Honda-SOHC

There will be an article in the next issue of the VJMC magazine Tansha on the subject. That information comes from the editor. The article covers those with the metal bodies and describes how you can remove and refit the band without cutting it. As for the dial faces I've not used Clocks and Dials but Reproduction Decals in Canada carry a very good range and they are of good quality. Their CB750f ones they have are green. The tacho red line seems to vary depending on the exact model so a bit of care on selection is required.

The glasses are are convex, it is possible to get them cut to pattern. I had a batch cut for the smaller 400f instruments which are also convex. Worked out at about a fiver each.

I've seen 3 or 4 of these speedometers where the plastic gear has stripped, as PAT M pointed out it's due to the grease drying out and becoming hard. These speedometers have been ones where the bike has not been used for some time or where the speedo has been unused for a period. The plastic gear should spin freely on the frame but I've never found one that does until the old grease is removed using a small paintbrush and some turps. There's no doubt that the remaining working life of these instruments will be limited due to lack of lubrication. Even if you find a NOS one that will have been sitting on a shelf for years and the grease will have dried out.

I can provide details of the best method to dismantle/reassemble these instruments, how easy it is to do depends on the capabilities of the owner. However if a tiny clip is lost or something is damaged during the process you may find you need to get another instrument and that might not be so easy.

Yohi823 posting 'might be the same bloke', well it just might be! And a 400f at the Gamecock, well mine has been there on quite a few occasions and might just be there on Thursday!

Join The Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club and get along to a few of their local meets. You are bound to find a few 400f owners who are restoring one or at least have done so. The prices for one mentioned are 'spot on' but without a doubt the best plan for you might be to buy the best you can afford. There was one on ebay last week, item number 230515337024 with a starting price of

I've just restored a pair of CB750f gauges, removing and refitting the band rather than cutting it. I've written an article on the subject that will appear in the VJMC magazine shortly. Had to make some tooling to do the job. These gauges are far more difficult than the smaller ones fitted to the 400f, a 'walk in the park' by comparison! The images posted of those 400f ones I've seen before, looks like they were taken in my garden!

If you have plastic bodies on the KO it's a case of cutting away some of the plastic case to remove the base and then bonding it back together with epoxy resin. It does however need a great deal of care. I've only ever had one apart with plastic body, a CB125s speedo. Turned out OK

The colour of the dial face is difficult to determine, their colour varied slightly over the production years and they are all faded now to varying degrees. Replicating the exact original colour via a printing process is therefore impossible. If pushed I would say originally the were a dark grey with a hint of green, although opinions differ depending on the individual's colour perception.

My 400f has non-original colour dial faces fitted, close to what I think the original was and nobody has ever commented on their colour. What they see is a tacho without a faded red line, clean glasses, nicely painted bodies and bands that have been removed/refitted without any visable evidence they have ever been apart.

I wonder if any forum members have purchased any, who supplied them and what they thought about their quality. I'm aware there are about 4 suppliers, one in UK, two in the U.S and one in Canada. I'm not a CB750f owner, just a humble 400f one! I have dial face overlays for those and have mastered the tricky task of removing and refitting the band. A 750f owner has asked me to do the same job on his instruments. I would normally pass on anything other than 400f ones but it seems I can't get out of it! Still having made the tools to do the job, just a larger version of the 400f ones I had better get on with it.

It seems there are so many differant dial faces fitted to the CB750f that getting some made isn't an option. The 400f has only one type of tacho and two types of speedometer dials so that's easy.

Having read the article and having restored at least 30 of these gauges I don't think the method described is the best. I can email in pdf format an article I wrote for the yahoo 400f group and is on that site. Send a PM with your email address and I'll email it.

Alan, it's on page 30 of the May 2008 edition of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics within a 400f rebuild feature. I just restored the instruments and recived a mention.