1969 CL450 US Barn Find Restoration

[JamesH]

That’s looking really tidy Dave. Great progress...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[MrDavo]

Thanks James.

I got the carbs back from the friend who was ultrasonically cleaning them, although they came back cleaner the jets were still blocked up and crusty.

After a bit more cleaning by hand I tried to get the jets out, only to find they were well stuck, rather than chew up the soft brass with a screwdriver or damage the carb bodies  I went for the heat option with my blowlamp. I didn't get off to a good start, applying a little heat to the posts that hold the pin for the float, the solder came undone and the float fell off its mounting tab! I could try and resolder it, but I think my float height could be right up the spout if it doesn't go back exactly right, plus the seam around the float may come apart. They are available new from DS so I have ordered one. The other pin came out cold, once bitten twice shy.

I've never dismantled carbs using a blowlamp before, it was quite nerve racking, but with careful heating and selection of the right screwdrivers I managed to get the jets and drain plugs out eventually, as well as being bunged up with crud the jets aren't standard size as per my parts book, the mains are 120 rather than 130, I don't know why, so I will order two rebuild kits with new ones to be safe. Individual jets don't seem to be available from Honda so I'm stuck with buying a complete aftermarket set from D Silver.



A question for James, on your two CL450s, is there anything attached to the negative side of the battery other than the earth strap? As well as the fused +ve supply to the loom and the +ve cable to the starter relay I have a black lead from the loom that has been joined to a non standard wire with an eye on the end that could go to either terminal. I think its possibly the feed from the regulator to the positive terminal, but I want to be sure before I connect it up, not that I have a battery yet. Photos in the manual and of bikes for sale on ebay are not clear about what goes where, so perhaps you could check for me? Thanks.

[AshimotoK0]

Not sure if these are suitable for K1 but can do you a 'forum' deal if they are Dave. Jensen is bound to know if you PM him. (he bought a set and tested them). They are definitely rocking horse poo parts.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143038522102?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

[MrDavo]

I think my carbs are different, Ash, the kits you link to are for 1965/66 black bombers. My carbs are stamped 14H, I just went to look.

My bike, strictly speaking a K2 which has ended up in K1 clothing somewhere along the line, doesn't have springs in the vacuum pistons either. They may be missing, but there's none shown in the parts book.

There may be an upgrade kit for the K2 too, but maybe the flat spot had been fixed by '69, I don't know. Could explain my non standard jets though.

[JamesH]

Dave - I should be doing some work on the red bike next week - so I’ll pull it out and get some reference shots for you/check the earth cable situation. James

[MrDavo]

i decided to order a battery, then I can start connecting things up one at a time. I went for one of those yellow gel ones, I have one on the Harley, no problems there. I also ordered a pair of new spark plugs, the old ones look fine but its one less thing to worry about. They were all of three and a half quid for the pair, posted. How can they make them for that little? I'll still need to know about that other wire from the loom, James.

The first thing I need to do is sort out an earthing strap for the bars, which are rubber mounted, I need an earth for the starter and horn buttons. I think it goes from a tag on the bottom of the bar mount to a bullet connector at the speedo bracket.

While I was in the garage I static timed it, I couldn't get the points to close at all at first, until I tried rotating the engine one full turn, not a wasted spark like on the 750. Thinking about it, the 750 points are on the crank, the 450 exhaust cam runs at half speed.

Before the carb bits arrive I can get the starter and sparks working, hopefully (I already tried the starter to get oil pressure when the engine was on the bench). As I may be in a position to try and start her up once I have rebuilt and fitted the carbs, I decided to check if the petcock was working OK, I had previously bought a genuine set of all the rubber parts and a new screen from Silvers.

Good job I checked, it was just a little bit blocked up!



I dont know what all the grey stuff was, either someone had tried to run the bike on mud, or its just what happens if you leave alloy in contact with old petrol for a decade or two. Much poking about with a long thin electrical screwdriver was needed, but I eventually dug it all out and cleared all the holes and pipe. I also had to clear out the U shaped slot on the tap, which was invisible to start with.



I finally got it so I could blow through the tap in main and reserve, and cleaned the body and face plate up as best as I could. Not as pretty as a new one, but another original 1969 part saved from the scrap bin.

[Andrew-S]

The grey stuff is likely to be ethanol/old petrol residue. I recently rebuilt the SU carbs on my Triumph TR3A and found a grey silt in the bottom of the float bowls - when this dried out it turned to a very fine dust/sand, or maybe it was alloy from the inside of the carbs......

Cheers

[JamesH]

Dave,

I did manage to get to the bikes earlier this week - but the light in my storage unit is crap and to be honest it’s going to require me to tear into one of the bikes to trace back wiring and see where they go. At the moment I can’t really spend a load of time tearing into either bike.

But, I did snap pics of both in the battery area - do you have an owners manual??

I’ve photographed the wiring diagram from mine here..happy to email you a high res. picture...

James

[JamesH]

On my red bike, there’s a green wire going to the loom (in addition to the main earth cable).

I think it’s the same on the blue bike.

Wiring diagram suggests the same.

Hope that helps..

James

[JamesH]

Picture in owners manual confirms the presence of a second wire from -ve terminal

[MrDavo]

Many thanks for the photos James, I'll check against my bike later to see if the mystery wire was green when it came out of the loom before a black piece got spliced on. There is also  an unfused red/white to the rectifier, I need to check its not that. Confusingly I can't see the -ve wire on the blue bike, that's the same battery that I've bought, mine is starting to look very much like yours now. Have you ever ridden either of them, if so what was it like?

'REGURATOR' on the wiring diagram made me laugh.

Pics of the red bike with the tank off are interesting for the cable routing, for example my clutch cable is all on the left at the moment, yours crosses over above the frame tube to come out on the right side of the tank at the steering head.

Edit: I just looked at the parts manual, superbly drawn as ever it shows the wiring arrangement really well, with the extra negative wire visible as well as the arrangement on the positive side. I did technical drawing at school, and really appreciate a good parts book.

[JamesH]

Dave, if you want I can properly scan the wiring diagram at work tomorrow and send it to you as an A3 PDF to print out if that helps?

In terms of riding - i’ve ridden the red bike before pulling the tank off (have a red paint set from Menno here and done - but want to deep clean the bike first). It was a hoot to ride - you’ll love it.

But, I’m 6’3” and 16 stone (big boned) so I probably looked like a fat bird riding a kids bike

[MrDavo]

I probably looked like a fat bird riding a kids bike

Haha! (tempted to say LOL but that triggers some folk on here ) I know what you mean, I'm 6 foot and haven't had a bike this small in years. It sounds fun though.

Yes if you can send me a pm with the pdf as a link if you can host it somewhere, or attachment if the technology allows, that would be great, I can print it out and keep it in the garage. failing that I can pm you my email address so you can attach it to an email. My Clymer manual has a couple of wiring diagrams for CB450 models but they aren't 100% correct for my bike.

I had another look at my wiring, and on the +ve side I can see the red fused supply to the loom, the red feed from the regulator and the cable to the starter relay, as it should be. The mystery earth wire has no sign of green on it, it comes out of the cable black, then confusingly got spliced with a repair piece in red, see the photo. Red and black make sense for + and -, what gets really confusing is that further up the loom, feed wires are black and earth wires are green, it beats me why Honda weren't consistent.

[MrDavo]

Nothing to take a picture of really, but I reached a milestone today- after making an earth wire to the handlebars and connecting up the new battery, I pressed the starter  button.

The engine span, and there were sparks at the new plugs!

Next up is to rebuild the carbs, then we are really close to attempting to start her up.

[MrDavo]

News flash - she runs!

Early attempts failed miserably, despite fat blue sparks, then I checked the float bowls and found them empty! The repair kit float needles are slightly different, I put the originals back in and got the bowls to fill, with a bit of fiddling with the float tabs. One is new, the original one is bent to buggery and will be replaced.

With fuel in the carbs I tried again and, probably for the first time since she had metallic purple paint and pullback bars, back in the seventies I think, she fired up!

Little smoke, no tick over yet but the settings were just a guess for now.

There is a video, when I work out how to work YouTube i’ll post a link to it. We’re having a bottle of bubbly left over from the wife’s birthday party to celebrate