Honda-SOHC

The vent you are referring to is the breather on top of the valve cover? I can see this tube venting when it’s cold so I don’t think it’s pressurizing. Not sure if I’m missing something with a separate crankcase vent though. Thanks! 

Thanks for your help and time. Really appreciate the replies. I’ve ordered a DSS master cyl as need to get the bike on the road before the weather turns. Come winter I’ll get a rebuild kit so I can get the original back on.

Hello,

This one is really doing my head in. I’m trying to bleed my brakes after restoration (so there is no fluid inside at all). I was originally trying to bleed them assembled, but have now taken the master cylinder off to try and bleed it separately.

What I’m noticing is that on depressing the lever, fluid moves around in the reservoir, but only a mix of air with a very small amount of brake fluid comes out. I have checked that both ports in the bottom of the master cylinder is clear, and cleaned the very small orifice with guitar string. I’m also noticing that the brake rod isn’t returning after depressing the lever. If I cover the outlet with my finger whilst pulling the rod back, I feel it pull vacuum on my finger, but it isn’t pulling fluid through the reservoir hole.

I’ve pushed on the outlet side with a blunt rod and it all seems free moving.

Any ideas?

I’m inclined to buy a whole new aftermarket master cylinder as these rival the price of a rebuild kit. Would like your thoughts for any with experience!

Thanks for your time!

Just bought some - thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the replies. For anyone coming to this thread - do not buy the tapered bearing kit from DSS, the upper bearing is too big to get the whole lot to close up when trying to fit the dust cap/nut. Pretty disappointing that they choose to stock from this supplier - I would have bought the all balls kit if I had known about it. 

Hello!

I’m having great difficult removing the bushes housed in the rear swingarm that isolate the lower shock mount. I’ve tried pressing inside a vice and these bushes are properly stuck. Does anyone have experience getting these out? I don’t have a torch but I guess heat is the next and last option.

Thanks!

Hello,

I bought a set of tapered roller bearings from DSS. They look like they use QMP SSH 750 from the packaging. They didn’t come with instructions but after calling they issued a short document to me. The main thing I was unclear on was where the spacer (washer) went. From the instructions it is meant to go over the stem first before the lower bearing. The ID of the spacer was too small for the stem so I have to file down the centre.

Having ensure the cups were properly seated and the washer and lower bearing were hard up against the stem I’ve now tried to assembly the stem into the frame. Only 1-2 turns of thread is available at the top when trying to get the top cap (the nut that is torqued with a C Spanner). Because of the ridges on the bottom side of the top cap, it is only possible to start this thread with the nut upside down. With this torqued there still isn’t enough thread to see it come up the other side of the nut. I can’t get the thread started with the top cap on the right side up. Even if I can get a machinist to machine off those ridges on the top cap it doesn’t get my many turns of thread.

After triple checking that the bearing cups are seated in the frame, I’m running out of ideas. As far as I know, the steering stem and frame headset are all original for the 1976 CB400F. I’m reluctant to remove the spacer as it looks like the lower yoke will start to get plenty snug on the bottom of the frame.

Lastly, I was surprised to see an absence of any dust/dirt caps to protect the bearings...

Any help would be mega - thank you!!

You are making good progress there. I like to be proved wrong but I was always under the impression that the only way to remove chrome that is still stuck in place is by reverse chroming. Does anyone know any different 🤔

You are right Julie. The blasting doesn't get it off. An ice scrapper does get the loose bits but won't be possible everywhere. I looked into getting it de chromed but its pricey. I have left it to think about for now.