BB, a CB450 build

[frogman]

http://www.permatex.com/products/automotive/lubricants/specialty_lubricants/Permatex_Anti-Seize_Lubricant_a.htm

Used on every bolt that went into aluminum, stainless or not.

I used a wire wheel in my angle grinder to get rid of the paint on both my 360 and 450 frames, the paint is not all that good and it comes right off with little pressure.

 

[isal]

axe, I'm going to going powder coat, looking to do a rattle can job if I can I can find black metallic. Also no rust to speak of, Colorado +1. I may take a wire wheel to the fram like frogman suggests and see how easily it comes off. If it just flakes away then i'll take it down to bare metal and do a nice solid primer coat. (thanks for the advice, frogman).

blackbomber, thanks! The more I read the more I realize how lucky I am to have such a clean bike. And I know all about galvanic corrosion. Have lots of examples on both the CB and my Land Rover which is like half aluminum. It's a bitch. And another tip of the hat to frogman, I use anti-seize or blue thread locker on everything.

 

[Blackbomber]

That's the stuff - boy is my mind shot. Scary that I worked in a bike shop for 7 years.

 

[frogman]

HA! dad would use a CAN of that stuff a year back on the farm, still swears by it.

 

[isal]

OK, so I was making up a to-do list in my head because I'm fucking flakey and if I don't this will never get done. Then something occurred to me...

I'm a computer systems and network engineer, but I work in a software development group. My group uses a process called Agile to manage their development tasks and cycles, what they call sprints. I realized that Agile would be the perfect way to manage this project.

Here's some info on Agile:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

So I went looking for some free software, and damned if I didn't find it:

http://www.agilefant.org/

So I'm going to set this up and see if I can figure out how to share updates from it. And with that, I have made my hobby more like work. I hope this doesn't go horribly pear shaped.

 

[deepwaterimports]

ill be happy to follow this one

 

[isal]

Ok, so I haven't hooked up that software yet, and I haven't made any progress on the bike since Monday. It's been an ugly week. Anyway...

I keep thinking about forks. My 450 is a '69, which means it has the tapered forks at the top. I want to lower the front end and from what I've seen that can be done in one of two ways without swapping out the forks: Push them through the triple trees (can't do that on this one) and/or get different springs. That sound about right?

I've been watching a few sets of later model 450 forks on eBay, and bid on a nice clean set, but lost the auction in the middle of the night. The other sets are all sorts of cruddy and way more expensive. But I'm wondering if different forks/tripletrees are even necessary or if I should just get new springs for mine since they're nice and clean. Thoughts?

 

[isal]

Ok, I set up that software. Here's the first pass at planning:

 

[gregnash]

Looks like a good way for you to plan things out and dont worry I am the same way (though I use project or some mind mapping software - whatever I have on hand). Seems like you have a few thing that are out of order there but that is only to my newbie eye. Oh and I am PMP/BAP trained as well as ITIL v3 certified so I know exactly where you are going with this.

 

[Inkblot88]

Yeah dude, that's bitchen. I'm the same way. If it's not written down and generally figured out on paper it doesn't get done. Followin this build.

 

[isal]

Fuck, no updates for nearly a month. That's really lame. Not much progress was made for most of that month, but there has been some over the last three days...

First the good, I spent some quality time with the angle grinder and the frame on Sunday. I took off the exhaust hanger ears, the rear fender mount and the tail with the seat hump. Then I cleaned up a few other nasty welds from the factory. End result? I need to do a little sanding then I can blast it with some primer to keep the rust at bay while I mock up the rest. Here's a pic:

Making good progress on Sunday motivated me to find a machine shop to check my cylinders and pistons on Monday. After calling around and asking for references (seems nobody wants to touch motocycle engines) I convinced a guy at an auto machinist shop that it was not a two stroke and he told me to bring it in. And this is where the trouble starts.

The left piston is out of round by 2/1000's, gotta toss it. the left cylinder is 5/1000's out of spec at the top, with a pair of 10/1000's grooves thrown in for good measure. Fucking Awesome. The right cylinder is out of spec by 5/1000's at the top, but the piston is OK.

left cylinder:

I picked up a spare cylinder head on eBay a while back, but it's crusty as fuck so I didn't even bring it to have it checked, though I wish I had. At least it doesn't feel like it has any grooves, but it would at the minimum need to be honed.

nasty cylinders:

So, can anyone confirm what I'm afraid I already know: If I over bore I will need larger pistons, I can't just use stock pistons and over sized rings.

I found a set of .25 over pistons on eBay, but they're $200. But is that the way I should go? Even if the spare cylinders clean up nice and they're still within stock spec after honing I'll still need to drop cash on a new piston. But those things are nasty and I'm afraid it too would have to be bored. I guess my alternative is to be super patient and look for in spec cylinders and and a used piston.

Oh, and think I identified one of the issues that caused the left cylinder to go pear shaped:

I was able to start pulling/unraveling the thread with a small pair of pliers, which gave me a panic attack. I used some dykes to clip off one thread then used a flat head to get the rest back in place. It seems OK now, but is it something I should be worried about?

So, with all that crap, I'm guessing I should pull the cams out and check them against spec before I make any decisions on cylinders/pistons/etc. That make sense?

 

[frogman]

DON'T buy anything until your machinist tells you what to get. Bring him the page in the manual where it says what the next overbore sizes are and once he bores out the wear he will know what size to get. Pistons and rings are cheap, the larger sizes even more so, I nailed a set of .75 pistons and rings off ebay for like 125 bucks.

Take the cams out and inspect them, check your rocker arms as well for wear, they are easily the most expensive piece per POUND of weight in that engine. Take em out post pic's if you have questions.

That thread is fine just make sure when you put a plug in that it doesn't roll back out, it will just burn off and probably embed itself in the top of the piston.

 

[isal]

Thanks for the advice, frogman. I have to find another machinist as the one I saw Monday made it pretty clear he didn't want to work on my stuff. And with what looked like a dozen or so $100k auto restoration projects in the shop, I'm not too surprised.

I did get the cams and rockers out yesterday. The cams look OK, but the rockers don't seem quite right to me. I'll post up some pics later today or tomorrow.

Since I'm already inside the head I'm going to tear it all down and check the tappets, valves, valve seats, chain tensioner, etc. Might as well do this right and 100%.