CB400f Carb Rebuild

o1marc

o1marc

Over 1,000 Posts
My carbs are pretty well frozen up right now and I need to do a complete rebuild. I talked to Jap bike mechanic and he told me to look towards $250 in labor and $100 in rebuild kits. I saw over the weekend carbs on Ebay for less than the rebuild but they are gone now and , who knows, they may have needed rebuild also. What would you guys recommend for my situation? Can you recommend a reliable fair priced rebuilder. I saw this on Ebay for a complete rebuild for $320 shipped and it looks like a fairly intensive procedure.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-CB350F-CB400F-Carburetor-Carb-Rebuild-Restoration-Service-CB350-CB400-/180966990258?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a227921b2&vxp=mtr
 
hrm... reliable and fair priced... the $250 wasn't fair priced? honestly, to get a reliable mechanic, you usually have to find one with a shop of his own, who does it full time, can feed his wife and kids with his pay from said shop, and with the rent, insurance, heat, trash takeout, etc etc, he's got to charge that kind of price to be able to afford to do a good job. you can find a hack who does it out of his garage for dirt cheap, but is he reliable? mmmm prolly not... maybe you find a gem, but usually not... sometimes you just have to pay what talent's worth
 
I understand what you are saying. I don't have to find one in my area, I can ship them anywhere I need to. I am trying to see if anyone here has found a reliable and fair source I can check out.
 
Obviously, you have no idea how many hours it takes to properly clean a set of carburetors. A pair of carbs will take easily four hours to dismantle, clean in a carb cleaner soak, spray out all passages with carb cleaner, blow out with compressed air, reassemble, set the floats, synchronize, adjust idle air screws, (which often requires drilling and removing a plug.)

My shop rate is $75/hr. Four hours is $300. I rarely find I need to buy any parts, though. The vast majority of the time, I am able to re-use all of the gaskets and all parts are serviceable. I DID have to replace the floats of my XS650. One of them was corroded through.

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Even if you do get a replacement set of carbs, are they going to be all set up and ready to go? No. Even if the floats have been adjusted, they would have to be checked, and they still need to be synchonized and the idle air screws have to be tuned. Will they be jetted properly for your engine? Lots of opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot.
 
Crazypj on this board does it - i don't know what he charges.

That's about what i'd expect for price though - it's painstaking work.
 
I have issue with any shop or person who charges a 100% markup on parts. Alpha Dog, you're telling me my bill with you would be $600? No offense, but I won't be sending them your way.
 
Then rebuild the carbs. It's not rocket science, it's just a pain in the ass.
 
o1marc said:
I have issue with any shop or person who charges a 100% markup on parts. Alpha Dog, you're telling me my bill with you would be $600? No offense, but I won't be sending them your way.
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WTF are you talking about? I said it's typically four hours labor to do 2 carbs and usually no parts cost. How did you get $600 out of what I posted? Fact is, I usually spend twice as many hours doing a set of carbs as I actually bill for.
 
AlphaDogChoppers said:
WTF are you talking about? I said it's typically four hours labor to do 2 carbs and usually no parts cost. How did you get $600 out of what I posted? Fact is, I usually spend twice as many hours doing a set of carbs as I actually bill for.
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do you know WTF a CB400F is?
 
Oh! Shit. I see what you mean. I missed the "F"

I usually charge $400 to do four carbs, regardless of how much time it takes me, and basically I lose money on that. Four carbs does not take twice as long as two carbs, so there is a little bit of economy of scale. It just takes up a whole bench to spread the parts out and have 4 carbs apart at the same time and keep all the parts separate.

If you were quoted $250 to do four carbs, I would say that is very reasonable, IF he does a good job. Question: iIs that his price if you take the carbs to him and he doesn't do the reinstallation, synchonization and tuning? The basic estimate for time that I described is for when someone brings me the bike, I pull and reinstall the carbs, and tune the bike. I've never had someone just bring me a set of carbs to do.
 
His price was for me to drop the carbs in his hand then return them to me. He is going to get the bike running for me but I didn't see a need in taking the bike to him yet if it is going to sit while he rebuilds the carbs. If he did all you say you do then it would be more worth it. I have no idea what set up is in these carbs so they are going to have to be tuned to my application anyways once it is running as I will probably run pods and they will need to be jetted accordingly.
 
o1marc said:
His price was for me to drop the carbs in his hand then return them to me. He is going to get the bike running for me but I didn't see a need in taking the bike to him yet if it is going to sit while he rebuilds the carbs. If he did all you say you do then it would be more worth it. I have no idea what set up is in these carbs so they are going to have to be tuned to my application anyways once it is running as I will probably run pods and they will need to be jetted accordingly.
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If you're planning to re-jet to accommodate pod filters then you'd be well served to do the cleaning yourself - you'll get a better working knowledge of the carburetors as you go. Like i said, it isn't rocket science, you just have to be meticulous in your disassembly, cleaning and reassembly.

Proper jetting is as close to rocket science as you're going to get on a CB, though - if you're going to skip the cleaning, you're not going to actually do the jetting properly. My two cents. :)
 
My guy used to own JIMSS (Japanese Import Motorcycle Sales and Service) His name just happens to be Jim and his last name starts with an S. His specialty was CBX restorations but he went through a divorce the same time the economy was tanking a few years ago and closed due to lack of money being spent. I trust his quality. He is only working on friends stuff right now (very little). I am not arguing whether it's a good deal but whether I can lay out that kind of money right now (see his economic issue persists :) ) He also, at 31 years old, had 3 strokes a couple of years ago and had to rest for awhile.
 
o1marc said:
My guy used to own JIMSS (Japanese Import Motorcycle Sales and Service) Him name just happens to be Jim and his last name starts with an S. His specialty was CBX restorations but he went through a divorce the same time the economy was tanking a few years ago and closed due to lack of money being spent. He is only working on friends stuff right now. I am not arguing whether it's a good deal but whether I can lay out that kind of money right now (see his economic issue persists :) ) He also, at 31 years old, had 3 strokes a couple of years ago and had to rest for awhile.
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Ha - if anyone can tune some carbs it's a guy who specialized in the CBX :)
 
I loved walking into his shop the first time to see about 6 CBX's on the showroom floor. Turbo monsters, perfect originals, etc. He could get $25k for complete restorations. He had CBX #2 from Finland or somewhere coming for restore.

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For those interested:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Checkered-Past-Cycles/322319847810910?fref=ts

This is my local pack of loonies.
 
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