I did it again... Bought a baby blade to rebuild...

Transmission breaker
Don
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So much work to do... Haha! Are you trying to get it back to mint?

I'm not actually far from you, Guildford way, and fancy getting a project bike to rebuild. Where do you find stuff?

As close to mint as I can within reason. Happy to try and take my time with this, as there will be some delays whilst I wait for, test parts and learn how to fix/restore stuff myself.

I know they guy I got this off has a few other bikes in various states of undress he was trying to shift. Hermitage way if that not too far?

Really nice progression over a short time

Cheers, pulling it to bits is always a little easier/faster than rebuilding :D

Your wiring pictures paint a familiar story!

Feeling positive about it at the mo, will see how I feel later with the replacement loom in my hands....
 
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Soldato
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I've repaired a couple of tanks in the past that we in that kind of state.
Fill the tank with vinegar (very strange looks in the supermarket when you walk out with 20 litres) and leave it for a couple of days, then use a por15 kit from frosts to seal it. Works a treat.

My brother had a tri-arm and I had a gull-arm, superb bikes, rc31 for the win though.

bros1.jpg


bros2.jpg
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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This is awesome.

I think you and @Lopéz should have a build off, we can do the judging :cool:

Thanks :) Still waiting for the wiring loom, hopefully here today.

Not ripping much more off yet, till i find out if it will run. Did a little fiddling with the wiring, and got a paddock stand under the rear so I can at least see if it might turn the wheel and check the gearbox is working ok. Handlebars are on order from China, so I can go back to the lower down, fork tube clamped type and restore the riding position. I guess the previous owner wanted a more upright position hence the riser bar adapter on the fork yoke. I really need to clean up the exhaust, and remove all the rusty bits and paint from the rear subframe next.


Not sure on a build off! Lopez's bike looks to be in a whole lot better nick, and more complete than mine. So i expect he will be done a lot faster than me :D
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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Yeah it probably is - but you can work inside, my bike is in the garden. Seems a good trade-off! :p

Haha, that is a good point!

So I have a wiring loom as of this AM, and it looks to be (mostly) complete:
CBR400rr036.jpg


I located a Haynes manual of the bike, and the wiring loom diagram is helping me A LOT... Using the loom and manual, I have located the key parts I am missing. Mainly a couple of fuse boxes and some relays. The remaining bits that were snipped horribly on the bike I can now label up and start to join them together. I may need to get some new OEM connectors, or replace them with modern new ones if I am missing one side. Just to help keep the costs down.

Its a daunting task, but I think I can get close to a working loom by the end of the weekend (parts willing!)
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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Spent some time working the loom around the bike, found a few random bits that had been altered/added in. Wanted to get the loom as close to stock as possible to make the wiring document I have as accurate as possible.

There were a number of splices and cuts in the middle area of the loom, so i did some unwrapping to find the correct wire colours and re-joined them and checked against the wiring diagram..

This was the wire that comes from the electric starter switch, and it seemed to have been looped, extended and then cut when it was removed I would guess. not sure what they would want to be turned on only when starting the starter?:
CBR400rr051.jpg


Stripped it back, removed the excess, and re-joined the wire and added some heatshrink:
CBR400rr050.jpg


Next there was a similar cut/splice done to the fuel pump line (you can see the re-wrapped starter cable in the background:
CBR400rr049.jpg


Not my neatest shrinkwrap job, but safe as houses
CBR400rr048.jpg


The bodgejobbery continues, now again, there was another splice off the pump side of the connector!
CBR400rr047.jpg


As the wire was not actually cut, I whipped the plug out of the connector, and slid some shrinkwrap over the top to make a neater repair.
CBR400rr046.jpg

Slid it back into the connector, and its sorted.

Next there was white wire that was sort of tacked, and cable tied to the main loom section, and it seemed to be coming from the three pin ignition switch. Clearly, someone wanted an ignition live, and rather than run it from the fuse box, they just soldered it to the main igntion live, and ran a LOOONG cable back, which was then split out into three wires, which were also snipped when the loom was removed.

Here is the three pin connector, with 4 wires coming out...
CBR400rr045.jpg


Here is the addition, at least it was soldered :) Please ignore the badly installed spade connectors, I whacked them onto the cut ignition key switch wires to quickly allow me to test continuity of the various bits, and what each click of key enabled on the loom.
CBR400rr044.jpg


Removed, and re-wrapped:
CBR400rr043.jpg


One less wire to think about!
CBR400rr042.jpg


I decided to then pull the clocks apart, and see what's what.. This does not look factory...
CBR400rr041.jpg


It seems the bike was run as a naked bike for quite some time, as they fabbed up a neat little enclosure for the clocks, and made this rather odd looking frame from steel flat stock to hold them in place.
CBR400rr038.jpg


Little welded up enclosure:
CBR400rr038.jpg


Checked the clock's lights whilst they were out:
CBR400rr039.jpg


CBR400rr040.jpg


Not sure if I will keep them standard, lighting wise. But you can see some spots of paint deterioration in the face of the speedo, that will likely need to be corrected, as it will annoy me. I suspect I can just open it up, and re=paint the back of the clock face, but I will see what I can figure out when I get around to it. I could always grab a cheap clock from ebay and swap the face to keep the mileage accurate.

The bike is it stands right now:
CBR400rr037.jpg


Need to see if I can get the front fairing frame and clock holder section asap. I lobbed the controls up onto the MTB bars just to keep them from flopping about. I now do not think these controls are original, so I MAY look to replace them if they do not fit well on the original style drop bars I have coming. Although now I know they are not original, it explains why I was scratching my head when trying to match up the correct colours to the loom connectors. So I will just use the loom diagram, and the existing connectors to match them up, so i can go back to standard if i do replace them.
 
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Man of Honour
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My handlebar controls were worn out/faulty and partially missing - I got some universal ones on Ebay, which other than having no wiring diagram work just fine. I think they were only about a tenner.
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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That sticker is for the cooling system, it says to replace coolant every 2 years and the rest is just warnings and advice like don't open the radiator cap when hot. Bit of a strange place to put such a sticker in my opinion.

Awesome, thanks :)

The exhaust was bothering me:

CBR400rr061.jpg


CBR400rr060.jpg


CBR400rr059.jpg


CBR400rr058.jpg


CBR400rr057.jpg


So, I decided to go at it with a wire brush, a drill wirebrush, then some rust neutraliser/remover stuff.

CBR400rr056.jpg


CBR400rr063jpg


CBR400rr055.jpg


Starting to look a little less horrible.

CBR400rr054.jpg


Plan is to VHT it, and cook it with the heat gun to seal it :)

Next I wire brushed the rear subframe, sanded it, and rust treated it.

Here it is hung up whilst being teated, after removing the worst of the corrosion with the brushes:

CBR400rr052.jpg
 
Soldato
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Awesome, thanks :)

The exhaust was bothering me:

CBR400rr061.jpg


CBR400rr060.jpg


CBR400rr059.jpg


CBR400rr058.jpg


CBR400rr057.jpg


So, I decided to go at it with a wire brush, a drill wirebrush, then some rust neutraliser/remover stuff.

CBR400rr056.jpg


CBR400rr063jpg


CBR400rr055.jpg


Starting to look a little less horrible.

CBR400rr054.jpg


Plan is to VHT it, and cook it with the heat gun to seal it :)

Next I wire brushed the rear subframe, sanded it, and rust treated it.

Here it is hung up whilst being teated, after removing the worst of the corrosion with the brushes:

CBR400rr052.jpg

Easiest way to seal the vht is just run it on the bike, it'll smoke a bit and smell to start with.

Do you have a powder coaters nearby? Drop all the metal brackets and subframe off with them, they'll blast them and you'll end up with a good strong coating that can often be not much more expensive than buying all the cleaning, scrubbing, painting products to do it yourself.
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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Yup, agreed, but I want to paint it now and get it done. The motor is a little way off running yet!

I will look at getting the wheels powdercoated, and maybe other parts later once I have had the bike up and running :)
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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Maybe I was a little premature with my motor not running comment...

The rear subframe was painted to an acceptable level, and you can see it drying here:
CBR400rr064.jpg


I got it back on the bike, as I wanted to start working out the loom routing I also whipped off the airbox, and filter so I could see a little better where the wires were going at the front...
CBR400rr065.jpg


Totally wrong routing in that pic, but you get the idea, it certainly looks a little more respectable that it was before! Bonus fact... It looks like the previous owner upgraded the rear shock to the NC30 Showa part. Might explain why I am struggling to work out where the remote gas part is supposed to live! I also noticed that the rear subframe had been modified at the back, so hopefully this will not affect factory fairing fitment!!

The previous owner of the loom (or the person who removed it) had done quite a bit of unwrapping:
CBR400rr066.jpg


This had to be corrected:
CBR400rr067.jpg


Looking a little neater. Amazing what a little electricians tape can do :D

Starting to work out the loom routing, and making sure almost everything is connected and sort of in the right place.

CBR400rr068.jpg



Now, a video... The first attempt at turning it over with the new loom, using the (very few) controls I have hooked up at this stage:
http://maltopia.co.uk/images/CBR400rr/CBR400rrVid01.mp4


All done for the night..
CBR400rr069.jpg
 
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