Honda-SOHC

Good morning all.
Following a pleasant evening in the garage flitting my pistons (is there a special 'knack' or tool to refit the piston circlips, long nose pliers and swearing don't appear to work.....) I have a camshaft question that more knowledgeable folk than I could answer...... 
When I bought the 'project' in its various boxes the camshaft had a large washer attached to it. The camshaft lobes resembled a threepenny bit and I bought a good s/h from the US of A. Question.......should I refit the large washer, my old 400/4 didn't have this fitted, was it for an early camshaft? If I do have to refit it where should it go, camshaft flange side or the other side of the sprocket? How do I tell an 'early' camshaft that may need the large washer from a 'late' camshaft that doesn't need it? I cannot find any reference to the large washer in the Honda parts book or the Haynes manual.  I have checked on the forum as well. Maybe the 'large washer' was lying around on the guy's floor and he thought it was a bit of the 400/4 jigsaw?
Hope one of the forum guru's can help  .
One last thing, I ordered a couple of new 'knock' bolts as they are referred to in the Honda parts book to fix the cam sprocket onto the cam, the part number has been superseded and the bolts I was supplied with by my Honda dealer are flange type, is this correct?
Dave

Thank you all for the info. PM sent to Piki for a full set of decals and seat template.
The painter to his credit showed me so many swatches of the blue colour it became bewildering! I think we have found a colour that is marked as 'Honda' that is 99% matched to the patch we found on my old dented tank that came in primer with the project kit of parts  .
Great forum full of great and wise people, thank you all for your time and patience  .
Dave

They have done a lovely job. That was a company I called a few years ago and they didn't want to do it, you are lucky they did yours! I have a local guy very near to me but he mainly specializes in zinc but he loves bikes and does my stuff for me. Bad news though he doesn't know how much longer he can keep going due to the environmental issues and he doesn't have a tank big enough otherwise he would plate my frame. There was a place I came across at the last Stafford show and they quoted £750ish but they need to see the frame first. I'm not in a hurry as the 400/4 is currently undergoing it's restoration but the Ricky will be next!
The engine rebuild looks amazing, progress is good, ready for summer maybe?
Keep the photos coming, great to see it all coming together.

Due to my existing cylinder bores being oversize and also being unable to obtain any 0.75 or 1.0mm oversize pistons to suit I'm on the lookout for a set of used barrels.  I really don't want to go down the expensive re-lining or big bore route, I'd like to keep the bike as standard as I can if possible.

Finish is unimportant but if possible I would like all the fins to be intact and the bores to be either worn standard or 0.25 to enable me to get a .05 re-bore if I have to. I've have tried e-bay and all the usual breakers but there's nothing available.
If anyone has a set let me know and we can negotiate a price.

Hope someone out there has something suitable to get one of these bikes back on the road 

Dave

Keith, I have a Honda Rickman CR750 I bought about 20 years ago. 
When I bought it I was told by the seller it was an original S&S tuned bike.  It certainly had the S&S exhaust that was very, very, very loud! Reading the MCN road test of the S&S Rickman from the 70's the registration of my bike is the one directly following the S&S test bike, so maybe it did have all the goodies fitted?  I couldn't check the rest of the engine for any other signs of tuning apart from having a finned alternator cover and the exhaust but as it cost less than 1.5k I wasn't too bothered, it was a genuine CR Rickman
Sadly it has been in bits for at least 10 years following the engine throwing oil from the breather over the rear tyre and bringing a new term to the meaning of 'riding on slicks'.  Its going to be my next restoration after the 400/4 is completed.
I do know from stripping the engine though there are no S&S bits in there, certainly not a big bore kit and wild cams so I guess at some point the original engine went bang and was replaced with another standard engine with the original S&S exhaust fitted.

Where did you get your frame re-nickled and can you divulge how much it cost as this is going to be a major expense in the restoration of mine.  I have been quoted upwards of 500 pounds for a strip, polish and re-nickel.  Most platers I have asked wont even touch it saying either their tank is too small or giving me horror stories of the nickel salts becoming trapped in the frame tubes and rotting the metal from inside out.  The other excuse is the bronze brazing of the frame becomes damaged during the stripping process with the brazing going soft and the frame deforms!  Now you have your frame back have you noticed anything untoward? My own view is if Rickman nickle plated the frames at least 40 years ago and they haven't fallen apart and massive holes haven't appeared in the frame tubes due to nickle salt corrosion they must be ok to strip and re-nickle?
Lovely bike by the way and I look forward to seeing the finished product 
Dave

If you want to ride a modern bike (less then 15 years old) along with agreed value classic then Carol Nash is the only option as they operate a rider policy. That's what I have. I pay £520 fully comp for a Honda Blackbird and 7 classics all with agreed value and I live in London.
It's a case of shopping around for the best deal, takes hours though!

Thank you Bryan. Yep you are right, that thought entered my head at about midnight last night when I couldn't sleep! Of course the rings are designed to wear and I measured worn rings in a glaze busted bore...oops .
Anyway, the good news is I finally had the opportunity to use a brand new Helios bore gauge I bought about 20 years ago at an engineering tool sale to measure the bores this evening.
I took six measurements of each bore front to back, side to side, top, middle and bottom of each cylinder.  The maximum bore measurements from 1- 4 were:
1 = 51.63
2 = 51.64
3 = 51.64
4 = 51.64
The measurements were the same throughout the bore but I would expect that as they were all glaze busted only last Friday so should be the same!  The engineer didn't have the pistons when he used the glaze buster but did advise me the piston to bore clearance would be about 2.5 thousand if it was a standard piston (it is) following the glaze bust.  The Haynes manual states a maximum piston to bore clearance of 0.050mm. He was also unable to remove the wear marks at the top of each bore (about 7mm of the bore is untouched by the glaze bust at the tops).  This is because the engineer didn't want to remove too much material.

I compared the measurements with the Haynes manual specs that states ' The difference between the lower bore measurement and the top bore measurement should not be greater than 0.12mm, if it is the cylinder requires a rebore'.  Not much use to me as the measurements are the same at the top and bottom due to the glaze bust!
The Clymer manual advises the cylinder wear limit is 51.1mm.
Going on the Clymer wear limit I'm not sure if I need a rebore or not, by my calculation I am up to 0.36mm below the maximum wear limit or I could be wrong and actually be 0.54mm above the wear limit and require a 0.75mm rebore although I will have to go 1mm oversize as 0.75 pistons are unavailable 
My head hurts after all this 
Dave