jnorman
New Member
Last April I bought this 75 Honda 360T as a way to go beyond the routine maintenance I'd done on my Nighthawk and, learn how to wrench on bikes. The price was right and the bike was fairly complete and clean but not running. I opted for a refresh/resto rather than some sort of half ass cafe job, because, well I'm very much a novice at this. Quick note: I have some mechanical ability, my dad and I rebuilt a Camaro when I was a teenager, I've welded (not well), and have been around mechanical people and things throughout my life but am still very new to bikes.
Anyway: here's the bike
I've taken my time on this build (no where near complete yet) and took about a 3 month hiatus as my fiance was pregnant. We just had twins so my time is even more sparse, but working on this is a stress reliever.
The build has focused on the motor thus far. Like I said the bike wasn't running when I bought it. It turned freely but compression was way low (50 psi, I think) on one of the cylinders so I pulled the motor and went to work disassembling the top end. I found a shattered piston ring that came apart in pieces. Because it came out in pieces and, probably more so, because I was curious and this is supposed to be a learning experience, I split the case to inspect the rest of the motor and make sure none of the piston found its way into the case. It was blast and I learned a ton.
The bike was much lighter:
Here's the motor sorry for the weird angle.
I've had to replace some parts... Some my fault others not... One of the PO's let the cam chain get nice and loose and it started to wear through the jugs. He solved that with some bondo.... I solved that by getting a new set of jugs from Ebay. I'll take a pic of the old jugs tomorrow and post it.
Also, word of warning to other newbies - bag everything...seriously bag everything. Like as soon as it leaves the motor, bag it. I threw away both my counter and main shaft bearing retainers because I thought they looked like broken piston rings...they weren't. Ebay saved my ass.
So a breakdown of the progress thus far:
Head, cylinders, cam and pistons inspected by a reputable shop here.
Cylinders honed (by shop)and pistons cleaned and fitted with new rings (by yours truly)
Valves removed, cleaned and lapped. Passed leak test.
Gasket material removed (Worst part)
Cases, jugs, head, and rocker cover? (piece above the head) painted stock aluminum with heat resistant paint. Points cover painted black.
Numerous covers polished (what a job...but rewarding)
New oil seals all around
New gaskets (obvi)
New cam chain tensioner
Cleaned the gas tank with vinegar, some nutzzz and vigorous shaking/ rolling the tank down a small hill.
There has to be more, but it's late and I'm sleep deprived. I'll update if it comes to me.
I checked out the bottom-end, everything looked fine, no shards of piston ring. Cleaned everything up, laid some gasket sealer and put the case back together. Installed piston rings, put the pistons on the rod, jugs on, shifting mechanism, clutch, starter, etc and then the baby-hiatus happened.
Now I'm back at it and after watching another forum member's (Saturday Wrench) latest video on inspection and putting the bottom end together I figured out some stuff I could have done better. So tonight I took everything back apart and resplit the case again.
Here are the reasons:
- Last time I assembled it I used a mix of 10W-40 and Marvel Mystery oil as my "assembly lube". But since I don't know how long the motor will be sitting before I get the rest of the bike up to speed, I bought Permatex assembly lube and and going to relube with that.
-I plan to inspect everything a little better, the dog ears on the transmission shafts, etc.
- I wasn't sure if I had put the barrels on the studs for the cylinder jugs
This being my first build, I want it done right or done absolutely as correctly as I can.
That leads me to couple questions (hopefully you haven't stopped reading yet.)
In case you have, here are some before and after shots of shiny engine bits to re-excite you:
Before:
After:
Yeah. I'm proud of that.
Back to the engine questions:
1) I found that the pin that helps hold the bearing on the counter shaft in place when the case is closed somehow sits below where it would catch the hole in the bearing. How do I get it out to reposition it? What if I can't get it out...Can it stay that way without blowing something up?
Pic:
2) How much side to side play should the connecting rods have? Mine have very little, but its there. Both have about equal play (from what I can feel) so it leads me to believe they are okay but I wanted to double check. There is no movement pushing down or pulling up on the rod.
3) What am I looking for on the bearing surfaces on the case. This is some of the stuff I've found:
Please ignore the rust on those plates. I cleaned them up later.
With that last photo as well - the manual says something about the cam chain plunger having a mark on it that's supposed to be facing a certain way. It doesn't look like mine has that....I haven't removed it to measure to see if there's a difference over which side faces up...but was wondering if anyone else knew?
Any additional words of wisdom? Advise? Un-fettered opinions?
That's it for now ... thanks for going through the novel. I appreciate all help and criticism.
Cheers
Anyway: here's the bike
I've taken my time on this build (no where near complete yet) and took about a 3 month hiatus as my fiance was pregnant. We just had twins so my time is even more sparse, but working on this is a stress reliever.
The build has focused on the motor thus far. Like I said the bike wasn't running when I bought it. It turned freely but compression was way low (50 psi, I think) on one of the cylinders so I pulled the motor and went to work disassembling the top end. I found a shattered piston ring that came apart in pieces. Because it came out in pieces and, probably more so, because I was curious and this is supposed to be a learning experience, I split the case to inspect the rest of the motor and make sure none of the piston found its way into the case. It was blast and I learned a ton.
The bike was much lighter:
Here's the motor sorry for the weird angle.
I've had to replace some parts... Some my fault others not... One of the PO's let the cam chain get nice and loose and it started to wear through the jugs. He solved that with some bondo.... I solved that by getting a new set of jugs from Ebay. I'll take a pic of the old jugs tomorrow and post it.
Also, word of warning to other newbies - bag everything...seriously bag everything. Like as soon as it leaves the motor, bag it. I threw away both my counter and main shaft bearing retainers because I thought they looked like broken piston rings...they weren't. Ebay saved my ass.
So a breakdown of the progress thus far:
Head, cylinders, cam and pistons inspected by a reputable shop here.
Cylinders honed (by shop)and pistons cleaned and fitted with new rings (by yours truly)
Valves removed, cleaned and lapped. Passed leak test.
Gasket material removed (Worst part)
Cases, jugs, head, and rocker cover? (piece above the head) painted stock aluminum with heat resistant paint. Points cover painted black.
Numerous covers polished (what a job...but rewarding)
New oil seals all around
New gaskets (obvi)
New cam chain tensioner
Cleaned the gas tank with vinegar, some nutzzz and vigorous shaking/ rolling the tank down a small hill.
There has to be more, but it's late and I'm sleep deprived. I'll update if it comes to me.
I checked out the bottom-end, everything looked fine, no shards of piston ring. Cleaned everything up, laid some gasket sealer and put the case back together. Installed piston rings, put the pistons on the rod, jugs on, shifting mechanism, clutch, starter, etc and then the baby-hiatus happened.
Now I'm back at it and after watching another forum member's (Saturday Wrench) latest video on inspection and putting the bottom end together I figured out some stuff I could have done better. So tonight I took everything back apart and resplit the case again.
Here are the reasons:
- Last time I assembled it I used a mix of 10W-40 and Marvel Mystery oil as my "assembly lube". But since I don't know how long the motor will be sitting before I get the rest of the bike up to speed, I bought Permatex assembly lube and and going to relube with that.
-I plan to inspect everything a little better, the dog ears on the transmission shafts, etc.
- I wasn't sure if I had put the barrels on the studs for the cylinder jugs
This being my first build, I want it done right or done absolutely as correctly as I can.
That leads me to couple questions (hopefully you haven't stopped reading yet.)
In case you have, here are some before and after shots of shiny engine bits to re-excite you:
Before:
After:
Yeah. I'm proud of that.
Back to the engine questions:
1) I found that the pin that helps hold the bearing on the counter shaft in place when the case is closed somehow sits below where it would catch the hole in the bearing. How do I get it out to reposition it? What if I can't get it out...Can it stay that way without blowing something up?
Pic:
2) How much side to side play should the connecting rods have? Mine have very little, but its there. Both have about equal play (from what I can feel) so it leads me to believe they are okay but I wanted to double check. There is no movement pushing down or pulling up on the rod.
3) What am I looking for on the bearing surfaces on the case. This is some of the stuff I've found:
Please ignore the rust on those plates. I cleaned them up later.
With that last photo as well - the manual says something about the cam chain plunger having a mark on it that's supposed to be facing a certain way. It doesn't look like mine has that....I haven't removed it to measure to see if there's a difference over which side faces up...but was wondering if anyone else knew?
Any additional words of wisdom? Advise? Un-fettered opinions?
That's it for now ... thanks for going through the novel. I appreciate all help and criticism.
Cheers