Honda CB750K5 Restoration by Royhall

[K2-K6]

I could hear your sigh of relief from here Roy 

[Johnny4428]

Brilliant Roy, we await the verdict!

[Laverdaroo]

Nice one!
I was worried for you and been tinking about it today whilst out in the boat.

Top news, well done Roy.

[AshimotoK0]

Brilliant! can't wait to see the pics Roy . I was feeling your pain and frustration yesterday.

[royhall]

The big day has finally arrived and the bike is here. First look brings on the thought "why do we do this to ourselves".   Wont have any time for it until Sunday as it's the Manchester bike show tomorrow.

But on a brief inspection, although rough most things on it are repairable and there doesn't appear to be any major damage. There's several missing parts and the rims look like they may be too far gone to re-chrome. It's clearly been sat for a very long time but the good news is that the engine turns freely on the kickstart. I will dig deeper on Sunday and post some pictures.

My main concern is the fact the drive chain is missing and somebody has tried to take the engine out, so just hoping there hasn't been a chain break that's damaged the cases. The bike appears to be just loose assembled so maybe the owner was going to break it for parts and found it was harder than expected. Hopefully that's the case or why else were they taking the engine out? If the crank cases are okay I think it will turn out to be a good purchase.

[Moorey]

Glad it's worked out OK Roy.  20 days Liverpool to Cleavleys 

[smoothoperator]

Sigh of relief Roy. Looking forward to the build posts.

[royhall]

Well getting it here safely was a big sigh of relief but it didn't last long. Just checking things out a bit more today and it's not looking as good as I initially thought. Just for starters the carbs are fooked, seized solid and looking like they have been kicked around a car park. But my biggest fear before buying the bike was that it may have had a chain break due to the missing chain and the engine being half removed. Well here's the gory evidence hidden behind a ton of bathroom silicone.

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Ten screws into the rebuild and already I'm looking for a good set of K5 crankcases. Although other models will fit I could do with them being K5 to keep the number range correct. This is the one thing I took a chance on, so looks like I gambled and lost. To be fair even if I had seen the bike it would not have been possible to see the break as it was buried in clear silicone covered in grease. Strangely the engine turned in all gears without any noises even though there's almost zero room behind there. Hopefully somebody out there will have a set available. I have repaired these cases before on Alan's (MCTID) engine but that was just a single chunk knocked out that welded back okay, this one is a spiders web smash.

I'm shutting the garage door for today as that's enough bad news for one go.

[JamesH]

Roy - have sent you a Pm..

Graham/Julie - do any of the spares pile engine cases help Roy out?

[Johnny4428]

Very gutted for you Roy. Mine was the same and been welded shut at the repair. Julie and Graham came to my rescue with a pair of cases with the correct period number. Very annoying but not the end of the world.

[royhall]

It's nothing I haven't dealt with before, all will be good in the end. Just for information the engine number range for K5 starts at 2372115 and ends at 2428760.

[Laverda Dave]

That really is bad news Roy. That is the trouble with buying blind and especially from so far away. I've bought a couple of things on ebay that were not as advertised, a NOS Cibie headlight for my 400 being one of them and bought a year before I actually needed it for the resto. That was £60 down the drain when I found it was 15mm smaller than it should have been and it had rust on the reflector, same with a NOS CDI for the RSA, it was as dead as a dodo when I went to try it months later. 
Hopefully with your knowledge you'll be able to repair the damage, the 750 James restored that suffered the same was like new after Graham repaired it.
Good luck with the restoration and please keep the progress photos coming.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

That's gut wrenching news Roy tbh I have had similar issues when I have bought things then afterwards found all was not as it seemed. Hopefully you will be able to salvage the bike and recover from the initial disappointment.

A long standing  friend of mine (56yrs we've been friends) bought a Facel Vega 500 from Australia as a runer - it was competatively priced for a reason - when it came off the container he found that the automatic gearbox was loosing fluid faster than you could fill it up - the power steering leaked plus when he got it running at home the bottom end was knocking. He went back to the seller 3 months later and managed to get some money refunded - he would not tell me how much it cost or what the refund was but when he sorted the car and sold it he almost broke even. Turns out that despite the super Art Deco styling they drive like a camel - he managed to sell it via a trader so its gone to the US - he sensibly bought a E type coupe instead!

[Nurse Julie]

Roy - have sent you a Pm..

Graham/Julie - do any of the spares pile engine cases help Roy out?

I've replied to Roys PM to me now James.

[JamesH]

Roy - have sent you a Pm..

Graham/Julie - do any of the spares pile engine cases help Roy out?

I've replied to Roys PM to me now James.

Thanks Julie. I’ve also got a complete K5 motor here if he needs it..