1979 CB650 Cafe Redo - update march 31

[jay_kent]

I had a partial thread on here awhile back but never kept it up to date so I'll be starting a new one. This was a free 1979 cb650 given to me by a neighbour. Sat in a field for nearly a decade before I got to her.

Here is how she started


Went to this


and finally ended as this






I coudn't get the bike to run well, and there was a couple of things that I wanted to finish, like paint the frame, redo the seat. So with winter coming up it was time to tear her down.







I'll be posting more images later with the engine tear down, my getto homemade tools and blast cabinet later. More images are located at my blog linked in my signature. I've got a few ideas I'll be posting and am looking forward to your ideas and honesty.

Jay

[jay_kent]

So in between my brothers house renovation, (transforming a century old home that was a duplex back to a single family) to kids swim and gymnastic lessons, I have been working on the engine a wee bit. Over the course of the summer I bought an almost complete bike because I needed the Stator, and Rotor for mine to work. Turns out the engine is my guinea pig for the tear down. I tear down the spare then work on mine. Works out well as I'll have two running engines by the end of it.

The one on the left is the 1979 engine, the right is an 1980, the '80 is the spare


The 1979 engine was in better shape, seems like the spare engine was left outside with one spark plug unistalled so it was a wee bit rusty in one cylinder.

here is the cylinder head.


a little bit of carbon build up


not too bad with the pistons


Now It's not that I'm cheap, I'm just resourceful and would rather spend my money on a gasket kit or new part so buying specialty tools is not my strong suit. I'd rather make them so I introduce my recipe for a valve compressor.
Take one unusable 5" C-Clamp, one 3/4" conduit pipe and mix in an earth magnet and voila you're done.



How it sits on the cylinder head


Compressed Valve and keeper remover


Works pretty good actually.

So in the works is polishing all covers and rocker head. Engine will be blasted and painted glossy black. I'm working on a 2 carb for 4 intake setup but I'll be using the BS34 mikuni carbs because I've got 2 sets of those. I've worked on a couple of bikes using these carbs and I like the ease of them and the availability of parts and Jets from places like mikesxs. CDN site is herehttp://www.xs650direct.com/. I'm looking for ideas for a manifold for the 2 into 4 setup. I know the cycle xchange has a setup using vm32s but its for a cb750 and I don't think they sell their manifolds separately.

That's it for now

Jay
http://colt-pixy.com/1979cb650/

[jay_kent]

Quick update, I'm waiting for the gasket kit to come in so I decided to port and polish the heads. This is the first time doing anything like this. Is there anything I should look out for, beware of? I'm mostly taking the casting marks off as well as sculpting the valve guide area. I figure if the grinder doesn't run smooth through the port then the air won't so it'll be ground down.

Comparison Shot of one untouched and one started.


A finished exhaust port


I know that it's not baby bottom smooth but I'm pretty happy with what I've managed to get accomplished.

I'll be running clip-ons this time round so with a spare triple tree top I cut off the handlebar clamps with a sawsall and a metal blade.

Untouched


Touched


My plan is to grind clean, then braze in an aluminum sheet so I can put in LED indicator lights. I'll be running a small tach and speedo so I haven't decided if I'll cut off the mount points for the ignition switch and relocate that or cut off the existing headlight mounting points and get some ears. Decisions, decisions. mostly comes to budget. Either way it would make sense to keep one set of mounting holes to use for the tach and speedo.

Hopefully I'll have something a little more sexy to look at. lol

Jay

[noahdog]

That valve compressing tool is slick. My buddy just bought one online and had to wait a week to get it. He's gonna be pissed when I show him this thread and he realizes we had all the parts needed to make our own just laying around the garage.

[jay_kent]

Bit of an update, I ported and polished the cylinder head over quite a few series of nights. I'm using a Dremel as a I don't have a compressor large enough to  run a die grinder. Started out using a grinding stone where after reading a few tutorials I found that carbide cutters are the way to go. Found one at Princess auto that worked for the Dremel and that sped up the process. and it was only 6 bucks compared to the 20 dollars for actual dremel bits.

here's the results.
Intake port - left rough, people are of the opinon that it acts like the dimples of a golf ball. Air moves faster


Exhaust port - polished


I also polished the cylinder head to reduce carbon build-up and smooth the transition between deck surface and the combustion chamber as there was a bit of an edge that some say can lead to pre-mature detonation.

That's the good, now the bad. After all this I start to lap the valves as the last thing I needed to do before paint. I was having trouble getting the number 3 cylinder intake valve in. When I removed the valve during the tear down it didn't come out with a fight but I thought it was just the valve. As it turns out it's not the valve but the valve guide. FRAK. Now the mystery why the number 3 cylinder was running colder than the rest is solved.
Luckily I bought a spare bike this summer so that head is on the table getting the port and polish done to it. And I checked the valve guides on this one. Guess the good thing is I've got the right tools and the experience so it's going faster.

Got my gasket kit this week as well, it's complete and came in within a week. Good guy that Dan from D's unusual finds on ebay.

more pics up on the blog

Jay

[jay_kent]

Between the usual kids and work, I've been slowly working on this project. The 2nd head is almost finished with the porting and polishing. Amazing how quickly things go with a little experience. Since I and my neighbour who knows a lot about bikes were at our end to why the bike wouldn't run this incident with the valve guide has a positive note it's one less than to trouble shoot when it gets rebuilt this spring.
Decided that its also a good time to replace bearings and seals. The forks had a little oil on them, so new seals it is and a good thing too.




My handy dandy fork seal driver


It feels good to be scratching things off that list.

Since everyone loves a mystery, any guesses on what I'll using this for?


And some concept sketches for the tail section. Just trying to get an idea of a direction.






Steering Stem bearings come in this week and I still need to mock up the bike to figure out the tail section and rear-set positions.

Jay

[jay_kent]

Since it's my intention to blast a couple more motorcycle parts like the spare engines and frames I have kicking around. I thought it'd be wise to build a box so I'm not wasting all that sand outside. Plus it's warmer in the shop. Luckily for me I'm a bit of a pack rat and collect all sorts of stuff. So with the spare wood I had lying around I built my cabinet large enough to put my frame into.

It has a tapered bottom so that the sand will collect and I can brush it all back into a bucket underneath, ready for re-use. It's got a tempered glass top so light can get in. Plexiglass front that I had extra of. I had scrap fireplace screens that I've used for the table for the parts to sit on while they get blasted. The screens allow the sand to pas through.

A hole on the side for the vacuum to collect the finer dust and 2 fluorescent lights up top for extra lighting. Total cost. $4 dollars for the denim jacket from Value Village that I'll be cutting the sleeves off and attaching gloves rather than buying the proper gloves. Mostly because I didn't want to pay for them.







Now I'll get off my ass and get to chopping up the frame, welding on the back hoop and everything else that needs to be done. I'm looking for a late April finish. lol

[dakine_surf]

That cabinet is great!  Only bad part is it will probably last too long...    My buddy built a temporary blast cabinet until he could afford a big one... the thing ended up lasting so long, kinda became a the joke around his shop, he never bought a real one.

[VonYinzer]

Looking good man! Nice work on the cabinet, and those sketches show some serious potential for a crazy build!

[Big Rich]

Wow Jay, I don't know how I overlooked this for so long. Lovin those sketches!

What are you doing about the glove-holes on the cabinet?

[jay_kent]

What are you doing about the glove-holes on the cabinet?

I bought a heavy denim jacket for 4 bucks that I'll cut the sleeves off of, stitch and tuck tape to a pair of gloves. Then I'll cut the arm holes in the plywood smaller than the armholes of the jacket sleeves. I’ll staple the jacket on the outside of the plywood sheet, then either tape or I’ll make a ring that screws it solid to the door.

I’m one cheap mother-Fer. Lol

Thanks for the props for the sketches. Don’t know if I’ll go that extreme on this build but Cresentson over there  had my brain working one day. I’d like to something different though.

Jay

[tWistedWheelz]

Well you have my attention with the salt shaker! Looks like you still have a bit of work to finish up before riding season! Looking good though! Keep it up!

[jay_kent]

Well you have my attention with the salt shaker! Looks like you still have a bit of work to finish up before riding season! Looking good though! Keep it up!

Actually those shakers worked out beautifully. The guts of the tach and speedo fit perfectly inside. I've just got to cut the lens and make the new smaller faces. Still thinking how I'm going to attach it to the trees. Plus I've picked up a sweet piece of 1/8" aluminum to hold the gauges from a thrift store for $1.99. I just like taking things and using them in a different light.

I"m knee deep in it with crunch time. With the wife and 2 kids sick the past week I've be relegated to nurse. This bike was supposed to be finished by my birthday last year so It's the goal this year. My Dad and brother don't let me forget it.

[tWistedWheelz]

I just like taking things and using them in a different light.

Thats cool man! Great thinking! I am big on ^ this too! Check out some of the repurposing I have done on Eileen! I hope you make this riding season, I might catch the end of it, or not!

[troybilt]

You are coming right along man. You are innovative man and that is way cool. All you innovative guys inspire me (listing in Twisted?? ) Saltshaker is cool and so is the cabinet. Wonder if you can line it with something to help extend its life??
Anyhow, I dig the sketches. Was that a gas gauge on the side of one of the tanks?? I like that alot. I think I can see some
Cresent inspiration going on. Sweet man keep at it!