Honda-SOHC

Can anyone recommend me a decent set of head bearings that actually fit and work properly?

Bought a set of head bearings which I fitted at the weekend. I say 'fitted' as they don;t reallyt. Made sure both the bearing cups were fully home in the frame, and the lower fork yoke was properly fitted with it;s bearing cup....and when I put it all in the frame, I get barely enough thread to hold the top castle nut on.

Not right!

I did use the thin shim and rubber dust seal on the lower yoke, but hte shim is 1mm thick...and the rubber dust cover fits over the bearing cup on the steering stem...so it doesn't cause the issue.

Seen this sort of problem from a few members on a few bike builds, but for me...There is no way to clearly shift anything to get the clearance I need to properly screw down the castle nut, and the thing is not even close. I need about 10mm more thread for it to be how t should, and I can't see hoiw that happens. The bearing cups look to be too deep?

So, basically....unless I screwed something up ( always possible.... ) the bearings I have do not fit. They also do not feel smooth..... which does not fill me with confidence that all is well!

A victory has been won over hte money grabbing scheme to tax Londoners for the privelige of actually existing in London.

The ULEZ...or Ultra Low Emission Zone currently exists in central London, but next year, the plans are set to include all areas inside the North/South Circular .... requiring the payment of £12.50 every day to cross the line. For me...and a lot of others...that means my daily commute would be cheaper in a damn minicab than on the bike.

So...I do my research, and there is a way to exempt vehicles made before the arbitrary 2007 date for petrol driven bicycles. You either need your V5 to show an NOx value below 0.15, or you need some other proof. There is a place in Romford that will test your bikle and provide evidennce for £175.... but I chose the third option. My V5 has blanks where the emissions data is....so I e-mailed Honda for a Certificate of Conformity.

This is a document that officially states the exact specs and includes full emissions data for a specific frame/engine number as tested and provided by Honda. It's free to get one...but if you lose it...it's 175 Euro to get a replacement. I applied....and got mine last week. I wondered about the charge in Euros...until I got my package from Honda's PR department in Sofia.....OK.....fair enough!

Scanned in the certificate, and my V5...and e-mailed them off to the TFL website.

Just got an official letter today stating my trusty steed is officially exempt from ULEZ charges.

Of course....when I finally finish my 750F2...she's over 40 years old and will also be exempt!

But for the rest, it can be done, and it's not hard. Some manufacturers charge money for the certificate...but Honda don't. If you own a pre- 2007 bike....get your certificate! Whether you need it or not. Being able to prove your machine is ULEZ compliant will, I reckon, increase it's resale value and make it a lot easier to sell should you want to.


I got all my info from here:
https://www.bikerandbike.co.uk/loophole-means-older-motorbikes-may-still-qualify-for-ulez-exemption/

Well....over the last few weeks I have had all sorts of issues witht eh daily transport, the trusty 900 Hornet.

Electrical woes...and intermittent ones especially ... are not my favourite things. I like worn of broken things you can see, measure easily and then repair/replace with no bother. Not things that fail one minute...but work fine the next.

Like accelerating past a lorry, and having the engine die...but refire immediately on the button. Or you switch the key...and nothing lights up. It's dead. But you wiggle and jiggle things ...and the power comes on. But never the same things. I thought it was ignition switch connections, but they were perfect. Yought it was wires...as touching the main loom bunch made it come on...but wiggling the same won't disconnect, and continuity chceks on the main lines show perfect. Fuses...good. It has to be the main power runs as everything goes. Been tearing out the little hair I have left until yesterday...but now I think I have it nailed. I wanted to check the fuse connections into the main 30A fuse on the charging circuit. It's not with the main fusebox...but is an inline fuse behind the battery.

Went to take out the battery...and I noticed the +ve terminal was loose. NOT the bolt...that was nice and tight, vaselined and covered in it's rubber boot. All neat and tidy aftyer I fitted a new battery last January when she was cranking slower than I liked. No.... the TERMINAL was loose in the battery.

SO...out with the multimeter......and when I checked it...I saw THIS:

https://youtu.be/poVvgaMNCy8

Now...as the battery sits in line with the charging voltage going through the battery from the alternator and from there through the main fuse into the loom and off to the ignition. The battery sits on it's perch with a rubber strap...so any bump or vibration could jiggle this....and see the connection arcing and bouncing all over the place. That's not going to play well with the charging system.

Angry message sent to the vendor....but I expect to get a brushoff. Can probably cut back the plastic housing and re-solder the joint....and epoxy it back up... but why the hell should I! The batter is less than 6 months old. If the vendo plays fair...my next post here will be a recommendation. If I get the 'non fair wear and tear line...he wil get the mother of all slatings. The old Sale of Goods act has been superceded.... but hte current legislation still requires goods to be properly made, and this isn;t an overcharged or undercharged unit....this is just badly made.

Really running out of ideas here, so looking for advice on things to try.

Stripping down the rear brake system on the 750F2. I ran in to some issues with corrosion, as it was in a pretty sorry state and full of rust. It's also totally solid.
Nothing moves.

So...I tried to remove the circlip to pull it aparet, and after weeks of heating, soaking and the like...I couldn;t even remove the circlip. The ends of the clip broke before the clip left hte groove. In the end, I had to drill a 1mm hole through from the outside into the back of the clip groove and punch it free. Once I had both ends lifted...I managed to walk it out. Nor...I can't remove the piston.

It will not budge a fraction. I had WD40 sitting above the piston for a week...and none soaked through. I have tried heating with a heat gun...but no luck. I tried soaking WD40 in from the other side....no luck. The front master cylinder needed a bit of tapping form the back side to shift the piston, but on this unit...there is no hole to tap the piston out from.

Can anyone suggest a method that might work?

To make matters worse, my initial efforts to find a replacement unit have failed, so I either need to rebuild this one...or find a non standard unit I can use

Bought a set of bearings ready to fit to the CB ..... and all was good.

Had been noticing a bit of deterioration on the Hornet's handling over the last few months, and had put it down to cold tyres, greasy roads, and general winteryness....but
it had started to get to the point where the thing was following every line in the road like a crazed coke-addict....and that wasn;t good. Now...London roads have some evil ripples in them, especially where buses have rolled over fresh tarmac and formed massive waves...but this was on little ripples.

Looking at shiny bearings made me wonder about the state of the head bearings in the Hornet.

So today, I decided I could put it off no longer. I had to have a look and see.

With a centre stand, it's not as bad a job as it could be. It was easy to pop the top yoke off and drop the steering stem out enough to inspect the bearings. The bottom ones were well greased, and when I wiped it back, the bearings were shiny and smooth and slick. No trouble there.

Gertting the top yoke right off to lift off the castle nuts took a bit more wiggling....but with a few brake pipes loosened and a bit of fiddling...that came off. There is an array of dust seals and bits, but they all lifted off too.

hmmnnn...

Well...I know why the handling was going odd now. No sign of grease. Absolutely bone dry. You can guess what the bearings looked like too. Rusty, gritty, and not at all happy. Replacements are on order, but this is my daily commuter ride and I need to get to work on Tuesday. So I have cleaned them up as best I can, packed them with grease, and popped them back in for now. Only got to last until next weekend.... but I hate doing things like that. Needs must and all....so gentle riding will be the order of the next few days.

But a new set of bearings are ordered and will get fitted next weekend. Will change over top and bottom bearings as a precaution, even though there is nothing wrong with the bottom ones. The bike passed it's MOT about 6 weeks back, and the steering was fine with no slop or play and moved as it should. I know...I checked it all over before the test... but it just goes to show.

Grease is the word......

Not sure if this is common....or an oddity...

But, got home from work today on the Hornet only to notice oil dripping off the front of the engine onto the exhaust. Not good to have at any point...but the motor was running sweetly all the way home, and oil levels were still good...so I wrap a rag around a stick and clean up the dribbles to see where it;s coming from. Too close to a steaming hot exhaust to get my hands in there.....

It looks to be coming from the oil filter on the front of the engine....but not from the seal....as there was oil all over the bottom of the filter.

It was time for an oil change anyway ( I swap it every 3500-4000 miles ) and I had a filter handy.....so I dropped the drain plug and emptied the sump. Unscrewed the filter and gave it a look. Now...I wondered if oil was dripping from the seal and running up the filter...but this was against the wind...and not downhill.

What I did find were some large rust blisters under the paint on the filter. The paint did not appear to be broken on the filter...but it had rusted and I think had got to the point where oil was leaking either from a hole too small for me to see...or through porous rust as this area of blistering seemed to be where the oil was coming from.

Now...here's the rub.

The bike has not been 'sat' and is in daily use. The thing is always warmed up before riding, and I change the oil about every 6 months. I got no milky residue anywhere, and no indication of condensation or coolant leaking into the oil...so why does my filter look like it has rusted from the inside? Or was it just shitty paint on the filter, and as this was the 'winter' one...just fallen victim to road salt?

Either way....I will be giving the filters a very close check every time I wash the bike.....just to see if it happens again.

I want to replace the gearbox bearings in my 750 .... but before I dive into the murky depths of the internet, can anyone recommend me a good supplier? I will be checking my bearings for sizings...and don;t want to pay premium rates for 'Honda' bagged bearings if they are commercially available sizes.

The only thing I am uncertain about is bearing quality. I want to buy from somewhere that only sells good quality bearings, and has a proper understanding of the use they will be put to.

All advice gratefully received!

You know when you do something REALLY dumb...and I mean really...really dumb...

Trying to reassemble my carbs back onto the back plate and hook up the choke spindles etc. Well...I have got myself into a stupid mess.

I took pictures of hte springs and hte area where the 2 halves of the choke spindle join before I took everything apart. It was a bit fiddly, and I knew I would need references to put it back together. Especially as all the manuals and reference works I have seem to only show the earlier carbs...not the later F2 fitments.

Well...can I find the pictures? No I cannot. Cleared them off the phone without dropping them on the PC, or deleted a folder on the computer...I have no idea. I also have no pictures.

Is there anyone out there with the later style carbs as fitted to the F2 who could take a pic of the area at the back of the carbs between 2 and 3 .... where the choke spindles meet and the collection of little springs live that hold the choke flaps open? I need to fdigure out hte spring locations and the way the 2 halves link together.

I feel such a fool!