Newbie

[Stokie]

Hi folks, recently got myself a cb400/4. Been riding about 55years and was working for Honda when these first came out. Obviously had loads of bikes of different makes in between but now I'm getting on in years have decided to concentrate on restoring older bikes (I also have a Suzuki gs550e as a long term project). This Honda is a running project and not to bad,needs carb rebuild and chain and sprockets but I can still go out for a couple of hour rides on her. More of a problem is the forks are knocking quite badly and I don't think it's the head bearings so if any of you guys have intimate knowledge of fixes that would be great. Well I've always found the people on most bike forums are great so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one. Thanks.   

[Johnwebley]

Welcome

Lots of 400 gurus here

Enjoy

Sent from my SM-A546E using Tapatalk

[neat street]

welcome to the forum  lots of help if you get stuck, great bunch on here.

[taysidedragon]

Welcome to the 400f forum!
If your forks are knocking it could be that there's no fork oil in there or that it's old and stinky.
Possibly the lower sliders are worn, no fork bushes in these so would need replacement sliders.

[Bryanj]

Nurse Julie for carb O ring kits and use the original jets, cleaned of course. Ultrasonic cleaners are not too expensive now. As to forks may be low on oil

[exvalvesetdabbler]

Welcome to the forum.

Dont rule out the brake caliper knocking because the pivot pin or it's arm has a bit of play.c
Check for up down movement of the whole caliper before tearing into the forks.

https://youtube.com/shorts/pyaYOdV5M10?si=8e4ej4YFkPbQqPnE
Regards

Dave

[Athame57]

Hi Stokie
Welcome here, I ride a restored 400-4 also. 

[Nurse Julie]

Welcome to the forum.

[Ken4004]

Hi Stoke welcome to the forum , what did you do at Honda ?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Welcome to the sohc forum.👍

[Stokie]

Hi Stoke welcome to the forum , what did you do at Honda ?

Hi in the 1970s Honda had a technical center at Power road in Chiswick London. We got all the new stuff for evaluation before it went out to dealers,it was really cool we got to ride stuff that people had only seen at the shows,the big one's for me were the first Goldwings and also the cx500. All dealer technicians came to us for training and perhaps a little known fact was that because the Goldwings had so much new tech (for then) a dealer could not have one in their showroom till the technician had been on a course. Sorry for rabbiting on. 

[Stokie]

Hi everybody thanks for the welcome, I can technically do all the stuff I mentioned but as always thanks for any advice,always welcome. Its more really having been away from older bikes it;s where to find stuff and in some cases like the fork sliders there's no bushes so presumably there must be some way that you guys have come across or invented to cure the wear, I can't imagine new one's are available. Thanks. 

[Bryanj]

Never seen worn out sliders, bent in accident but as they have a lot of internal surface bearing area they seem to hold up well

[taysidedragon]

Never seen worn out sliders, bent in accident but as they have a lot of internal surface bearing area they seem to hold up well

If they were used with little or no oil left in the forks they would wear quite quickly. 😟

[Bryanj]

Have had them where the liquid was like white treacle that took hours to drain and still little wear