New project - '73 Honda CB350G

I have plans to build a workshop in the garden, but I need to cut down a hedge first. This has meant that my garage is full and there's no room to work in there. This has stalled my 1970 CB350K restoration project. The bike is a unicycle at the moment, so I can't move it.

I spotted a 1973 CB350G in gumtree not that far away that was 'ready for an MoT' and wasn't too expensive. I could see there were a few 'weird' things going on with the bike in the photos, but contacted the seller to arrange a viewing. Got the cash from the bank, twisted a mate's arm to give me a hand, loaded the landy up with a few tools and a bike ramp and headed off to see the seller. This was back in the middle of September.

The seller was a really nice old guy, over 80, who was giving up riding after having an accident (or a different bike).

He had imported the bike from the US and already registered it in the UK. It had a few obvious issues that I spotted. The starter button was broken, so he had fitted a seperate starter button. There was an issue with the indicators, so that had it's own loom too. It also had the wrong indicators on it too.

The tail light lens was broken.

He had changed the configuration of the fuel hoses as he had replaced the petcock with a single output one (should have a dual output).

I wasn't going to pay the asking price as it was quite a bit of work to put this all right, so we negotiated a bit and agreed on a price. It was starting to rain quite heavily at this point.

Did the paperwork, exchanged cash, and loaded the bike into the back of the landy in near torrential rain. Thankfully the landy played ball with only the indicators being unhappy with the biblical amount of rain.

I was glad I didn't have to unload in the rain.

Thankfully a mate of mine has let me use his garage as this should be a 'quick' fix. Plus there's enough room in my garage to store the bike if I have to, but it would literally fill the last space in the garage with no room to move. So this would need to be quick so I don't outstay my welcome.

I get a good chance to have a closer look at the bike.

Missing tank rubber mount, those tiny bolts shouldn't be there.

No cover for the battery, and the underside of the seat is metal. I order a strap and cover for it.

The ignition switch isn't wired correctly. On closer inspection it's not OEM either.

And this is when my plans fell flat on their face. That's the gear shifter shaft. It's not supposed to have a hole in it, and it's supposed to have splines. I assume the splines have been stripped and the hole was an attempt to put a bolt though the shifter and shaft to keep them indexed. I order a second hand part from the US with good splines. This takes a long time to turn up, naturally.

The fuel hose redesign is leaking everywhere, but the bike does run. I believe the hose to be oversized, most likely an imperial size. I order new correct size hose and a replica petcock.

Drain the tank...

WTF?!?! That's a car coil! Sigh... I might leave this as the ignition systems seems to actually run sweet as a nut. I suspect I'll convert to electronic ignition at some point which will require replacing the coils anyway.

I was really worried about all this black tape, but it turns out it was just to keep the tank from rubbing on the loom.

The paintjob on the tank is rubbish, but I can live with it in the short term. the pinstriping on one side is painted, but it's sticky tape on the other.

I forgot to mention that for some reason the bike had generic eBay special levers on it. I planned to replace them as a matter of course and included their cost in the negotiations when I bought the bike.

At this point, I should just get work to split my pay and send it direct to David Silver and CMS NL.

New (replica) petcock fitted. Seems to have a bit of a lean to it. I will see how it goes, but I may refit the old petcock and try to bend it back into shape (don't want to damage the new one).

What I thought was a replica tail light lens turned out to be the whole light. I tried fitting the lens to the original Stanley light, but it didn't quite fit and I didn't want to force it, so fitted the new light.

My new favourite tool. A label printer that can print on heat shrink tubing. This is a game changer for wiring in my opinion.

Starting to fish out the extra crap from the wiring.

This is just embarrassing.

Permanent power for the indicators (why not switched?!?) that wasn't even crimped properly... a fire hazard in the making.

That's not even making contact!

Did I mention that I love this label printer?

This isn't good. The stock wiring for the indicators has been cut, and cut flush.

Extra wiring added for the stand alone indicator loom. It's been done fairly well, but did they really need to cut the stock wiring?

There's not supposed to be a hole there. Going to need a new one of those. That's going to be expensive.

All the crap removed so far.

what do you think of your label printer

what do you think of your label printer

What label printer.

what do you think of your label printer

I don't know what you mean.

Loads more bits to fit.

New bars, replica indicators, replica left hand switches, new grips, clutch lever and adjuster.

Replica indicator stalks, about 1/3 the price of OEM.

The replica left hand switches is very good quality, and 1/5 the price of OEM.

Loads more wiring to do.

The rubber gasket around the clocks have perished and all four of the back lights have blown.

New grips. I did chance a new throttle tube too, but I guessed the wrong size. The old one was fine and cleaned up well, so I reused that in the end.

Replica clutch lever and new Honda adjuster and lock nut.

The replica indicator lights are very good, and metal not cheap plastic.

Other than not saying 'Stanley' on them, they look identical to OEM.

The new indicators and rear light.

dont forget to label them

dont forget to label them

Thanks, I almost forgot.

Working on the clocks this time.

https://i.imgur.com/MbOhIOV.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

OEM Honda parts.

https://i.imgur.com/3nShvtB.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Replaced the back lights with LED so they will last longer.

https://i.imgur.com/i5YSk7R.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Replaced the insulation on the back light wiring. This was brittle and useless.

https://i.imgur.com/bAoLDFX.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

As were the gaskets for the clocks.

https://i.imgur.com/4MDXiKd.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

I think the previous person to work on the clock glued these gaskets back on.

https://i.imgur.com/Z9RylxJ.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

I got them off in the end.

https://i.imgur.com/OwXhuyO.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

New gaskets.

https://i.imgur.com/qKxtUJX.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Much better.

https://i.imgur.com/2fXSJ5V.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

https://i.imgur.com/jAuEKSQ.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Good seal.

https://i.imgur.com/HwGZKgY.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Testing.

https://i.imgur.com/3qTmZ5w.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

More testing.

https://i.imgur.com/VaBV21E.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

The fasteners are wrong and the fitting hardware has seen better days. These parts are all still available and are cheap.

https://i.imgur.com/rtdMzTF.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

New grommets, two per clock.

https://i.imgur.com/mxnLGlp.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Collar, two per clock.

https://i.imgur.com/jMVJldN.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Acorn nuts, two per clock.

https://i.imgur.com/Ix0SjJd.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Clocks back on the bike.

a professional job

Superb!

Thanks guys, much appreciated

a professional job

Anyone with one of those green chopping board things knows their stuff.

Looking good.

Working on the handlebars and controls. Also swapping out one of the indicators as it had a manufacturing defect (spot weld popped during transit).

https://i.imgur.com/mrG8cYo.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Bar end mirrors, replacement indicator, and right hand switch gear.

https://i.imgur.com/AyqxoKg.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Replica bars with the correct holes for the wiring. New bars were so much cheaper than rechroming the old ones. I have the edges a bit of a file so they don't shed the new wiring.

https://i.imgur.com/MYib9Tz.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

This is so much easier than when I did this on my '70 CB350. That bike had surface rust inside the bars, this is nice and smooth.

https://i.imgur.com/UbTrXzd.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Right hand switches fitted. Took about 5 minutes, about an hour and 25 minutes quicker than last time.

https://i.imgur.com/pGqcwMW.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Need to fit the left hand switch gear. I did the right hand controls first, as there's more wires and they have to exit the same hole.

https://i.imgur.com/iyGw5SW.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Done. I'm so glad I got new bars, this is so much easier to route the wires down the bars.

https://i.imgur.com/1tBQuzD.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

On the bike.

https://i.imgur.com/bYDEaoy.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Grips and mirrors next.

https://i.imgur.com/etAoAvQ.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Left side, the easy side.

https://i.imgur.com/9i7YdF3.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Right side took a little trial and error to get it to kit with no risk of the throttle tube getting stuck (took a little off the end).

https://i.imgur.com/b8UvIkc.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

The bike had god awful modern design levers from eBay. I got this replica master cylinder from David Silver.

https://i.imgur.com/6jHv6ID.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Nice.

https://i.imgur.com/5gH077v.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Clutch level mocked up (forgot to get a pivot bolt).

https://i.imgur.com/hVrka13.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Looking good.

https://i.imgur.com/sjJflaY.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Pattern part for the tank mount rubber. These are really expensive if you want NOS.

https://i.imgur.com/4n8Bafq.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Lots of wiring in my future.

a professional job

 

Anyone with one of those green chopping board things knows their stuff.

Oh absolutely.

Looking good.

Thanks

Proper job so far , looking forward to the roll out.

Proper job so far , looking forward to the roll out.

Thank you, so am I

Indicator wiring this time.

https://i.imgur.com/94QNqoU.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

First, I sorted out this badly crimped live wire. Crimped and soldered for good measure.

https://i.imgur.com/SMTzKTC.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

New grounds for the rear indicators, as they are rubber mounted.

https://i.imgur.com/QxdpW04.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

New generic flasher relay.

https://i.imgur.com/3QQVa2G.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Wired up and installed.

https://i.imgur.com/j9gKwhj.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Test rear left.

https://i.imgur.com/9Pul6mM.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Test rear right.

https://i.imgur.com/FpolXyA.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Test front right.

https://i.imgur.com/BBJ2os3.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Test front left.

All well & good, but they’re not flashing

Very satisfying thread

All well & good, but they’re not flashing

https://i.imgur.com/2ezGHUd.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Clutch lever, barrel adjuster, lock nut, and a pivot bolt this time too.

https://i.imgur.com/FOkdfix.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

All fitted on the bike.

https://i.imgur.com/CR71FX4.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Headlight working. I am a little worried about the depth of the headlight as I plan to run an LED H4 headlight, as an upgrade and less of a draw on the older charging system, will have to see if the LED and associated heat sink will fit in this bucket.

https://i.imgur.com/UTv3OvQ.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Neutral light working.

https://i.imgur.com/iX0tHX5.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Clocks backlight turn on with the headlights.

https://i.imgur.com/7YolAlO.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

The right hand headlight bracket is bent. I've tried bending it back but it won't budge. I've ordered a NOS one (which cost and arm and a leg, all the second hand ones I could find were bent too), but it's coming from the US (great, more import and VAT to pay).

This bike differs from my 1970 CB350K Twin in that it has a hydraulic front disc brake, the only CB350 Twin model year to have this, all the four cylinder CB350F bikes have it. It's a little unusual as the brake hose is made up of three parts, an upper hose, a lower hose, and a hard line to the caliper. There's also a manifold in the middle with a hydraulic brake switch (this is the factory configuration).

https://imgur.com/j4AV0BN

(Click to play video). The upper front brake hose. After seeing this, I ordered a replica brake line kit from the US. This was actually pretty cheap (about £20), but took about 1.5-2 weeks to get here.

https://i.imgur.com/xrHZR24.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Here's the manifold in the middle with the upper hose and lower hose (removed). The brake switch is on the rear of it.

https://i.imgur.com/Ns3brQK.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

Naturally I didn't think about having changed the bars until about a week after I'd ordered it.

https://i.imgur.com/gzPvvBA.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

I tried routing the old upper hose round the front and round the back of the forks, but it just wasn't long enough.

https://i.imgur.com/eM668iK.jpg' alt='IMGUR>'>

This was confirmed that I didn't have an especially short one when the replica hose set turned up, and it was equally as short. Arse.

This hose was 330mm long and I needed about another 30mm. So I start looking at random bike's rear brake hoses on eBay... (Don't worry, I've already resolved this, as you will see in the next update).