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Abarth’s 1972 Honda CB350k Cafe Racer


Abarth

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27 minutes ago, Abarth said:

This is it with its park lights on in full sun. And the other is with the brake on. 

I reckon there's a few products here that aren't in the aliexpress café racer thread? Would be good to add them as I hope to be doing some shopping if the CL50 sells, what size is your headlight? I think I need a 7"...

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Pretty much all the AliExpress stuff is in that thread. Only thing that’s missing are the gear linkages but they are fairly generic.

All the other stuff was brought from 4into1, David Silver Spares, Joker Machine and Cognito Moto in the states. 

The headlight on it’s a 7 inch, that was just off Trademe came from Ozzy.

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One step forward five back.

The starter motor was spinning up but not engaging the crank. Popped the alternator cover off to have a look what’s going on.

Chain and cog mech looks all good so it’s the roller mechanism behind the alternator rotor. Dang. Luckily the Honda engineers have a rotor pulling tool called the rear axel. 
 

The rear wheel had to come off anyways so no drama there. 
 

Jammed the bolt in and kept turning till it cracked the tapper and off it came. 
 

Now two of the three rollers popped out and the other one was stuck. Bingo! After a bit of CRC and a tap with the hammer it came flying out wit the spring following it. 
 

 

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Took all the bits off that need chroming or bright zinc, wasn’t going to go this hard out with the bike but with everything else looking mint these bits stand out hard. 
 

Can anyone recommend a good electro player in Auckland?

Ran the battery down while setting up the electrics, chucked it back on charge and now it’s fkd, probably should invest in a lithium battery charger haha. Damit.

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Stuck the other badge on with 3m double sided tape. Found a spare points contact set in a box full of my others Hondas spare parts. Fitted those up all nice. 

Only battery box to go now, picked up some reasonably thick alloy sheet which I’ll rivet onto the original cut down battery box.

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Send some bits away to get chromed and bright zinc plated.

Fresh chrome looks amazing, points cover and the suspension fork bolts are now perfect. Wasn’t cheap but those parts aren’t available new anymore. To be fair they were pitted badly and most of the time was probably spent tidying up the parts before chroming. 
 

The bright zinc was super cheap to get plated, like $20. However no prep is done. If I’d known I’d have polished out the pitting marks more but for 20 bucks it look a million times better than it did. 

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Ok so had an issue where the rear wheel always sat to the left when bolted up.

Thought this was due to a inner wheel collar not being present. Found one and popped that in but still sitting to the left.

Good thing is that I can test the wheel on my other Honda. Did that and it sits bang in the middle so it’s not a lacing rim offset issue.

I then placed the wheel in its most straightest position I could measuring off the top shock mounts each end of the tyre

Seems like it’s the swing arm itself that’s a bit Swiss cheesed, 95% sure it’s not the frame as it’s inside the swing arm that’s sitting funny. 
 

Got a new swing arm on order as I cbf’d pulling the swing arm out of my other one. This Honda has been a basket case hahaha!

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Fitted the Cafe honda’s rear wheel to check if it sat centre. Fits perfectly in the middle, hella flush on the guards. 

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1 hour ago, xsinclairx said:

How does the chain look when it’s on?

If I use a piece of string and straight line it from the engine cog to the rear sprocket it’s off. 
 

Got a new swing arm on the way so I’ll fit that and see how it looks. If it’s all good I’ll strip the paint off it and hit it with the left over black 2k I painted the rest of the frame in.

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Ok so it was the swing arm that was bent.

Got a second hand one and banged it in for a test fit, sat perfect! 
 

Stripped off all the old paint and surface rust then brushed on some rust converter to kill all the rust in the corners. Here is as it sits now. Next is stripping again back to bare metal and hit it with the etch prime then in the 2k black. Easy.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Been working on this, the swing arm and battery box are now in iso primer but all good that can stay like that till lock down ends

Did the final timing tune with the points, replaced all the screws which were all rounded from years adjustment and tidied it up in there. Fitted the new chrome cover too, so bling!

Next job is the starter solenoid, continuing the theme of most things being fkd on this bike the solenoid was no different. Took the solenoid apart and cleaned it all inside with contact cleaner and vola works perfect. 

Everything that has push button electronics is working as it should. Only speedo sensor for the motogadget to go. 

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