I was surfing craigslist the other day and look what popped up, this great old CB750 with less than 13,000 miles on it. For what the dude was asking, I knew it was going to move fast, so I called and informed him that he'd have no trouble at all selling it at 800 bucks, and that I called dibs and of course was not going to haggle with him.  So I went over there and sure enough, his phone was ringing off the hook.  He said he got 25 calls by the time I got there, and his wife fielded about 5 more by the time I bought it.  He honored the price. I think people are just gaga for these old CBs  And I was not looking for a CB in particular.. just any old "project" sort of bike that was cheap. After way too many false starts, with the scammers and junk dealers turning good deals into bad.. I think I finally nailed one. A Motorcycle I Will Not Lose Money On.  As a further head start, the dude gave me a Clymers manual for it.

I had a minor adventure getting it home, it was sputtering on 3 cylinders, ran out of gas, refilled, limped it home. It sat for a week while I was busy with work, kids, general obligations.

Today I cleaned it up, took the sissy bar off, cleaned the plugs, got all 4 cylinders going (intermittently, I think it needs "points" or something) and stitched up the seat.  It has surprising acceleration for a bike this old.

I think it will turn out well. The problems that it has, don't seem like they'll be that expensive to fix.. rebuild front caliper, new head gasket, new rear turn signals, figure out what's up with the ignition, new starter relay, and lube and flush everything.

Think I did okay?

I know about sohc4 now, thanks for the tip, my CB brotha' (update your CB500 thread).  

I'll need all the info I can get, seeing as how I have never tried to redo a bike this old, or with 4 cylinders and 4 carbs (manometer?? huh??) or one this heavy and big a displacement. I'll post updates and pics as I get further into it.

still collecting parts.
I have to rebuild the front caliper, it was corroded solid.
there's a guy that selling phenolic pistons, that sucka won't corrode again.

Niiiice!    


omg this would go great with my new toy!
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1333547470


I have a bit of experience with oldish 4 cylinder hondas,
these age very gracefully thanks to high quality components,
electronics, wiring and alloys, still the one problem I always  
seem to find was intake air/gasmix leaks in the carbs and
of course dirty, crusty mineralized carb bowls, so seafoam
and an ultrasonic bath to the rescue!

(Those cheapy jewelry ultrasonic baths, even though
they are a bit on the small side, work amazingly well).

Congrats on the find  

Stimpy - FSO wrote on 04/23/12 at 04:57:53:


The guys I have talked to would agree that it has carb problems, both in general and with this example.  I am going to look into that and change the oil before I run the motor again, because there is gas in the oil.  

Congrats on the sidecar purchase.. I agree this bike would pull it around nicely and probably not even notice the extra weight    and I'd cut ya a smokin good deal if you were nearby.

But I am going the other way with it.. already took off the touring stuff and sold it to pay for new rear signals.  

Hmm maybe this is a good excuse to finally get that HarborFreight ultrasonic cleaner.. seems like Gyrobob recommended one he is happy with.

I got one of those too... can't tell you if it worked or not, I had no issues though.  Every thing I threw in there came out clean.  Well except for the bottom of the bowls which had a tar like substance that took acetone and elbow grease to remove.

There are 2 or 3 types of carb kits available,
1 with everything, gaskets, orings, jets and float valve.
1 with gaskets and orings and a mix of jets and or float valve.
and a oem 1 with just gaskets and orings.  this is the one you want unless you know you want to replace everything.

They recommend using the original jets because they are better matched.

keep each set of carbs parts separate for that reason.

Stellar find. My roommate just jumped on a 77 GS550 off CL. It is a project back as well and he is stoked. Cant find enough time outside of class to get his fix working on it. GSs aren't as collectible as the CBs from what I know. But he is a die hard suzi fan since his grandpa owmed a shop. Still has some of the original shop tools in his box to boot.

Not a bad find at all. If you want a bunch of period correct looking stuff for it try Omar's Dirt Track Racing, Z-1 Enterprises, believe it or not Bike Bandit...

Buy a copy of Cafe Racer magazine, great sources in there for old (and I mean like my 1963 CL72 250 Scrambler old) Honda parts. And a lot of it is new old stock real deal oem Honda parts.

I rode a CB350F for a while in college. Beware the old Honda starter...