[paleodad]

Ear tab repairs

Although we have not posted much lately there has been plenty going on. I had bought a set of ear tabs along with a wiring harness from one of the members here. The ear tabs, although a little bent and having a few small holes in them were in fairly good shape and for the price were worth trying to restore to usable condition. The ones which were on the bike are candidates for a rust pile for sure as they were nearly completely destroyed by rust and not repairable.

I did not feel there was enough metal on the ear tabs to try to brazing the holes for repair, at least not with my limited brazing skills. I contemplated this repair for many days and finally decided JB Weld was the way to go. After using a small file to make sure I had clean metal to adhere to I used masking tape on the inside to keep the JB from pushing to far inside and worked it in a circular motion to make sure it was in good contact with the metal.

Here you can see the small holes. There were probably 4-6 holes in each of the pieces.



JB Weld worked into the holes.



After filing with a metal file I used a body filler to take care of any imperfections. Wet sanded and then sprayed on a primer coat. Both ear tabs turned out great. After three coats of primer with wet sanding between each they are prepped and ready for final paint. Color yet to be determined.

 

[paleodad]

Official Driver

My son went for his DL test a couple weeks ago and after a second try was successful at getting both his DL and Motorcycle license. He has been riding my wife's CRF250L on a regular basis to school when the weather is nice since getting his Lic. Its only a short 15 min drive to school and only 1 stop sign. He has said he really enjoys the ride in the morning to school as it gives him time to relax on the way in, I think he is hooked. Of course now he is suggesting he would like to take my CB450 every once in awhile as well, Ummmmm....... I don't know about that.

 

[paleodad]

Wiring Harness rebuild

The Wiring harness is going to be fun! The harness which was on the bike was cut at some point in its life at the stem. Then all the wires spliced very professionally. You can see in this picture if you zoom in the great splice job. I guess technically that is custom work?


On the harness I bought, the wires from the Alternator had overheated and burned through the wires leaving bare and now very corroded places. The wires on the original spliced harness in that area are good so I am going to rebuild one good harness from the two. My soldering iron would not get hot enough to melt the solder splices on the harness before overheating the wire so I had to purchase a new iron with a higher amperage rating. New iron works really good and has LED lights which help with this small work. Here on the left is the spliced harness which was on the bike and to the right the purchased harness in need of repair.

 

[paleodad]

Ignition switch rebuild

I think in electronics lingo this is called a data dump! Been working on lots of small projects on the bike with 3 or 4 all going simultaneously.

The ignition switch looked okay from the outside but when I turned the key it just did not feel very smooth. I had not torn into a switch yet so I decided it was time to figure it out. The switch is very easy to disassemble and internally not a complicated piece at all, quite easy to clean and restore. Here you can see the corrosion and mess that was inside and this was after an initial cleaning. One of the springs which pushes the brass contacts up against the wire contacts was rusted through and broken. The ball bearings which go in the rotor to give the definitive click in each key position were very corroded and I doubt would have actually rolled as they should. The Ace hardware store had SS ball bearings and springs. The springs were the correct dia. but not the correct length. I measured against the old springs, cut the new ones to length and bent the spring to get a nice flat surface to sit into the holes in the perspective positions. All four springs were made this way. Now it is smooth as butter with very positive clicks when turning the key.

 

[paleodad]

Harness work

Disassembling and rebuilding a harness from two different ones is fairly easy work but its much like trying to sort noodles! I had to un-solder a few wires on each harness to get the pieces I wanted and then graft the wanted pieces back on to the better of the two harnesses. This included removing most of the connectors also of course. Did not take any pictures of that actual process, its pretty straightforward and the only difficulty I had was that with a new iron I still had an issue with melting the solder but eventually I prevailed!

As I stated in an earlier post I use a woven heat shrink material which is super easy to work with, gives a nice clean look and protects the harness well. When pulling it onto the harness you have to slide it down over the entire part of the harness you want covered after you have sorted out the different wire groups. Once sorted, I use some electrical tape on the main part of the harness to isolate the parts which need to be pulled out later. Keep the wire groups isolated from one another so when you pull them out they come out together. I try to keep the number of wires I pull out of any given area to a minimum. I also measure from the end of the harness to where the wires should come out at. this gives me a reference point so when I pull the wires out they will end up where I need them.


When your ready to pull the wires out spread the weave apart, it will open up far enough to get any of the butt connectors through. On some of the largest ones you have to be very careful as you pull them through not to catch the fittings with the individual threads and break them. Patience is key here. Also, on the metal connectors which have been taken out of the connectors, I wrap a small piece of electrical tape around the securely to keep the sharp edges from catching on threads as well. The weave is quite strong but as with anything woven the individual threads do break easily. once you pull all the wires through in a given area just message the weave and it will close up the hole you made.





I am still waiting on another order of heat shrink to arrive which is sized to fit over the smaller parts of the harness. Once those are installed I will heat shrink the whole think together and post a completed picture.

 

[paleodad]

Foot pegs

One of the modifications to the bike we wanted to do was to loose the very large rubber foot pegs. The ones which came on the bike were badly cracked and in need of repair anyway. A few weeks ago when I was at the salvage motorcycle shop I noticed some pegs on a bike which was there. For $10 I picked up the pair. The are not an exact fit but close enough we can adapt them to fit somehow. We are going to cut the main body of the original peg down, modify the new one and weld it all together. Here is what we have so far.

 

[REDCOLT]

Just tuned in and I'm really digging where this bike is going. Looks great!

 

[paleodad]

Just tuned in and I'm really digging where this bike is going. Looks great!

Thanks REDCOLT, were at the stage where the only thing left is the tedious little things which take so much time.

 

[paleodad]

Foot pegs

So yesterday in a mad rush between Church in the morning and a special Church event mid afternoon I was able to get the foot pegs modification done to the point where all the parts are tack welded together. I will have time Wednesday to get them MIG welded for a good clean look then will paint and bake them after that. Stay tuned....

 

[bilbikek411]

I like the work you're doing on the harness w/ that weave outer cover,I think it will look good as a finished product also when viewed from the side of the bike.I can't tell you how many old Honda's I've done wiring work to that had just cracked,ugly looking outer casings on their wiring harness;I would just use some black electrical tape on them but it wouldn't work very well for later.I think that weave stuff could hold up to yrs. of use.

 

[ScramblerCurtis]

Totally dig the wiring loom work. I did the same thing on my harness and it works great. Also got some aftermarket foot pegs too. I had to mill one face down 2mm to fit through the cradle but they work perfect.

 

[paleodad]

I really like those pegs Curtis, where did you find those? Very tidy looking and much larger surface for your feet.

 

[paleodad]

Okay, I found them through a reverse image search. Those are very nice and quite pricey! I dont think I can lay down that much money on this build at this point.

Totally dig the wiring loom work. I did the same thing on my harness and it works great. Also got some aftermarket foot pegs too. I had to mill one face down 2mm to fit through the cradle but they work perfect.

 

[paleodad]

Pegs

My welder came into the shop yesterday caught up and looking for some busy work. I just happened to have the foot pegs in the truck with me so.... They will need a little cleaning up, sand blasting and then a baked on coat of silver enamel but I think they will work out fine.

 

[paleodad]

Well, as with lots of others on here, projects play second fiddle to life and things take much longer than they should. We are back on this build and trying to rush through getting things finished up before my son goes off to college. Having a few issues with start up as I am not getting a strong enough spark at the plugs to fire the engine. I have posted on another topic as I believe it may be related to the pamco ignition system. Will take a few pictures this week to update the build. If you know a thing or two about coils and the pamco system check out my post on the pamco string, maybe you can help me figure out my problem. Thanks for reading.

 

[paleodad]

I have posted over in the 350 pages on electrical issues a problem I am having with my ignition and not having a good spark at the plugs. Sparks but so weak it cant bridge the .028 spec gap on the plugs. I have gone through everything and cant find an issue so I guess I am going to take the next logical step and pull out the Pamco EI and see if I can get a spark from the old points system. No answers are coming from the Pamco contacts I have for Pete.

 

[paleodad]

My son will be home from college for the weekend. He called me yesterday to ask if we could work on the bike Friday evening. So we should be able to get the old points system installed so maybe we can figure out spark issue.

Still zero response from Pete with Pamco to any of my request for some assistance. If your looking to convert to an electronic ignition I'm sad to say at this point I would look at options other than Pamco. I don't say that lightly, I have one on my 450 and its been nothing but perfect!

 

[paleodad]

As planned we abandon the electronic system in place, cleaned up the old original points ignition system, reinstalled the condensers and after a few minutes of tinkering we have spark at the plugs. So......now we have to decide what to do about the ignition. Option 1 - Try to get a replacement ignition from Pamco which is not looking like viable option at this time since I cannot get any response from them...or Option 2 - replace with the stock ignition. Going back to stock seems easy enough on the surface but in reality creates a whole new issue, well not so much an issue but a lot of work would have to be undone and then redone. The wiring loom was completely rebuilt just to accommodate the electronic ignition and will not work with a points system.

 

[ancientdad]

I'm not sure what won't work... you need switched (key on) power to the coils, and the coils and condensers mounted and connected to the points. even if you have a length issue with the power lead, it wouldn't be hard to make an "extension" wire to feed the switched 12v side of the coils. The only obstacle might be where the coils are mounted - but on my 450, the smaller gas tank caused me to move my coils to the frame behind the engine and all I had to do was extend the power and points wires long enough to reach them.

 

[HondaPete89]

PAMCO doesn't call for any additions or subtractions so if my math is correct, you should be able to switch back easily enough. Unless like AD said, you have some routing/length issues.
What's getting in your way??