1976 Honda CB360t - Cafe Racer - Project BirthYear

[MikeRenz]

Figured I'd introduce myself and my project I just picked up. I convinced my wife that she needed to buy me this bike for Christmas, and she somewhat agreed. I was born in '76 so I've always wanted a project birth-year vehicle. I stumbled across this gem of a barn find and had to have it:

it also came with all of these spare parts from another bought and disassembled bike (by 2 owners ago)

(spare forks, bars, lighting, tires, rear wheel, seat, fender, headlight bucket, random wiring, etc)

so as you can see, it's has a lot of what I hope is mostly surface rust. I was surprised that the sissy bar came off with little effort and the threads were not stuck. Then I popped the big stupid footrest off and that was a slightly different story - both ends of the upper ubolt broke off, and then one of the lower mount bars completely broke off from being rusted through. Hopefully this is just due to being directly behind the front wheel and just picking up lots of road wear over the years. Guess i'll find out more as I tear into the thing.

This is going to be an extremely slow build, right now i'm rebuilding the motor of my car toy which takes precedence over the CB for now. But as I wait for parts and engine machining i'll spend some time on the bike here and there.

for fun, here's my toy getting its heart torn out:

and here's why:

Anyway...back to what you care about - the bike.

First order of business will be trying to get the thing to fire up. I'd rather know it works before I strip it down to the frame. Anyhow, figured i'd start the requisite project thread and say hi. Glad I found this forum, seems to be a lot of working knowledge of these bikes around here! I've already managed to download the shop manual, wiring diagrams, carb manual, and tensioner shop supplement manual. Feel like i'm already ahead of the build even though I've never worked on a bike before.

-Mike

 

[krafty]

Welcome! I'm fairly new around here as well, and like you opted for a birth year project. This place is a great resource and hopefully it'll help you along your way.

 

[trek97]

welcome

 

[MikeRenz]

well the good news is it's mostly just surface rust. that bad news is, there is a lot. :lol:

spent a little time derusting a few spots to see what I'm up against:

It all comes off, it will definitely take a while though. I bought a new petcock since the original gasket had rotted and the screen/filter was broken.

I was pleasantly surprised that the tool case was completely full with all of the tools. I even have a spare empty toolbox that came in the boxes of parts. I'm not sure if I'll leave this toolbox on here, but before I noticed the toolbox I had no idea of how I was going to get the spark plugs out. such a rookie. but learn-by-discovery is a great way to figure this bike out.

 

[trek97]

before I noticed the toolbox I had no idea of how I was going to get the spark plugs out. such a rookie. but learn-by-discovery is a great way to figure this bike out.

wait a sec. you dont have a socket to fit a spark plug?
Did you remove the engine from that car with a hatchet?

I thought you had planned to get this bike running first?

 

[Sonreir]

I'll follow along on this one.

 

[MikeRenz]

wait a sec. you dont have a socket to fit a spark plug?
Did you remove the engine from that car with a hatchet?

I thought you had planned to get this bike running first?

i didn't have a deep well socket that fit it. And my spark plug socket was too small for it. This is my first bike, so i don't have any special motorcycle tools, dunno if thing requires anything special.

I was going to get it running first, and slapped the new petcock on it and fed it some gas and tried to kick it over. But there's no battery - will these run AT ALL without a battery? Tried to see if it was getting spark but holding the plug still while trying to kick start it proved uneasy. I need to figure out what route i'm going to go battery wise so i can see if the starter works.

I'm thinking i should yank the carbs off and give them a quick cleaning just to help it fire up briefly. I haven't taken the thing apart, still together enough to run. Sounds ok when i try to kick it...although does make an odd noise every couple of kicks. It's got seemingly lots of compression, although i didn't break out my tester to see if i had the right size to thread into it.

 

[trek97]

Were all lucky these things run at all WITH a battery.

If I remember right, the tester will need 14mm. but to get a proper comp read you need to remove the carbs.

did you put fresh oil in her? and a splash of sea foam in the gas won't hurt. along w a couple drops of Marvel mystery in each cylinder, I imagine they are pretty dry.

And if the bowls aren't leaking fuel now. I wouldnt crack them open till you know for sure its a fuel issue. Those old bowl seals are probably in pretty poor shape.

get a decent battery and make sure you got power to the plugs first. Then if she won't come to life, try starter fluid. Then look into the carbs.

 

[MikeRenz]

well I got to spend some time working on the bike today. Since I'm waiting for the battery I ordered I just worked some more on derusting and deoxidizing the thing. Still have a lot to knock off of it, but it comes off fairly easy in most spots I've gotten to so far.

Shop is a cluttered mess right now with my truck in pieces also...hopefully i'll get to put it back together in February - but I haven't gotten to order my engine parts just yet.

So here's my cluttered mess of a shop right now. Can't wait to be able to spread out a little when working on this thing, will make life way easier. Figured I'd share a zoomed out pic and show part of my little machine shop I have. My goal is to fabricate everything in house that I need that is possible. We'll see how that pans out, but most of the stuff for these is fairly straight forward from what I've seen.

Anyhow, back to the bike.

Cleaned up the shocks today - was happy with how nice they turned out from how bad they started. They have lots of pitting on the springs, but nothing too serious from what I can gather.

Got the headers/mufflers off without too much struggle. Also cleaned up the frame in some spots and toyed with cleaning the primary cover a little. Not sure yet what kind of finish I'm going to do with the motor...just making sure it can get clean for right now. Still trying to not dismantle fully so that I can try to fire it up once I have a battery. I'm pretty amazed at the fact that I haven't broken any bolts off yet.

so I do have 1 question for anyone that's happening to read this: Are a ton of wires/connectors supposed to be in the headlight bucket?

Sure seems like a ton of wires to be stuffed in there for no good reason, aside from hiding them from plain sight anyway. Was just curious if the previous owner stuffed them in there, or if they're supposed to be in there.

Maybe I'll get some more time tomorrow to tinker a bit more...but for now that's all I have had a chance to work on. Small victories. ;D

 

[irk miller]

so I do have 1 question for anyone that's happening to read this: Are a ton of wires/connectors supposed to be in the headlight bucket?

Sure seems like a ton of wires to be stuffed in there for no good reason, aside from hiding them from plain sight anyway. Was just curious if the previous owner stuffed them in there, or if they're supposed to be in there.

Maybe I'll get some more time tomorrow to tinker a bit more...but for now that's all I have had a chance to work on. Small victories. ;D

Unfortunately, that's where they all go. Maybe why many of us simplify and redo the wiring.

 

[MikeRenz]

Unfortunately, that's where they all go. Maybe why many of us simplify and redo the wiring.

ok thanks. It's looking more and more like i'll be redoing the wiring on this thing anyway...that's just one more reason to do so.