Honda-SOHC

   Nice one !

I've got the clutch basket out now  and am wondering if I ought to replace the friction plates  regardless of condition?

The only marks I can see are very slight surface imprints of the clutch discs on the plates - no grooves or anything. Looking through the receipts I got with the bike no sign of any clutch parts having been purchased by the last owner though it has clearly been dismantled before due to the damaged lock nut.
To my surprise the clutch was not stuck either the operating cable is in very poor condition so this may have been the reason it seemed to have poor travel with no real feel.
The friction material doesn't look worn but then I don't know how meaty they are when new.

What's the views here replace it anyway together with the springs ?
Is there a better brand than DS ?

Obviously this is not as it left the factory slightly chewed clutch basket retaining nut with iffy locking tabs.
I guess a special tool is the best option to undo and more importantly tighten up again.

Is there a trick to stop it turning - is the DS Tool the thing to use?




Clutch nut by Macabe Thiele, on Flickr

As I understand it Trigger no longer does engine rebuilds but concentrates on rebores & the like.

That might explain my timing light giving odd results, I was surprised to find that the induction clip had an arrow for direction of current flow presumably.

That looks a very clean Honda 400 what needs rebuilding ?
Is that a US model with the chrome rear lamp bracket and black indicators?

if I understand you correct, yes, 2-3 timing is out

When checking 1-4 you connect to cable/plug 1 or 4
when checking 2-3 you connect to cable/plug 2 or 3

Do it first for idle - F mark
Then check with 2500, you should see it ideally in the middle of double mark. If you have first set F at idle for both 1-4 and 2-3, then it must be the same for 2500 RPM for both, as this is managed by advancer (springs). It cannot be be different, unless there is some issue in strobe pickup in higher RPMs.

I re-checked the static timing again on both 1-4 then 2-3 they are spot on by my eye / lamp co-ordination.

Then I realised that I had been connecting the plug lead clip to number 2 rather than number 3 cylinder (does that matter?)- the dynamic timing marks were spot on for both 1-4 & 2-3. I'm thinking it's either my strobe or possibly an issue with the coil connection at number 3 lead or its the idiot at the end of the timing light. (me)

As the Carbs have not been synchronised or the air screws altered since I did the bench build on the carbs I will do a compression test in the morning just for peace of mind. I saw no point in spending time on the carb balancing etc as it's going to be stripped down soonish anyway.

As I initially set the timing statically I thought I would do a check of it dynamically as it takes quite a bit of cranking from first start when cold to run. Once it has run it starts pretty easily - it could of course just be a fuelling issue or compression related but I'm thinking the timing might be a tad retarded.
I checked Cylinders 1 & 4 first I had to guess the engine RPM as the rev counter is not connected at the moment, on what sounded like around 1200 rpm the F 1.4 mark aligned nicely. When I tried the 2 & 3 moving the connector onto plug 2 the marks were pretty much out of view.

The Dynatek instructions state:- "The engine can also be timed dynamically using a strobe light in the normal manner.
Use the advance marks and an engine speed of about 2500 RPM (full advance)."

When I tried this again guessing the RMP as 2500 - roughly double the engine idle speed. The 1 & 4 marks lined up to the right of the F marks were there are two close together marks.

Am I right that the 2 & 3 timing must be out as it should be showing as per 1 & 4 except showing 2 & 3 marks with the strobe?
Reading my Haynes Manual is more confusing as it talks about "The two advance marks are on either side of the static mark"?

Suggestions are welcome please. Ted