Honda-SOHC

Success  .
I made up a 42mm drift from a piece of solid nylon bar (I actually bought it months ago to make some hinges for the front gate but had enough left to make the drift).  This fitted the outside bearing race perfectly.  I was able to give the drift and bearings some seriously heavy thumps with a bolster hammer.  The bearing on the side of the dust seal moved about .5mm but it was enough to give the free play in the spindle I needed.  I did check the spacer to bearing fit after and pleased to say the spacer does still have some free play, not much but enough for it to self centre when the spindle is inserted.

Thank you to everyone for the advice, very much appreciated.  What a great forum and bunch of people on here .

Dave
PS - If it wasn't for my little Myford lathe I couldn't have made the drift (or the gate hinges ), seriously, everyone should have a lathe worth their weight in gold

Hi all,

I think I might have a problem with the front wheel spindle of the 400 project bike and I'm looking for some guidance.

I have installed new wheel bearings supplied by DS into both sides of the wheel.  The spacer has been been refitted as per instructions however...... when I install the wheel spindle and torque it up to the setting as described within the Haynes manual of between 36-39lbs the  spindle goes solid, i.e the wheel will not turn on the spindle. Finger tight all is fine but anything more and it gets harder and harder to spin the wheel.
All the correct spacers have been installed, the new bearings are 'home' and the wheel spindle is greased and everything moves freely. I did notice the bearings supplied from DS are sealed on both sides of the actual bearing where as the ones that came out have the balls exposed on one side although I do not know if these were genuine (and they were worn anyway).  I also noticed the spacer between the bearings have three 'tangs' on each end of the spacer, are these supposed to locate inside the exposed side of the wheel bearings, although obviously they wont locate in the DS supplied bearing as they are sealed!
It appears as though the wheel spindle nut is pushing hard on the adjacent spacer that goes through the dust seal and this is pushing onto the inner bearing race and compressing everything solid?
Am I doing something wrong, is the spindle nut supposed to be torqued as per the Haynes manual or is this one of the Haynes errors?
Dave

The knuckle is the same between a 350/4 and a 400/4 but the kickstart shaft itself is shorter on the 350.

This is how my 400 engine rebuild journey started!  When I was 17 I traded in my CB200 for a s/h 400/4 from D&H Motorcycles in Acton.
It was a great bike, a red F model. It was previously owned by an older gent who had fitted a huge barn door fairing, massive top box and suitcase sized panniers complete with front and rear crashbars. I removed all of it within a couple of days including the front crashbar.
I replaced the bolt and went for a ride, when I arrived home the engine was smothered in oil.  The crashbar mounting bolt had replaced the original lower engine mounting bolt and was slightly longer to take into account the 3mm crashbar mounting lug. it was too long and split the lower engine case when I replaced it although I didn't notice at the time.
I tried the epoxy glue, liquid metal, chewing gum, body filler method and nothing worked.  I ended up buying a s/h engine from Frank in Ealing when he used to break bikes in a garden shed!
6 months and many miles later I took the engine apart to replace the cam chain on the dinning room table (the tin of linklife chain lube was boiling up on the gas stove and the cylinder head replaced the leg of lamb in the oven at the same time).

That's a very nice bike, the colour suits the location 

Thanks for the advice, all now on order  .  Obtaining the correct coils with a 4-ohm resistance is proving very, very difficult though!

I'm having to replace the coils and plug caps on the 400/4 project as the old ones are past it being cracked and broken.

DSS has the correct? black plug caps for cylinders 2&3 but not 1&4.  The price seems a bit on the expensive side though and I can only get two but need all four so I'm looking at buying a full set of black NGK's from e-bay at a third of the price. 

Can anyone advise of the correct NGK plug cap ordering codes, there appears to be so many all with slightly different angles?Does anyone know if I can get the coils cheaper on e-bay, DSS are charging 29.95+vat+p&p per coil?

I'll post a few pics of the rebuild so far in the next few days, the engine is now complete and ready to fit into the frame and the marathon carb re-build is finally over but they are not yet tested for leaks although all the jets, needles, gaskets and o-rings have been changed throughout including the link tubes and I live in hope 

Dave