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I just received a CB450 and it is my first street bike. I think I am going to restore it to a stockish runnable state and use it as my first bike for a while, then sell it to buy a 750 to chop .
I have a ton of questions and hope that you guys can start the answering. I have read a lot but would like a direct answer to the questions i have.
Alright lets start:
What should I do before I try to start this thing? (clean the carbs is on the list but what else)
If you are behind the bike and then goto the side to YOUR left, the carb on that side is missing a circle looking piece on that side. seems like theres a spot for an oring and everything. what is supposed to go there? if anything at all. and is it important?
what is this hose hanging from the bottom of the same left carb is it just a drain hose?
There seems to be a ground cable coming from the front of the engine case that was ran on top of the exhaust and will need to be replaced. my question is: how do you guys run this cable theres gotta be a better way?
the front brake lever isn't hard to press at all. how do I add fluid to the master cylinder?
I am sorry for all the questions but I am noob to motorcycles and I am an electronics kind of guy so as long as I can stay away from bad engine bikes I should be able to make this work with the help of the great community of DTT.
I know I am not building a cafe, but I hope you can still help me unlike many other specialty forums that have turned me away.
well congrats on the bike.
if the bike is running then you should drive it for a week or so to really see what is working and what is not working properly on your bike. also when you park it after riding check to see if oil is leaking out of any bad gaskets...just kinda look over the bike after a ride or place some clean cardboard under the bike to see if anything has leaked by the next day. then i would make the list of things that are needed to get the bike running better.
and to answer most of those questions i would just buy a really nice manual for your bike.
i have a '74 450 and have the clymer service/repair/maintenance manual....it does not go into too many details for repairing the bike but it has good pictures and vocabulary to get me started on something.
i have the clydmer manual for it... pdf format but will be getting it printed tomorrow. the bike currently doesn't run and needs some money put into it to be rideable.
need a battery and battery box
seat
headlight with turnsignals
and then i can run it but i dont get money till the middle of this week and ill be taking it to the chicago motorcycle swap meet coming up this next weekend (going with the parents ) and hopefully be able to find some of the stuff there (keeping my fingers crossed).
I just wanted to get the whole system cleaned up while i wait for money haha. I am going to be cleaning the gas tank, carbs, and petcock this week and probably cleaning up the wiring.
cleaned the carbs today... very clean actually so that was nice.
they will go back on i looked through the manual and figured out the piece that isn't there is the accelerator pump section. the manual says some models dont have the pump but should there at least be a cap there or is it just left open. i think its supposed to have a cap so ill be on the look out for a bad carb or set of bab carbs to buy and get that piece off of em.
petcock filters were all spic and span as well and it shuts flow of as well.
so i guess its just a quick clean up of corroded connections and then its time to pop the battery out of dads harley and see if she starts
How long since she was running? If it has been over 6 months, pull the sparkplugs and spray some Seafoam Deep Creep or other fogging oil into the cylinders. I prefer to pull the plugs, insert a funnel and fill the cylinders with automatic transmission fluid. Pulls any light corrosion and prelubes the rings and cylinder walls. Let it sit for a couple days and then kick the engine through a complete cycle. A complete cycle means both plug holes cough out a bit of the ATF residue. Change the engine oil and filter (if it has one, most early Hondas don't) before starting the bike. If you don't have a kickstart arm, set the bike on the center stand and rotate the rear wheel (forwards or you will break the timing chain) in second gear (with the plugs out of the head).
I did the above to a CL100 that sat from 1976 to 1999. Little bitch started on the third kick after the carb was cleaned and she got fresh oil, gas and sparkplug. Used the battery from my Savage and a set of jumper wires.
yeah im going to drain the oil and give a fresh fill.
i have no clue how long its been since she started. looks like a while but I was told it was started when the guy received the project just to make sure it ran before it was worked on. he never got around to working on it but he said he would give the carbs a clean and such before actually driving it around.
my dad mentioned something about putting oil in the cylinders to lube the rings so thatll be done.
other than cleaning the mass amount of rust out of the tank i think shes ready to start honestly. tracked down the unhooked wires in the front to be the power for the missing headlight(high and low beams + ground)
hopefully i get to be excited and not quite disappointed. im still worried that something went on the side of the carb but like my dad said "try it whats the worst that can happen?"
im just hoping to be able to buy cosmetics with my money at the swap meet and have this baby ready to ride with my dad and his buddies this summer.
i am located in northwest indiana hopefully there some other members out by me so i can sell this baby to someone whos gonna dump way to much time and money into it when im ready to move up to something like a cb750 (that ill be chopping of course )
hmm so I've realized that this is a 1982 nighthawk 450 which is nice cause i really like the look but will seats from the normal CBS fit this bike or will I have to hunt down a specific seat .
Hopefully I can figure out somewhere to score the side panels at since they are extremely different haha
I just got an internship and am happy to say I have money to start working on this gal again. Hopefully more to come!
I am going to be mounting the engine up on the bench and working on that first. Going through all the maintenance and replacing stuff. Then start mocking it back up and buying pieces as I determine they need replaced or when I decide I need something. Then tearing it back down and having the frame powder-coated, everything painted, and any other cosmetics finished.
I will be making my own wiring harness with just the bare minimums that allows for the new configuration of switches and such.
A couple questions though!
(1) On the front of the engine, under the electric start there is what I am assuming is an oil cooler. What is the device threaded into it with one wire attached? What does it do? Low oil indicator or something? Can this be removed and a bolt be placed there.
(2) Can a bolt be placed where the neutral safety switch is on the right side of the engine? is this a threaded hole? I don't really need or want this.
(3) Has anyone ever capped the speedo cable hole? What did you use? I don't currently nor will I have a speedometer attached and would like to cover the tab that spins if possible.
I will post pictures as I find time to work on it between school and work!
I meant tachometer not speedometer lol! I definitely need to know how fast I am going. Neutral is not needed at all I don't even use them when I have them. Oil light would be alright but once again I usually just maintain it.
Don't know what its like where you are but most countries require a functioning neutral light on a motorcycle for it to be road ready / legal (not too sure on the oil light, but it's nice to have one IMO).
So unless your bike is currently registered you'll probably run into some obstacles without warning lights.
Just realized I have been posting in the wrong topic from when I first got the bike DOH! haha if you want to follow whats up check out my thread in the bobber chopper section!
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