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I finally took possession of my father's 1981 Honda CBX. Originally purchased as a low-mile demo bike, this has more-or-less been in his possession since it was new. There was a brief period in 84 when he sold it to the dealer when finances got tight, but he bought it back 16 months later. And even though the dealer's son rode it around, the title was never transferred so it's still technically a single owner bike. Dad stopped riding in 1988 for various reasons and let the bike sit. And sit. In 2005 he got a wild hair and decided to get her back in road-worthy condition. After 6 months of de-clogging and balancing carbs, rebuilding shocks, and fixing various other bits it was running pretty well and managed to see about 14 months of frequent usage. By end-season 2007 dad got lazy, drained the carbs, and let it sit in a nasty garage. So here is where she stands. The known todo list includes de-rust of the tank, tires, battery, rebuild front shocks, un-stick throttle, rebuild front and rear brake master cylinders, and the fuel cap needs a seal. I'm sure there is more that will come up but for now that's enough. The good part is the last time it was running, dad spent a lot of time going over various technical bits. He checked and shimmed all the valves, worked on the alternator, rebuilt the Prolink bushings, and other various things. So (fingers crossed) most things, including everything inside the motor should be in good shape. My goal immediately is to get it ridable. Once she's running I can begin the long, arduous process of making it shiny and newish again. I think first step will be reading a lot. Second step is figuring out how to deal with the tank. On to pictures! The arrival  Finally in garage  Crusty engine 
Rusty tank  Bike supposedly has ~30k on her. It seems that the dealer's son took a spill and wiped out the odometer during the short time it was sold. The title says Milage Exempt so it's basically impossible to really know.  I love the OEM bags. Makes me feel like I'm carrying my things but in the future!  Random parts, and the last tag my dad used while it was still registered in the bike's home state.  New sprocket and spare chain. Supposedly different # of teeth to make taller gearing.  Side panels need cleaning  Just a random corner shot  Various parts and tools. A 90 degree geared screwdriver? Cool!  Current status  Now for the bonus cool stuff! I also got a FedEx box full of all old documents and goodies. Here's a quick glimpse. Books!  Quick look inside the shop manual  Supplemental documentation  A patch! <3  A bunch of various fiche pages  ICOA flyer  Welcome letter to the International CBX Owners Association along with a hand written message about an optional seat.  Big-bore kit? Hmmmm  I couldn't find evidence of even a prototype being built.  Maintenance schedule  Finally, sheet to record valve checks  And because someone requested this, here are some shots of the brakes. Not sure if this is what was wanted. Let me know if there's something else you'd like me to show.     Motorcycle goals: 
No. 6 fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Dec 25, 2016 |
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Dec 25, 2016 19:36
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That would look great with a bucket light, clubman bars and a solo seat! *ducks* That's an awesome bike, good luck with the restoration!
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Dec 25, 2016 20:20
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Looks good, I'll race ya to getting our bikes on the road! 
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Dec 25, 2016 20:29
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Those screwdrivers are invaluable for pilot screw tampering. Also ventilated discs 
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Dec 25, 2016 20:36
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If you are going to be doing a lot of mechanical work to the motor. It might save you a ton of headache to just drop the engine and do the work. It is my understanding that the motor is a stress member in these bikes. Also there a few of us here that are familiar with 70s era Japanese bikes. A lot of that knowledge is transferable across the different models. I will be keeping an eye on this thread and if I can offer any useful advice I will.
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Dec 25, 2016 20:45
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Slavvy posted:Also ventilated discs Yeah, that's why I wanted the closeups, I couldn't tell what was going on with the discs because the wide angle shots made it look like there were two on each side (and I'm a dumb-dumb who's never gotten personal with a car brake so I didn't know what smooth faced ventilated discs were/looked like  )
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Dec 25, 2016 21:42
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No. 6 posted:Motorcycle goals:  like goddamn early 80s spaceship.
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Dec 26, 2016 20:04
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Every now and then, the lunatics escape the asylum at Honda and design a bike. This is one of those times, and my god what a beautiful thing they made.
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Dec 31, 2016 11:11
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good loving luck you batshit crazy bastard. This is amazing. 
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Jan 2, 2017 04:00
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My envy knows no bounds. Having a CBX is a dream of mine, having 6 air-cooled cylinders is just so Mad-Max stupid it's glorious.  Best of luck!
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Jan 3, 2017 15:45
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The sound these bikes make, I saw one in a race once and it was both the loudest and coolest thing on the track. Looking forward to more updates.
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Jan 5, 2017 10:48
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Quick update: I bought some of this to (hopefully) assist in getting the throttle cable to function better  Also I found this container full of extra parts along with all my other goodies. Some good stuff here!   I started prepping the tank for a de-rust job and tried to remove the old fuel screen only to have it crumble. Needless to say it wasn't fun trying to fish the remains out of the tank.  Also cleaned up those filthy side panels. They have some small cracks but are in decent shape.  To take care of the tank I decided I want to try a combination of Evaporust and gently swirling around assorted nuts and bolts. I'm waiting on my order of Evaporust and still trying to decide what to use to seal the tank with. Anyone have suggestions?
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Jan 6, 2017 04:46
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Quick update. With my marriage falling apart I've found I have a lot more time for motorcycle stuff. Silver linings! Evaporust arrived!  Went out for a group ride with a great bunch yesterday and ended up riding and hanging out for about 12 hours total. Ended up talking to some really knowledgeable chaps who know CBXs pretty well. The overall advice I was given was that the carbs really need to come off for a good cleaning and inspection before I try to do anything else. The problem is there isn't a simple way to do this with the CBX. The procedure involves tilting the engine forward. Got up this morning and watched James May reassemble a Honda monkey bike which got my blood flowing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3R4pstLlqE Decided to start tearing down the CBX and pull the carbs. This is something my father swore up and down never to do. gently caress it Opening the cubby hole storage I found some extras  Parts laid out after a couple of hours. The good news is that the headers look pretty good. Guess I only really need to replace the cans.  Starting to look a bit slimmer [   Let's look at the bitch's dirty holes 1, 2, and 3 seem normal  4, and 5 seem ok. My concern is with 6. It looks, for lack of a better term, oily.  So I'm gonna take the carbs to a local specialist since I know dickall currently on rebuilding them. This guy is a 60+ year old master tech for Honda and likes to mentor us 'young' people. Next steps, clean carbs, de-rust and seal tank, rebuild brakes, check valves, clean things up, and figure out if cyl 6 needs attention. No. 6 fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Jan 16, 2017 |
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Jan 15, 2017 23:31
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 DO NOT UNRACK THOSE CARBS UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY YOUR CBX GREYBEARD
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Jan 16, 2017 16:06
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Evaporust is good stuff, and reusable. That tank doesn't look bad at all should clean up easily. I like POR 15's tank sealer.
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Jan 16, 2017 16:48
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Just to be clear, it's all the greybeards telling me to yank the carbs. In addition it seems that I certainly will need to pull the head for valve stem seals. Before i do that i want to get a compression and leak-down test done just to see where we are. Now I'm off to shop for more tools. Probably nothing going on until next weekend but Feb is looking good. The soon-to-be ex will be out of town all month so i can go hog wild in the garage without concern for noise. Lots of stuff to do before my self-imposed April deadline to get running.
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Jan 21, 2017 18:00
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Go ahead and pull the carbs. Just don't unrack them from their metal racks unless instructed to do so by a trusted graybeard
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Jan 21, 2017 21:06
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Thats the plan. I don't want to mess with linkages at all.
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Jan 22, 2017 14:52
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No. 6 posted:Thats the plan. I don't want to mess with linkages at all. They are just carbs they are nothing special. Take them apart pull them off the rack what ever just make sure they go back together correctly. Really Honda carbs are very straight forward there are just lots of them.
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Jan 22, 2017 23:15
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Mmmmmm yes, unrack them and then die poor and alone in debt to Big O-Ring
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Jan 22, 2017 23:34
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Valt posted:They are just carbs they are nothing special. Take them apart pull them off the rack what ever just make sure they go back together correctly. Really Honda carbs are very straight forward there are just lots of them. These aren't really normal carbs. They're canted at a angle, and there's about a dozen tiny parts that if installed in the wrong order means the thing runs inconsistently. There's also a lot of consumable parts in them (like the felt disks that go in between the linkages) that are pretty much NLA except from the old dudes who restore these things these days. Getting a couple of these things wrong means the carbs never end up running balanced and your life becomes lame af. I recommend Jack at Old School Carbs if you decide you don't want to deal with it. I mulliganed on the whole thing and just sent him my carbs and the bike runs wonderfully.
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Jan 22, 2017 23:38
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:06 |
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Z3n posted:These aren't really normal carbs. They're canted at a angle, and there's about a dozen tiny parts that if installed in the wrong order means the thing runs inconsistently. There's also a lot of consumable parts in them (like the felt disks that go in between the linkages) that are pretty much NLA except from the old dudes who restore these things these days. Getting a couple of these things wrong means the carbs never end up running balanced and your life becomes lame af. Those loving felt disks will be the death of me one day I swear to God.
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Jan 24, 2017 05:14
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