Honda CB400NA Superdream - new money puddle.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Today I manged to undo all 8 of the screws that hold the two carbs together, a couple were quite stubborn but came out eventually.Its a sort of upper and lower bracket arragement rather than a normal manifold. The two brackets have quite bad surface corrosion, they are a yellowish colour originally I think. Is this some sort of Zinc plated finish?

Is there an inexpensive way to improve the appearance, Gold coloured metallic paint perhaps if it can take the heat?

[taysidedragon]

Ted, Without seeing it, hard to be sure. Probably zinc plated, yellow passivated.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Thanks, I couldn't remember the yellow passivated expression, I'll see if my local platers offer an affordable service.

[Laverda Dave]

I collected these items for the TL125 yesterday Ted. £40 in total although I did clean them all up, de-burred and wire brushed everything before I took them in.

[Oddjob]

I think they left the yellow parts in the passivate a bit too long Dave, that's damn near gold, it's supposed to be a light yellow.

[Laverda Dave]

I think it's the flash on the camera Ken, its much darker than that in real life. The coil holder is a difficult part to plate apparently because its laminated the passivate drips out from between the laminations as its drying causing streaking (although Gary the plater has been in the ttrade for so long he doesn't get that problem).

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

My M3 X5 x 0.5 mm brass washers arrived a couple of days ago, they are a perfect fit on my mixture screw fitting.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

My brother came over to help me fit the rear drive hub circlip yesterday, I could not press the chain ring down and fit the big circlip on my own. What a difference an extra pair of hands made. He actually come over to help me move some wooden shelving out of the rear bedroom ready for the new boiler installation next month.

Today I thought I could just fit the new genuine Honda Dust seal on the rear hub on my own. I've almost had it fitted twice for it to let go again.

Is there a trick to this or is it a case of needing another pair of hands holding one side in place whilst the assistant pushes the other half of the inner lip over the oversize washer ?

I started with a dry dust seal, then using Red Rubber grease, I've been closest to success with the use of grease.

[Bryanj]

You need an army of trained spiders with mechanical aptitued Ted or just determination and luck

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

You need an army of trained spiders with mechanical aptitued Ted or just determination and luck

As I have fitted new drive cushions I suspect I will need an extra pair of hands to press down on the sprocket, this gives a slightly wider gap for the lip to fit over the washer. It will have to wait for my brother to help me.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Finally fitted the drive hub dust seal, two pairs of hands made the difference - thanks brother Paul. ( He isn't a Monk)

Both carbs now cleaned, assembled then attached to the pair of mounting brackets.

Next task will be fitting the rear wheel into the frame to check if the 500T swing arm is fully suitable. There will be an unknown drop in rear ride height