1976 CB360 Restomod

JukeJoint

New Member
I picked this bike up with the intentions of running in on the cheap but I tripped into that damn rabbit hole head first. It didn't help that my local Yamaha shop has great prices and was nice enough to order Honda parts at a fraction of what the Honda dealer charged me for things in the past. I've put it a lot of work, and am continuing to do so. I thought it would be nice to have a place to document everything and get some opinions on what I'm doing, especially the things I'm doing wrong. Yes, I've taken my chain-guard off and the dust deflector for the front disc brake..but I use wax lube..and that thing in the front was fugly in it's grey plastic state. Maybe I'll try the heat gun on it.. someday. Anyway. I'm putting up a pic from when I first bought the bike. I'll have to get some pics of it's current state. It's not all that different, really. I'm basically going all out to get the thing to perform as it should and see what that's like before I fall into the lower levels of the rabbit hole.

The list of things I've done so far.. Roadrider tires in stock size, wheel bearings, blasted, painted and baked the caliper and put a new seal and pads in there. I put a new gasket insulator thingy in the tach bezel, tach cable, euro handlebars and new grips, rebuilt the carbs with kits, removed the stock airbox since the PO put some foam in place of the paper filter. It was an awful job. Eventually I'll burn the paper and gunk off of the stock element frames and put in some UNI foam, but I can't find the green sheet I have right. So what I ordered some pods from 4into1 and glued them suckers onto the stock intake tubes with Moto-Seal and some clamps. I'm retaining the stock battery and location right now so this was my only choice. The pods were threaded so this worked well and have held up for about 1,500 miles. It doesn't run half bad this way but my idle is around 1400 which is fine since I put a 17 tooth front sprocket on and a new chain and rear sprocket. Not changing gears every half second probably keeps acceleration times similar if not better than a 16. I still need to get the timing gun out and do a proper job, so that along with a shitty condenser probably has more to do with my high idle than my intake, along with uneven mufflers. They're stock, but one side is blown out. It's pretty loud but now I have stockholm (or hellsinki syndrome as richard hammond would say) and I just really want to gut them out completely so they're even. Idk if I'm damaging things riding it uneven like that..probably. I have some jets on hand for whenever I get around to it. Runs lean up top so I really need to get going on that. Pulled my carbs the other day to change them and ended getting distracted by other details and put the fuckers back on without going up to 112's. I'll try to get them in on the bike. I'm a little worried to run to rich on one side and I'm not sure how to debaffle these elongated pipes yet. Sawsall maybe. My neighbors are pretty cool out in the country here so I'll run the pipes without baffling. Harley country here in WI so I could run open exhaust with a megaphone tip and the fuzz would look the other way. Deer hear more than they see so that's another reason I want to be heard. There's a doe on every corner where I live. Hunting laws were recently changed where I live so the deer pop is up to the freakin moon now.
Anywhoooo. What else have I done. Replace a lot of little rubber bits like the handlebar mount insulator cone things, kickstand and centerstand stoppers, sidecover grommets, got a new sidecover after mine blew off one day (thank you Irk!). I've probably done some other things! lol Oh, plugs, plug caps, points..did those along with the points cover gasket. Got a Vesrah gasket kit for a winter project as the bike weeps a bit of oil. I haven't cleaned that whole mess up yet so IDK. It's pretty grimy on the bottom case. And yes, I have changed the oil. Ran a bit of Risoline through it and changed it again. I'm using Lucas synthetic @ 10W30. Seems to be working. Clutch isn't slipping and It's quieted down a bit. Although tappet adjustment was the biggest problem as far as noise goes. The regulator was broken off the tool box so that came off and I mounted the rectifier where the tool box was and the regulator on one of the upper airbox mounts. Looks a little better I guess but I liked having a box for plugs and tools which are now in my backpack. I plan to bend up a simple shelf from some aluminum strip that I have and remount both of them on that right where the tool box was.

Things on the to do list are front fork seals. Not sure how much oil is left in there. Get a new grease fitting for clutch adjuster and I guess one of the carb pivot shaft covers fell off somehow even though I can't get the other side off after it went in a little crooked and dented it. The new wool for the shafts might have had something to do with it but IDK. Seemed sturdy.. Today I bought some vinyl and foam to make a new seat cover. Gotta do that. Looks like shit with a tank top covering it up. Better than when I got it but it definitely kills the overall aesthetics. There's a small dent in the tank. I'm going to order one of those roller balls for factory use and just roll it out from inside. It'll be better until I figure out what I want to do as a permanent fix. At some point in it's life the bike fell over. The headlight bracket and signals are tweaked. The rear so much that I had to pull them and start using hand signals when necessary. The rear mounts are bent so I have this dumb idea of shaving those off and drilling the tailight mount, which is pretty ugly as is, and mounting them there. I say dumb idea because I have it in my mind that mounting them to form somewhat of a Y will look good. I'll check it out when the signals get here. Ordered some ebay signals I plan to VHT nightshade the lighter areas so you can't see the diodes. I have a LED relay here already so I hope that's all I need to so the swap. Gotta do the exhaust gaskets yet. They seem alright but I'm not going to skimp. Need some intake manifold rubbers. Changed the gaskets on them already but they're cracked but not all the way through as far as I can tell. Gonna wrap some electrical tape around them someday and make it ghetto fabulous until I get some new ones. Trying to find a source that isn't going to take an arm for each one. Contemplating having my friend CNC a mold and casting my own. Anyone interest in that? I think the OEMs have metal plates in them so I could use those as "cores".
I'll update later with some recent pics and hopefully some more progress!

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Oh. I'm having an issue with my gas cap. It wont close all the way. I have a new gasket on hand that I need to put it, so hopefully that will fix it. The one I have is for a CB360 but I think I have a cap for a CL360 or something else. I believe it was one with the fuel level indicator. Hard to tell since the plastic is all yellowed and I can't see through it. I want to keep the cap and do something cool like put in something weird like a scarab or spider and dump some of that liquid acrylic glass over it to make something unique. Maybe something else more bike related like a mini sprocket or gear and not so Jurassic Park. Anyway, the cap latches just fine, I think, but it doesn't come down all the way to seal completely. I use the gas before it gets too crappy, but I'm a smoker, and sometimes I get a faint whiff of fuel when I'm working on it in the garage. Carbs don't leak anymore and the air filters aren't covered in fuel. I think it comes from the cap/tank since I can push the cap down further when latched. The gasket isn't hard as a rock, but the new one I got seems almost too soft to even take fuel. What y'all think? Change it and shut up already?

Well, thanks for reading. I'm fairly new to bikes. This is my second, first on the road, so I'll take any feedback y'all want to shell out.
 
As it sits now

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Fancy
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New bars levers grips and anti-vibe

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Painted caliper. New washers for the caliper bolts lol

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Tank dent :/

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Pods? 4into1 has a nice rebuild kit for the 'cock. 9 bucks with screen and gaskets. One of the things I've done already.

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I adjusted the new chain to get a little extra wheelbase than it had. Any downsides to running it further back? More stress?

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I'm pretty sure I bent this back once before. Should I get a fork brace? I have a black cable loop to throw on yet.

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Side cover was plasti dipped after being stripped. Honda paint holds up pretty well to brake fluid.. Pita.. Doing the other side now. Hate to do the dip but it'll protect it while I figure out something for paint which is tying into the tank dent. I love the blue so I think a standard candy blue will work to match. I'll do some spoon tests with different color primers silvers and blues. Frame needs paint too. How is the appliance epoxy holding up for you guys on the forks? Might do mine black.. Or white. I like the black white and blue on the tank. Idk where to get more white on the bike without it looking out of place. Tire lettering maybe? Who's got ideas?
 
Just wanted to give a shout out to Retrospeed in Belgium, WI. My bike wouldn't start after riding out to the DGR today. Cracked exhaust and a leaky head, and when I got home it had no spark.
So, at the meetup I noticed the Retrospeed van. Cool. Nice to see them helping out. They're from the area where I live, about an hour away from Milwaukee where the ride was held. Little did I know that their van would be my ride home!
The bike ran great all the way there and as I backed it up to the curb at Fuel, the meeting and starting point for the DGR ride, I had no inkling that anything was wrong. Kevin, who organized the Milwaukee DGR ( thank you!) finished his speeches and thank yous to everyone and the sponsors and all of the riders got going while I was kicking away. I eventually resorted to the electric starter. As it turns out, you get pretty damn hot in wool pants and a corduroy jacket trying to Kickstart a bike on a 80+ degree day. Before I knew it almost everyone had ridden out of sight. There was a woman trying to start her bike and two other riders hanging behind. At this point, still fully suited, I'm running with the bike trying to pop start it. Nothing. The two riders pull up and offer to help push. I could tell she probably wasn't going to fire up so I tell them that I'd be alright. I really didn't want to make anyone work that hard or as hot as I was. (I don't know your names but thank you!) So I push it a few more times with the result being nothing more than finding out what comes after swamp-ass. Greaaaaat! But ok. Shit happens. At least I'm at a coffee shop! I think about what to do aside from renting a Uhaul truck. I end up calling a couple of the stops to see if I could get in touch with one of the work trucks. I left my number with a lady at one of the breweries. A time later I get a call and it's one of the guys from Retrospeed. I tell them what's going on. " you're still at Fuel?" "Yeah..." Belgium being a lot closer to my house than Milwaukee, I asked if they might have any room in their van to take it with them to their shop. I get a call back a bit later saying yeah, no problem, after the ride of course. Awesome. After lunch with my friend and his family I get another from Retrospeed telling me that they're back at Fuel. I'm not. The other stops took hours. The last one didn't.. At this point I feel like a douche for not being there. I mean cmon.. What color is my bike so you can load it up? This makes me feel even worse. Mind you this was hours later from the start and I didn't want to deny my good friend lunch with his family and dropping them off at home about 15 min away from Fuel. Either way it wasn't cool. I get back and one of the guys introduces me to Luke, the owner of Retrospeed. He couldn't have been nicer. Asked me what I thought happened and that he would take the bike to the shop or even my house in Oostburg since it wasn't far from where he lives. Thankfully there's people like Luke and all the others that helped me, a total stranger, in the world. I owe this guy big time. And the lady that forwarded my number to him. I'll figure something out. Me and my bike are home because of the kindness of others and that's something amazing. At least it is to me.
Long story short, give Luke or his crew @ Retrospeed a call, they do some great work. Absolutely beautiful concours restorations. And talking with him on the way home, he deserves every bit of business that comes his way and then some.
Thanks, Luke!
 
trek97 said:
Sorry to read about your troubles. :p

Haha, thanks. I would have been more upset if I hadn't gone out there for a good cause.

Now I need to dig into the electrical issue. I'm not sure what would cause the bike to not have any spark from sitting there when it ran fine right whenI parked it. Is there any part that I should look into first? I haven't done any testing yet. I didn't see anything oozing out of the coils. I have some spare points that I'll try after I get some figures from the multimeter and I'll be ordering condensers next week. I was getting an arc on the points, but it wasn't constant. Would that burn up the points or coils? The points don't look burned.. Ugh. Electricity... Thank goodness I have a shop manual. Hopefully it's useful in this scenario.
 
JukeJoint said:
Haha, thanks. I would have been more upset if I hadn't gone out there for a good cause.

Now I need to dig into the electrical issue. I'm not sure what would cause the bike to not have any spark from sitting there when it ran fine right whenI parked it. Is there any part that I should look into first? I haven't done any testing yet. I didn't see anything oozing out of the coils. I have some spare points that I'll try after I get some figures from the multimeter and I'll be ordering condensers next week. I was getting an arc on the points, but it wasn't constant. Would that burn up the points or coils? The points don't look burned.. Ugh. Electricity... Thank goodness I have a shop manual. Hopefully it's useful in this scenario.

You really just need to isolate the parts to see what is working and go from there.

Power to the coils? If not, then fuse? switch? short? bad bullet connector? Wiring diagram will really help here.
If you unplug the condenser do you get spark? If not, then it's not the condenser.
Are the points opening and closing enough to get the coils to fire?
Are your spark wires ok? any of the plug caps cracked?

Timing correct? (maybe your cam chain tensioner isn't seated correctly and the timing shifts enough to not turn over. Not sure how you were testing for spark.)

This is all advice from a guy who doesn't have a 360 that runs, so take them with a grain of salt. I will say that I'm getting better at this stuff.
 
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