WHAT'S THIS BIT FOR?

[Nurse Julie]

Attached to the top frame on the near side of the 400 is a bracket. I know the bit on the right is where the rubber band fits that holds the loom in place but what is the other bit of bracket for?.
The whole bracket is called a Stay, Speed Unit. Should I have something fitted to it?



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[andut]

Julie,

I have puzzled over the same question in the past and convinced myself that the answer is nothing !  Doesn't seem logical that Honda would have fitted something that adds cost and weight for no reason even if it was already a production tooled part from another bike, but I have never been able to find any use for the horizontal part of the bracket, and their description doesn't help !!  The end of that part of the bracket looks shaped to suit a rubber holder of some sort (like the starter relay bracket) but nothing I can think of  - maybe something for the US market  ?

[Piki]

I have that on my 400 four I do not remember but I think that you need a "rubber strap"  for "hold" the wires conections...

[Nurse Julie]

Julie,

I have puzzled over the same question in the past and convinced myself that the answer is nothing !  Doesn't seem logical that Honda would have fitted something that adds cost and weight for no reason even if it was already a production tooled part from another bike, but I have never been able to find any use for the horizontal part of the bracket, and their description doesn't help !!  The end of that part of the bracket looks shaped to suit a rubber holder of some sort (like the starter relay bracket) but nothing I can think of  - maybe something for the US market  ?

I'm of the same thinking Andy, maybe it's a handbag holder 
Piki, I have the rubber strap which holds the wiring loom against the frame. You can see the end of it on the right hand side of the bracket on my photo.

[Orcade-Ian]

By coincidence I have just zinc plated the one on my USA early 400/4 and it does have a rubber strap with wire loops attached - a bit like a smaller version of the battery strap and that supports the wiring loom to the lug on the frame. As far as it being called stay, speed unit, did the Jap (or other markets) version have one of those red light jobs (in the speedo) for 100kph.  My GB400 and GB500 had them plus a Jap spec Yam XJR1200.  Might have been some kind bracket for that.

Ian

[Piki]

By coincidence I have just zinc plated the one on my USA early 400/4 and it does have a rubber strap with wire loops attached - a bit like a smaller version of the battery strap and that supports the wiring loom to the lug on the frame. As far as it being called stay, speed unit, did the Jap (or other markets) version have one of those red light jobs (in the speedo) for 100kph.  My GB400 and GB500 had them plus a Jap spec Yam XJR1200.  Might have been some kind bracket for that.

Ian

Yes you are right, I will try a pic from it........

[K2-K6]

Anything to do with the USA limit at the time?

Wasn't there legislation around the fuel/energy crisis that imposed blanket speed limit or similar in American market.

[Nurse Julie]

Yes Ken, and I have the strap attached to hold the harness in place. Trig says the black box is on the CB550 f1 & f2, which he says is a protective box for some of the loom. Trig also says the bit I'm on about may have had a speed relay or something to do with speed, fitted to it for the Jap market, which is what Orcadian suggested.

[mike the bike]

There was a rubber boot that (sort of ) protected the bullet connectors which was stuffed into that bracket and held in place with a rubber strap.   It wasn't all that weather proof so I deleted it when I remade the loom.

[MCTID]

I bought a Japanese Import CB750 around 2001 from BAT Motorcycles at Biggin Hill.....the later DOHC Nighthawk......which had a Speed Limiter fitted as it was a Japanese Home Market bike. It used to rev OK up to a point then it just died the death.........I took it to Box Hill Motorcycles who removed the Speed Limiter and it ran fine after.

Box Hill Motorcycles specialised in importing VFR 400 and CB 400 Fours (and other Japanese Pocket Rockets) at the time so I thought they were the best people to sort it. I never saw what - if anything - they removed/ altered, but it did the trick.

[AshimotoK0]

The module is like a round flasher unit in an aluminium can with a  little circuit board potted into it and rubber mounted. It doesn't limit the speed it takes signals out of the speedo to drive a lamp that's fitted into hole  in the  steering stem chromed nut. It just light up when the speed exceeds the Japanese imposed speed limit.

Bryan gave me his JDM CB500K0 parts manual to scan to PDF but I only just asked him if I can separate it to scan decently, which he kindly agreed to. It's a little A5 'ish book with some fold out pages for carbs etc. It has those speed lamp components listed in it. I will try to scan it next week & put in Dropbox.

[Bryanj]

That part was originally fitted by Honda in the 70's just so one of us could ask what is it nearly 50 years later!