CB350F Restoration by royhall (NOW FINISHED)

[royhall]

Bryan. Some photos of the shells. Cheers.

[Trigger]

A few score marks on those.

[Bryanj]

Don't like No's 2 & 4 lower or 5 upper, rest i would reuse

[royhall]

Thanks for your help guys. After consideration, I think I will change them all. Probably the safest way to go and hey, its only money. 

[royhall]

Hi all.
Going to order some new shells, but first I think I had better run the sizes past you first as its not exactly simple the first time around. The code on the back of the crankcases are as the photo.

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I am assuming from the Clymer manual that I will be ordering 6 Brown shells & 4 Green shells for the mains.
The conrods are  all marked 2 on one side and C on the other side. Does that mean 8 Green shells? They also have a cast in mark of S2A on one of the rods and S3A on the other 3. Am I correct with the shells?

Many thanks. Roy.

[royhall]

Cheers Oddjob, its more complicated than I first thought. I think I get it now though. Letters on the casting are the OD of the shells, on the cranks its the ID of the shells, so to speak. So the table refers to two measurements. By gad, I think the boys got it!!!

[royhall]

Okay guys, what happens when the lettering on the crank is just simply not visible. Have carefully miked the journals after checking the mike with slip gauges. They all mike the same at 1.2590" and that is the boundary between one colour and another. Now I'm properly stuck for what to do. I can only get 4 numbers off the crank 1A, 2A, !A, 2 and that's it? Letters on the back of the crankcase are BBBCC. How do I proceed. Cheers.

[royhall]

Okay got some numbers, picture below. Its the picture from the other thread so ignore the white lettering mine is the black marker pen. Certain of them all except the very left one, could be a 1 or 2 but my guess is 2. That web is a bit messy as it's been weight drilled right where the marking should be. They all mike up exactly the same at 1.2590" mains and big ends. All the conrods are C2. Casing stamps are BBBCC. There are also some bits of colour left on the sides of the shells (not enough to be reliable) but will use to try to double check the left main journal.

So if somebody can check my homework for me, this is what I get.

All big ends are 2A (yellow)

Mains are: B2 (brown), B1 (Green), B2 (brown), C1 (brown), C2 (black), What do I do about this Black one as they are obselete.

Hope that's all correct. Thanks everyone especially Oddjob, man your a star.

[royhall]

This site has some left

http://www.hondarestoration.com/partNumberResults.asp?partNumber=13314-333-003

Due to postage it may be better and possibly cheaper to buy as many of the shells from there as they have, they have a couple of browns, some greens but no yellow rod shells

Checked your results and they seem spot on.

Checked them out, they are Blue AA not Black A. (13315-333-003). Blacks are discontinued everywhere it appears. The journal mikes up exactly the same as the C1 Brown next to it, so not sure why it should be a different shell. Perhaps Honda weren't that accurate in 1972? Not sure what to do.

[royhall]

They don't have them either. Been through every website that Google threw up this afternoon, it was a long two hours. Appears that Blacks are completely discontinued every site says the same. Don't know why I cant just use a brown. Its a C2 on paper but it mikes up exactly the same as the C1 next to it. Pretty sure I wont be getting a Black anytime soon, so will have to make a decision based on actual measurements rather than 43 year old numbers. What do you think.

[Bryanj]

The only supplier I have ever had success with for obsolete parts is WesternHills Honda. You will need to email them with a part number to see if they can get or even have them. Few years back they got me a couple of the difficult 500 selector and didn't charge over the top either

[ColCB400 4]

I have had this problem recently with my 400 four.
Searched for days for 4No main bearing yellow shells, read some stuff and some folks seemed to think the tolerances were so fine it didn't matter. An engineer supplier I use told me it wont matter, he was totally sure and has worked on engine set ups for years.

I resigned myself to using a shell size down making the journal effectively loose, bought the shells.

Eventually found a supplier in the states with the shells I needed, bought and fitted them.
I confess I have never seen black or blue for sale but maybe brown.

I have 4 green ones if ya want em part number 13317-333-003.

btw nice project

[royhall]

Couldn't agree with you more Col. Don't really trust the numbers and letters thing. I spent the first 20 years of my working life as a Toolmaker (precision engineer) and have virtually every precision measuring device ever invented. So tomorrow am going to measure the casing bores and crankshaft journals to the 1/10th thou then make my own decision on the shells. Honda used production (fast) techniques to measure these parameters 43 years ago, and without sounding like a clever dick, I can carefully measure these components better than they did. Will then compare my results to there's and see where I am then. I am willing to bet I find errors!!

[Bryanj]

Honda used air gauges on the line mate, incredibly accurate

[royhall]

Good point Bryan. But a good quality micrometer and a gentle hand are also incredibly accurate, and my measurements are not agreeing with there's. 43 Years of use may have made some difference. Going to have to go with the actual measurements not what they were historically as two of the crank numbers are so light and hard to see its really a best guess. Then the black shells are unobtainable anyway. Will do the sums tomorrow and see what comes out. They may end up tallying with Honda's numbers anyway? Cheers Roy.