CB 450 twin. I said I needed a project

[john83]

Don't be a tool John. Jb weld may be good enough for airplanes, but don't bring that noise into the custom motorcycle scene, you savage.

Come on man. We are true professionals here in airplane land. We would use a mixture of Liquid Nails, two part epoxy and dirt.

 

[Hurco550]

Come on man. We are true professionals here in airplane land. We would use a mixture of Liquid Nails, two part epoxy, chewing gum, twine and dirt

Fixed it

 

[cxman]

john

i thought you had to put a coat of zinc chromate on it first
we had to when doing a float repair??

 

[cardinal]

While I wait for my cam chain tool to arrive I was wondering if anyone has seen this problem before on one of these engines: It looks like the front (exhaust) lower guide roller somehow came loose and was spinning on the cylinder head till it eventually wore right through and oil shot all over the place. Is this a sign that I'll need to do a complete engine overhaul? Wondering about the aluminum that ended up in the engine...

Thoughts?

 

[cxman]

check the centrifugal filter and see if it caught it

i have welded a few of those up where i just got the head to fix

and other than guides and a chain i dont think they took the bottom end apart

its so easy to split i would not do it without a through clean and inspection

 

[frogman]

Complete overhaul is based on more than just a hole in the side of the engine, however it would make me take a hard look at most of the oil passages in the crankcase and the head to make sure things aren't plugged up. The oil also passed through the pump prior to getting into the filter so you should certainly take a look at it.

Its worth splitting cases as well, just to make sure your transmission is in good shape. That one shouldn't have the chain oilier and fork issues but its worth looking at.

 

[cardinal]

got my chain tool and popped the top off. Here's a pic looking into the cylinder head where the wear was. See that piece of metal on the top? It was just hanging out there on that little shelf. It's not aluminum, I picked it with a magnet. Not sure where it came from.

The second pic is the chain tensioner that made the hole. You can see that the bracket that was holding it in place snapped off.

 

[cardinal]

And after further inspection, you can see that the piece of metal is a missing chunk of the cam wheel bracket. There is a piece missing near the top bolt head in the 2nd pic. Did a search on eBay, they might be hen's teeth.

 

[cxman]

here is one that is reasonable

http://www.ebay.com/itm/72-HONDA-CB450-SUPER-SPORT-CB-450-HM773-CAM-CHAIN-TENSIONER-GEAR-PULLEY-GUIDE-/351166475968?hash=item51c3272ec0:g:3aIAAOSwnDZT-51H&vxp=mtr

 

[cardinal]

I'm still here! I had a busy winter at work with travel and the holidays I haven't had any time to spend on the bike. I did manage to buy a replacement jug and cam guides from jag767 (thanks!). Today I stripped the head down and realized three of the valves are completely bent. So now I'm on the prowl for the least expensive option I can find. I've been going back and forth about whether or not to take the rest of the bike apart and do a full rebuild. It's pretty unlikely I'll have the motor out again any time soon, so I'm thinking I might go ahead and strip the frame and make some adjustments while it's easy. I'll probably add a frame loop and get rid of some of the extra tabs and bumps.

 

[cardinal]

Well, the activity at work hasn't settled down much. I have had a lot of time on planes to work on side projects and decided to illustrate a CB 450. Here's the first pass at it:

 

[adventurco]

Well, the activity at work hasn't settled down much. I have had a lot of time on planes to work on side projects and decided to illustrate a CB 450. Here's the first pass at it:

Nice! Illustrator?

 

[cardinal]

Yes, it's all vector. Thinking about maybe making a print or a t-shirt or something.

 

[cardinal]

I found valves on ebay and then decided I might as well strip the bike down to the frame while I was almost there anyway. Removed wheels, fork and shocks, stripped the wiring harness out and organized it all into buckets and sip lock bags. Scrubbed the frame clean(ish). The oil on there is pretty thick and difficult to get off. Going to take another pass at it. I decided I want to make the wheels black, so I pulled the front apart to clean and get these rims ready for powder coating. Now that the front hub is off the bike I'm not sure how to pull the internals apart. I've done some searching on here, and looked through the manual, but am not able to find a good description of how to get them apart. I've got a bench vise and tried clamping the lock nut in there and turning the axle with screw drivers through the hole like it says in the manual, but it isn't budging. I would love to get it down to the hub so I can powder coat that too. Appreciate any help. I usually get about 1/2 an hour here or there, so work is going kind of slow. I was thinking that if I get the wheels done it will help me feel like I'm making some forward momentum.

 

[adventurco]

Are you having trouble getting the axle nut off, or the retaining ring that "holds" in the bearing?

Axle nuts can be tough to budge. Most of the axles have a hole in the non threaded end, so I will usually stick a piece of 3/8" steel rod about 1' long through there, then stick that end in the vise so that the rod binds up on the vise and stop the axle from turning. You should be able to break the nut with a breaker bar from there.

For the retaining rings, there will be 2 punch marks from the factory that need to be drilled out. I use a 1/8" drill bit and drill down through the punch marks about 1/4" and you should be able to unthread them.

 

[cardinal]

Well that was super helpful. Thanks for the tips advCo! I didn't have any rod the right diameter and thought "Maybe my allen wrenches will work." and wouldn't you know, the hole was smaller than an 8mm wrench and larger than a 6mm wrench. Most metric allen (sorry, HEX key wrenches) only include 6 and 8mm wrenches, but Campagnolo uses 7mm fasteners on some of their old bicycle cranks, so I happen to have the 7mm wrench in my tool box and it fit perfectly. Busted the nut off and removed the axle without much of a fight.

 

[cardinal]

So now that I have the axle out, are you saying these are the places where I need to drill out the hub?

 

[cardinal]

And another thing, I went ahead and set my illustration up on t-shirts and they are available at cottonbureau.com for the next 5 days. After that, they won't be available anymore. So if you are interested in sporting a moto shirt that doesn't have branding screaming at you, this one is available in 3 colors and in women's sizes too! I don't make a dime on them unless they sell 25, so if you want to support another motor junkie's habit, or you know someone that is having a birthday soon that loves motorbikes, this is something I'd be stoked if you'd consider. Thanks.

https://cottonbureau.com/products/vrooom

 

[nismoman8899]

Fallowing the build, and the shirts , im wondering the same for wheel bearings as well.

 

[frogman]

Yup, that's where you drill. Don't need to go too deep.