Yet Another 400F build

Are the originals really plastic!!!!!!!!!!!

Are the end caps required with the bronze bushes?
 
Swivel said:
The fastest,heaviest and most awesome bike I ever rode had plastic ones with no problems at all.

fair enough I guess. You'd have to wonder about service intervals I'd imagine. This bike had 36k kms on it and mine were stuffed. I don't think I've ever seen any plastic aftermarket bushes either?

On the plus side, they're easier to remove :D

ian
 
My DOHC cb750 had those crappy plastic bushings. I went with a roller bearing mod. Don't know if I'd do it again because of the machine shop time. I have a cb900 swing arm with roller bearings, but I'd had to modify my frame which is already powder coated. Anyway, the mod gives me a little peace of mind knowing I've reduced the chances of the dreaded "Death Wobble". Here's some pics. Scroll down towards the bottom of the page.

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=15707.msg348361#msg348361
 
Rickman brothers did an awful lot of testing and solid broze bushings gave best support to swing arm.
Needle roller or taper roller may well be lower friction , but, as swing arms don't rotate more than a few degrees, the smaller bearing surface tends to brinell.
The only problem I've ever found with bronze bushings, they really need to be line reamed as they are often slightly out of line when fitted
 
I've installed bronzed bushing in almost every bike I've owned. At least your bike had plastic bushings. Some of the smaller bikes (like my xl100) have rubber bushings, similar to the shock bushings.

For my current project, I found them here:
www.asbbearings.com

You can re-use the collar as it's not likely worn.
 
small update:

wheelsOnL.jpg


wheelsOnR.jpg


wheelsOnF.jpg


Have yet to source a seat, and the rear guard needs to be powdered satin black I think. Might do the tail light assembly as well. Chrome on both is shot to bits, and, well, I'm not a chrome guy.

cheers
ian
 
Just noticed the front tire. Is it mounted backwards? The tread is reversed relative to the rear tire. Maybe the whole wheel just needs to be flipped? That depends too on the direction of the brake discs. Anyway, just checking.
 
Nope. AVON tires are omnidirectional. There are arrows on the side wall that show rotation for front wheel and rear wheel application. The first time I mounted a set, I was like "Doh! I messed up!" Bike looks fan-freakin'-tastic!
 
Cool! Just checking! Yes, nice build and great detail work! I like how you mounted the front brake calipers in the trailing position rather than the older leading position. I did that too on my long gone 400f.
 
Ian what plans do you have for the carbs with the 466 kit? Any jetting options yet?

Swivel was mentioning the stockers won't be sufficient and I wanted to see what other 466 people are doing.

Bikes looking great btw!
 
neevo said:
Ian what plans do you have for the carbs with the 466 kit? Any jetting options yet?

Swivel was mentioning the stockers won't be sufficient and I wanted to see what other 466 people are doing.

Bikes looking great btw!

not sure yet Ed. I'll have a better idea when I can ride this thing, but I'm anticipating some 'issues'.

cheers
ian
 
Let me know what jetting options you run across, sounds like we are running similar mods.
 
nice detail on how you do things, i like it, i noticed that before you did the engine rebuild it looked very clean what did you do to it? cheers andy
 
andycafe said:
i noticed that before you did the engine rebuild it looked very clean what did you do to it?

well, because it was in pieces, after i degreased it I bead-blasted it. I only did this because I was able to give it a good hi-pressure rinse. I pulled the caps off the oil galleries and blasted them with water too. After that I gave it all a light sand before hitting it with the paint.

I would not recommend this unless you have full access the remove all the media.

cheers
ian
 
Wow. Has it been THAT long!

Just finished another project that took me away from this little pet, and now my son is at me to finish this thing before he's too old to ride it ::)

Anyway, back on the job now, and tackling the wiring. Does this look familiar to anyone?

cb400f-wiring.jpg


Also pulling apart my previous cb900 project for parts. Didn't quite warm to the final build, so I'm 'rationalising' my stash.

Took the Acewell gauge, and have got it wired up roughly, and it all works fine. Have yet to fit the speedo sensor but don't anticipate any problems.

cb400f-gauge.jpg


Finally got the distorted #2 header sorted and fitted the collector and muffler, but (unusually) DSS sent the wrong joint gasket, so she's blowing a bit until I fix that.

cb400f-exhaust.jpg


Still have to make a decision on the seat, and the headlight ears I bought are too short to use with the headlight I've chosen. I think they're the main things I need to sort before I pull it apart to paint.

Sorry for the hiatus.

cheers
ian
 
Well, I got all the fiddly bits sorted, and its time to pull her apart for paint.

It's funny isn't it, but you can look at a build on a lift day after day, but as soon as you put them on the ground they look like a motorbike-even half-way through a strip-down:

cb400f-pre-paing01.jpg


and there we are ready for primer:

cb400f-frame.jpg


Got some new braided lines that I'll be putting on later, but the front end is buttoned up:

cb400f-frontEnd.jpg


cheers
ian
 
The Honda frame paint (at least on the 2 VFs I have) is Pleiades Silver, which is also the colour of my first Bol D'Or restoration I did. I had enough left to paint the frame swing arm and a few brackets. So I did. The I put a coat of clear urethane over it to keep it clean, and make it shiny.

cb400f-cleared.jpg


cb400f-headStem.jpg


ian
 
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