FrankenHonda

[impi]

As I said in my intro thread I was given this little bros 400 by a chap I helped out a few months back, As far as he can remember the bike has been in his garage for about 5 years, he couldn't remember why it was off the road but the fuel tank had the wrong petcock partly fitted, he did have a new one that he had to order from the UK.
At this point I should give a little background info, South Africa never officially imported any 400cc bikes until recently and because of this most dealers will not stock or even order any parts for these bikes so getting parts means either ordering from overseas or getting pattern parts where available, also with my location being a rural area the nearest honda dealer is about 160 km away.
So this bike was also left with a carburetor full of fuel.
I had a brand new battery for it so first thing when I got the bike here was to fit it and turn on the ignition.....Nothing, dead... Bugger. I've just spent a month rewiring my little KLR250 and also had an earth wire on my GS1000G burn out so was getting tired of playing with wires. turned out it was just a fuse so not too bad then, replace the fuse, turn it on bang... fuse gone again.
Three days later (I only get a couple of hours a day to mess in the garage) and I trace the fault to the fuel pump relay, as soon as I take the relay out the fuse doesn't blow so next step is
to bypass the relay to check the pump, that's also dead, I managed to find a pump at the nearest car spares shop that was the right diameter and wasn't too big.
The Carbs. I knew that they needed cleaning so didn't even bother trying to start the bike, just took them off and stripped them, cleaned out all the jets and blew through the passages with an
air gun, cleaned as much brown sticky gunk as I could from the float bowls using a toothbrush and lots of petrol. 20210811_140418_HDR.jpg Put it all back together fitted the carbs, the new pump and the fuel tap in the tank
put some fuel in the tank and hit the start button, the pump filled the carbs so that was a good start but even though the engine turned over fine it wouldn't fire.
Remove a sparkplug and spin the motor... No spark, so back to checking wiring, There was no neutral light on so pull the idiot light cluster out and check with a multi meter, nothing. find the neutral switch and check it, it's stuck so a bit of lubrication and a couple of taps with something smaller than my favorite hammer and it works again, still no spark, all the other safety switches are
all bypassed so that's not the problem, Another coupe of days and I finally find the fault, I did all the tests listed in the hawk manual and found no signal from the pick ups to the cdi, there is a small connector block hidden behind the frame rail near the headstock that had been pulled apart, It was corroded and covered in dirt so I cleaned it as best as I could, plugged it in and yes we have a spark. but still not firing up.
remove the carbs again, check everything again and find both pilot jets blocked again and a problem with the choke circuit, had to leave it for a couple of days to have a look at a neighbors sons bike, an Italjet from the 70's that he just bought (he's only 8 so I wanted to try to get it running for him as quick as I can,)
This morning my plans got changed so I had a couple of free hours to play with the bros. I put the carbs back together and fitted them added some fuel to the tank and hooked it up temporarily
and turned on the ignition, gave it a few seconds for the pump to get the carbs wet and hit the button, It cranked over for a couple of turns then started to show signs of life, I opened the choke and it started,
IT LIVES
Now that I know it does have life in it I can start repairing all the other things, like finding a new front brake reservoir as the old one had emptied itsself all over the front mudguard due to perished seals and giving it some new oil,( the previous owner didn't know there was an oil filter on the bike so I have no idea when it was last changed.
I'm going to start calling this thing FrankenHonda as it's going to end up as a colection of whatever I can find that will fit and work to get it roadworthy again.
I have already changed the fork seals and fitted a pair of Yamaha rear indicators, going to a bike shop tomorrow to see what I can get to fit the other bits that are wrong or broken.
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20210811_140912.jpg

[impi]

So just a small update.
I ordered a new generic front brake resovoir and while I waited for it to come I started to do something about the decals on the tank as one of them had started to peel off the tank and the stains on the tailpiece.
I used a hot air gun to soften the stickers and as I began to pull the first one away the paint came with it. So lets strip it all and spray it.
Again not what I wanted to do but still it passes the time.
Anyway after 4 weeks the shop finally gets my front brake in and i get it fitted. Now the front caliper has seized somy next job is to try to free it. I'm in two minds which way to do this.. Either I strip the caliper and free the pistons or I take the bike out with a big rubber mallet to keep smacking it every time I use the brake until it is free.
Probably will strip it but the other way sounds more fun. 20211001_131636.jpg 20211001_132525_HDR.jpg 20211001_131619.jpg

[6]

You got lucky there man!

The stock hawk comes with decals UNDER the clear coat. It's an absolute nightmare getting them off and by the time you do you are down to bare metal. Whoever painted that last time did you a solid.


Cool that it's running and has some life. Caliper rebuild is the cheap and easy way out of that. Assuming you can get the pistons to blow or pump out you should be able to get it done in an hour. Or find a 6 pot and do the Lenec mod

[impi]

Cool that it's running and has some life. Caliper rebuild is the cheap and easy way out of that. Assuming you can get the pistons to blow or pump out you should be able to get it done in an hour. Or find a 6 pot and do the Lenec mod

Would be nice to just get something else but trying to get anything over here can be a nightmare. 4 weeks to get my resovoir and its just a cheep generic part. I've spoken to someone in our village that waited a year for a part to fix her car.

[6]

Would be nice to just get something else but trying to get anything over here can be a nightmare. 4 weeks to get my resovoir and its just a cheep generic part. I've spoken to someone in our village that waited a year for a part to fix her car.

Damn. That's rough!

Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. So no two day shipping where you are? No Amazon prime?

[impi]

Damn. That's rough!

Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. So no two day shipping where you are? No Amazon prime?

East Coast of south Africa, 160km from the nearest honda dealer although there is a bike shop nearer but the owner is a rip off artist who's knowledge of bikes is very limited.
amazon stopped shipping here as a lot of packages disappeared, no ebay and even the local post office closed for not paying the rent. it's "make a plan " country

[impi]

20211008_134749_HDR.jpg 20211008_120143_HDR.jpg got a bit of paint on the bike and threw it back together so I could give it a test run.
Sounded a bit rough and didn't want to idle properly. I may have to see if I can find some new jets as the original ones were that corroded that I couldn't even see what sizes they were. I may have got them mixed up as I didn't know that the front was a different size to the rear when I put them back together. Will have a look at the plugs in the next day or so.
Once it was out on the road it accelerated well so it could even be pilot jet settings. I'll have a play with it and see what happens

[6]

20211008_134749_HDR.jpg 20211008_120143_HDR.jpg got a bit of paint on the bike and threw it back together so I could give it a test run.
Sounded a bit rough and didn't want to idle properly. I may have to see if I can find some new jets as the original ones were that corroded that I couldn't even see what sizes they were. I may have got them mixed up as I didn't know that the front was a different size to the rear when I put them back together. Will have a look at the plugs in the next day or so.
Once it was out on the road it accelerated well so it could even be pilot jet settings. I'll have a play with it and see what happens

Pilots are the hardest to get clean. Try getting a strand of stranded wire through them.

It has to be wild living out there. What do you d for work?

[impi]

I did actually use a strand of wire to clean them. Took ages to get it through as the jets were solid with dried petrol residue.
As for work I'm a carpenter semi retired and restoring a 200 yer old stone cottage that we bought as a retirement project.

[6]

I did actually use a strand of wire to clean them. Took ages to get it through as the jets were solid with dried petrol residue.
As for work I'm a carpenter semi retired and restoring a 200 yer old stone cottage that we bought as a retirement project.

Love to sit down and have a beer with you.... Bet you have some wild stories.

That's a long shot I ever end up in your next of the woods... But who knows, never thought I'd end up here so...

How did you end up out there? Not trying to hijack your tread, just very intrigued.

[6]

And did you check the intake boots for leaks? That could be some of your issue.

[squirrelman]

if you can't get a .010" steel wire through the idle jets, they're not clean, and be sure to do the same on the side holes.

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[The Cheese]

Squirrel, are those chrome covers from another bike? Vt600?

[impi]

Love to sit down and have a beer with you.... Bet you have some wild stories.

That's a long shot I ever end up in your next of the woods... But who knows, never thought I'd end up here so...

How did you end up out there? Not trying to hijack your tread, just very intrigued.

Beer is always welcome as is talking about bikes and stuff.
I ended up here after getting married to a woman from South Africa that I met in the UK. Been here for 16 years this time.

[impi]

Back to the bike, Last week I took it out for its first road trip/test ride. First problem was it didn't want to start, I turned off the fuel tap and it seems as if the fuel had gone from the carbs,(I removed the fuel pump as it seemed to be too powerful and was leaking at a few of the joints even with hose clamps on) once started as I said before it was rough idling but cleared once out on the road. Anyway I didn't want to go too far first trip so just did about 20km to get the general feel. The first thing I did notice is that compered to other bikes of the same type that I had the front brake is bad... very bad. On the way in to our village is a hill with a 4 way stop at the bottom, well I wasn't going quick and I still couldn't stop in time. In hindsight I probably should have started braking earlier as the pads were brand new and not scrubbed in. Just goes to show that it doesn't matter how many years you have ridden for (over 40 in my case) you can still make simple mistakes.
Once out of the village and onto the main road I opened it up, 130 kph at 6000rpm I thought was good until I opened the throttle a bit more and the revs rose but the speed didn't, clutch slip... just what I need. Now I'm going to have to open her up to see what the problem is, I've never had a clutch slip due to not being used for a long time so I presume that there must be excessive wear even though the bike has only done 43000km.
luckily now things are opening up I have a family member coming out from the UK soon so will try to get what I need to them so they can bring it here.
I haven't managed to look at the bike during the week so not sure of the jetting yet but on the plus side it started first touch this time so maybe the carbs just needed a bit of fuel flowing through them to clear the last bit of gunk out of the jets. will be spending a bit less time on the bike for a couple of weeks as I have another project to do before mid November.