Spark plug wire caps color?

[Mikep328]

Were the ORIGINAL caps on a '76 UK CB400 black or brown? 

[Bryanj]

I want to say grey with metal covers

[TrickyMicky]

I want to say grey with metal covers

Ah Yes!! Very illuminating in the rain on a dark unlit road eh?

[Mikep328]

Interesting - I've only seen brown or black "plastic" on pics of 400s. 

[Bryanj]

NGK which were the go to replacement were either maroon or black

[Mikep328]

When I say "brown," maroon is probably what I'm looking at!    The reason I asked is that I have both the maroon and black NGKs so was initially wondering which color would have been on the bike at the dealer showroom in 1976.  But it sounds like the answer is, "neither."

[Mikep328]

FWIW, I (finally) found a period brochure for the initial CB400 model (pegs on swingarm) and a pic of the engine area shows it with the  plain black (plastic/bakelite, whatever) plug caps which look just like the black NGK caps.

[AshimotoK0]

They were deffo grey with steel BZP metal covers .. I bought NOS originals for my own '75 CB400F last year as a job lot but sadly all of my spare sets are now sold. Most people on here say they were crap anyway and the metal covers were removed ..often ripped off by the supplying dealers. Two of the caps are the same as the early UK CB750's but the centre pair were -323- UK model CB500 Four parts.

[Mikep328]

Very confusing!  One would think the brochure (UK) would have a correct pic but probably it was a pic taken well before it before the 400 actually hit the market.   The brochure would have been available well before the bike appeared at any dealer.  So maybe they changed the plug caps in production OR, maybe they just decided the black caps looked better for the photo shoot!  Interesting stuff, in any case.

[Bryanj]

Probably a pic of a press bike that had had them changed to cope with the rain!

[AshimotoK0]

Very confusing!  One would think the brochure (UK) would have a correct pic but probably it was a pic taken well before it before the 400 actually hit the market.   The brochure would have been available well before the bike appeared at any dealer.  So maybe they changed the plug caps in production OR, maybe they just decided the black caps looked better for the photo shoot!  Interesting stuff, in any case.

The original Honda Press Bike JGC 606N (still around today) was an import  from another market(large indicators etc) and would not have had the metal clad caps when imported.

I think there was a stink when the Kwak H1 500 came out because the triple CDi unit derived HT caused a lot of interference on TV sets.

German models also had the metal clad caps and possibly other Euro countries.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Opel introduced the Metal clad plug caps in around 1972/3 I can't remeber if they were Bosch or AC Delco on the Rekord models - they seemed to fail regularly back then.

[AshimotoK0]

Here is a pic from the 'push-miles' only F2 and an F1 model  that my friend  had with 2k ish miles and bog standard from the factory.

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[Bryanj]

Thats the ones i remember, just about every bike i did a pdi on got the tin bits took off!

[AshimotoK0]

Thats the ones i remember, just about every bike i did a pdi on got the tin bits took off!

Pity you didn't keep the tin bits mate ... worth a few bob now.