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I'm in the market for a new front wheel for my '72 CL450K5. The hub seems to be bent, so it is pretty much trash from what I've gathered. I kind of like the drum brake, but it seems there are more wheels available from the CB series, which is probably because the dual-leading-shoe drum is coveted by vintage racers, so I'm willing to make the conversion if it is cheap enough.
A few things I've read suggest that to make the conversion from the drum brake to disc, everything from the front wheel to the triple trees (I'm a little vague as to whether the trees themselves need to be swapped) needs to replaced. Looking at my fork legs (from the CL), I notice that there is an extra bolt hole that is being unused. Using the mounting hole currently occupied by the torque link along with the vestigial mount point, I thought a disc brake caliper would bolt up nicely.
I've finally gotten around to comparing the parts fiches. CMSNL has incomplete parts lists for the front forks of some of the CB and CL models, but the picture for the CB450K5-7 looks exactly like the CL450K5-6.

A link on this site sent me here http://www.crotchrocket.com/ where I was able to get part numbers.
The left fork assembly for both the CB450K5-7 and the CL450K5-6 is P/N: 51500-323-315
This discovery leads me to believe that all I need to switch from the drum brake setup to a disc brake for my CL450K5 is the wheel, axle(maybe), rotor, caliper, master cylinder, brake line, and lever from a CB450K5-7. No need to mess with the forks at all. I might even be able to grab all of those parts from a SOHC/4 model and still avoid swapping forks, but I haven't quite gotten that far yet.
The front forks for the earlier CB and CL models are obviously different.
Does this sound right to you guys, or have I missed something?
A few things I've read suggest that to make the conversion from the drum brake to disc, everything from the front wheel to the triple trees (I'm a little vague as to whether the trees themselves need to be swapped) needs to replaced. Looking at my fork legs (from the CL), I notice that there is an extra bolt hole that is being unused. Using the mounting hole currently occupied by the torque link along with the vestigial mount point, I thought a disc brake caliper would bolt up nicely.
I've finally gotten around to comparing the parts fiches. CMSNL has incomplete parts lists for the front forks of some of the CB and CL models, but the picture for the CB450K5-7 looks exactly like the CL450K5-6.

A link on this site sent me here http://www.crotchrocket.com/ where I was able to get part numbers.
The left fork assembly for both the CB450K5-7 and the CL450K5-6 is P/N: 51500-323-315
This discovery leads me to believe that all I need to switch from the drum brake setup to a disc brake for my CL450K5 is the wheel, axle(maybe), rotor, caliper, master cylinder, brake line, and lever from a CB450K5-7. No need to mess with the forks at all. I might even be able to grab all of those parts from a SOHC/4 model and still avoid swapping forks, but I haven't quite gotten that far yet.
The front forks for the earlier CB and CL models are obviously different.
Does this sound right to you guys, or have I missed something?