Project CB350F

[Laverda Dave]

Thanks Ash, much appreciated 👍

[Johnny4428]

Nice paintwork on these parts Alan, you 350 is taking shape. Dave that is annoying! I have noticed a considerable difference in the vinyl seat covers regarding grain or material, think it would be very difficult to completely seal around the edges of that stencil on that type of material. Somebody else on here had that same problem and spent ages cleaning up all the little bleed marks, can’t remember who that was.

[AshimotoK0]

Thanks Ash, much appreciated 👍

Stencil is same size as NOS seat one Dave... will post tomorrow. Good luck! I have never done one yet  but I would tend to apply in several light mist coats and keep the hair drier on it all of the time.

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[Laverda Dave]

That's the one, thanks Ash .
The O/H voluntered to clean up the seat and has managed to get most of the old paint off although there's still a bit more to do as it has run into the grain of the vinyl.

[magpie114]

Same here Dave, got most of the original logo off but still bits trapped in the grain. Promising though just need to keep at it.


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[magpie114]

Started to make some decent progress. Checked the carbs for leaks on the bench and thankfully they were ok. When I reassembled the carbs I replaced the float valves and main jets with keyster parts and retained the remaining original brassware. I’m well aware that some have been unlucky with the float valves but due to the state of the originals I didn’t have much of a choice. Installing the carbs was straightforward and easier than I expected but it did take some effort to get the centre airbox rubbers to seat properly.

Fitted the front mudguard, headlight and completed the wiring. The electrics appear to be ok and suddenly it resembles a bike. I took a photo on the drive while I cleaned up and restored order in the garage.

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Aftermarket cables for the carbs from cmsnl fitted and adjusted perfectly so my next plan was to check the tank/tap interface was leak free before fitting the tank. Unfortunately a heavy cold meant another delay - felt really rough and just couldn’t be bothered to do anything this week. Even the arrival of a Delkavic exhaust system I’d ordered couldn’t get me in the garage.

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Felt much better this morning so had a good look at the exhaust and had a trial run at fitting it. I’m very pleased with the quality and appearance of it but I suspect it will take a fair bit of fine tweaking to line up - this weekends first job.

[Laverda Dave]

Now that's looking really good 👍. I've never noticed the clutch casting on the 350F as it's usually obscured but it is a really nice casting. All very shiny and the finish line is very close now, not long to go and a few more days in the garage and it be the big first start👍.
I sympathise with the cold, I felt fine last Saturday but as the day wore on I came down with a stinking cold. Strange though it only lasted a couple of days, I even checked for COVID as I felt so rough but was clear👍.

[Nurse Julie]

She really is looking great Alan.

[Johnny4428]

That is looking like a very nice job done so far, that’s going to be a lovely looking bike, exhaust is going to make a big difference.

[magpie114]

Thanks all for your comments. Today was a good step forward with the exhaust fitted and I'm very happy with the appearance. Straight forward procedure, the pipes were numbered as were the corresponding inlets on the collector. It was just a matter of first installing pipes 1 and 2 to the head and then offering up the collector box. Pipes 3 and 4 were then fitted to the head and collector followed by the silencer. The whole assembly took a bit of pushing and pulling into position whilst tightening each bolt a little at a time. The last operation was to fit the springs which are really strong. While fitting the two outer springs the bike felt unstable and unsafe while pulling them into position. I’ll fit the remaining two springs tomorrow after I’ve collared my neighbour to steady the bike - he doesn't know yet .

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[andy120t]

Wow, that's so clean and tidy. Great work!
One question - are the rubbery things on the exhaust springs designed to keep the springs clean or stop them from rattling .. or something else,? I have a similar thing on my zx6r side stand and just assumed it was to keep muck out of the spring, and as there is only one it's probably not an anti- rattle thingy.

[magpie114]

I've been thinking about this too! I used to think it was to keep them clean too but very often they only cover a small portion of the spring. To be honest I don't know either but I can only think its to stop them from rattling and resonating as air passes thro/over them?

[magpie114]

Made good progress these last few days. Bled the front brake, first time I’ve used silicone brake fluid and the process took a little longer than I expected. To start it off I had to connect a syringe to the caliper bleed nipple and draw a vacuum. The brake feels a little spongy and needs to be better, I’ll see if I can improve the feel next week.

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I’ve temporarily fitted the old side panel emblems which I repainted. They aren’t in great condition and they’re not the correct colour but they will do for now. I contacted BadgeReplicas Australia to see if they had the correct emblems for the glory blue black scheme. They replied quickly that although they didn’t they would do some in that correct colour, available in 6 to 8 weeks.

The side panels are secured by a chrome plated pin onto which two guides and a spring are secured by a spring pin which is a discontinued item. I couldn’t find any correct size spring pins online other than in China so I tried a local ironmonger shop which is something of an Aladdins cave. They have a very large tool section together with plumbing, electricals, household stuff etc. I asked the assistant in the tool section whether they had any spring pins and explained they were similar to roll pins. He said they had a variety and led me thro to the kitchen department to some rolling pins  Not the first time my Yorkshire accent has confused the Scottish locals . Anyway I the correct size pins came from China fairly quickly.

The main step forward is that I’ve briefly had it running. It starts easily but initially it would rev too high after starting and I would have to cut the ignition very quickly. This turned out to be due to the fast idle being engaged although I thought I’d set it correctly on the bench. After adjusting the fast idle it ticks over nicely at 1400rpm. Blipped the throttle a couple of times and it seems to hang a little so will have to fine tune the air screws, but it doesn’t seem too far off. I don’t have any vacuum gauges so that’s something I’ll have to look at in the near future.

When initially reassembling the carbs I fitted the springs and air screws from the Keyster kit, thought better of it and put the original screws back but left the Keyster springs in. Today while checking the carbs over I took the airscrews and springs out and noticed some very fine bright metallic particles on my fingers. These were coming off the plating on the Keyster springs so I replaced them with the originals.

A few more things to check over and complete but should be ready for a trial run midweek.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

That's looking great - I like the Delkevic exhaust system presumably SS as well.

FWIW you might find the spongy front brake improves with use or even overnight whilst standing - on my 400 & 500 as I used repacement DS master cylinders the lever has amost zero free travel.

I have also used Silicone fluid in both systems using a syringe to push fluid up from the caliper until it appeared in the reservoir - nipped up then filled from the top. I have to admit it took some pushing  on my 300 cc syringe.

[magpie114]

FWIW you might find the spongy front brake improves with use or even overnight whilst standing - on my 400 & 500 as I used repacement DS master cylinders the lever has amost zero free travel.

I hope so - I get the impression that the sponginess is a characteristic of silicone fluid


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