Deacon's CB350 - Small Steps

[HerrDeacon]

I'm not totally finished my other project, but since I'm not going to be selling it until spring I'll just pick at it over the winter. I wanted to start on the 350 before winter set in so that I could try and get it started so that I could do a bit of evaluation, especially with regard to compression.

I picked this bike up back in late October. Before even viewing the bike I pretty much decided to buy it. These bikes are, for some reason, very rare around here. This is the first vintage Japanese twin I've seen for sale in the past two years of looking, so I couldn't pass this one up. He was asking $395 but I was able to get it for $360, not a bad deal especially around here where I find bike prices to be really inflated for some reason. The deal only got sweeter as the following week he gave me a box of extra parts he had laying around for free. Great score as it contained a brand new petcock, points, condenser, brake shoes, throttle cable, spokes, plugs, plug caps, as well as some other used parts. Very generous of the seller as this was not part of the original sale, really appreciated it.

I'll be going the cafe route with this bike, but will be keeping the stock parts so that I can return it to original look if I want to change back in the future. This project is going to be a very slow and long one (especially compared to the 400 project) as I'm cash strapped and so I'll just have to work on it as funds allow. I'm not in a rush anyway as I have a daily rider anyway. I can relax and take my time.  The sale of 400 in the spring will hopefully help things along.

Here is how it looked as I bought it, pretty much complete just missing a few things like tach cover, battery, fuel line and a few small things. I'm far from an expert but I don't think the mufflers are original. All three of my bikes have this same exhaust. Also, on first glance the tires looked fairly decent (lots of tread) but on closer inspection the rear is totally dry rotted. Front and rear didn't match anyway so I'll get new ones just before putting it on the road.





Overall its not in too bad a shape, far from great, but very workable. The frame has some surface rust. I was hoping the chrome on the wheels would be good but there is a fair bit of rust, looks like I'll have to end up stripping and painting them.  :cry:

[HerrDeacon]

Before winter hits I really wanted to start up the bike to see how it runs, check compression and run through the gears. So I changed the oil, put some fresh gas in, put on a new fuel hose and hooked up my KZ battery. No luck, it turned over but wouldn't catch  Never had much time so I just left it at that. The ignition bits looked real rusty so I figured they might be the culprit.

Pulled the right side carb off last night and found at least one of the causes of it not starting, the engine wasn't getting any gas. Before pulling the carb I unscrewed the drain screw to get all the gas out...not a drop came out, totally dry.    Here is why...





Looks like I have my work cut out for me here  

[Rocan]

doesnt look TOO bad...

some soaking in carb cleaner for a day or two should get rid of that varnish. hit the exterior with a soda blast and those carbs will look new.

good luck with the build!

[jay_kent]

Boil those carbs in lemon juice & water for a couple of hours that'll certainly help then a little soda blast like rocan says and you'll be well on your way to getting those clean. Just remember to pull out all of you jets and tubes first. I put those in a heat  proof jar then drop them in the pot with your carbs. that way they won't get lost.

Jay

[alfisto]

 I was hoping the chrome on the wheels would be good but there is a fair bit of rust, looks like I'll have to end up stripping and painting them.  :cry:


[/quote]

Don't strip them yet! If thats the worst of the rust on those wheels, you should be able to get them looking pretty good with some steel wool. I'd get some grade #000 steel wool and spend a little time on them. Follow up with a micro-fiber and some sort of chrome polish and see how it looks.

[HerrDeacon]

You may be right alfisto (I hope you are). It's going to be a while before I get to that part of the project, so I've sprayed them with RustCheck to prevent further rusting. I'll try your recommendation when I get to that part., thanks.

I've heard good things about the lemon juice boil but I don't have any setup where I could do that. I'll have to stick with carb cleaner for now and see how that goes.

[HerrDeacon]

I finished off cleaning the carbs, then checked/adjusted the points, valve clearances and cleaned the oil filter. Was really hoping with all this that it would start up, but no luck.  The Rock is supposed to be getting a fair amount of snow today so I drained off all the gas and decided to wait until spring to get it running. No big deal as I have plenty of things to keep me busy over the winter, although I was really hoping to get a compression reading. I did do a cold reading just to get an idea and both cylinders were around 160psi, so I should be alright...I hope.

Also, yesterday I tried to remove the foot pegs but I'm running into a stubborn bolt, it just spins and spins without wanting to come out.

One thing that is annoying that I wasn't aware of is that the side stand is part of the whole foot peg assembly, what a pain. Since I'll be running rear sets I'll have to now probably weld the side stand to the frame. No big deal, but just something I wasn't considering.

[Maritime]

Nice start Deacon.  I know what you mean about snow, woke up to 6" covering everything outside.  Oh well.  Time to dig out the shovels.

Cheers.

[78kz]

Cool project.
I used to have 2 CB350s. Wish I had kept them.
I'll be watching your progress, slow as it may be.
I also have a slow project on the go. Not a Cafe though.

[diesel450]

Nice bike to start with. especially at that price. Where are you located? just curious, I've got a few inches of white hell here as well.

[HerrDeacon]

I also have a slow project on the go. Not a Cafe though.

Compared to my last project this is going at a snail's pace. I've been following your progress over on kz650.info, good stuff.

Nice bike to start with. especially at that price. Where are you located? just curious, I've got a few inches of white hell here as well.

I'm in Newfoundland, where are you located? We got 38 cm yesterday. Sick of it already. 

[diesel450]

You're just a bit downeast of me, I'm in Portland, ME. I hate snow.

[HerrDeacon]

Small update. Removed the fork covers and found a nice crop of rust. I wasn't really surprised but still disappointed. I'll be going with fork gaiters so that will cover up the lower half, but the section between the trees will be the problem. I tried removed the chrome caps that are attached to the lower forks but couldn't budge them. I remember reading that they twist off. I'll try again when I start work on them.

Also, finally got the frame stripped, at least as much as I can at this moment. I need to keep the engine and wheels on at the moment so I can work out the ergonomics. I need to buy a set of clip-ons and start work on making rear sets. I've seen a few threads here on building your own, so I'm going to give it a try. Once I have the bars and rear sets done, I'll then work on the tank and seat. I want to do all this before removing the engine.

As you can see from the pic, the tach cover and upper engine mount is missing. I'll have to keep an eye out for these.

Rusty forks:


Stripped frame:

[two wheels of hell]

Very cool. I just picked up a '73. I will get it posted soon. Probably similar condition. I think you got a very good deal especially when you factor the box of parts. Keep us posted.

[mikeadamstattoo]

cool find. i like 350s and 360s alot. cant ait to see what becomes of it