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I picked up this 1973 CB450 in Las Cruces NM on 9-7-12. It has some minor cosmetic issues but it was exactly what I was looking for a cafe project. The odometer reads 6900 (and something). Basically new!
The first thing I did was clean out the tank with Evapo-Rust http://www.evapo-rust.com/ . It seemed to work really well. I let it soak overnight, turning and rotating it every few hours so that it could soak on all sides of the tank. What do you guys think works best to clean tanks?
The fuel lines were in not too good of shape. The left carb has some clear green hose hooked to it that was cracked and there were inline fuel filters on both fuel lines. I took the filters off and just put on some good fuel lines.
Had to get a new battery for it also. I didn't even want to try and kick start it without having a battery in there because I had heard that it will burn electrical stuff out. After shelling out the dough for a new battery ($50) we poured some new gas and a little bit of SeaFoam in the tank. Kicked it about 10 times and it roared to life!
And figured better check out the Electric Start... Hey we got blinkers and headlamps and brake lights!!! Glad it has good electrical.
And yeah I know the idle needs adjusted and all that.
So after getting the satisfaction of knowing that it's running, I wanted the piece of mind of knowing if I was going to be able to stop it. The master cylinder was dry so we added fluid to it and started pumping the brake. No pressure building up and the fluid was leaking out of the piston. Took it apart (after fighting with a rusted clip ring for 30 min) to find a rusty mess. The rubber ring on the piston had a tear in it. I soaked the piston and the master cylinder in the Evapo-Rust. I've been looking for parts and found the piston with the seal for $25. But I would feel more comfortable just rebuilding the whole thing so I'm going to get the whole re-build kit for $46. Seems kinda high but brakes are pretty important.
I know I'm probably getting ahead of myself. But for my color scheme I'm thinking of black with a cream or tan stripe with white and/or gold accents. Got the inspiration from looking at a Guiness bottle.
Got the new tires on. Pretty nice.
But now i'm having troubles getting it to run properly. I'm pretty sure that the right carb isn't even getting gas now. When I did get it to run the left exhaust pipe is getting hot but the right isn't. I checked the spark on the right plug and it was good.
I'm guessing i'm probably going to have to rebuild my carbs.
Been working on getting it running smooth and not a lot of luck. It's only running on the left cylinder. I took the float bowl off of the right carb and it had a lot of white corrosion on it. I'm guessing water had set in it for a long time. So now it's time to clean them out. I'm thinking the jets might be wrong. The main jet is #115. Main jet is #130 from looking at the manual. The elevation here is about 4000ft. I'm a little puzzled on what they should be. And if I put pod filters on what should the jets be?
well... tried to do a compression test today and I only got 110psi on each side. I don't think that the gauge was working just right. The compression should be 185psi. How could it only get to 110psi on both sides? I noticed that there wasn't an o-ring where it screwed in the spark plug hole. I'll try it again when i can find an o-ring that fits it.
I know I'm probably getting ahead of myself. But for my color scheme I'm thinking of black with a cream or tan stripe with white and/or gold accents. Got the inspiration from looking at a Guiness bottle.
Thanks exciting! I'm ages away from cranking mine. I was hoping to do a really short/small build, but it looks like I'll have it down to just a fame in a few days haha. Keep pushing with yours, I'm excited it see the end result.
I guess I forgot to put it up on here, but my dog ate the seat foam. I was going to be able to shape it and re-use it, but my dog decided it would look better in a trillion pieces all over the yard.
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