My winter project

Washed the dust off of my 1979 CBX that has been in storage since the fall of 1988. It needs a bit of TLC, but I'm hoping to have it back on the road this spring.



Carbs are pretty nasty as it wasn't put away well. Takes a bit of ultra sonic and soaking with PB Blaster to get some of the tiny jets out without damaging them...



Over 300 bits and pieces in that rack of 6 28mm Keihin carburetors! Should keep me busy for a few days.

 

Since 88 wow, nice bike

 

Nice looking bike. I know that on Market they are selling or listed for $16K. Good size club here in Wisconsin of CBX riders. I remember the day they could not sell them at the dealers and now days they are a wonderful collector bike.

Thanks for the pic of the carbs, I wonder how they tied the fuel tubs together. Guessing it was not on a side stand and that is why one bank had fuel in it?

 

Wow, 6 Carbs to rebuild/clean?
You doing a full rebuild and disassembly or just opening up and spray cleaning?

 

Doing a complete rebuild. Got my kit from Randakk's yesterday... also picked up choke shaft seals & air tee's.

 

That should keep you busy and out of trouble for awhile! Good Luck.

 

These carbs have a pressed in idle jet that needs to come out to get everything squeaky clean.

First I measured how deep down the tower it was to the top of the jet...

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Marked a drill bit to that depth + 4mm and drilled a pilot hole...

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Tapped the hole with 4-40 thread...

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Then used a stainless steel screw with a fender washer and a nut to extract the jet...

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I soaked the jets over night with PB blaster and although it takes a bit of time, they came out pretty easy.

I'm hoping to start putting the first half of the rack back together tomorrow.

 

Impressive!

 

Thank you Sir! My carb rebuilding skills are in large part due to the excellent content on the subject that YOU have posted on this site.

 

They left no way to push out from the other side?
What evil Engineer did this?

The Pilot Jet on my XS650 screws out and that design would have fit in your carb if they wanted to do it.
Did they try to use "Chinese" Engineering there for "make it work, make it cheap and ship it out". Does not make sense for such a bike.

Your either ingenious, have done something like this before or both

 

LOL There are several models of older Hondas that have carbs with this issue. I believe CX500 and some GL1000 models... don't quote me on that, but there were others.

I'm sure the engineers at Keihin had a reason for this design, but I've never run across the explanation.

 

Carbs 1, 2, & 3 done and dusted... Hope to do 4, 5, & 6 next week!

 

Carbs rebuilt and rack put back together.....



Getting choke to work smoothly was a bit fiddly. Spent about half an hour until I realized it was just a lack of lube after the ultrasonic. A drop of lube here and one there and all was right with the world again.

Carb tops have a bit of stain around the fuel inlet pipe so I might do a bit of polishing there before putting them back in. Waiting for float valves from PJ Motorsports in Oregon before I can set float height. Also have new carb boots on the engine side coming. Rubber on the air cleaner side is still nice and pliable.



Checking the overflow tubes for cracks while I'm waiting on the parts.

 

How hard was it to pull the 6 carbs off the boots?
I'll be curious also when you put them back in

Also how is the condition of the petcock and tank sitting that long?

 

The carbs came off pretty easy. You have to "drop" the engine to get the carbs out. You remove all the motor mounts except the bottom one on the rear of the engine and when you lower the engine it swings forward and down. Makes it kinda nice to work on getting the carbs in and out.

Yep me too! Mike Nixon says getting the cables hooked up is the hardest part of putting the carbs back in. I'll let you know how it goes. I've got new boots for the engine side of the carbs. The ones on the air filter side are still very soft and pliable.

The petcock is shot. It is riveted together so there is no taking it apart to clean or rebuild. Replacements are easy to come by so it's not an issue. The tank was nearly full of awful smelling 30+ year old gas and rust. It's full of vinegar right now and looks to be cleaning up very well. Going to remove the vinegar tomorrow and give it a good once over to see if it's good to go!

After testing all the bowls, only one leaked fuel. It was leaking where the tube is pressed into the bottom of the bowl. Fluxed it up and did a solder job on it. No more leaking and the tube is nice and sturdy again. I've never had one do that before.

Going to do some cleaning and bench sync the carbs while waiting for the parts need before I can put the carbs back on. With a bit of luck, I'll have the parts by mid week next week.

 

Thought I'd bench sync the carbs Friday and in a moment of distraction screwed one of the sync screws until it fell out of the carb. Had to break-down the rack to get it back in place. Afterwards the sync went off without a hitch. As per the service manual, the master carb butterfly sits just behind the bypass hole in the carburetor body. Set the other 5 to match and Bob's your Uncle!

Took the side covers off for a polish and found the Users Manual and the Honda tool kit...





My float valves are in Cincinnati, with a bit of luck they will be delivered tomorrow! Get them installed, set float height and do a quick checks for leaks and it will be time to put the carbs back on the bike.

 

One of these in my area for sale on FB for $16K.....wow

 

I paid $3800 for this bike back in 1980. It's the only bike I ever bought new.

$16,000 is around the current going rate. One owner all original bikes can bring more than twice that amount though. I've been watching for the past several years to see what I can get out of this one I have. Last May a silver 1979 like mine sold for $37,000 on BAT https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1979-honda-cbx-super-sport-23/

I'm planning on riding this one a bit for next couple of years before I seriously think about letting it go...

 

Carbs are complete! Float valves installed, float height set, and all leak tested. Block of wood holds throttle wide open to help with installing throttle cables.



New boots on the engine side too! Tomorrow is gonna be carb reinstall day.....

 

Pretty and quite impressive.................

 

It lives!!! Took about 4 hours to get the carbs back in and everything else involved reinstalled. Even after all the checking, the #6 carb wanted to overflow at first. Once it was running it settled in and no more drips. Was great to hear this bike run after sitting for the past 36 years.....

All new rubber on the engine side of the carbs


Piece of wood holds the throttle wide open to aid in getting the throttle cables hooked up

 

Good for you! I bet there was a little happy dance when that took off and ran. Very, very cool.

 

Super great it is running. Great work.

 

Great work!

 

Well, bike is all back together. We had some fantastic weather last week and I put a little over 100 miles on it.



I've been riding it like it was new trying to give everything time to loosen up a bit after sitting for 36 years. Clutch was frozen up, but worked it loose on the center stand with a bit of rear brake. It is still a bit noisy, but it's coming around.

The bike starts, idles and runs like a champ. I'm very pleased with how the carbs turned out. It has also cleaned up very well. It's got new tires and an air filter, but it's running on the 1988 spark plugs! Lol



Still have a few things to do between now and spring, but I'm pretty confident it will be ready by the time good weather comes to Ohio.

 

That looks absolutely fantastic! Nice work. 6 times the fun!!

 

Looks awesome. Great work.

 

Very nice job, bike looks great. I forgot how close the tolerance is with that front tire and the fender...wow.

 

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@BallAquatics nice job! That is really pretty, I'm glad for you that it came out so nice.
Well done Sir.

 

Thanks guys. My wife and I used to tour on this bike and getting it back on the road meant a lot to me. Riding it made me feel so good that I'm thinking about taking it on a road trip down to the Wheels Through Time museum and then back north on the Blue Ridge Parkway this spring.

Ordered Mike Nixon's "Charging System" booklet and some shims for the alternator this afternoon. That will be the next task in getting the bike up to snuff.

 

You just don't see those on the road around here. Most are either modern hot rod metrics or Harley style bikes.

 

@BallAquatics if you are going as far from home as Maggie Valley you REALLY need to continue to the Barber Museum if you have never been there. You will be amazed. They have expanded since I was there last so I need to go back too. Between the friendliness of the staff ( they will request you park your bike in the circular driveway by the front door and not just out in the general parking lot), the amazing care and condition of the grounds and the track to the just plain awesomely spectacular-ness of the museum itself you will be stunned. Not to be missed by any true motorcyclist.

 

@Huntchuks don't see them where I live either.

 

Thanks, I'll have to look into that! It's about 300 miles down the road from Wheels Through Time, easy enough to do in a day.....