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My 1975 CB400F US

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petermigreen:
Back in May, fresh on a high after completing my Yamaha restoration, I gave in to a whim and bought an imported CB400F on ebay and then drove 240 miles round trip to pick it up. With thanks to some of you on here I established it would go in my tiny van.

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I was hoping it would be a bit of a tidy up to get it through an MOT so that I could start the registration process but on inspection of the bike in the cold light of day I soon realised that I had a bit of work to do to get to that stage. With this in mind I decided that I didn't want to throw money at a full on restoration (i.e. chrome/paint work) so have sorted the essentials at this stage and will probably do the paint and chrome in time.

petermigreen:
As soon as I got the bike in the workshop before I started the strip down, I thought it prudent to see if it would run as it was sold as a non-runner although it had not been attempted to start it since arrival in the country. To my joy and relief it started fairly easily (with some carb cleaner squirted in the carbs) and eventually ticked over ok.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoWYXYRW070

It didn't sound great and I've since discovered a big hole in the silencer and the carbs were flooding/leaking so understandable.

I have to say that the bike was sold as a low original mileage (11k) bike and being a natural sceptic I was nervous of the claims and prepared myself for the work however, various signs have been found during the strip down have convinced me of it's authenticity.

petermigreen:
So the strip down commenced and right away I started to find signs of bodging/butchering that had me worried.

The first was that the start button was missing and what I thought was a bicycle bell had been substituted on the opposite side as a starter. Just 'why'?

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I was pleased to rip that out, but now I knew I definitely needed a new right hand switchgear.

Next big shock was the airbox which I can only guess was attacked in a tantrum as it was completely stoved in. Very strange.


My overall assessment of things that needed sorting before an MOT was viable was:
New tyres (possibly originals still on)
Fork stanchions re-chromed
New Shocks
Rewiring of loom to eliminate US spec front lighting
Repaired or new Silencer

In addition, whilst stripped, I decided to bring the following up to scratch to eliminate more work later down the line:
Repair rusted tank/pet cock
Refurb carburettors
Sort airbox and missing associated parts
Remove engine, strip top end, inspect, address requirements, paint
Replace heavily rusted wheels/Restore hubs
Powder coat frame/parts

petermigreen:
I decided that to expedite the rebuild and hopefully get some miles on the bike before the end of this season to press on and get it stripped in quick time and get the out sourced parts off to the suppliers in order to get them back whilst I completed the bits I could do at home.

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No hanging about.

petermigreen:
First big job I set about was strip and ultrasonic clean the carbs. Inevitably I found a broken float post in no. 3 carb.

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Bummer. Still, I managed to source a second hand carb body and rebuilt carb bank. Bit of a step up for me from my experience with a 2 stroke twin. Much labelling and photographs taken.

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