'70 CB 450 Has Arrived

Well, I took delivery of my new '70 CB450 Project. My intent is to make this a longer term project in such a way that I can ride it most of the time. I'll try and post up some good pictures of the "as unloaded" condition.

Right away there are a few things that I need.

• The adjustable clubman handlebars will be replaced (they're in very good condition if someone has a good set of stock CB450 bars they want to trade.
  The fork boots are torn/missing but it looks like those are still avaliable from Honda.
  I won an auction on eBay tonight for a Tach that some scuffing on the side case but I think I can swap the case with the good one from the existing tach. Either way, for $$20 I couldn't pass it up.
  It needs a battery too but kick starts pretty easily.

The biggest problem is that it doesn't have any grunt and runs poorly. It starts easily and idles smoothly but is lacking power. I did a compression check as soon as I got home in the dark driveway and found the right side at 160psi and the left at a measly 100psi. Sooooooo, it obvious what I need to attack first. Before I get all depressed, I'll check the valves tomorrow to make sure they're not too tight. The top end is very quiet so I can't tell anything from just listening. The condition of the spark plug holes was miserable and I had to use a thread cleaning tool to get the plugs back in without excessive binding.

The other symptom that tells me it might not be the valves is that it's blowing significant smoke out of the breather tube and it's pretty oily down at the breather tube exit.

I got a Clymer manual with the bike so I need to tear into that quickly since I've read hear (and elsewhere) that the valve adjustments can be more difficult than the average valve adjustment and certainly more critical than my CL350.

I took some grief from my wife over how much I've spent on the CL350 so I promised I'd do this one on the cheap, (or at least as cheaply as possible for me).