Hi all - CB450 project bike inside

Thanks for the suggestions! You guys obviously knew what questions were coming, didn't you?

I didn't much chance to look it over this weekend, but I did pull off some of the completely dry-rotted fork covers, and found no pitting underneath. There may be pitting up higher, but not where it really counts, so got lucky there.

The spokes are a write-off, and I'll have to lace new ones on. They're pretty pitted. The rims are a little crusty, but I bet I can buff them out, no problem.

I took a look under the seat, the wiring didn't look too bad, and I didn't find any mice nests.

I also hosed down a lot of the bolts with Liquid Wrench to let them soak for a while.

Thanks for the suggestions about the oil in the cylinders. Marvel Mystery Oil is pretty easy to find here, so I'll get some of that tonight.

Rosko, I'd be interested in the tank, you can email me at yahoo, same user name.

Were there a lot of differences between the CB450 and CB500/550 regarding engine internals? They're both DOHC and they look exactly the same from the outside. I better get a manual for both, I guess.

Do you guys recommend that I tear the motor down completely? How hard is this motor to disassemble? Am I gonna need a press to split the case?

excellent, only 1 manual to read! thanks for the many links.

To buy:

MM Oil
Engine oil
Battery
Spark Plugs
WD-40
bandages
beer



Edited by - borzwazie on Dec 18 2006 2:50:37 PM

So, I'm real disappointed - you guys didn't nag me like I asked and here I am working on it today only for the second time!

Christmas kept me busy, as did the news that I'm going to have a baby girl. Apparently, the only paint jobs my wife can see in the future are painting my son's room pink and moving him to a new room.

Off comes the seat:


And what a seat it is!:


Minus the tank (and camera stupidly in macro mode):


I'm afraid to look inside:


Probably looks like these side covers inside:


One sooty and one sooty and oily plug:


Lots of work to do! Judging from the right cylinder plug, I have a re-ring job in the future. It's hella hard to kick over, though, so maybe compression is ok. The MM oil did it's thing, and the motor moves pretty smoothly with the plugs out.

No battery, which is good! No acid damage. Wiring looks surprisingly good.

Got the official Honda manual. It was print-on-demand, which means "take 4 weeks to ship it to me."

Out of time for today, but clearly I gotta get moving if I want to beat an end-of-May/start-of-June deadline (newborns take more time than teardowns, that's for sure).

So, the weather is warming up, and that means I can work in my unheated garage again. Back to the CB! Yeah, I know, long time, real men don't need heaters, whatever!

Today's first pic demonstrates a set of carbs - one before an entire bottle of carb cleaner, one after:



The carbs weren't too bad inside at all. No jellied gas, and just a little bit of crud.

Our second pic demonstrates that the previous owner apparently couldn't get those carbs to fit in correctly, so he beat them in with a hammer:



So, new intake manifolds...they're both like that. You could see that one carb was pretty black inside, probably from backfiring through the carb or something.



Edited by - borzwazie on Mar 25 2007 6:24:16 PM

well, it took a long time, but I finally have a short update. No pics today, tho.

I bought a battery at the local parts store. There are two stores - how did I pick the store, you ask?

First store: I call - "How much for a 12v 12ah bike battery for a cb450?"

"$30 bucks."

Second store "How much for a 12v 12ah bike battery for a cb450?"

"$28 bucks and $51 dollars." "What's the difference?" "Once costs $28 and one costs $51."

First store gets the nod!

I have fork seals and intake manifolds on the way from EBay, so I'll soon be able to fire it up. I put the acid in the battery (first time I ever did that) and charged it for a bit. One question for anyone that knows - when a battery charger meter shows no amperage, that means the battery is charged, right? Shouldn't it take quite a while?

Anyway, I dropped the battery in, turned the key, and thumbed the starter - it turns! Big fat sparks, too. Headlight works, horn works - turn signal indicator works, but the horn beeps when I have the turn signal on, LOL <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

I can't wait to give it gas, I wish my manifolds would show up.

some pics!

new manifolds (well, new to me, they were pulls that I shot some silver paint on the metal):




All the chrome is badly pitted, oh well - the front fender looks ok from 4 feet away or so (I used some metal polish to get the green off):



I took a very quick pass at the sidecover, which had all this funky white corrosion on it, it may clean up ok, no real pitting:



I'm not getting too far into cleanup until I hear it running. I ran out of time, so I'm hoping to start it up this week sometime.

Out of curiousity, a question: The oil in this thing is as old as the corrosion. Should I start it up to warm the old oil before changing, or should I change it before I ever start it?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!


I got the 9-year-old gas out of the tank today, put on new fuel line,
cleaned the air filters, dropped the battery in, hit the starter
button, and....

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!

It started on the first try! Honda made a hell of a motor there, it
hasn't run in 8 years, and it just fired right up. It smoked a bit at
first (the choke and the Marvel Mystery oil, probably), backfired a couple of times, then ran like a champ.

I'm so pumped - I've wanted a motorcycle for so long, and to hear it
running really felt great.

Now the real work begins!



Edited by - borzwazie on May 14 2007 12:45:35 AM