Tag: Motorcycle

Intrigued by the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club article about using a fine brass wheel brush, very slowly, on the aluminum engine case to produce a fine and smooth finish I tracked down the brushes at Lowes and picked them up, they are the same ones used in the article, great. Before starting I wanted to remove the old cylinder carb connectors and clean the engine up. The connectors were rock solid hard; through a combination of tin-snips, razor blades, and picks, and patience, I got them off.
To clean the case, I emptied four cans of carb cleaner along with brushing it intermediately. Before starting I had lined up paper towel on the life to capture the dirt, and in the end it was totally filthy and dirty. For some reason, I failed to take a picture. Some of the carb cleaner got in the engine exhaust ports; and Pat said that it was OK.
Before starting with the brass wheel I took a “before” picture, and then removed the shift lever and cleaned it, and the brushed the side cover. It is cleaned up, but not soft and supple like the article. Bummer, well now I’m committed. Took a last picture of the other side for reference.
Continue reading “CB750F: Day 21: Engine Polishing Begins?”

• Realized that I ought to post as of the date of when the work occurred and will do so moving forward.
• Got the front sprocket count, 15 16. The crank case was filthy, 4mm think of chain oil and gunk. Cleaned it up.
• Tried to take a photo to show the shifter lever height.
• Cleaned up the engine hangers.
• Couldn’t find fine brass wheel brushes anywhere; will research online.
• Verified that fuel line fits carbs.
• Tidied up; the number of parts and supplies has again multiplied.
• Confirmed that WordPress reverses the image order regardless of how I select the files. This is undesirable since the images are out of order in relation to the post itself; need to find a fix.

Tonight was a very “in the flow” kind of night.

• Inspected the 30A fuse. It is present, along with a backup.
• The carb insulators that connect the cylinder head to the cars need to be replaced, they are rock hard, I think I will have to cut them off. Figured I may as well clean the metal bands.
• The air cleaner connectors were filthy too, so I cleaned those. Apparently you don’t really need a sealer between them and the airbox, but some people use it.
• The airbox needed a little more cleaning, just old filth.
• The chain and both sprockets need replacing. The chain is out of measure by the guide, has kinks in it, and hangs way too low. The rear sprocket has the chain links (88) sitting in it on the top of the peak (38)!
• Cleaned the air filter and let it air dry in the furnace (aka classroom).
• Nitrile glove evaluation: The generics from Wal-Mart break very quickly. The MidKnight are a little better, but also break quickly. The DermaLite are excellent; you can dig chain grease off the chain guard with your fingernails and the finger won’t break until maybe 15 minutes later which is way beyond the normal use case.
• An oil change awaits!

Ran out of time last week so here is a picture of the reassembled rack of carburetors. For the heck of it, re-checked the previously 1-finger-tightened float bowl screws, and they were not as tight as I had left them. Re-tightened them. Decided that I had better replace the air filter so as not to gross-up these immaculate carbs. Found out that it is reusable, great. Why are there insect remains in the air cleaner box? They and the grime and crap need to be removed, so out came the brake cleaner, even cleaned up the shifter lever. Decided to re-check the carb holder (shrouds that hold the carbs on the engine manifold) and they were somehow even harder than last year. They are rock hard and must be replaced.

The carburetor bodies are back together and 1&2 and 3&4 have been paired together. It isn’t obvious but reading ahead reveals that the choke tab spring attaches on one end to the 1&2 body and the other on the 3&4 body. The build guide recommended hanging the parallel end on the tab as you join the pairs, and that worked fine. After testing the operation, the choke tab spring wasn’t wound tightly enough, so an additional one round was all it took. The helper picks were my best friend here; though a paper-clip probably would have been fine. The operation cycled fine for 9 times, so it seemed OK. The top and bottom rail went in fine… checking the choke operation every single time after each torquing according to the order. Learned about a tiny thing, the difference between two 4mm allen key drivers, the notched makes it easy slip! With everything aligned, I red loc-tited the choke plate screws checking them off along the way. Learned on the first one that if you torque to half-way between the min and max of the service manual spec, that you will strip out the bolt…grrrrr.

Stopped at Tom’s house and bought a side cover, but the back end pin was missing. Between the two of them I should be able to fabricate one. John from The Shop happened to be sitting there, so I talked to them for a while. Stopped at The Shop the next day but they didn’t have the float valves, so they ordered them for Tuesday.
At class I install the air cuts, slowly, and cleaned the air cut covers for 1 and 4 again, they were filthy for some reason. Tightened up the pucks to the required tightness. Cleaned the air cut passages themselves with carb cleaner and guitar string and finally they were clear. Those were all sealed to a two-finger tightness. Installed all of them. On carb 2 Pat said that something non-metal could hold the throttle plate open fine.
Replaced the gaskets in the float bowl drain screws. Started removing the gaskets from the connecting hardware between the carbs. It was rotten hard in place and required a pick to get it off. The locking grip was my new best friend.
The hex key buttonhead screws are nice. Replaced the keychain with a much nicer one, too.
Continue reading “CB750F: Day 15”

Scott the parking attendant said hi. Tonight I cleaned the float seals. I should have attached a q-tip to a drill like Tim said, it took forever, but was worth it, and the Brasso helped. You could even read little symbols on the brass float passage itself. The puck covers all had this tacky material on them; not sure whether it was oxidation or what. Installed the pilot screws according to the original measurements: 2.5, 2.39, 2.62, 2.5 (turns back out). Did the float bowl leak test, and blew them out with compressed air including the drain screw afterwards. Next time it will be the float valves and bowl installation. After staring at the float values for while, I wondered if they should be replaced after one of them got stuck recessed. The ultrasonic cleaner continues to serve diligently; but doesn’t need any more photos at this point.
Continue reading “CB750F: Day 14”

Normally 13 is unlucky, but never for me (don’t worry it comes in other ways). Tonight was the end of the ultrasonic cleaning and the wrap up of the carburetor cleaner manual cleanup; I did bring some along because I didn’t want to use up an entire can at class. The brass bristle brushes were invaluable; as were MacGregor’s directions, really, really great. One high point was trying to put the silver jet in backwards, and only after measuring it with a micrometer (remember it is dollars, quarters, cents…) did I realize that although silver jet has a .089″ gap, which is probably to big, it doesn’t matter when you try to insert it in the wrong end of the port. Ah well, Pat said I should ask him about stuff sooner, but that just isn’t my way I guess.
This bike was not well loved. The horns are even worn out and ought to be replaced. Tail lights busted. Headlight attached with a twig. Front fender wrong. What happened to this machine? Well, we will fix it up.
Started reassembly tonight. Finally, but it was worth the wait to really clean these things up. The button head Allen screws look great, and hoping that they provide some relief for future maintainers who need to rebuild these carburetors. The ceramic cleaner did good on the float seals, but I will bring in some brasso to see how much cleaner they can be. The workstation was a little too involved to tidy up tonight; can’t wait to get back.
Continue reading “CB750F: Day 13”

Tonight was ostensibly the least exciting of any, but I got a ton of work done. Every carburetor and all of their supporting parts got a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner with 55/45 SimpleGreen/H20 tonight. Afterwards they got a solvent rinse and a thorough carburetor cleaner clean-down. It was so impressive how dirty they were outside; and to a lesser degree inside.
MacGregor Carb Cleaning Services guide has turned out to be stellar; the notes are brief and can be no briefer, everything is included there for a reason and failure to follow the instructions will result in unhappiness.
The light brass bristle brushes were really helpful for cleaning the carbs where the q-tips just didn’t do enough, but was still gentle no tearing up the metal anywhere. One mistake I mad was not to use an exacto, I used a bench-grinder instead. The tip got a little hot and melted, so again, do what the MacGregor guide says, it is really optimized! The tip about wrapping up the end of the cleaner tube was just great; the thing was though that you really have to blast the cleaner in there to even get a drizzle out of the pilot screw as expected. You can see the crud coming out of those carbs… geez!
Had one inspired though while the solution in the ultrasonic cleaner heated up to boiling and cooked my fingers… if we designed an ultrasonic cleaner that also worked as a deep-fryer, then after using the fryer, the machine could clean itself. It might just work.
Continue reading “CB750F: Day 12”