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Here is the story of the CB450 I picked up a few months ago for a Cafe project. Eventually it will have:
- BCR - Tank & Seat
- Hand Fab - Rearsets, clip ons, headlight bracket, exhaust, other stuff that comes up
Here is what everyone is here for:
Initial Craigslist Pictures:
For $700... Doesn't Run, but has been parked for a few months. I figure pretty basic, 1/2 the price of anything else here in CO and in good shape with low miles. I head out to pick it up and it all looks good.
Nice deal - you should be able to recoup a chunk of your money from that exhaust if you're not using it. Looks in very nice shape - lots of people would pay dearly for the high 'scrambler' pipes.
I get her home and fill up the memory card with lots of pictures:
Proceed to try and fire her up. Without too much work I get her running and am feeling pretty proud of my purchase. It doesn't sound perfect but... Then I notice one of the pipes is still ice cold and the carb isn't pulling any fuel. Alright time to clean the carbs...
Really Clean inside and out. Petcock was nasty:
Direct connect some fuel, put the carbs back on and try again... Same symptoms.
Next step: Compression tester. An award winning Left: 90psi Right: 0 psi. Glorious.
Try a little oil in each cylinder and repeat the compression test. If the same, it may be your valves. If pressure increases, chances are its your rings.
That being said, if the pressure isn't moving at all on the right side, I'd bet on valves first. Even worn rings will create a bit of pressure even if it doesn't hold it.
A leak-down test would tell you for sure, including which valves.
Holy Crap! I guess sometimes you can't judge a book by its cover cause the bike looked pretty nice. Nice to see another 450 on here. I think soon we will overtake the 350s!
So my next step is to find pistons, rings, pins (one is bent) and a good machine shop. 10s of phone calls to no avail, I hop on E-bay, finding relatively nothing, I settle for a 73mm piston kit. (3mm over) After a trip to Supertune, they advise me NOT to even try it for a street bike. Great. He starts the search for some 1mm over pistons/rings, I set into more teardown when I notice this which I hadn't seen:
Nasty scoring in the rod. Good thing there is high availability for those parts as well.
At this point I decide I am probably best to start a search for a running complete motor. All the machine work, rods, and who knows what else in the bottom half need to be replaced are going to add up to $$$$$.
So I post a WTB on CL for a running CB450 motor, maybe just a running parts bike. I expect this to be a 'checkbox' on the project. Within a couple of hours I get a response. Shocker! He isn't available for a few days, so my project continues:
(sorry for the lousy pictures I guess my documentation of this stage stank)
End result? A box of parts and a stripped frame. Time to start removing brackets!!!
I finally hook up with my 'Donor' for a look at the motor. Guy has at LEAST 10 CB450s! A bit of a wet dream!! This CB450 is a '72 like my original bike, only this bike has 16k on the clock and 130PSI in each cylinder. It runs like a top and fits in my truck. Plus the price is RIGHT. I am stoked. We talk bikes until dark.
It has a sweeeeet 16 inch rear wheel, and some ape hangers. (for sale!!)
That is all she came with.
What is missing is pictures of the bike in the back of my truck. With topper. hehe
First step is to get the frame ready for the dry build. I ground off a bunch of brackets, mainly the seat lock, mounts, airbox mounts, centerstand mounts, etc.
Alright. We are up to date!!! Expect postings to slow as I get to work.
I have a vintage Hooker 2 into I header that is in great physical condition and solid ( right side exit ),but needs to be painted or rechromed. I'll swap you for the high pipes...
I'm in portland and I have some scrambler pipes that I would trade for the headers. If it doesn't work out here. Don't want to snake anyone's trade....
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