Honda CB750K5 Restoration by Royhall

[royhall]

Thanks Bryan, I was thinking it may be something like that. Is the clutch lever meant to have a switch on it as there's nothing like that on this one (probably just missing).

[Bryanj]

Small round switch fits through a hole in the bracket with a pin pushed by the lever blade.
Same as the front brake light switch on cable front brake Hondas just different wire colours. Pushes through hole wires first with blade removed

[BigAl (Alan)]

The K3 to K5 had the 5 wire starter motor safety switch fitted as standard, it can be by-passed with links on the main wire harness. The K6 had the popular 2 wire diode unit fitted.  As you mentioned, looking at the images on the electrics, the ultra-violet from the sun has certainly dried out the plasticizer on most of the pvc wiring/equipment.

[royhall]

Glad you popped on here Alan I will be coming to you for a few bits like sub harness's. Do you offer a club discount, just asking. 

[BigAl (Alan)]

Roy, for a number of items, I can offer a discount, just let me know what you are looking for...free UK p/p

[Johnny4428]

Roy the old corrosion has taken its toll on that electrics. Must have been outside for a considerable time. Usually the good thing about these transatlantic imports is the lack of corrosion clearly not the case in your situation.

[royhall]

Most of the bike is now apart and ready to be sent out for work. The chroming has already gone (on an earlier post) and the powder coating is now ready. The guy I usually have do the powder coating is selling the business so doesn't want to do it. I have sent some photos of what's required to a company in Preston called Fast-Line Coatings.

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I have had a reply which shocked me at first but looking at the email again they are doing way more work than the other guy did. This is the email they sent me:

Good evening Roy,
Thanks for your email and sending the photos through.
To refinish all the components in a high gloss black would be £420 + vat, this includes stripping, phosphating for any tube internals, blasting, masking, a zinc rich primer and the polyester top coat. Which will give approx 1000 hours in a salt spray test.
We are approx 5 weeks turnaround at the moment.
If you would like any more information please don't hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards
George.

To be honest I don't think that's too bad considering the quality of the work is superb and some of the parts I'm sending out are pretty ropey. What's everyone else paying for powder coating as it's about double what I have paid before, but less than the quote to get it painted with 2 pack (and a good bit more robust).

[Laverda Dave]

I paid £330 to Microblast in Windsor last year for the Kawasaki Z400J powder coating Roy. This was the frame, swing arm, yokes and 25 different brackets etc. They finished the top yoke, handlebar clamps and headlight bowl in a satin black as I asked them to.
Turnaround was 3 weeks. Coatings were the same as yours. Excellent company, I have used them three times in the past and never had any damaged threads, paint in bushes etc.

[royhall]

Onto some of the other smaller stuff, have you ever seen rubber harder than this. These are the airbox rubbers that normally pull through the airbox, in this case they were so hard I could grip them in the vice to hacksaw them out. 

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I finally managed to free the rear wheel cush drive after a fight. I tried soaking the rubbers in all sorts of things, WD40, PlusGas, soapy water but nothing worked. In the end I used an aluminium bar through the holes in the hub and a hammer. I was careful to only hit the rubber so as not to crack anything and it came out eventually. What a filthy mess.

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Strangely the cush drive rubbers are still pliable and in good condition so they can go back in. The bearing retainer was a different story. I drilled out the four stakes, soaked the retainer in PlusGas, and heated the hub with the blowlamp but the bugger was stuck tight. I ended up knocking it out with a copper bar, fortunately it only damaged the retainer and not the hub.

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The forks on the other hand were completely different and virtually fell apart. I was going to send the tubes out for hard chroming but both have a rust patch on the working are that about 35 thou deep. I have no idea why that has happened but must be due to standing for so many years in a damp storage. However, it does make the tubes scrap so I will have to buy the pattern ones unfortunately.

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In the background of that picture you can see the sprocket hub now cleaned up (vapour blasting). To undo the bottom bolts on the forks I made the simplest tool ever, just a piece of flat bar with the end ground to fit the fork internals. Worked a treat.

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[royhall]

I paid £330 to Microblast in Windsor last year for the Kawasaki Z400J powder coating Roy. This was the frame, swing arm, yokes and 25 different brackets etc. They finished the top yoke, handlebar clamps and headlight bowl in a satin black as I asked them to.
Turnaround was 3 weeks. Coatings were the same as yours. Excellent company, I have used them three times in the past and never had any damaged threads, paint in bushes etc.

Was that plus VAT Dave. Seems like a good price. I have 23 items in total. The problem if I use them is it will require courier both ways and on such a big heavy item it would end up being more than my quote. I can deliver myself to these people as it's only 10 miles away. I will use that price as an example to try and get the quote down a bit though.

[Laverda Dave]

Yes Roy I think it was but away from home today so unable to check.  They advertise in Classic Bike every month, that's how I found them about 20 years ago, used them ever since. They are one of the cheapest, and best I know. The first time I used them the owner actually dropped the completed parts off to me as he was passing, can't get better than that👍

[royhall]

Not much done on the Honda this week as work has been mad. I don't know how James finds the time to do it? I visited the guy that has done the powder coating on all my other bikes (PX Wheels in Poulton Lancs) and he has agreed to do this one although he is winding down the business. That should be a real cost saving as he is less than half the price of the other guy. Part of that is that I have to do more preparation myself then when the blasting is done I have to go back and do the masking off. I really dont mind that as he's only charging me £200. Just checked everything over before taking it tomorrow.

Had a bit of fun getting the suspension bushes out of the swingarm this time. I used the old two socket trick with a length of thread bar, but this time they wouldn't budge a millimetre. A bit of heat from the blowlamp had them coming out nicely. For anyone that doesn't know this trick here are some pictures. And dont forget that when you have heated it with the blowlamp, don't put your hand on it. The blister has only just healed two weeks on.

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This afternoons task is to fill in the paperwork to get it registered. James has kindly annotated a V55/5 with all the correct boxes to fill in, this should make a doddle of a complicated form. If anyone is interested in this pro-former I will ask Steve if he can put it on a sticky somewhere or in Ash's cave.

Hopefully I will be able to do a bit more this coming week as work has calmed down a bit now.

[smoothoperator]

Good tip on the 2 socket trick with a useful picture, keep it coming Roy really interesting stuff for noobs like me.

[K2-K6]

Interesting thread Roy and good explanation of the strip down for others contemplating a restore project.

Hopefully adding something useful to topic, It's worth using copper slip, graphite grease or similar on threads of extraction mechanical devices as it ups the load by some margin to help with shifting things.
Also on pullers, threaded ball joint splitter etc too. It brings them much closer to a hydraulic puller in the power they can exert.

[Laverdaroo]

Interesting thread Roy and good explanation of the strip down for others contemplating a restore project.

Hopefully adding something useful to topic, It's worth using copper slip, graphite grease or similar on threads of extraction mechanical devices as it ups the load by some margin to help with shifting things.
Also on pullers, threaded ball joint splitter etc too. It brings them much closer to a hydraulic puller in the power they can exert.

I've used the two sockets and a bit of threaded bar before but the copper slip thing is a top tip, thanks for that, thats geting logged.