1978K for Resto Mod

[rich]

Peterwh wrote

Why not convert the Honda to electronic ignition?  I find it works a treat and it's a fairly easy mod to do in a couple of hours.

I will probably do that one of these days. If I ever ride it enough to have to adjust the points a lot and it becomes a pain. My bikes seem to cover more miles in the back of a truck than they do on their own two wheels. LOL.

[TOOLS1]

With the new Iridium plugs, a points ignition is just as strong as an electronic ignition. As for points needing adjusting, I have 18K miles on the set that is in the Toolmatic right now, and have not done anything to them since I installed them.
TOOLS

[TOOLS1]

I think it looks a little better now.









TOOLS

[rich]

Heck yeah. Looks awesome.

[rich]

Well I ended up going back to the stock shocks. Those black & gold ones were too firm when mounted further back on the swing arm. I only got to ride it a few miles before one of the coils crapped out and I had to limp home, but those miles were brutal, may as well of been a hardtail.



I also cleaned up the back end by ditching the stock fender, tail light,  and turn signals. I had a fender off the back of a DOHC "K" model. I cut about an inch and half off the front of it and rotated it forward to meet up with the fender liner (stole the idea of trimming and rotating the fender from the Toolmatic ).



And, although you can't tell from the picture, I sanded down my peeling clear coat on the tank with some 800 grit wet and dry paper. I didn't sand off the entire clear coat, just on the top where is was peeling. Then I resprayed it with some Duplicolor clear coat. It's not perfect but it no longer looks like it has sunburn and peeling skin. Why I modded the fender and preserved the original paint? I don't know. I guess I'm going for sort of a rat bike look.

Next on the list are a set of lower bars (superbike profile). I also want to go with smaller signals on the front but I'll need a new headlight bracket and I'm worried that the chrome on the fork tubes covered by the headlight/signal mounts will be very rusty once exposed. I may just cut off the stock turn signal mounts , I don't know.

I'm going to remove the stay from the front fender, but I don't think I'm going to bob the fender because I don't have a spare. I'm trying not to make any changes that can't be reversed.  I can't run without a fender, just too much gravel road to cover to get to pavement and it'll tear up the front of the engine, my face, etc. LOL.

On the shopping list is a lower profile seat like this one:



That seat is about $300 and comes from a guy in Vietnam. I'm going to take one of my spare seats down to a local upholstery shop along with that picture and see if they can do it for less.

[TOOLS1]

DO NOT! I Repeat DO NOT CHOP THOSE FORK EARS!!!!!! I NEED THEM!!!!!!!!!!
The Toolmatic got backed into the other night by an SUV.

TOOLS

[rich]

No, I won't chop them up. Too hard to come by if I want to restore it.

[rich]

Got the new coils and plug caps in from Vintage CB750. Had to change out the connectors (they had male ends). They fit the stock bracket, well - almost. I thought the clearance on the right coil was just to tight to the connectors for the wires so I left the bolt out of the back of that one and swung the back of the coil over to the frame rail and zipped tied it down.

Anyway, got it running on all four again. But... the damn tail light quit working . Still had brake light and signals.  It all tested out great right after I installed the new light an signals. Eventually, I noticed the back lights for the spedo and tach also were not working. So I checked the fuse for continuity, beep OK fuse is good . Off comes the headlight and  ignition switch, wait - there's no power on the brown wire? Back to the fuse - I finally noticed one of the contacts on the fuse box was just hanging, actually when I pulled the fuse the contact fell out altogether. So the fuse wasn't actually making contact . I pulled the fuse box of my other 750, and... it had the same problem but on the main fuse. The next day I picked up a fuse box at the auto parts store. It uses ATO fuses and has six spaces. I was going to just use in-line fuse holders with ATM fuses but the box looked a little neater and gave me room for spares.

I also got the new handle bars and grips put on. Feels a little better now but it still kills my wrist trying to hold the throttle open. The throttle return spring is just way to strong (or I'm to limp wristed).



I also took a gamble and ordered this seat off e-bay:

It's a CG125 seat. It's about as wide as a CB750 seat (9 3/4") but only 20" long.
It was only $99. The seller is in Hong Kong though. I once ordered an Android Tablet for a price that was "too good to be true" (much like this seat) and it never arrived. It took a while but I did get my money back from pay pal.

[TOOLS1]

That is a very common problem with those fuse box's, and is why I always replace them. And yes that spring is stiff, and I always replace those with lighter ones from the hardware store.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

rich wrote

That's a really pretty shot right there. It's looking nice, Rich.

And yes, I'm with you and Tools. Those throttle springs are just silly. I have to admit though, I never could get any of my SOHC bikes to SNAP! shut without that spring. I just gave up relying on it and closed the throttle manually. But now I'm spoilt, cos the DOHC throttles are feather light. 

[rich]

TOOLS1 wrote

That is a very common problem with those fuse box's, and is why I always replace them. And yes that spring is stiff, and I always replace those with lighter ones from the hardware store.
TOOLS

Do you have to remove the carbs and split them to remove the return spring? Looks like it's coiled around the throttle shaft on the keyhole carbs.

[TOOLS1]

Just grab onto it with a pair of pliers, and work it off. Then put a lighter one on. You might need to lift/remove the tank, but that is it.
TOOLS

[rich]

Holy crap! According to the tracking number, that seat I ordered from Hong Kong is going to be delivered today. That's 5 days from Hong Kong to Kansas. Darn good service if you ask me.

[shinyribs]

My 836 kit made it from Hong Kong to me in 4 days. I can't get parts from Cali that fast.

[TOOLS1]

I waited 12 days for my headlight brackets from Canada.
TOOLS

[rich]

Okay. The "Hong Kong" seat was nice but would have required removing the original brackets and fender cross member from the frame. So, saving that for the CB550. I did attempt to recover another seat I had in an effort to get rid of the dip (I just freaking hate those dished-stepped seats they started with on the 78s). This is a cheapo cover from ebay on a 77 seat.

That was right after I put it on. The creases and wrinkles went away in heat. It doesn't look to bad but still not what I wanted.

I saw a post on Facebook from a guy selling his seat. He had recovered a stock 77/78 pan so there's no frame cutting necessary. So a couple of messages back and forth and it was mine for $100. I really like it.


And I can swap back to the original seat in seconds because he included all the brackets and lock.

[rich]

Inspiration - This is the look I want. The fairings are only about $70 (I should have grabbed the one I saw at Tool1's place when I picked the bike after he fixed my shock mount). I've already got a giant can of "
Rust-Oleum Gloss Black" so I should be good to go.

[shinyribs]

Cool deal on that seat,Rich. That really does look sharp on there. Very cool you were able to just bolt it on,too.

[rich]

Got the fairing mounted.

[shinyribs]

 How do ya like it? Does it tug on the bars any?