CB400T Café Build...but be patient this will take a while!!

[drduke]

Hi Everyone,

Just registered today as I have got myself a little project on the go and I'm sure I'll be needed plenty
of advice from seasoned veterans on this site.

I purchased a while back a non running CB400T T1 Hawk 1978 with the intention of converting into a Café Racer, I have started on this project and I will post a few pictures later on this week.

In the meantime I will have a look around this forum to see what you guys have been up to.

Cheers for now.

DD.

 

[Maritime]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Welcome to the site. Check this thread if you haven't already Good lot of bikes with your frame style
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=26184.0

Cheers,

Maritime

 

[drduke]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Cheers Maritime

 

[JustinLonghorn]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Welcome to the fray, sir. We like pictures.

 

[drduke]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

]Okay so here's a few pictures of the bike as it was when I purchased it on Ebay, it came in from the states, and was in extremely good condition for its year..as I said earlier it was not running, in fact it would not even turnover..more on that later.

 

[gk45011]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Gorgeous bike for a good solid starting point. I am anxious to see the direction you take it. Welcome to DTT.

Gary

 

[drduke]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Then I get to work on seeing what was wrong with the engine, and that's the fun began, so as you do, you start looking into what going on inside, I figured it was something simple, like seized, it had 18,000miles on the clock, not over the top, but when I took off the head valves looked okay, the I slip off the barrel no issue there, so it's not seized....but I never smelt a engine internal smelling a putrid as this one, it was rank....once the barrel was off I found the cam chain had broke and done a huge amount of damage to the cam guide, also it seemed that the counter balance chain had also broke. So that was it I took the engine out on the bike and prepared myself for a full rebuild of the engine.A few pictures below before the rebuild, you can see the broken chains, but I don't seem to have any pictures of all the damage...you can see also how bad the oil looks, it was tar like.

 

[drduke]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

I'm not a mechanic but I have been working on engines as a hobby since I was 15-16 many moons ago now, and never have I worked on Honda's I was more a two stroke man, so anyway I get the engine stripped and notice that the mains & big end bearings are in tatters, also the crank is scored very deeply, so I head off to a Honda main dealer looking for oversized bearings and of course then I find out that the crank can't be ground, so that's me goosed. Long story short I come across a breaker again in the states selling a crank and conrods with only 5000miles on the clock, I take the cylinder head and camshaft from him also as the camshaft was also scored to bits along with the head bearings....what a total mess this engine turns out to be...so I order up new gearbox bearings, engine seals set, camchain, counterbalance chain, found a second hand cam chain guide, counter balance new rubbers, oil pump...the list goes on and on...anyway I end up rebuilding the bottom end, and then find a brand new OEM barrel for £57 stg and get new rings...happy days...finish the build and end up with a lovely tight new built engine....

 

[VonYinzer]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Wow... That's a real mess. Way to stick with it and build a runner.

Welcome to DTT!

 

[drduke]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

So with engine running sweet, I get to thinking about what I want to do with the bike in terms of Café Racer look, and I've pretty much decided on the less is best approach, I want the bike to be a lean as possible and also a basic as possible, so no mudguards, no indicators, no battery, I'm thinking of getting a aluminium petrol tank and matching Café seat....main problem with the CB400T frame is the pressed steel rear sub frame, so I'm going to chop that and fabricate a tubular hooped section on in its place and replace the shocks with the same type used on a 400four...that's as far as I have progressed to date, and progress will be slow now as I have to go to the UK for the tank to be made, and best way to do this is to bring the frame over so we get a perfect fit....I'm a couple of months away from that happening...in the meantime I will get to work on stripping out the loom of all the unwanted wiring.....

 

[drduke]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Cheers, Gary, Justin & Von...glad I found this site, seems to be lots of activity...and shed loads of builds going on...help I getting overloaded.

 

[gregajo]

Re: Hello to "do the Ton" members from Dublin,Ireland

Hello from Florida and welcome to the site!

 

[drduke]

Got to do a bit on the bike again this afternoon...working on the loom, I'm going to strip out any wiring that is not needed, like indicators (not a legal requirement for bikes in Ireland), also this is not going to be a daily used bike so I'm going to run it without a battery & ignition key....I will wire up a kill switch somewhere....there is also a spare connector green/red - light green/red as per picture, I think this is for models with a starter motor...I will need to check with the wiring diagram.

 

[MOD]

Hi there
How's the build going?

 

[drduke]

Hi Mod....the timing of your email was about a week too early as I had planned to post something later next week, but to answer your question, the build has been a little slow, for a few reasons, one just have not had a whole lotta time and secondly, I always planned to get a custom aluminium tank made by John Williams ( www.thetankshop.com ) in Dumfries Scotland, so in order to do that, I needed to take the frame, engine and yokes over to his workshop so he could manufacture a tank to suit the bike...that all happened on the 28th December, and I'm collecting the same finished tank on Saturday 16th January....so i'm pretty excited as he builds some lovely tanks.....if you have a minute check out his web site.... link above.

I also picked up a set of Mikuni Carbs, fitted them and even without a full exhaust system...the engine runs a whole lot better than the standard carbs....I tried to load a picture, but for some reason the site won't let me, anyways I will try again later...watch out for my post next week..and thanks for the interest.

Eoin

 

[drduke]

Now there you go...picture uploaded...

 

[MOD]

Tank sounds like it's gonna be good. The carbs look nice. Have you got a seat?

 

[drduke]

Yes Mod, Aluminium seat made to match tank,
all will be revealed next week.

 

[cb 400 t]

Can't wait to seethe tank seat combo

 

[Maritime]

Nice work. Keep at it and she willbe a beautiful bike when done

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