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

[Malt_Vinegar]

As it's been sitting a while and gone crusty...have you checked the condition / working of the front and rear shocks? Wouldn't want to get it all back together and find out they are blown or seized. Great work so far though, and that tank looks to have cleaned up very well internally which is cool.

Yup, I will do. Have rebuilt MTB forks before, so will make sure they work correctly before I get too carried away!

The fronts hold air and seem to work as expected. Not check the rear, but it appears to have been upgraded at some point.

I will likely take the bike down to parts again mostly before final assembly, just to clean everything up and make sure it looks great before I finish it.

Still waiting on DVLA to send me a V5.. so lets hope there is no hiccup there, or I may have a track bike

Change the fuel pipe, and have you wired up the kill/start switch yet?
If so, your switchgear looks similar to mine - the kill switch is configured to operate in the reverse manner to what you will likely have on the CBR - ie Kill is run and run is kill. Just before you start going mental trying to solve it!

No issues with the kill switch, works as designed on mine!
On my loom the kill is set to break a live to to the coils and ECU, so this switch works as desired?

How is yours wired on your bike?

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Odd, guess they screwed yours up in the factory in china

So, rather oddly I received a letter from the DVLA telling me that they would be processing my application on the 8th of next month? Not sure why they feel the need to send me a letter, and not just do it.. Has it gone through some form of pre-checking, is there some sort of extended check needed? When I registered my Monkey bike, (brand new NOVA backed import registration) it came back in a matter of days! Fingers crossed that is does have any issues!!

I also have now fitted the new throttle and new fuel tap, and just waiting on the new fuel tank cap/ignition and rear lock. So I can look to build it up to properly to test the engine with a fuel tank in place.

I also found a clock/fairing holder bracket for the front, and that is on the way hopefully!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Next steps!

The new fuel tap/pre-filter arrived:

Bolted straight in to the newly cleaned tank.

Then the new igntion/fuel cap arrived:

Slotted it straight in to check it it fitted:

Now, as I do not have any plastics on the bike, i didn't have the fuel tap bolt/tap handle to use, so I had to improvise:

Ok, so that's ok, but i cant turn it well.. Whitemorph to the rescue!

Wait for it to cool:

Boom, we have a tap that works! Now I can stick the tank in situ, and see if we can get it running properly...

I dropped some fuel in, and the fuel pump was spewing bubbles back into the tank, and not looking like it was behaving properly. So I had a think, and it seemed that the pump was perhaps working in reverse. So I whipped the fuel lines around, and then it choked a bit when I touched the starter

So I got the Mrs to come take a video:

Woo hoo!

Sounds a bit crappy, as the manifold is only attached to 1 and 4, and hanging off in the middle till I fix the broken manifold bolts. Idle is WAY high, but I think this is down to the new throttle being badly adjusted. But she is alive!!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Amazing work so far. How did you learn how to do all this? I'd love to give this a go but I can barely tackle adjusting my chain.

Yup, just learning as I go. This is my fourth bike "project" now. All self taught, with a lot more to do!

Just a quick update! I have been mostly sourcing parts, Clock and light frames, front lights, service parts, a new rear subframe and also a new radiator, as I found a rather Large hole in the original, alhough it was holding fluids somehow! Battery, oil, and a few other bits a bobs too. Last couple of bits to get (other than a complete new fairing set) are the mirrors and mirror framing for the front.

I have some time coming up when the kids and Mrs are away, so will likely try to get it ride-able to run it down to the local MOT garage to see if they will give it a ticket with no fairings on it!

I also now have a V5, it is insured, and on a SORN currently So it will be legal once MOTed, and I should be able to ride it legally sooner rather than later

Delays were mostly down to me worrying about the V5, as this would dictate if I could get it road legal, and what I would then do with it if it was not possible. I will try and get some pics and add to this post tomorrow

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Next on the list was the removal of the stuck manifold studs. One was drilled out, and for the other I was having little success, so I decided to try and weld a nut onto it. So, first I had to buy a welder

Once cheap amazon welder later, and many tries later, I managed this:

Didn't quite hold, but I learnt a few things, and will give it another go shortly! I think I tried to remove it before it was cold and fully hardened. Lots to learn about welding it seems!

I managed to find a UK based supplier of oils, and these guys had lots of great reviews, and AMAZING prices. So i bought a 20litre drum, and it should keep me in oil for all my bikes for a while

Then, i worked out that the rear subframe of my bike had indeed been shortened... So it would not fit standard fairings! DOH. You can see the cut and re-weld job here:

Not happy with that, I toyed with the idea of cutting/re-welding it, but figured it would be a faff, and hard to get lined up cleanly. So I bought a new subframe secondhand and already re-finished! Adding in the replacement rear infil panel, which had also been cut short to fit the altered subframe. You can see the new battery installed in the frame also. My ancient random 12v car battery has been retired and quite timely too, as it's basically unable to cope now ECU slotted into place, and lights test-fittted again.

Got to sort out the rat's nest and aftermarket shock remote placement soon too:

Was not happy with the rust on the screw clips on the new rear infill/splash panels, so swapped them over from the original one:

to this:

New front is on! Lights included, and also clock mounts so I can get the original clocks re-mounted

Lots of wiring routing/tidying/figuring out to do, but that felt like a big step!

All the service parts, and replacement gaskets I need are all here:

I also found a rather large hole in the rad:

Very reasonable deal, and some surprisingly swift postage from China, and we have this!

Yummy!!

Got to move some of the fixings over, and get the manifold stuff sorted, and then I can think about getting the thing a bit more back together

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

More progress

Got a new toy to play with!

Makes things quite a bit easier, buzzed off the front brake caliper in 2 seconds earlier, when it was in the way of some drilling! Actually bought it to help me with some jobs on the Mrs' car that I need to get done after the MOT had some advisories, but it will really help speed things up!

Boring bits, but needed - Oil changed:

Rad fan was not working, so I whipped it out, split it open, and found the brushes were stuck. Cleaned them up, pushed them back into the spring housings, and lubed them up. Now they spring out, and the motor worked again with 12v applied I was sure it would be a total loss, so quite happy to save some dosh on that.

Fresh oil filter:

1 new exhaust stud some are original sized replacements, two are drilled out to 7mm, and one is a very large drilled out hole, which is also tapped. I think I will helicoil this, and put in a standard size, or 7mm depending on what I can get to fit, but it works as it is with an ugly large bolt for now.

More new studs going in:

There are quite a few damaged plastic parts, this is an example of what they are like:

Fixed - using cyanoacrylate glue and looks pretty much factory again (forgot to upload the pic!)

The spark plugs were not up to much:

Whipped out and replaced with the spangly new ones from an earlier post.

So, without the exhaust, I fancied starting it again after the mini-service to see how it sounded. I had also sorted out the throttle, and adjusted to what I thought it should be, to stop the high idle it had last time I started it.

Today I managed to sort out the last exhaust stud, and actually got the exhaust mostly on. Need some better nuts for the manifold, but it was much quieter, will get that up online soon too. Sounds much less mental!

I did actually put it through all the gears when it was running after this video, and it changed through them all without issue. So fingers crossed the box should be fine too

*you might have also seen the growing oil slick under it over the thread, it was from the timing cover, whipped it off, changed the gasket and put it back together, and all is sealed again

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Its what it is

With exhaust, mostly secured up. Not thrown in the new squash gaskets yet, as I may need to remove it again during the rebuild, so there may be small leaks still.

Going to be stripping and cleaning the brakes next, then it "SHOULD" be movable.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Latest update - after much faffing, I now have a front brake that works!

However, my web host has decided to change name servers, and no automatically update them in my control panel, so my site is playing up for up to 24 hours.. I expect the pics above are all missing for the time being

My plan is to now start, run and stop the bike tomorrow to check its mostly working, will try to get a video if I can

Then its just tidying up the wiring/sorting the rear brake, sourcing wing mirror mounts and mirrors themselves and pulling the trigger on some fairings.

I expect to fine a few more bits and bobs that are missing once I get the fairings in place. I think there are a couple of inductionr-ducts missing for example, but its hard to see till its all actually together again.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Grabbed this from my security cam when I took it out around the driveway...

http://maltopia.co.uk/images/CBR400rr/CBR400rrVid02.mp4

She moves! Had a bit of a faff with finding neutral, but it worked once I got it back up on the track stands, so I may have just been being a bit wussy with my trainers on.

Didn't want to do much, as its got no rad or coolant in it for the moment. Bit of white smoke, will see if that clears up when its run for a bit longer, otherwise, I may have some dodgy rings!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Good to see the camera records in landscape.

Purely by accident

Cheers, feels pretty close now, even though there is a fair amount left to do.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Which reminds me, you'll have another dodgy ring if you use the stock/OEM seat. I suggest you look for an after-market/custom seat for it and thank me later

Haha!! Will see what I can find

Put the thing mostly back together a couple of days ago. Sorted out a leaky front brake caused by a dodgy washer, put the repaired airbox/filter back on, along with the tank. I then replaced the manifold squash gaskets, which I think are mostly tight enough

The radiator is back in place, and almost fully installed. Its got coolant in it, and I just need to source some new stainless bolts/bushings and washers to make it look tidier.

Left to do:

Split, and rebuild back brake
Sort out the wiring routing up-front - its a bit of a rat's nest up there
Decide if I want to add a another relay, and use modded H4 bulbs, or spend the extra and get the needlessly expensive H4R bulbs.
Buy a new set of Chinese Fairings!!
Fairing fitting kit, as a lot of the original fairing fasteners were removed by the previous owners and lost
Source the air duct parts that I think i will be missing
Source a new pillion seat (or a cover for it?)
Get the tank stripped, tidied up and painted
Find a fuel tap lever (made one out of whitemorph for now, but its not ideal)
I think I also want to get the wheels painted white as the black on there is a little tired looking
Source an original fairing/mirror support for the front
Run it down for an MOT!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

A little ride, just after i fitted the radiator to see if it warmed up

I may have also just splurged on a new set of fairings and a fitting kit.... Lets see how China postage handles it! I ordered from a seller who has shipped to the UK before, and I have spoken to the customer, and he has had no issues with the kit.

It also comes with a tank cover! Which saves me having to do a proper paint job on the tank. So, i just need to sand it back, and prime it to keep it rust proof, which I can do here without issue

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Rigghhttt, recovered from a 100k charity walk and I have finally done some little bits and bobs...

Firstly, I forgot to show the pics of the Radiator installed. Got to add some bits to the top mount to secure it in place properly, but its in, filled up and working.

Then a massive box of fairings arrived, along with a fitting kit:

Tank cover went on, and mock fitted up the rear fairings:

I discovered the fairing push rubber for the right ride was snipped off the exhaust mount on the bike, so ordered one of those from ebay, should be here soon. Was pretty happy with the fitment and overall look.

Had to buy a windscreen, and fitting kit for that also:

Really impressed with the quality!

Tried to fit up the cowl, and found out that there are two brackets that come off the frame next to the radiator top rail that were missing. Found a guy selling a pair after using an owners group to track down the part numbers. Ordered, and should be on the bike this week.

The new pillion seat turned up too, which you can see here. BARGAIN at £20. It looks brand spanking!

You can see the gap, and fairing mount hole just floating about in empty space below:

As such, its hard to get the cowl to fit correctly, so just did some mock ups to take a look at the overall lay of the land. This actually meant i found a split in the light mount, so went for the superglue approach and got it looking right, which actually let me fit the cowl fairing a little better later on. (No pics!)

Also discovered that I am missing the fairing brackets that hold on the belly sections, along with the wind-screen/mirrors bracket. So found a guy breaking a bike of the same year, and got him to send me a few bits in one order. This will be the various missing brackets, and some air-ducts/mounts that I also realised I was missing.

I must say the belly section does look pretty neat as it come together

Then I started doing some niggly jobs, routing cables, changing the ignition key to a new unit, trying to bleed the rear brakes/etc. However, the rear brakes are not playing ball, I think the master cylinder is knackered, so ordered a replacement to swap it over and take it out of the equation.

I keep finding more and more little bits that are missing which is kind of annoying, especially as I know the previous owner likely just chucked them into a skip Then just lots of fiddly little jobs, rear seat lock, more cable routing, fixing some mounts and cable wraps/etc.

Still it really feels like a lot of progress in a relatively short time and I really need to get a move on to get my MG back in the garage asap before it gets too wet/rainy, so I need to keep up the momentum!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

That fairing looks nice. Which place did you use?

Straight out of Ebay Its the only seller I found who included a tank cover for the NC23. After customs fees and delivery, it costs me about £400 for the set.

Reminds me of my old cb-1 loved that little 400. They feel so different to ride compared to the bigger brother scarily snappy response and sound beastly.

Looking forward to getting it out on the road, and seeing how it sounds for real!

New air filter arrived:

Cracked in three places, so had to get the cyno glue out

Replacement exhaust hanger arrived:

New rear brake cylinder, which bled in about 2 minutes flat, which was nice:

You can see the air-duct tubes on the floor on the right here:

Test fitted:

Other side:

Cowl/mirror mount arrived, and fitted:

Both fairing front mounts arrived!:

Makes the front fairing/cowl fit a lot more nicely:

Other side:

Testing out some of the fairing fitments:

Relocated the shock remote part:

Much neater, and should be hidden away once back together

These were some of the fairing brackets that were missing, to hold the belly fairings:

The rear twist bolt is not seating, turns out its a bi worn, so will drill it out and replace it asap.

Cockpit coming together. Need to do some wiring routing, which is currently not playing ball

Having a couple of issues with the seating of the new radiator and clearances with the fan/head. Got to get that sorted, and I think that's the last thing keeping it off the road for moment!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Sort out some more little niggles I had forgotten about.. The indicators were behaving a bit oddly, took apart the control unit, as I wanted to work out why the horn would not work. Turns out the controls by default had the clutch switch and horn sharing a feed, but the clutch feed on my bike is not permanent live, so I had to split them, and move the horn switch feed to the main beam flash feed as its a permanent live.

Did that and it worked perfectly (might have accidentally sounded the horn at 11:30pm... OOPS!

Turns out, once I took the switch to bits (had to do so to get to the wires for the horn switch) and put it back together, the problem went away!

Got some connectors coming tomorrow to let me add in a generic headlight relay, and will look to add a second relay and fused live from the battery to allow me to run the standard H4 bulbs (standard ones on this bike are 35w), if you don't do this, you are running 55W through the switch-gear and that will not end well!

Hope that I can get it up and down the road again, with everything on it this weekend

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

New indicators turned up:

Did a couple of these - Replacing the quick turn mounts for the fairings, just drill out the old pop rivet, and replace the bracket:

Routed these cables around correctly to the front, and its made things a lot neater. Most of these brackets will need to be cleaned up and painted/powder-coated in the near future:

new mirrors arrived, but they had no backing rubbers, and would be butting right up against the screen:

Cut off some thick fuel line, slice down to make a bit I can flatten out - put in some holes, and bolt it onto the mirrors:

Trim with some scissors:

Testing out the generic headlight relay, worked fine, and now has a nice 4pin 6.3mm bracket rather than the small pins on there in the pic:

This is the wire (in pink) that I moved out of the clutch sensor live to the flash switch live:

These little sidelight bulb holders are missing, so managed to find some generic T10 12mm rubber connectors that should be here today, and also managed to get the rear fairings back on and mocked up again.

Got it out on the drive to test out a few things, and got the carb primed again, as I let the tiny amount of fuel in it evaporate like an idiot

Looking at it in the light, I think I will need to get the wheels changed to white, and there are a few little bits to line up and finish around the front and rear lights.

Also, I really need to clean my driveway!!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

My sidelight holders turned up - fitted quite nicely. Stuck in some LED T10 bulbs, will see if they survive the heat, as they are quite close to the headlight bulbs.

Fitted:

That makes them look SUPER bright, this is more representative:

Some heatshield fairing protector material turned up too:

Chain and sprockets which I was trying to fit:

When I found the new chain is a bit too long after fitting the two sprockets. I could not adjust the chain adjusters enough to make it tight enough, then I rounded the adjuster off.. It was pretty much already totally rounded anyway, so not the end of the world. Just delayed me a bit! So, now I had to remove it..

The offending article:

I left it overnight with penetrating oil to try and ease it up a bit. I then dremeled a slot, but even with a twist punch thingy, it would not come out. So I went digging into the toolbox, and found these:

Awesome! Removed the circlip, took off the axle bracket, and managed to twist one of these onto the end, and it gripped

Two on order from David Silver spares, and should be here before the end of the week hopefully!

To slot into this newly cleared hole!!

I also ordered a new chain joining link as the one that came with the chain is a one time deal, so I got a clip type, so I can remove a couple of links, and remove and reuse the link if needed. I do have another crush type one coming for the future once i am happy with the chain length.


So, more little niggles slowing me down, but plodding on through them!!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Since I was replacing the adjusting screws, which arrived:

I decided to clean up the adjuster brackets a bit, so I dumped them in some Citric Acid, and left them for a few hours:

Ended up coming out, with new bolts fitted, looking like this:

Back on the bike, with th, yet to be tensioned chain, and new rear sprocket :

I think I will do some cleaning up of this area once I have the wheels off again to be changed to white

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Honda! We have a problem!

Started it up today to have a poke about before running it down the a garage for an MOT, noticed it sounded odd and cyclinder 4 was cold on the down pipe after a couple of minutes running.

Checked HT lead, plugged in a spare plug, spark was good.
Removed the spark plug from 4, tested it in the lead, messy spark, but working.
Ok, stuck in a compression tester, turned it over... came up as 60!! Oh no....
So dropped a smidge of oil down the bore, retested.. 110ish..
Looks like the rings in 4 are shot. I could probably get it tested like this and pass it's MOT, but no point riding it round with knackered rings really.

Soooooo looks like an engine out job, take a look and see what's what, then work out what to do!

Will test the compression on all the others later when the engine is out and access is a bit easier.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

If the bike was running fine there is no reason to think you have broken a ring unless you was very unlucky also the pot would still run hot but under perform same as valve problem.
At a guess it's a simple fuel problem dirty carb or sticky float.

It's possible I might have missed it before, as I was running it without the manifold done up properly, so it was always sounding a bit odd!

I did the oil down the plug hole trick, and the compression shot up, which usually means rings I think?!