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Wacky, what causes the overflow tubes to crack? I've been fortunate enough to never see that in my carb work so far, but now I know to keep an eye out and keep my soldering iron handy...

Because motorcycles in the US are treated as toys, not practical transportation. There's a ton of profit margin baked into almost everything related to motorcycles in the US. You can see it clearly when you look at the price difference between snowmobile gear and motorcycle gear, where for the...

Yep, there's a big ol' 30 amp fuse on your starter relay under the side cover, and another smaller one on that relay too. That's most likely the one you popped. The relay controls power distribution off the battery positive terminal.

Loose Chain is right. Buy a more expensive kit like the one from Randakk's, or K&L. Something made in Japan. I have never had any carb issues with proper Japanese-made kits but I have had *many* issues with cheap Amazon/Ebay kits, and even some issues with All Balls and Tusk kits that were...

Your life, if you poke a hole in a brake line between the inner and outer rubber layers and don't notice it. The line could swell suddenly on the test ride and then your brake doesn't work. Don't screw around with brakes. If an ancient rubber brake line is clogged full of filth, just replace it...

Don't do it. I know it's tempting, but those jets are brass, and guitar strings are harder than brass (typically nickel or steel). The passages are very precisely drilled and you can very easily make the hole bigger without realizing it. Nylon or brass bristles pulled off a brush if you insist...

This is why I buy Rotella.

That's the plan. Going to remove the tire and tube, loosen all the nipples completely, and start over, as annoying as it is.

Several folks in my reading said the same thing. I just want to have a bit more of an objective reference for tightness of the spokes, if that makes sense. I had no trouble building the wheel up and getting it nice and true until I introduced the torque wrench, so...maybe you're right. What...

I did quite a bit more digging and browsing forums and found a few encouraging things. Guys who had lots of experience building wheels, back in the day, never used torque wrenches. They'd do the "ping" by ear test. The impression I got from my reading says that the spokes being tight enough to...

Couple of fun new twists. New spokes on the rear wheel: 4mm shoulder near the hub, 3.5mm the rest of the length. So about a half-mil smaller than those Z1 spokes in both dimensions. I did the "ping" test on my now-torqued rear wheel, and on the original 17 inch rear wheel that's still on the...

No. The whole point of me doing this and asking questions is so I can learn how to properly build up wheels. Taking it to someone else would defeat the purpose. I also know that even torque doesn't automatically make a wheel true. Torque wrench gets applied to spokes *after* truing according to...

If you could get the diameter of one of those spokes I'd definitely appreciate it. Yeah, I just double-checked my genuine Honda service manual and it says nothing about spoke torque. Doesn't have procedures for spoke replacement or adjustment either, just a "measure wheel for runout" procedure...

Thanks so much for your reply! I appreciate your input. The FSM has no torque spec listed for the wheel spokes, which is why I emailed Buchanan's. My guess is that back in the late 70's, all motorcycle techs were so familiar with doing wheels up by feel that Honda didn't think it necessary to...

Still have not fixed it. I'll get a Round Tuit eventually; there's been a lot of Moving Stuff since then and I don't currently have a garage to work on anything substantial like that.

These sold locally a couple months back and I forgot to update the thread.

Specific question to anybody who's built up spoked wheels before. I recently rebuilt the rear wheel on my 1980 CB750K with new spokes and nipples from CB750 Supply. I got it trued up, emailed Buchanan's Spokes, and they told me that the rear should be torqued to 60 to 65 inch-pounds. They also...

None personally but I have never heard a bad thing about them.

Double springs? Something is wrong there even though the springs are in the right place. Perhaps a previous owner lost the original spring and replaced it with two that weren't a match? The factory (single) spring goes between that rear tab on the frame and the top hole in the brake lever...

Since that's so external to the rest of the carburetor you may be able to find someone who could braze that back together for you. If I had made that mistake I'd give it a good try with my soldering kit. You'd have to sand or file off the outer layer of aluminum oxide and paint to get to bare...

Nah, no reason to do that when that fuel valve is a somewhat ugly octopus and the tops of the carbs look so much more round and pretty. If anyone even bothers to look in there. Maybe on a museum bike but those are definitely a slim minority of UJM's in general. Remove the sucker, cap the...

Functionally impossible, and not worth the time, to rebuild those stock shocks. I ground off the lip of the damper and discovered that the factory seal is ultra thick underneath it -- at least 10mm and it's incredibly hard to pull back out of the body due to the abundance of friction. I would...

Definitely buy the correct manual for a DOHC. The SOHC is so very different. Hell, it's dry-sump lubrication with a separate oil tank and the DOHC isn't. Even something as simple as an oil change isn't the same.

Technically you can make all kinds of aftermarket calipers fit as long as they're designed for the same rotor diameter. The biggest factor with caliper fitment is the caliper mounting bracket. How are your fabrication skills? Off-the-shelf I don't think there's a single non-stock brake kit that...

You also haven't mentioned where you're buying your parts.

Yeah, I would start resistance testing terminals and wires between components. You may be making the correct voltage but losing a good amount of total current to heat, which can toast regulators and rectifiers and stators very quickly.

Yup, still gottem

I have heard nothing but good things about Spiegler and their customer service so that tracks. Good to hear they are still actively making things right for their customers. I have a set of their lines on my BMW R1100RT.

The factory service manual is available digitally on this forum for free. You should definitely read it as it is an extremely helpful reference for...well, almost everything.

Yep, base model K's had spoked wheels with the same mounting dimensions and brake drums in 79. I believe 80 and 81 models were the same but I'd have to check the parts lists again. Good luck finding complete spoked wheels though -- they're fairly scarce on Ebay and elsewhere. If you know how to...