. Check out my awesome garage setup! Doing the glasswork on the drunk of my '93 civic ricerod.



How it looks before new reinforcement:



First few layers of mat applied:




This is my first time ever working with fiberglass, and it was actually a bit easier than I had anticipated. I ended up going over everything twice over two days to make absolute certainly it was all solid. I didn't want the sides to risk cracking ever again. How it sat before body filler.







Any this is after my first layer of body filler and sanding.







I've since applied more body filler and sanded it down, revealing a few new spots I need to fill in. It's a lot of back and forth, and body filler is much more annoying than fiberglass to work with, but when all is said and done I'll have it silky smooth and ready for primer.

Carbs + the rebuild kit went out to crazypj Friday (11/29), OEM parts will be ordered later on today, I'm picking up rearsets while there's a 10% off sale on them, and pretty soon the engine will be going back together. I'm shooting for April/May for the first startup of the bike. Here's hoping I can stick with it.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

Once you get it very smooth (but not yet perfect), take a look at using glazing putty. It's much easier to use when filling in small gaps than it would be to add more filler.

Re: 1974 Honda CB360 - Winter Restore to Café Racer (eventually)

I had read about the stuff while looking up how to fill the drill holes, and I was wondering if sandable primer is a good substitute for that? I know I'm going to have some pin holes to deal with before I start laying paint and was going to cross that bridge when I came too it.

Small update.

Got a big box of parts in the other day.



• Engine gasket set
• Fork seals and dust boots
• All new cables
• 1/4" Fuel Line
• New front and rear sprockets

Ground the rest of the tabs off of the frame:


Also ordered a new electrical harness from Sonreir, crazypj has been making progress with the carbs, and I had a buddy of mine weld the rear tail and electronics tray for me.

Progress pics he took:









Just got it home yesterday and tossed the seat on. (Still working on filling/smoothing it. I've been lazy).












I'm going to get an LED strip for the brake light and turn signals and place it on the rail loop. I may end up creating a bracket to raise it up a bit depending on clearance when it actually comes in and I can test fitment. I'll be running slightly stiffer struts as well to ensure there's no issue with the shortened tail and try.

Next up is finding a battery that'll fit that rear hump, coming up with a way to secure it, and getting things cleaned up and ready for powdercoat. Engine will be put back together soon as well and I'll drag that out to the garage for paint fairly soon as well.

It's been quite awhile since I updated the log because not a whole lot has gotten done honestly; I've mainly been parts gathering. Up until last night when I made a bit of a mistake, but I'll get to that.

• As of now, the seat is 90% done. I have to use my recently acquired spot putty to fill in the final pin holes, then prime and paint. I've just been putting it off because I'm not quite sure of the color scheme I'm going for yet.



• The rear sets from Durgam_K came in at some point in there and look like quite the solid piece. They won't be going on anytime soon, but hey! I have them.




• Carbs came back from crazypj and look amazing.



• New harness came in from sonreir (and not pictured, a sweet sticker and t-shirt) along with new front and rear sprockets. I ordered a 15T by accident and had to get the proper 16T, so if someone is looking for a 15 it's for sale.



• New pods for the carbs, ATF fluid for the forks, case of oil for the engine, new brake fluid, some industrial strength velcro, and (not pictured) a leather belt and rivet gun so I can strap down the battery.


And then we have the current state of my kitchen:



(big ol box of parts I'm not using).

• I still need to remove the triple trees then EVERYTHING is going off to powder coat.
• Placed a large order with DimeCity the other week that will be here Friday. (New grips, bars, mirrors, turn signals, horn, headlight bracket, misc other things).
• Radientz brake light/turn signal combo was ordered
• New tires, spokes, brakes, tubes, battery, and other misc other things will be ordered from my local parts girl this week


This brings me to my current dilemma:


While attempting to reset the pistons into the cylinder head, I didn't notice that they weren't fully compressed on both sides, and after a light tap (or 10) they clearly gave way. Rookie mistake, I certainly learned my lesson, and have to tear apart the lower case as penitence to fish out shards of ring.

Now, do I source good used pistons/rings, try to find them new, or order aftermarket? I noticed in the factory service manual it states a 67.0 x 50.6 mm bore and stroke with a 9.3:1 compression, but looking around on Weisco's site for some aftermarkets, they state a 67.50 x 50.6 mm bore and stroke and a 10.5:1 compression ratio. What's that about? I also noticed while looking for an OEM replacement, they can be ordered in .25mm increments, so what do I need to find out EXACTLY what I should buy for this engine?

The stroke and compression numbers don't matter (as much) as the bore numbers when it comes to buy rings. I'd try to find some that are 67mm (67.5mm from Weisco is incorrect for stock size pistons on the 360). There's almost always a few sets available on eBay and they're usually listed as STD size, rather than as 67mm.

This may have been covered, but did you check the rear wheel clearance (at full compression of your shocks) before you had your buddy weld up that sheet underneath the hump of your seat? I've seen people try and do that and later have to change it because of tire contact.