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I've been lruking for a while. Ever since my friend's dad started working on a CB750 I've wanted to get my hands on something to chop up and make look all purdy. Then I moved away from all the shops i knew where i could borrow time using the grinders, welders, plasma torches if necessary. I ended up moving to NYC. I live in Astoria. No parking spot even to have a project sit. I still owned a car I would put on the street up until before this past winter(2012) when my parents needed it more than me needing to move it for street cleaning and snow removal. So i drove my car the 200 miles home and took amtrak back into my home. I did this for a while until I had a friend sleeping on my couch and he mentioned his brother had just gotten a new Harley. I know a harley usually isn't a first biek so i ask if he's getting rid of his old one. As a matter of fact he is. I say if it's a good bike and a good price i'll buy it.
It was a 1980 CM400a (hondamatic) and he only wanted $500 for it. I checked it out. new tires new battery no inspection. . . but it rode so i snapped it up and trailered it back to my parents during a week of vacation.
Here's the shots. I have plans for it and will keep my trials and tribulations of working on a bike with no place to actually work on it here.
First thing i did was flip the bars over to how they should be. They guy i bought it from said he flipped them up since he was a bigger guy. I'm 3-4 inches taller than he was. Also, the turn signal stems were chopped down to be about as short as possible to clear the bars.
The next project was to figure out the carbs. it came with no mufflers and pod filters that were taped halfway up. I bought different pods from DCC after losing one cruising around the first night. The stock jets (68) were in there, I bought (78) from jets-r-us and everything runs much better. Before i couldn't use the top 1/3 of the throttle. I rode on route 80 form PA to NYC without the top 1/3 of the throttle. I did some tet rides and it pulls much better plus the burbles it makes are just right.
I purchased a cm400 seat that i plan on tearing apart, and am picking up a 78 cb400 tank that i hope i can finaggle on without too much trouble. The current tank is only 2.5 gallons I was hoping to be able to make it from NYC to home with only one fuel stop so i need something bigger. Plus I want something that i can lean on for those long trips.
I don't believe the cl350 pipes will fit unless you plan on hacking them up and piecing them back together again with extensions welded in to add width to make the distance.
I think it would be best to stick with using the pipes you have on it and sourcing some nice mufflers.
If you want high pipes, make something custom to begin with, that way you can tweak it to exactly how you want it.
Maybe the other guys on the forum know of a different set of high pipes that would fit right up.
Edit: I like where this build is going though, I hope you get it all figured out!
I don't think those are going to fit that motor man they come off and are bent to wrap the 350 engine/frame I don't imagine the exhaust ports are the same distance apart as the 350 motor. could be wrong though it happens alot
I am getting a good deal on the pipes. I will see how they line up. if it's too bad, fingers crossed i can break even.
other options i was looking at was 12" flow thru mufflers and then wrapping the pipes in black. If i manage to fit the scrambler pipes i will likely still wrap them to prevent burning my thigh but I want to chop it off just before the muffler.
Got a new tank. I believe it's from a 78 cb400 if anyone can verify it's always good knowledge. going to see how it fits and then get it setup for fresh paint.
passed on the CL pipes. seeing as they would be more trouble or a bunch of cutting to get them to fit.
spend most of saturday driving around queens getting stuff together. I got sheet metal to redo the odd rear tail end of the seat and rust remover jelly to clean the tank a little bit.
put some clr in there and shake er up. I used naval jelly and coated it let it sit for 1/2 hr and flushed it. Really cleans it up but you have to make sure you flush it reallllly well and then fill it right away to avoid flash rust. Prob gonna have to seal that tank and I need to do mine too. Get some inline filters for sure.;
picked up an inline filter from a Steinway autoparts, it was damn cheap $4 it's stupid to not do it. though as far as aesthetics goes having this hanging on the side of my bike is function over form for now.
Yeh, the fuel filter is a bit wide, next order i put in from DCC i'll add one on. this will do in the meantime.
so today I put the tail end on and test fit the tank
the front bumpstops for the tank need to be cut down in half for it to fit. I could get that done today before i go into work but the bigger problem is i'm missing a gas cap and fuel door. On the 15ish block walk home gastank in hand I was thinking about options. I can do the following;
A. find a replacement gas cap and door from CL, ebay, someone on here. Benefits it's easy and hopefully cheap. I saw a door on ebay for $40 though, when the tank itself cost $60
B. cut out the tank and put in a panel then install an aftermarket gas cap. I like the pop-up style. But i don't have facilities to weld so this would end up costing $100 plus. upside, it would look pretty trick.
C. say fuck*t and leave the tank alone. But this leaves me defeated and with a smaller gastank that I want.
Re: Hond-o-matic City ~ looking for cb400 fuel door/gas cap
Some of those filters are intended to have the fuel pumped through them rather than by gravity. Just saying so that if you fit them and the motor starts behaving badly you'll know the cause
thanks to cr8zy1van I got a fuel cap and cover for only $20 shipped. A great deal!
I also got bored and ending up sanding the tank down as well as getting most of the rust from the inside of the tank. So now it's all set to be mounted on the bike. The only mod i need to make is to cut the bump stops down a bit.
So a long story about getting the bike into the shop.
I bought it witht he intentions of using some around new york but mostly for when i wanted to scoot out of the city for a weekend and see trees and grass without occupy wallstreet protesters lounging on it.
I get the bike and made it into work just before it started raining and it rain for about 30 minutes. That night leaving work the bike starts up but doesn't want to stay running so i assume it needs to warm up. I let it warm up plenty and it still won't stay running. Long story short I end up finding a garage we clean the sparkplugs and try jumping it since i'd been running the battery down trying to get it started. It doesn't start.
i let the bike sit for an hour and then come back to it. It starts up and i manage to get back to queens from mannyhattan by not letting the engine idle. I just stay on the throttle to keep it from burbling out.
The next morning I leave for Pennsylvania. The bike starts up fine and idles, I assume my problems from the night before were caused by rain. At some point on the trip home I blew a fuse. Not a big deal since i can kick start the bike so i manage to make it back. But after this whole ordeal I ended up taking the train back to the city and the bike is at the honda shop in bloomsburg getting set right. I'd love to spend hours pouring over the wiring harness but without knowing much and not having a buddy that knows much, I'm stuck going the yuppie route and paying someone else to do it.
So word from the shop is that it needs; rear turnsignals/tailight fixed, sprocket and chain, chain guard, leaky carb bowl, and the throttle re wired to pass inspection. so they aren't doing anything to it.
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