1986 Honda Rebel 450


3/11/2004		I got a lot done over the course of this last month. I got a new front tire, honed the brake rotor, and flushed the brake line. I got some cool cable ties and seriously trimmed down the wire mess. It's all either removed or nicely tied up now. Since I hadn't rebuilt the used cylinder head I installed, I pulled it off and took it over to Crago Racing. They reseated the valves and replaced the oil seals. I reinstalled it and then used a feeler gauge to adjust the rocker arms. Next, I took the carbs over to Crago and had them jetted and the floats shimmed to match the aftermarket exhaust. They did awesome work. While they had the engine parts, I took the tank and fenders over to be powder coated. Unfortunately, when they sandblasted the tank the found a whole lot of Bondo... Bad news. You can't powdercoat Bondo so I had to take the stuff back from them and find a place to have 'em painted. They also didn't bother to mask the filler hole or anything so the tank was full of sand. After a trip to the radiator shop to have the tank boiled out (got to get ALL of that sand out), I dropped the tins off for paint. They did a decent job. I'm not thrilled, but what can I expect for a $250 paint job.

1/9/2004		At this point the bike is relatively done. I put little bullet turn signals on the back, got some sweet grips & footpegs, an iron cross rearview mirror, a chome vintage style horn and different handlebars. The ones that were on it were too wide, so I got a drag bar that was a few inches shorter. I also ordered some black ceramic cloth header wrap. Going to cover the exhaust headers down under the front of the frame with the black wrap. I'm going to take it in to have the front brake rotor honed and the carbs jetted & tuned. Supposedly you don't need to jet the carbs with this exhaust, but it seems to be running a little hot. I definitely need new brake pad & shoes, forks seals, a new front tire, and a brake line flush. I'll get there. After I get the final mechanical work done I'm going to see about rewiring it so there's not so much junk visible, move the license plate, and finally get it painted.

11/24/2003		Getting the throttle cables attached, checking lights and stuff. Got the exhaust properly mounted. At this point it's firing up and humming along just great.

11/23/2003		Got the motor mounted again and started putting all the other parts back on the bike. Got my new handlebar risers and stuff.

11/14/2003		Well, I got the cylinder head, had it bead blasted, had the damaged cylinder honed & the new piston and rings fitted and put this thing back together again.

10/2003		Ouch. Well I had a bit of bad luck. I got everything installed and fired it up and bam! One of the valves in the left cylinder busted. The valve broke when the motor was running and it completely destroyed the piston & cylinder head. I had to just walk away for a while. It took me a good couple of weeks to get back on it, but I did. I found a used cylinder head from a junkyard in CT for $100. Jack (http://www.rebelcatalog.com) got me a replacement piston & rings.

10/09/2003		It's been a busy weekend. I got the entire motor reassembled and mounted in the frame. I also got the rear fender installed and bought some handlebars. I just set the tank, pipes, and seat on it to take some pics. I'm going to replace the risers with new chrome goodness, and eventually I'm going to replace the seat and rear fender. Next step is to get the carbs cleaned, setup and installed.

10/09/2003		Well, I finally got all the parts that I had ordered. One of the pieces I ordered was the replacement starter clutch. I didn't know that the rollers, springs, and caps were separate part numbers. I got the outer, opened it up, and realized I was still missing parts. I pulled the the old starter clutch apart and salvaged the rollers and two of the caps, but one cap and spring were missing. No wonder the starter didn't catch... Anyway, $20 later (I can't believe how freakin expensive a 1/2" long metal cap is!) I got that all put back together. I've got the whole transmission, crankshaft, and oil sieve installed and I'm about to reattach the lower crankcase. I also have painted the lower forks and triple trees. I cleaned the frame up as best I could. Reattached the swingarm and forks. I've been doing a lot of cleaning and polishing. I'll probably, at some point in the future, take a bunch of the hardware off and have it chromed. Also, once I get everything together I'm going to take it in and have all the spokes replaced & the rims cleaned.

9/7/2003		Got the parts back from getting bead blasted and finished painting everything. I loosely bolted the engine together just to kind of mock it up. Wanted to see what it is going to actually look like. I've got to say, I'm pretty happy with it. I've got a bunch of parts to order to reassemble the engine, so while I'm waiting on that I'm going to get to work on the frame. I pretty much finished tearing it down. Got the handlebars and controls all taken off. Got the wiring harness pulled out. Removed the rear fender and front brake. I'm going to find out today what the minimal electronics are that are required by law. I want this thing to be as bare bones as possible. The instrument cluster is history. I might try to rewire it myself, instead of keeping the OEM harness. We'll see how adventurous I get.

8/28/2003		Just painted the upper crank case cover. It looks awesome! Not quite as clean as the side covers, but it's been banged up a bit more. I've been putting off doing the lower cover 'cause it is so filthy. I'm really not looking forward to cleaning that sucker up, but that's next...

8/25/2003		It's been a while since I updated the site, but I've been working. I got the transmission disassembled and properly cleaned. There are a couple of seals I'll have to replace. I took the cylinders and valves in to my local shop. They're in the process of replacing the valve seals, reseating the valves, checking the cylinder bore and installing new piston rings. I'm going to have like new compression in those cylinders when he's done with all that. They're also going to bead blast those parts. That's the only stuff I can't clean up myself. Anyway, I got the side crank case covers and valve cover cleaned (Aircraft Remover is great stuff) and painted. I ran out of time over the weekend, but the crank case itself is next for cleaning and paint. I've put together a pretty comprehensive parts list and I'm going to be ordering all that in the next week or so. Once I get the parts back from the shop they'll get paint and then I'll be able to start reassembling the engine.

8/11/2003		Next step was to remove the pistons and clean them up. That was nice and easy. After that I removed the oil pump assembly. Getting the alternator rotor and clutch off was a bitch. Then I turned the transmission case upside down and set it on 2x4s. Got the lower crankcase cover off, and now I'm looking at the transmission. This week I'm going to disassemble the transmission. Once it's all taken apart I'll have the whole engine case ready for cleaning and polishing. I found a guy, who's actually just down the street from me, who is going to check my valves, cylinders, and pistons for me, as well as do any bead blasting that I need.

8/03/2003		After a trip to the hardware store for some damaged bolt removers I got the header off. Removed the camshaft, rocker arm assembly, etc. and got to work on cleaner the header. You can see in the pics how much carbon buildup there was. Got that cleared off, cleaned the header with solvent and set it aside. Then I pulled the cylinders off. I'm going to take the header and cylinders to the shop and have them check the valves and bore. Then I'll have them bead blast the casing. No amount of wire brushing is going to get it clean. While they're working on that I'm going to dig into the transmission.

8/02/2003		The tear down... I removed the gas tank, shift linkage, clutch, etc. and pulled the engine out of the bike. We set it on my workbench and I pulled the carbs off. I ran into some trouble getting two of the head bolts off and stripped 'em.

7/29/2003		Here are some pictures of the bike the day after I bought it. I got it for $400 and I paid the guy I bought it from $20 to drive it to my place in his truck. It doesn't start right now. Roger told me that the starter's flywheel is busted. It's been sitting without being turned over for about six months.