What have I done!? CBX !!

Make sure you pull the pressed in Slow jet and replace or clean.,Good to hear you are keeping your bike custom, I almost sold my Spoke rims on the CBX, have a set of stock Comstars in the basement to convert to stock if needed ..That will never happen ! lol Looking forward to seeing your ride back together with the Correct RC Megaphone on the headers ...Extremely rare to find the rear pipes on the Russ C , Headers not so hard to find . Best Greg

Thanks Greg. I went all out on these things. To tell you the truth, they were very clean. Just a little leftover varnish in the bowls. Otherwise, the only good thing is that now there's new Viton rubber. (The old stuff was pretty hard and dried out).

...but I'm pretty irritated right about now. Doing the last minute leakage sanity check...I have leakage. Looks like two or three of the bowl drains are weeping. I probably should have left them untouched! Retightened and monitoring. There also "might" be a bowl gasket causing a problem. Sheesh.


I'm lucky that this one is well preserved and clean and doesn't need an all out restoration. "Resurrection", maybe. But, last night I also poked around into the wee hours detailing the nooks and crannies of the beast before re-installing carbs and headers. It might just look presentable when it goes back together!

Nice

Gonna be a Sweet looking X !!! Bench test is key ..before mounting, after installing a complete Vitron Carb kit from Randdak, i bench tested and had leakage !! replaced 2 Needle float valves @ $ 45 each...Kept overflowing out the over flow tubes ....WTF ? Finally found the Overflow Brass tube inside had a hairline split ???? Soldered and fixed . If i could stress One thing about these Carbs is ..The damn Slow jets are always Clogged ...every time sitting for even a couple years , And that little O ring on the Mixture screw is gone ..makes tuning these beast Impossible . If you have any questions i have Mike Nixons book and Dealer Manual ..i can post image for you here . Best Greg

I really appreciate your checking in here, Greg. I figured out the leakers. (Normal!) Here's my revelation:

Thought you guys would get a kick out of this one. (The carb rebuild continues). I took my time and, with the exception of a synch screw brain fart, things went fairly smoothly. I wanted to make sure there were no Niagra Falls leaks, so I tied up my aux tank and opened the tap. Seemed fine. Tipped left/right/forward/backward ... wait a minute - multiple leakers! Seemed to be coming from the drain tubes. I pulled a couple of drain screws and the new orings were fine. Torqued them all down. Pulled two bowls and checked float height. 15mm. Still leaking when tipping 30'ish degrees. I was thinking that the bike should never see that kind of angle (during normal operation), but I was a bit bummed.

...until I remembered the standpipe overflow! I knew none of them were cracked because I inspected them under a magnifying glass, but it spooked me for a bit.

I bought Mike Nixon's CBX carb rebuild book. It's a really good resource, but misses a couple of details. I also found some of his important material seriously out of sequence. That was a bit annoying, but easily dealt with by scanning the procedure BEFORE diving in.

Finishing up some detail work and the carbs go back on soon.

I'm going to verify valve lash while I have the motor tipped and I'll also be pulling the swingarm to install brass bushings. Rear master has a problem (weeping) and that might do it as far as getting it ready to road test. Everything else can be done later. I really want to see if I can get it in the wind before Arizona Summer punches me in the face.

There's a bit of a lull in the action while I wait (and wait and wait) for a specialized Honda tool for hitting the synch screws on the carbs. They are in miserable locations and the tool is a godsend, I'm told. Although I don't often pay Honda's penalty fee for these things (this on is $75!), in this case it's pretty much a cost of admission. Pretty much just a screwdriver that runs down the center of an 8mm socket on an extension. Simple, but apparently effective. Supposed to be here next Wednesday.


I had the cam cover off to verify valve lash and decided to strip the paint and polish it. Wotta pain this is going to be. Should have left it painted!

Just as an FYI, I communicated with our very own Sunnbobb about polishing this monster valve cover. He confirmed what I was finding out the hard way. It's a beast to polish. But, he offered up an idea I hadn't thought of - vapor blasting. This is a process that, followed with a protectant leaves a nice finish - lots of luster, if not a fully polished look. As luck would have it, there's a fellow in Tucson who specializes in the process - and even better - is a CBX maniac. I'd run across him in my CBX ramblings, but SB's prod made me remember his relatively nearby shop. I spoke with him this morning. I'm gonna drive down next week and he'll do the cover while I wait! Pretty cool guy.

https://www.restocycle.com

Hmmm vapor blasting the whole motor just jumped into my head from this post ....

I've read about vapour blasting. There is a shop just outside Vancouver, BC that does this work. Found it while researching powder coating on the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. The web site shows work on vintage Japanese bike(s) and there is a six cylinder being refurbished.

Here's a photo Nils (the owner) sent me of an example of a CBX valve cover he blasted. I think I'm going to be happy with the finish - and may consider a couple of other bits as well:

Sheesh those motors always amaze me to look at

Went down and visited Nils yesterday at Restocycle in Tucson.

https://www.restocycle.com/

This guy is the real deal - lifelong cycle enthusiast who left a successful high-tech job in Connecticut to follow his passion - ending up in Tucson. Heckuva nice guy. He and his partner do first rate restoration work - specializing in old Hondas and CBX's in particular. They even had a fairly rare NS400 being freshioned up (V3 two stroke!)

I highly recommend his vapor blasting process. He has a very attractive rate structure including return shipping. Typically a flat rate, you get it to him and he gets it back. Beautifully finished.

Go my cover back on this morning. I am pleased - although I got distracted and sidetracked on this cosmetic detail and need to get back to serious business. Having some trouble getting a bench synch ironed out. Better to get these babies close BEFORE they go back on the bike. Often (or so I'm told), if you do it right, you won't have to touch them after they're back on.

We'll see. I may soon go into hibernation except short tasks in the morning. Getting hot. And I'm a softie who hates sweating on his tools.



A glimpse of CBX's in various stages of construction (and waiting for attention):



In a moment of weakness, he let a needy Z1 in the door to wait its turn on the operating table:

That is a great site. Loved the restorations. Whatever you are giving them should come out sweet.

Finally got everything buttoned up. So, I ran out of excuses to lay fire to the gas. After its long slumber, I hit the cylinders with a spritz of WD-40 and hit the starter. After about five seconds, she fired off! I'd left the petcock (new Pingel) open for several minutes to fill the bowls. It sounded good for a bit, but then started starving for fuel. The Pingel is not flowing enough fuel. I was really ticked. $146 for the valve and adapter. They're beautifully finished, but something was off. I pulled the tank to investigate, but found PLENTY of flow on the bench. Then I thought of the Valkyrie and how picky it is with fuel line routing under the tank. Sure enough, I had added an inline filter and I hadn't allowed quite enough slope to completely feed the six pack.

This was a momentous moment. The bike had been sitting for 10 years and I hoped the original owner was being honest in saying it was a good runner. I think maybe it is. It has been said in CBX circles that some can get a bench synch so close that not much is needed once they're on the bike. I wish I could say that. Instead of primary chain rattle, the CBX gets clutch chatter. Well, I have chatter. It can be minimized with a good synch, but the real fix is a late model basket. Maybe some other day.

First Fire!
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!ApdB_NLQ4JSNXOc&id=4A3CE5E0C8B36B08!103&cid=4A3CE5E0C8B36B08

I was happy to hear it run, rev and idle. As much as I hate to admit it, I may need to pull the six pack again since the idle seems to smooth out slighly with choke applied. Suggests one or two constricted slow jets. Dang, I don't look forward to pulling that rack again.

At least there were no ominous, unexplained noises. So far, so good! As I had hoped, this has proven to be a fairly easy resurrection. Sometimes you get lucky!

Well very cool. You have a running CBX!

Sounds rather good to me ..nice work ...

No. 5 is ALIVE, oops got 6! :music: Great job. Love it when these older bikes start.

I think the carbs are good to go after all. I installed the pods and the idle is smooth without choke now! I was surprised how much difference it made. I guess the open throats run a good bit leaner even than with the pods. I'm guessing the stock airbox would be much more restrictive. Either way, I'm ready to insure this puppy and put some miles on it!

I think this puts an exclamation point on this thread. Thanks for indulging me as I spruced the old girl up.

My CBRs won’t rev above 5000rpm without the air box providing restriction. I have some pods for testing but they don’t provide the same performance as the stock air box and filter.

:good: