"Woods" - '73 CB350F

[imseamless]

Hey Guys,


I'm finally starting a build thread For my cb350 I've nicknamed Woods. I bought the bike in the Spring of 2010 and rode it mostly stock all summer; The only exceptions- Pulled off the signals and other "useless" stuff and threw on some clubmans. At the time I wasn't 100% positive that I wanted to turn this bike into a cafe, but over time I can't help myself.


Anyways, I rode it all summer without a hitch until that fall. I rode the bike really hard a few nights (may have done the ton a few times) and ran into a bit of trouble. There is a help thread on all of that here.


With all that said, here is the bike as it was when I bought it:

Currently I have a Roc City seat in the mail, some ideas for a paint job and thoughts about changing up the air intake. I'll add lots of photos as it progresses and any suggestions are welcome!


Thanks,
Ben

 

[imseamless]

All right. I closed my eyes and somehow bought some 5ohm Dyna Coils... Not sure how that happened?
Second day air'd them, so by Friday/Saturday I should be sitting on a new seat and new coils. I plan to buy a trailer light and mount it on the rear of the Composite Daytona RocCity seat. I'll try to fabricate a sidemount license plate holder out of some scrap metal and then I should be ready for some paint. I have yet to sand down my tank, as I'm still trying to figure out how to paint the seat/tank. I have a painting adapter for an air compressor, just not experienced in painting, both in method and paint selection.


Can any offer up any advice on what paint to purchase? I'm thinking a red/orange in color but unsure of type of paint and brands. Would 4 coats be enough? Should I use regular clear coat? Will that protect from spilled gas on the tank?


Thanks,
Ben

 

[Whitey80]

Search it on the forum, there's quite a few threads outlining painting prep and execution in detail


(Your photo is broken, BTW)

 

[imseamless]

bah, I've been fighting that stupid picture for a bit now. I think it has something to due with the way Flickr hosts their photos. Maybe I'll create a photobucket?

I've read through a few threads, but will dig deeper!

 

[BCBarker]

If your thinking about getting rid of that seat, let me know.


BCB

 

[tWistedWheelz]

I am tuned in! Good luck Dan! You can check my CB350f build by clicking on my sig.

 

[BCBarker]

Nice bike BTW. I have a 350F too. Hardest part is tuning if you switch to a 4 into 1.

 

[imseamless]

I'll let you know on the seat... Right now I'm thinking about trying to mount the 1up seat to some hardware and use the existing brackets on the bike for a quick swap to the original seat. But if I decide against it and get rid of the seat, you're at the top of the list.


And TwistedWheelz, Caroline looks great. I'm glad I have the same bike, you've already been a wealth of knowledge.


Probably won't be working on mine until Saturday morning. I moved out of the house I had (garage/etc) into a small apartment in the city, so I'm storing the bike at my Dad's shop about 45 minutes away. It's great to have a nice space to work and a variety of tools, but sure is out of the way. Can't wait for summer when I can park it up here again.


Cheers!

 

[imseamless]

And on the 4-1. That will be a challenge, as I have been keeping my eyes out for the 4-1 (I dont want to pay the 300+ from an online store so I'm shopping off wrecked bikes).

 

[teazer]

Nice bike. Dyna 5 ohm coils are a good upgrade even if that wasn't the problem. I'd also fit a DYNA S and replace the points and condensors and eliminate one more sore point.

I'd spend some time cleaning up all the electrical connections too and spray wd40 into all the switches and work them back and forth to clean up all the contacts inside.

 

[imseamless]

So just got tracking info on my coils and seat... I paid for 2 day shipping on the coils in hopes of getting them by Friday- not going to happen. same with the seat. Looks like I'm set back until next Wednesday which really sucks considering I work full time and have a flight to catch that following Sunday. Was really excited to get the bike running again and throw some paint on it. Oh well.


Teazer, thanks for the input I will definitely consider the points/condensors.


So until next week, have a nice weekend.
Ben

 

[imseamless]

Received my Dyna Coils in the mail today at work, so I cut out early to work on the bike. First I pulled the mounts for the coils off the bike to cut them down, as the Dyna's are too large.

Fought the dog for them,

Used a grinder to modify the mounting brackets,

Mounted them,

And lastly, Hulked out and broke some needle nose,

The bike fired up first kick and I was feeling very confident the coils were going to fix my running issue. UNFORTUNATELY, it is still crapping out on me! As I was riding up a hill, I started losing power. Out of frustration, I bounced on the bike and kind of pushing down on the bars... and something weird happened- it regained power. It was like when I shook up the gas the bike got its power back. So something blocking the gas flow? Clogged petcock?


So I took the bike back, removed the tank for the 2320th time, drained the gas and pulled off the petcock. Minus a small hair, the filter and accompanying parts were clean! SO, here is where I stand.


The bike will lose power when riding, the same feeling as when you run out of gas. It appears if I jump around on it when it loses power, it comes back to life. So I guess I will start looking at the carbs, as that is next in line in the gas-flow.




Anyone have any thoughts here?


Thanks,
Ben

 

[thirsty 1]

Ya, Make a small gas tank form a bottle and go for a ride. This will tell you if you gas tank spigot is getting clogged with crap. if it does the same thing then pull the carbs and clean them along with the tank. Give it a good rinse with the spigot out and install a little inline filter when you put it back together. It';s wirth a try anyway.

 

[imseamless]

Thanks for the advice Thirsty 1. Does anyone think it could be related to the points/condensors? Just trying to figure out where to go from here.

Thanks,

 

[tWistedWheelz]

Nah, I think not, it does sound like a fuel problem for sure!

 

[tWistedWheelz]

Have you tried using the reserve setting on your petcock?

 

[imseamless]

As in running it on reserve all the time? No I haven't, but I'll give it a try!

 

[tWistedWheelz]

Well I have had cases where one of the petcock valve settings worked and the other did not, on one of my old bikes I ran it on reserve all the time due to this problem, until I replaced the petcock, but a rebuild may have done the trick too, I just happened to have another petcock handy so I just swapped it. Give it a go, can't hurt to try!

 

[IndieSol]

I'm not sure this is the issue, but how much gas is actually in there?

It's astounding how much fuel is still in the tank when my 360 starts doing that. With the single petcock it's easy for the area around the outlet to starve for fuel. Looks like there's around a gallon in there, but take a hard right turn and a few minutes later I'm having to hit the reserve tank and get some gas. Then it's like two or two and a half gallons to fill up. "I guess there was a gallon in there"

 

[imseamless]

You know that does make sense. When I pulled the petcock off I was surprised at how long the nozzle that extends into the tank was. I'm going to try running it on reserve tomorrow. Really hoping it is something simple as I really don't want to have to dig into the carbs right now....