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CB400 Four special (Mr Sinx II )
Northy:
Crank is good , see piccy
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Big ends look like this , worn but nothing nasty
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Just new shells needed.All david silver was offering at stafford was £1 delivery for order placed at the show and I've long list of stuff I need could remember it all.
Set of cases nearly ready for painting , mainly used paint striper , small wire bush attachment , then wash in thinner , will need another clean [/URL][/img]
Been working on the manky side covers ...getting there slowly
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Northy:
Ok having be side tracked with decorating time , its time to move on with Mr Snix
Ok cases clean up,
Sprayed , gloss black , used Hycote engine enamel not too bad and re-plated my engine bolts but they just would shine up very well , suspect too cold a solution, the angle held in electrolyte and they were rough to start with.
Having sussed out then I had Yellow big end shells (oh or misses) I was going to go like for like as they weren’t that worn but suspect that I could go up to green set. I re-measured and seemed to playing for ever with plastigauge, clever but all doing up undo , do up undo etc etc is PITA and all to confirm my initial thought and go for green. So a large order was placed with Mr Silver. Luckily in the stash of shares was a new cam chain, two guides but no primary chain.
The head showing signs of the broken ring on No 2 pot but nothing scary
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Note the heads not be been cleaned properly at this piont,and will take a skim off the head.
Here’s a thing valve collets, they must the experts in sod’s law , get one and the other falls out. Normally I work of Guzzi heads and there massive compared to the 400.
Here my tool for grinding in valves, then car rubber sucker ones just too big for tiny 400 valves
Whilst waiting for engine paint go off and waiting on spares, I turned my attention to the frame. I’ve choice of F1 or F2 frame, so which one to use. The biggest factor was the F2 had a log book , still to apply to F1 frame.
The ultimate in a 400 special is a 4 into 4 system and thus the F1 frame might be better one to do that with, however having had 4 into 4 fitted in past it was PITA and reduced my ground clearance to zero.
The lay out the sump/ frame etc makes it hard to do, So its 4 into 1 it is for this baby.
So F2 frame is stripped and then I started on rear sets, using the old pair of tarozzio rear sets and mount plates in my spares stash. It’s all rough and ready at this point just to ensure everything works. So its looks a bit rusty and manky at present.
Next for frame is a “new “ set of forks of CB400N ie double disc and box section swing arm,(Note that brand new dresda box section one sold for over £200 on evil bay ) and may need some wheels .
It’s going have ally wheels and not comstars and as Maitland racing no long stock ARE (ally racing eqpt) wheels that were made in Cardiff in early 80’s . I did ask !!! it was what Mr Snix had originally fitted. So it will have a double discs and maybe even a rear one.
As for wheels I have set of GPZ400 lying around and the front wheel popped onto the CB400N forks easy, same spindle size and just need to mill down the space a bit each side . However the Discs might not line up with the any calipers. So which muppet sold the GPZ400 ones on ebay a year ago. I suspect I might go for a set of modern calipers.
The rear wheel is different matter ,the GPZ400 wheel has a massive rear disc and the hub is plain too fat and would need to remove 7 mm from the sprocket carrier ,not in impossible but would remove to much ally on the carrier . Added to this just doesn’t fit well with the overall look of the bike , the massive disc and hub
So I’ll be paying a visit to local bike breakers , with a tape measure, looking for set of wheels, swing arm, brakes etc. That will be messy as Larry’s place is not known for clean washed parts (they go in dirty and get dirtier) and much hunting.i.e Honda wheels – “ in that pile over there”
Then the fun starts and it should easier to play the frame without an the engine in it (noting sprocket alignment)
OH BTW Rock horse poo item . clutch adjuster
Northy:
So what have I’ve been doing ?…..well this arrived just before Christmas and I just had to play with it , its runs and is on the road.(stood for 25yrs)
(appear date on camera is 10yrs out)
Then Christmas and a stinky cold arrived.
So back to Cb400F special
I had by now given up any hope of set of alloys for bike and was starting on std hub , double discs laced to flanged ally rims ..mock up with manky wheels.
Then a set of ARE wheels, which needed work, appeared on ebay …and didn’t win them went for silly money y, but in a jammy git moment a set of CMA wheels appeared on Ebay for about 1 hr and were snapped up. In good condition one bearing need replacing and the black paint black came off to relieve 2 shades of gold , one red and finally grey, assume primer. So they are ready for painting but too cold for that. Piccy shows a lovely home made washer that sits behind the large circlip …..
OK sort out the forks , discs and calipers …….let nightmare start.
First off the caliper pistons from a second hand set off ebay (CB400N ones) had seized, one popped out with lots of heat and compressed air. The other one despite being soaked required more radical action . Weld a bolt to piston and using a set of spacers pulled it out. One new piston required.
Forks were a set of Cb400N one that I had and knew there was some play on them and I thought new bushes …however these earlier one don’t have bushes both leg and slider were worn …..search ebay again for set of forks. Found set but the description was iffy, even though I phone the guy to check there was no play, these were later type with bushes but one was missing ..sloppy fit or what.
Discs CB 400N have 5 holes CB400f have 4 holes ……drill hub ? or drill disc chose the later
Speedo drive :- Nearly gave up on this and was moving to using digital speedo and as used on lavukitangomonty (bit of orange for you)
The problem being the standard 400F speedo drive output is straight while cb400N is angled to get past the disc but is 5 mm too fat to allow the wheel to be central. Simple remove 5 mm from drive unit , reshape the worm drive to match , make up tab to drive the speedo ….simple took most of a morning and still a tight fit.
Right back to the fame , need to go to powder coater…but what colour ? . I would have liked a dark candy red this was expensive and would be hard to get a consistent finish and I had things like brake disc/calipers etc which I wanted in the same colour. So boring flat red but what shade .
Right time warp back to 1980 Mr Snix frame is paint in Massy Ferguson red , later 1983 following an incident with some gravel and a car. The new frame was painted Ford velvet red (burgundy) However the old girl was later used every day transport and the frame once again reverted to bright red. …so which colour, your’ll have to wait on that :-)
Old bike back in 1993 just before behind sold , have guess how much ? .....bloody muppet I am.
So frame is how with the coaters and just for good measure I stripped out my red 400/4 so the frame could done as well , its cold and not much is being done. There are two set of 400/4 in boxes and plan is work on the red 400/4 .So there will be another gap in installments.
Northy:
So what have I being doing !
Well 4 weeks later my two frame and bits arrived back from the coaters but give I was paying mates rates I'll let them off.
Firstly had whack this one together ...come up very nice.
Had already been working on the wheels ....hint of the frame , black center stand is just for the build , will not be fitted to final product
Next engine in frame , the usual trick of everything laying on it side ....pig as the powder coat was tad thick in places
Next up electrics and some wheels etc .
Wiring will be tidied up ass changing all those bullet connectors for multi block ones.
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Note the bars are upright,(no clip-ons) which its self has caused an issue in that the brake lines purchase a way back for CB400n are too short, add to fact the top yoke sits a tad taller on Four than the twin as well.
Overall its siting an inch taller than stock ...all part of the plan.
Not sure is to go stock air filter or pod filters , jetting would easier with stock but would the pod/K&n is keeping with the rest of the bike
Need a tank now ...anyone got an old dented one ? :-\
Just got to purchase new cables, front mudguard etc , make a seat and dig deep for a exhaust system (glup :o)
Oh fix up new cockpit fairing , lights ......will keep me busy. ;D
Johnwebley:
its really looking good,
both of them,
if you do go the pod filters,you will need to make velocity stacks at least 7cm then fit the pods,or it will be very tricky getting
clean carburation .
pods cause lots of issues
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