Rebuilding Oldguy's 900

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:18 pm

Well, I am happy to say that people really do LOVE their CB- F model bikes & forum member Oldguy has decided to have me rebuild his 81 CB900F for him.

It started out as just seeing how bad the motor really was & what the cost to repair that would be & now we are going for nearly a full rebuild minus the bottom end.

Things that I am addressing on his bike are as follows;
New frt. brake master cylinder fluid cap, fork seals, wipers & fluid, steering stem greased, cables will be lubed, electrical connections will be cleaned & dialectric grease will be applied, brakes shoes all the way around, new valves & seats will be cut, new std. size rings, new gaskets by Athena
(Veserah are not available according to Dynoman performance),
Decal set & paint, possible powder coating of the frame & swing arm, new rear shocks, New tires, wheel bearings will be inspected & greased or replaced if needed including seals, new stock air filter & tune up parts, shifter mod, oil screen mod by Headless, new seat cover, rear tail light rubber mounts. Big Crank battery, possible rebuilt rotor by Rick's, new Alternator brush's. CBR600 coils & new wires with new NGK plug caps. Everything else will be inspected & we will determine the importance at that time.

That's about it & a lot of time. I am really excited to do this for him. This thread is started so that he can watch the progress & get ready to ride his almost new CB900F.

The bike had 2 burnt ex. valves & corroded coil connections & wires. That's what started this whole thing. Oldguy wants to ride her from Oregon to the East coast and back, & I am going to do my best to make sure that the 9 will be worthy of such a trip. I hope you all like what I'm going to do for him.

Here are some pictures of the bike at the starting point.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:20 pm

One of the rear blinker mounts got bent over the years so I will deal with that.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:21 pm

Here are the broken tail light mounts. will be replaced.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:22 pm

Master cylinder fluid cap, will be replaced.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:24 pm

Leaking fork seals & cracked dust wipers. Will be replaced.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:25 pm

The sealing surface of the forks is in good shape, but the upper portion is a bit rusty. I have a little trick to make these do.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:28 pm

The wheels need a good cleaning & possible paint. Will see how they look after the scrubbing.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:29 pm

The progressive shocks are rusted & will be replaced. Will reuse the springs to save cost.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:31 pm

The frame & other parts need a good cleaning & possible powder coat.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:32 pm

More frame

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:33 pm

It goes on, the grungy stuff.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:34 pm

Removing the valves.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:36 pm

Grinding on the valve stems to make them fit down the guides, so I could get them out. Will replace with new valves.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:37 pm

What we started with after 30 yrs of use.

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:40 pm

I will be donating some small parts that I have, that are in better shape to help Oldguy out. I don't need lot's of the parts that I have because I striped my bike to make it into a track bike.

Cya Jim

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:44 pm

Very nice photos and good luck with the rebuild. I 'm not sure if you know it or not but you can put more than one picture in each post? If you did carry on. Very Happy

Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:51 pm

Thanks Tat, I didn't know that. I will try at the next installment.

Cya JJAM

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:36 am

Looks great!!Keep up the good work.

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 1:02 am

Looking forward to seeing your progress Popcorn

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:18 pm

Looks like a fun project. You've made great progress so far, keep it up! Base and head gaskets are still avaiable from Honda but complete sets are not. I've had good luck ordering parts from www.monmouthcycles.com So far they've been had better prices than Service Honda.

Good luck and keep us posted.
David

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:45 pm

aah a little wd40 and some armorall will fix it right up.

That being said I've had a 985 motor on my bench for 3 years waiting for me to get to it... maybe anopther year or so before i drop it in the current project. Speed occures at the end not the begining. beerchug

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 5:44 am

Hey all, today was a great day. It's really nice here in the NW, that's always a plus, I got my loan for my new shop & got a way's more on this bike.

I got the complete front end off of the bike & a lot more pictures to show Oldguy whats going on, on his bike. Also this helps him to decide how far he wants to go.

The steering stem bearings can be saved but are in need of grease just like all 30 yr old bikes.

Here are the worst parts of the frame.

http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af344/JJAM970/004-12.jpg

I have some better grab rails so they will go on this bike.

This is the type of stuff that is lurking in the electrical controls.

This is where all of the bottom steering stem bearing grease is after 30yrs.

The stator connector almost dissolved in my hands, when I tore it apart. I ordered a connection kit so I will be replacing this baby.

My camera battery went dead after this, so no pics of the dry bearings today.

Have a great day, Cya Jim

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:32 pm

gross, my contribution will be a wire harness if you want it. you pay shipping about 4-7 bucks via USPS. send me your address via my regular e-mail if you want it. I like a bress wheel for that kinda rust........ but you know that.

Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:10 pm

Thanks Grump for the offer. Oldguy's wire harness is in pretty good shape other then the stator connection & I have that covered.
Someone on here had shown a complete connection kit & I liked it so much I went & got one myself.
For $40.00 I can build what ever I need. I like that.

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:06 am

Cant beat sandblasting to get all the nastyness off the frame if your going to take it down that far. Wink

David

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:51 am

Yes I plan to have all of the black parts blasted if Oldguy wants to go that far. With as much cancer as there is on bottom of this frame, I would almost believe that this bike has lived on the coast at one point in it's life.

I will take a wire wheel to the bad areas & have it blasted.

The parts that I have located that I have that are nicer then Oldguy's are the tail light mount (not bent), rear brake pedal (no rust), choke cable, & horns.

If anybody has the chrome piece that goes between the speedo cluster halves, that's not broke & the chrome is nice? I need one for this build. I have one that is in one piece, but I will have to get it rechromed.

Let me know if anybody has one or I will post a want add within a day or so.

Cya Jim

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:00 am

SWEET!
I just read the email from Oldguy, & he wants to go ahead with the powder coat job. This is going to be nice.
I will have the frame stripped tomorrow & the parts to the powder guy Monday morning.
This is getting me excited & it's not even my bike. The last bike I did for a guy was a Norton Commando & it was really hard for me to get into it, because I wasn't fond of the bike. It turned out really nice, but was a pain all the way. I hate Lucas electronics!!!!!!

Cya tomorrow, Jim

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:30 am

Today was another nice day in the NW. I got the frame stripped & all of the grunge cleaned off of it. Got the forks apart & cleaned up and lots of other parts cleaned up.

The parts that will get powder coated are ready to be at the painter on Monday. The body parts should have got painted silver today as well. After the decal's get here, I will apply them & then they will get a clear coat over the top of them.

It's going to be a really nice bike!

I put a WTB a seat cover in the want forum, but nobody has spoke up on who makes an exact replica seat cover. I know one of you guys knows where I need to go. Any leads would be great.

Have a great weekend, Jim

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 5:40 pm

cool electrics where'd you get'em?

Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 6:27 pm

They came from Vintageconnections.com

They sell individual connectors if you want it that way. The kit I showed was $40.00 Well worth it to me. They even have colored connectors like the stock stuff.

Cya, I'm off to watch the crazy guy's race in the rain at PIR.

Jim