My First Bike - '73 CB350

H

Hold_Fast

New Member
Hey guys, new to the forum and to motorcycles in general. Thought I would post here since I have a bunch of questions, and this place answered a few of them already. I'm a car guy, but never had anything carb'd before, so bear with me!

Recently picked up this for a song off of a coworker:



Overall, she's in great shape. But the dude's son put some pipes on, and they are waaaayy too loud (wife won't even take the bike for a ride), and it doesn't seem like the carbs are properly set up for them. It runs relatively well at idle up to 4k, but after that I can feel some hesitation. So that's going to be first on my list:

- New pipes (open to recommendations)
- Maybe airbox delete and pod filters (yeah, yeah, I know. no cheap pods)
- Rebuilding the carbs with proper jets

Anyone have a recommendation for some pipes? Once I pick something out, then I guess I can get started on sorting the carbs. If anyone has a go-to for rebuild kits, I'd appreciate it!

Then onto some basic maintenance. I have no clue when the brakes were last serviced, so that's on the list, along with replacing the at least 20 year old brake/clutch cables.

Back to the garage!
 
I placed an order for some replacement mufflers and a few other goodies to get me rolling on some mods. Those should be showing up tomorrow and sometime next week. But for now I've just been puttering around the block on the bike and I've got some issues to work out.

My left cylinder isn't firing consistently. It's getting good spark, and it's getting fuel, but it will backfire at idle and doesn't get warm (cool to the touch, exhaust is cool from the tailpipe). Judging by the spark plug (black), I think I'm getting too much fuel in that cylinder.

I guess I'll start with trying some carb adjustments. I'm going to give my best shot at checking the timing and making sure the cam chain tension is set properly. I've been hearing (what I think) is some excessive noise, so I wanna make sure everything is set properly in the base case.

Once I get home and break out the PDF shop manual, I'll get to tinkering and posting stupid questions. ;D
 
Bumping my thread from the dead!

Things had been crazy in the past year, so I'm finally getting back to this thing. It's my last project to complete before my first child is due at the end of July!

So the bike went from the above, to this today:



Mainly to fix the failing liner that the previous owner put in:



The list of other things I want to get done "right now":

- New petcock and fuel lines after the tank is cleaned, since this one is clogged as shit.
- New coils, since I need new wires and I'm pretty sure these are the originals.
- Electronic ignition needs to be installed.
- Front brakes.
- Clean the chain.
- Talk to Sonreir and possibly pick up one of his wiring harnesses along with a new reg/rectifier.
- Clean up the front forks, gators, headlight brackets.

What's the best way to clean these up? Scotch bright pads in a die grinder?

 
Step one: Ride the shit out of it.

Step two: Find a bike in worse shape to mod.

That bike is too clean to do anything to it other than get it running well and ride it.
 
Well, I did, up until it the tank lining failed and started clogging the fuel system. So step 1 right now is to get the bike in proper running order and do a few much needed items, like the brakes and coils/wires.

Main goal for this bike is to get it cleaned up and running like a top. No hacking or cutting. I want to be able to return it to original in the event that I ever get rid of it and I get more value out of it in stock form. So everything I do will be reversible, and all original parts will be kept. I will be painting the tank and powder coating the fenders though. The tank needs to have some dents pulled, and the paint isn't original anyway. The fenders look OK from 10 feet, but are starting to loose their chrome.

But other than that, stock/clean as possible, while doing some minor maintenance items and upgrades (like the wiring).
 
Last night I planned on just filling the tank up with some MEK and letting it sit and see what happens. I was suprised when I took a look in the tank and saw the lining already pulling away in huge sheets! So I grabbed some needle nose and a screw driver, and I got ~80% of the liner out on the right side of the tank, and most of it off of the top. I plugged everything up, dumped some MEK in, and let it sit. So we'll see if I can get the remaining stragglers out with that.

I didn't get any pictures, but under the liner isn't too terrible. Some light surface rust that I'll either get out with electrolysis or evap-o-rust. I'll see where it's at tonight then go from there.

Ordered some maintenance items from DCC, so in the mean time I'll get the front forks cleaned up and back on the bike. Pictures tonight hopefully.
 
be sure and replace the brake shoes up front they can come unglued when old and toss you on your face faster than you can say any words
rebuild the stock airfilters with foam if you cannot get new ones the exhaust needs to be a lot longer to work right
spent 3-400 dollars on some good back shocks check the swinger bushes for play inspect steerings bearings etc carry on great bike you got there
 
I got those coming with my DCC order. 8) I figured I shouldn't take any chances on possibly decade old brake shoes.

Quick question on the new shoes though. Anything special I should do to the hub or shoes before I install? Anything after? Knowing that car pads need to be bed in, I was just wondering if there is anything special for bikes.

The old shoes/hub don't have any un-even wear or anything odd, so no major concerns there.
 
Just grease the cam where it contacts the drums and the mounting point up top. Make sure no grease touches the shoes or the braking surface on the drum itself
 
pull out the cam shafts,clean and grease those that is the most imprtant thing a tiny thin film of anti seaze grease on the brake cams is all that is needed
then when it comes time for adjusting that is the tricky part but it is a proven method i have posted here before basically the linked shoe must contact slighty before the main shoe
 
Thanks for the tips on the brake shoes, really appreciate it.

Got a few things done so far, cleaned up the front forks and put them back on. Still need to do a bit more polishing, but it's good enough for now. I'll do more over the winter most likely. My box of DCC goodies arrived, quickly as usual. Also picked up a set of used VM30's, so I'll be waiting for those bad boys to come in.

I'll see how much maintenance work I can get done tonight, maybe brakes and coils/wires, but that will be it for the week. Headed down south for work the rest of the week. Hopefully tropical storm Bill doesn't leave me stranded at an airport, that douche.



 
So I got the VM30's in, just forgot to order a cable. Per the seller they have:

150 mains
159 P-5 needle jets
6F4 jet needles
2.0 air jets
2.5 slides
22mm float
20 pilot jets

Also came with:

159 P-2 needle jets
6F5 jet needles
140,145,160,170 main jets
40,45,50 pilots

What do you guys think? Anything I should tweak before I try running them? Bike is stock minus the mufflers, I'm at sea level.
 
30mm carb is too big for a 160 you have very little experience with motorcycles now you are making a huge amount of work for yourself and you dont even know where to begin ...keep the stock carbs and airfilter setup sell the mikuni carbs to some other poor dumb bastard trhat doesn't know any better
 
Since when are VM30s to big for a CB350?

I have the exact same jetting, except a 25 pilot, but I will be changing it for a 20 as it is just a bit rich.
 
Weldertron said:
Since when are VM30s to big for a CB350?

I have the exact same jetting, except a 25 pilot, but I will be changing it for a 20 as it is just a bit rich.
Click to expand...
it is only a 162cc cylinder ,with a dated 2 valve combustion chamber,so yeah unless you ride around at 9000 rpm's wide open throttle all the time it is def not optimum size for street riding and even at that i would bet a 28 makes more power with stock cam ..26 or 28 wood be much better but as has been the case sincse day one when people started modding engines they think bigger is better ,just aint the case tho
 
I just went with the VM30's based off of some other posts/build on here. For instance:

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=66352.0

I'm still going to give them a shot and see how well I can get them running. Just because I'm new to motorcycles doesn't mean I don't want to learn about them. SO I'll chaulk this up to an opportunity to learn something new. ;D

Weldertron said:
I have the exact same jetting, except a 25 pilot, but I will be changing it for a 20 as it is just a bit rich.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir. At least I'll have a decent starting point then.
 
What did you end up going with to clean the top of the forks? I've got mine off right now and need to do that exact thing, yours look like they came out great
 
I used some super fine scotch bright pads in my die grinder. Worked pretty well and didn't take very long. I plan to hit it with some buffing pads as well, but will probably wait till the winter time before i go too crazy.
 
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