1981 CB900C Restoration

Let there be light!

2006-03-14T14:29:00.000-06:00

I have spent the last few days chasing down an electrical gremlin... For some reason, I was only getting 6 volts to the headlight low beam wire, and about .15 volts to the high beam wire. A little research on the internet indicated that headlight problems are often caused by a corroded starter switch or a corroded high-low switch. The starter switch has a headlight cutoff so that the starter motor can get maximum voltage when starting the bike. I took apart both of these switches. The hi-low switch was a bit crusty, but didn't look too bad. The starter switch had cocoons or spiderwebs growing inside of it.

After scraping these out, the headlight still didn't work. I was pretty frustrated, but I took a wiring diagram and started tracing the headlight circuit. As it turns out, the problem was not in the switches. It was the fuse. This totally eluded me because I was getting SOME current through the circuit. Using the wiring diagram, I started unplugging harnesses and testing the headlight circuit from the headlight back to the power source. There was a voltage drop before the starter switch and before the headlight switch, so I knew that those were not the cause of the problem. The wire straight from the fuse box was also putting out about 5.6 volts. I opened the fuse box again (it was the first thing I checked), saw no breaks, and pulled out the fuse. Here's what I found:

The fuse had broken in the end cap. It hadn't blown; it had simply snapped. This allowed a small amount of contact, which closed the circuit, but didn't provide enough of a current path to power the light. Anyway, I have a headlight that works, and as a bonus, two sets of smoothly operating switches!

True maiden voyage

2006-01-31T12:42:00.000-06:00

Today, it was 41 degrees and sunny and the ground was dry. I decided to take the bike around the block. It started right up, even though it had been sitting for over a week through sub-freezing temps. When I walked it out of the garage, my foot slipped on a patch of transmission fluid, quickly reminding me that I had to be careful of such hazards.

I eased it into first, and the bike jumped and thought about dying, but didn't. I eased on the clutch, and the bike took off very quickly. While quickly stopping, I noticed that the choke was still on, which was making it idle at about 1300rpm... Looking back, this was probably one of the contributing reasons why I drove so quickly up my driveway and crashed last time. I pushed in the choke, and the idle dropped to about 800rpm. I eased out the clutch and away I went.

Right away, I noticed the bike pull to the left, so I'm going to have to see what that's all about at some point. However, I was able to make turns, both left and right, as I took Sycamore to Maple to Orchard to Illinois to Church back to Sycamore. I got the bike up to about 20mph... I still havent checked the oil in the forks so I didn't want to go faster than that.

Things I noticed: The back brake seemed weak. I hope I didnt get brake fluid on the pads. Maybe I should replace the rear caliper piston as I think it isn't a perfect seal. The front brake stopped the bike fine, though I wonder if the left caliper is gripping prematurely, making it pull to the left.

When I got back to the driveway, I cut off the bike and walked it into the garage around the puddles of transmission fluid. I was not going to repeat history.

Still on my list of things to do: fix transmission fluid leak on my car.

Crash

2006-01-20T20:34:00.000-06:00

I have not updated this lately because I have been busy as hell. I filled up the bike with 2 gallons of premium and half a can of seafoam and rolled it out into the street. It was slightly rainy and the ground was wet, so I decided not to go down the street. Instead, I headed back up the driveway at a slightly fast 10mph. When I hit the brake, the front tire locked up on a spot of oil/transmission fluid/ something slick that had leaked from my car. The wheel slid out from under me and the bike fell over, skidding about 3 feet into the garage. It came to rest with its front wheel tangled up in a snow shovel, up against the side wall. Luckily, I jumped out of the way as the bike fell over and I escaped with a scratch on my leg above my boot. The bike was ok except for a chip on the valve cover. Picking it up and disentangling it from the shovel was a bitch because this bike is literally 600 pounds. Somehow I managed to get it up. Since then, I've sworn off rain and slick surfaces...

Lessons learned though:
Dont squeeze the front brake so hard, especially when it's wet.
Watch out for slick stuff on the ground.
Fix transmission leak on my car.

Thwarted!!!

2006-01-10T20:10:00.000-06:00

I tried to ride the bike out into the street, but only got to the middle of the road when it ran out of gas. I have two gallons of premium and a can of seafoam in the garage, and I will find out the roadworthiness of this bike shortly.

In other news, I took off the tank to mess with the throttle cables. I realized they were binding on the tank itself, so I reinstalled it in a manner that doesn't pinch the cables. The throttle returns to baseline much more quickly now. I no longer have to worry about the bike deciding to accelerate itself into warp speed without my consent.

8 ft. Maiden Voyage!

2006-01-07T22:06:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since I last posted.

After putting on the oil pan, I tried putting the exhaust back on. The new gaskets were too thick to stay in place when I put the clamps back on. That's when I realized that the old exhaust gaskets were still in the port. They weren't in bad shape, so I left them there. I had an exhaust leak on the #1 cylinder, but I think it went away when I tightened the exhaust nuts further. If it didn't, I'll drop the exhaust and reattach it... no biggie.

I did a bunch of miscellaneous stuff next. The bolts holding the seat to the frame were weird mismatched, too-long allen bolts, so I went to the hardware store and found some shorter hex bolts to replace them with. I learned a whole lot about metric sizing, and I had to return to the store once because I had bought some fine thread instead of standard thread bolts. I bought two new bolts for the rear brake caliper and then I bought a bolt for the rear shock. I had to bring Chal out to the garage because I couldn't align the holes between the shock and the frame myself. With the bike on the centerstand, with the rear wheel up in the air, I had to pull up on the rear wheel to just the right place while Chal slid in the bolt.

With that shock attached securely and both brakes operative, I deemed the bike rideable. I was quickly proved wrong.

When I tried to put the bike into gear, with the clutch pressed in, the bike would jump into gear and die as if I hadn't used the clutch at all. Luckily, on the CB900F forum, someone had the same problem, which was fixed by doing what was termed a clutch adjustment. The adjustment procedure was in the Honda Service manual, and was fairly easy. I had to loosen the nuts on the cable at the handle and at the clutch itself, and then pop off the clutch adjustment cover and fiddle around with the screw underneath. The adjustment cover was claimed to be unscrewable with a quarter, but I quickly bent one into a distorted mess. Somehow, I got it off with a pair of needlenose pliers, spread out wide into the notch, if you can picture that, and used it as a sort of screwdriver.

Having done the procedure, putting the required amount of free play into the handle, I fired the bike up under the threshold of the garage. I knocked it into first, and breathed a sigh of relief as the bike jumped, but didn't die. As I eased out the clutch, the bike eagerly moved forward on its own, to a decided resting place inside my garage. Because it was dark out, and I am still without a headlight, I declared myself a badass and called it a night.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to try to take it around the block.

Hopefully Back in Business

2005-12-01T15:52:00.000-06:00

The oil pan came from Ebay last week: $9 + $8 shipping. However, I realized I needed an oil pan gasket, two o-rings for the oil cooler lines, and hell, why not get some brake pads. $36 later, I was set to put that oil pan bitch back on.

Realizing there was enough gasket to choke a small chicken attached to the block and the new-used oil pan, I went to work scraping at that. No luck there, as it was glued/melted on tight. I had to go buy a spray can of Permatex Gasket Remover for another $6.

The process of putting the pan back on is not complicated in theory, but was a bitch in practice. Luckily, I figured out that if I stuck the oil cooler lines into the front of the pan, a ghetto-rigged hinge was created. This allowed me to swing up the rear of the pan, slide in the gasket, and screw in the bolts. Done.

A problem remains: some of the bolts have copper washers, some don't. I didn't take note of where the ones with washers came from. Word on the street is that some of those bolt holes have oil running through them and the purpose of the washers is to contain said oil. When I get several jets of oil shooting straight down from the bike, I will know which bolts require washers.

The back brake pads are a slight conundrum. There is seemingly no hole in the brake pads to mount the pads to the caliper, so I have them resting on the bracket, around the rotor, with the caliper clamping them down. A thought did occur to me: perhaps the bolts mounting the caliper to the frame also support the brake pads... I will have to find out. At this point, the brakes drag slightly, but they do stop the wheel when applied.

I need to buy a bike cover from Harbor Freight so that Chal can take over the garage when it snows.

Say No To Drugs

2005-11-09T14:01:00.000-06:00

The other night, I decided it would be a great idea to go out and work on my bike after partaking in some refreshments. In a display of unprecedented motivation, I ventured forth to drain the oil and remove the oil cooler lines to fix that leak at the junction with the oil pan.

Remembering how hard it was to get the oil plug out the first time, and begrudgingly recalling the broken ratchet that resulted from my preliminary attempts, I went full ahead with the 18" breaker bar to get the plug out.

Lefty-loosey, righty-tighty. It's a great mnemonic.... except if the bolt is facing UP.

Yes, after going lefty-loosey for about 12 turns, I stopped in a cold sweat, turned my head upside down, looked incredulously at the bottom of the bike, and realized that I HAD BEEN TIGHTENING THE FUCKING BOLT. By now, oil was seeping past the threads at an alarmingly increasing rate. I threw a small cup under the plug, and began turning the bolt the other direction. Sure enough, the plug started to remove itself from the oil pan as I had intended all along. I fully removed the plug and oil began shooting out of the pan.

"Oh yeah?" I thought. "Show me what you got." I had taken a two liter bottle and cut off the top so I had a nice reservoir to drain the oil into. I'm so clever sometimes.

The problem was this bike holds about 4 quarts of oil.

The two liter bottle filled up within a matter of seconds, well before I anticipated it would, and I became aware that we had reached capacity by the small sea of oil seeping across the garage floor like tsunami waves over Indonesia. SHIT!!!!!! I found some small cottage cheese container, and luckily, it was large enough to accept the rest of the oil from the bike. I ran inside, and got a bunch of newspapers. Luckily, I had a few down on the floor before I undid the plug, and I watched as the onslaught of oil drowned a picture of Peanut Tillman running an interception back for a touchdown. I continued throwing newspapers and an old towel onto the oil in a somewhat valiant attempt to thwart this local incarnation of the Exxon Valdez.

I wiped the oil pan drain off, and sure enough, the threads were misaligned, and there were cracks on each side of the hole.

I knew hot glue or RTV or even a weld was not likely to fix it, so I had to bid on another pan off eBay.

The good news is that this necessitates me taking off the oil pan, allowing me to clean the oil pump screen and check out the bearings. The bad news is that this necessitates me taking off the oil pan, not to mention that I have to buy a new one.

Here's the agenda

2005-11-03T12:32:00.000-06:00

I've got the bike running decently. I've revved it up to 7000 rpm and it's LOUD. My conclusion is that it sounds like an Indy Car crossed with a pissed off camel. Last night, I tried to be a badass and show Panocha the beautiful sound, and of course, the damned thing wouldn't start. I lay awake worrying about the state of the electrical system. I went out there this morning, and noticed the kill switch had been on OFF instead of RUN. It started right up when I moved the switch to the correct position. I'm a bona fide idiot sometimes.

I'm going to throw a can of Seafoam in the tank to clean out any shit in the carbs that I didn't notice. I've heard really good stuff about Seafoam.

There's an oil leak at the oil cooler-oil pan junction. It drips oil on the header and makes some nice smoke and a not-so-nice smell. I need to pull the header to get to that, and I imagine I will have to drain the oil.

I might have to adjust the cam chain tensioner, as I hear a slight rattle on deceleration when cold, and not knowing the history of the bike, it might be a good idea anyway.

I have the rear caliper piston ALMOST out of the caliper, but I ran out of brake fluid, so the hydraulic system won't push it out. Need to get some more... Then, clean the caliper piston and get some brake pads.

I think the front fork seals are going to be the major bitch, as I'm going to have to find a good way to hoist the front wheel off the ground.

When I do the forks, it will be a good time to put the headlight and front blinkers on.

Hopefully, that will be all I need to get going.

IT LIVES!!!!!

2005-10-31T16:20:00.000-06:00

Finally, I got the bike started. Let me recap what I've done in the last week or so that got me there!

I put a new battery in last week. It turned over but would not catch. I saw spark when I grounded a spark plug wire. I decided there had to be some sort of fuel problem.

Carbs:
I took the carbs off, which was a pain in the ass. The rubber boots that connect the carb to the airbox got mangled a little in the process, but they should still be usable. When I unscrewed the bowls, they were suprisingly clean! The jets were clear and there was very little varnish. I was shocked.

Still, No Start.

Gas Tank:
I noticed the fuel filter was full of brown liquid. I decided that there WAS rust in the tank, contrary to my prior conclusion. Also, I noticed that when the petcock was opened, gas was very slow to come out of the tank.

I threw some bolts in the tank and shook it up to get rid of any loose rust. Then I put in some water, and the rest of the sulfuric acid left over from filling the battery! I drained it after an hour, and rinsed it out with water. Then I added some methanol to eat up any water left over.

I kept rinsing it until it ran clear. The petcock flowed noticably better.

No Start

Vacuum Actuated Petcock:
I bypassed the vacuum actuated petcock, just so I could be sure the bowls of the carbs were getting filled with gas.

No Start

Spark Plugs:
Someone back when put 18mm hex spark plugs in this bike, so I couldnt take them out until I got a socket that size. I pulled the old plugs, and they were black and fouled. I got NGK D8EA's to replace them, but the prior owner put aftermarket plug wires on the coils, and they didnt fit these plugs. I replaced the old plugs with the same model.

I cranked and cranked and cranked, and finally, it started to catch!!! I goosed the throttle a little and it roared to life!

It is running rough, but running nonetheless. All 4 header pipes are hot, which is good.

Oil filter; off and on!

2005-10-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

Breaker bars are the coolest things ever. With one, I snapped the side out of two 3/8 drive sockets before I sucked it up and bought a 1/2 inch drive 12mm doohickey to get the job done.

Got the oil filter bolt off after almost rounding it off with the wrench and the two busted sockets.

Left on the preliminary list:
Battery
4 quarts oil
1 foot of fuel hose and inline filter

Hopefully, when I get those, I will be able to start the bike, assuming the carbs aren't in horrible shape.

Before I can ride, I will need:
Back brake fixed
Rear shock bolted on

Got that bastard off

2005-10-20T15:44:00.000-05:00

Went to NAPA, got a 1/2 inch drive breaker bar, came back home and tried again. At first, it still didn't work. I actually pivoted the bike around the bolt. Finally, by some stroke of magic, the bolt came free.

The oil that came out was really black and disgusting, so I'm glad I didn't try to run the bike with that crappy oil in there.

The problem now is that the oil filter bolt won't come undone, and the only 12mm socket I have is 3/8 drive! The 12 point 12mm wrench is rounding off that bolt, so I stopped and I'll wait for the lubricant to settle in and free that bolt (hopefully).

Oil Plug

2005-10-20T14:02:00.000-05:00

I'm getting antsy to have this bike making some noise. I decided that before I try to turn over the motor, I'm going to change the oil and filter.

Wow. That drain plug is stuck on there tight. I broke my ratchet trying to get it off.

I think I'll go to walmart and get a battery and a big-ass breaker bar.

Interesting

2005-10-19T18:05:00.000-05:00

Today, I pulled the rear brake caliper. Here is what I saw:

Looks to me like something's missing!

I'll get a new caliper off ebay. This one is rusted to hell. I also took apart the brake pedal and the rear master cylinder bracketing. I pulled the hose from the master cylinder reservoir to the master cylinder and drained it, before putting some new fluid in the system. I bled the rear brake for a while, and I think the system is air free at this point, and rid of most of that old fluid.

In other news, I checked out the air filter. I was suprised to find it is a K&N non-disposable, though maybe the sticker on the rear fender should have tipped me off. I rubbed off some of the spiders and leaves with a paintbrush, and vacuumed out the airbox. The filter still had a lot of oil and was decently clean, so that's one less part I have to buy to get this bike going.

Assessing the Beast

2005-10-17T18:06:00.000-05:00

I have taken off the seat, the side covers, and the gas tank. I took the battery out, and I have Chal bringing me a charger. The seller said he bought the battery last year, so I would rather give it a shot before I go buy a new one.

<<-- As it sits now.

I took a vacuum and got all the leaves and spiders out of the nooks and crannies.

Things the bike needs:

The rear brake is inoperative. I have a feeling that the problem is somewhere between the master cylinder and the caliper. At first, the pedal wouldn't budge, but after opening the bleed valve and REALLY kicking the pedal, I got it moving. However, when I try to bleed the brakes, only a small trickle comes out while the fluid reservoir remains pretty full. Nothing is happening at the caliper. There is definitely air in the system, and I wonder if there is a blockage somewhere. I will get to the master cylinder when I can find a big enough allen wrench to take off the master cylinder cover.
Left Rear Shock: needs to be bolted to swingarm. I need to be careful and look for more dangerous stuff like this.

Front forks: need new seals.

Carbs: probably need to be cleaned. Carb #3 is missing its vent tube.

Gas Tank: I think it might be ok. I broke open the fuel filter and there was barely anything in it, leading me to believe that any rust in the tank is minimal. The line from the petcock to the filter was very yellow and worn looking, and I actually had to cut the fuel line off the petcock. I have a feeling this fuel hose was there for a while, so if this is all that's in the filter, that might be a good sign.

Oil Cooler: leaking oil where oil cooler lines come down to oil pan. I'm going to have to pull the header to get to this.

Headlight bucket: the seller claims he has the headlight assembly somewhere. This bike had a fairing on it before I got it, so the headlight and front turn signals are disconnected.

Exhaust: looks ok, but I would rather have a 4-2 or 4-4 setup than the 4-1 pipe that's on there now. I'll do that when money allows.

Here we go

2005-10-15T18:30:00.000-05:00

I have created this site in order to chart my progress as I resurrect this bike from a pile of ashes into an asphalt burning terror...

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating.

After seeing an ad on Craigslist for a 1982 CB900 Custom, located in Northbrook, IL, with an asking price of $200, I knew fate was calling my name. According to the posting, the motorcycle had been running last year and could be considered cosmetically "fair." A quick look at Yahoo Maps told me that this bike was only 3.1 miles away from my house, and with my usual blind confidence, I decided to forego a $20 truck rental from Home Depot. According to the Seller's girlfriend, the bike had been sitting because he had never gotten around to getting a license.

Last Thursday, Panocha and I drove over to the seller's house, wheeled the bike out of the backyard, and started down the street. According to the Honda Service Manual, a CB900 weighs 610 pounds without a rider. Needless to say, the walk home was an adventure and a workout. I had to stop once at Brown's Chicken for a Diet Coke, and then at the pharmacy next to the Landmark for another one. Plus, I had to buy Panocha lunch as compensation for her moral support. Renting the truck would have been about the same amount of money.

When I got home, I went at some dusty parts with a bit of steel wool, and they shined right up. The paint is a little faded, and the emblems are tarnished. Also, I realized that the bike is a 1981 model, as evidenced by the sticker on the frame.