Here is my cb650 cafe prject.. I got it back in Oct 2011 as a warm up project for a bigger full on double rainbow cafe project... Got it from craigs for $300 with "only carb problems" as soon to find out it had al sorts of issues.. and later devastating problems.
Before this i was fairly green to any sot of major rebuild on anything.. my friend Jay was guiding me through the process of rebuilding the carbs.
Pros:
Complete
Engine turned
Wanted to start...
New Tires
lights on when key was turned
Only $300
Top End apparently rebuilt 6 months prior the guy who I was buying it from bought it from... (because he also had bought it with the same carb problems after it was supposedly rebuilt)
Cons:
Dint start
needed carb work.. possibly a new carb kit
blinkers malfunctioning
Needed new battery
Had $350 in dmv back fees
At the time of purchase...
Nightmare's first ride home from purcase
After a carb rebuild and charge of the battery the bike ran.. my friend Jay was helping me out through the carb rebuild..
still it ran like utter crap. below my friend jay monitoring its vitals.
then we realized it was out of timing both on valve and spark... so there i was..
carbs where also synch'd at this point an a fresh batt.
No the problem was that the bike was at my friends house.. about 20 something miles east where i lived... and having a night job and no transport made the project go really slow.. because i was only able to get out there once in a blue moon... took some months....
Oh did i mention I'm also hella broke... so getting proper tools and kits too a while to purchase
Fast forward to February earlier this year.. and the engine finally was running and with what we suspected some vacuum problems but not that bad...
After a few successful laps around the street we thought it was done and it needed to fly the coop.
SO.. there i went got it on the freeway on its maiden voyage 20 miles west back to my place... and OH THE HORROR!
3 miles out it started to sputter... at the 4th mile a huge oil leak somewhere had developed and i was completely covered in oil as i rode.... at the 5 mile mark the bike died.. i pulled over to see what was wrong and could not find anything.. the bike started up again and there I went again... and it held for 5 more miles until it died again... this time bike would not start or turn at all. Stranded on the freeway i waited as my buddies got a truck to pick my ass up to take home to its intended destination. (unfortunately no pics.)
Fast forward to May... after a small break from te project and examination it became apparent that i had a blown head gasket.... and so after getting a gasket a proceeded to replace it... this is where the nightmare began.
Once i got to this point it was socking to find out that it was ACTUALLY MISSING 2 HEAD BOLTS!!!!!
And by this point i decided to involve my little sister since she had been bugging that she wanted a motorcycle but she also whated a cafe racer... lol monkey see monkey doo.. i had her on cleaning detail for a while to see if she was still interested...
but after a coupla days in cleaning parts literally a good 16-20 hours of it she stuck around!.. it didnt help i gave her only Q-tips to clean with but she proved her self lol. ;D
So the heads came off...
And I decided meeeh lets do the cylinder gasket as well.. when in rome...so off the cyliinders go...
my sis facinated by the engine components
So there I was cleaning the old cylinder head gasket off with an old creditcard..
WHEN SHOCK TURNED TO HORROR
It had now turned to a complete Top End rebuild...son of a beyooootch!
So i got new rings...
Took off all the old rings.. its where i noticed my pistons had ART casted on to them.. thought that was pretty effn cool!
and rehoned cylinders... whilst teaching my sister a very important leson of LOCATION,LOCATION, LOCATION!
Pissed off mother by washing the cylinders in the sync that day...
The end result
AND SO... there i was ... again.. about to strat the reassembly with all new gaskets and bolts .. when i decided to clean the threads on the case so I wouldn run in to any problems when tightening them... THERE IS WHEN I DISCOVERED THE MOST HORRIFYING SITE
Bare witness to fucked up crank case threads wihtout repair.... FML..
it looks like who ever rebuilt it before fucked up majorly.. looks like head bolts where broken.. tried to reclaim the bolts. FAILED.. ended up stripping the threads and somehow tried to repair it by making the holes bigger and using some sort of compund... eventually failing again and just not putting the 2 head bolts all together.... machine shop said it was unreparable due to the Dual aluminum cast iron-core process of the crank case... i would have to replace it..... it was now a full blown rebuild.
lol ill stop here for now ;D
Much more to come!
Before this i was fairly green to any sot of major rebuild on anything.. my friend Jay was guiding me through the process of rebuilding the carbs.
Pros:
Complete
Engine turned
Wanted to start...
New Tires
lights on when key was turned
Only $300
Top End apparently rebuilt 6 months prior the guy who I was buying it from bought it from... (because he also had bought it with the same carb problems after it was supposedly rebuilt)
Cons:
Dint start
needed carb work.. possibly a new carb kit
blinkers malfunctioning
Needed new battery
Had $350 in dmv back fees
At the time of purchase...
Nightmare's first ride home from purcase
After a carb rebuild and charge of the battery the bike ran.. my friend Jay was helping me out through the carb rebuild..
still it ran like utter crap. below my friend jay monitoring its vitals.
then we realized it was out of timing both on valve and spark... so there i was..
carbs where also synch'd at this point an a fresh batt.
No the problem was that the bike was at my friends house.. about 20 something miles east where i lived... and having a night job and no transport made the project go really slow.. because i was only able to get out there once in a blue moon... took some months....
Oh did i mention I'm also hella broke... so getting proper tools and kits too a while to purchase
Fast forward to February earlier this year.. and the engine finally was running and with what we suspected some vacuum problems but not that bad...
After a few successful laps around the street we thought it was done and it needed to fly the coop.
SO.. there i went got it on the freeway on its maiden voyage 20 miles west back to my place... and OH THE HORROR!
3 miles out it started to sputter... at the 4th mile a huge oil leak somewhere had developed and i was completely covered in oil as i rode.... at the 5 mile mark the bike died.. i pulled over to see what was wrong and could not find anything.. the bike started up again and there I went again... and it held for 5 more miles until it died again... this time bike would not start or turn at all. Stranded on the freeway i waited as my buddies got a truck to pick my ass up to take home to its intended destination. (unfortunately no pics.)
Fast forward to May... after a small break from te project and examination it became apparent that i had a blown head gasket.... and so after getting a gasket a proceeded to replace it... this is where the nightmare began.
Once i got to this point it was socking to find out that it was ACTUALLY MISSING 2 HEAD BOLTS!!!!!
And by this point i decided to involve my little sister since she had been bugging that she wanted a motorcycle but she also whated a cafe racer... lol monkey see monkey doo.. i had her on cleaning detail for a while to see if she was still interested...
but after a coupla days in cleaning parts literally a good 16-20 hours of it she stuck around!.. it didnt help i gave her only Q-tips to clean with but she proved her self lol. ;D
So the heads came off...
And I decided meeeh lets do the cylinder gasket as well.. when in rome...so off the cyliinders go...
my sis facinated by the engine components
So there I was cleaning the old cylinder head gasket off with an old creditcard..
WHEN SHOCK TURNED TO HORROR
It had now turned to a complete Top End rebuild...son of a beyooootch!
So i got new rings...
Took off all the old rings.. its where i noticed my pistons had ART casted on to them.. thought that was pretty effn cool!
and rehoned cylinders... whilst teaching my sister a very important leson of LOCATION,LOCATION, LOCATION!
Pissed off mother by washing the cylinders in the sync that day...
The end result
AND SO... there i was ... again.. about to strat the reassembly with all new gaskets and bolts .. when i decided to clean the threads on the case so I wouldn run in to any problems when tightening them... THERE IS WHEN I DISCOVERED THE MOST HORRIFYING SITE
Bare witness to fucked up crank case threads wihtout repair.... FML..
it looks like who ever rebuilt it before fucked up majorly.. looks like head bolts where broken.. tried to reclaim the bolts. FAILED.. ended up stripping the threads and somehow tried to repair it by making the holes bigger and using some sort of compund... eventually failing again and just not putting the 2 head bolts all together.... machine shop said it was unreparable due to the Dual aluminum cast iron-core process of the crank case... i would have to replace it..... it was now a full blown rebuild.
lol ill stop here for now ;D
Much more to come!
