i&a cb750 giveaway, part 3

70 IRON & AIR • OCTOBER 2012 FEATURE • 71

FROM

TO

WORDS Jason Paul Michaels IMAGES Pete Maresco

PART

THREE!

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o with any luck, you found a classy dame to help you with the positioning of your rear-sets per our

notes in the previous installment of our 750 build story. No? Bummer. Hopefully your buddy with a

beer gut and Budweiser breath at least talked nicely to you during the process.

Taboo situations involving “linkage systems” and “shifter pegs” with your riding buddies aside, we’ll assume that you got those babies situated along with your tank, seat and other vitals. We’ll also assume you’ve either painted or powder coated everything along with polishing all the metal bits. In short, you’re now staring at a pile of parts laid out nicely just begging to be assembled.

Before we get started though, here’s a few things to note when it comes to assembly. The biggest things people miss are some of the smallest and we’d like to share them with you to help you avoid things like broken bolts, chipped paint and other such frustrating items that can spoil the final assembly of a build.

First and foremost, lay something down on your table prior to setting your bare frame on it. A moving blanket, Mexican blanket or beach towel will do just fine. The second thing is to make sure you’ve gone through all your parts that have threaded holes or bungs, re-taping them all even if they look fine. This is especially key if you have your parts that sand-blasted and powder coated. It’s actually not so much the powder that you have to worry about. The abrasive dust will actually make the interior of the threaded portions rough and pitted which can cause bolts to lock up and break off and that’s no fun job when you’re staring at the intake side of valve cover on a CB450.

Once you’ve gone through and done that, take a nice roll of blue painters tape and mask off all the areas of your frame where the engine could potentially contact it during fitment. You want to go 3-to-4 layers thick and in some cases like with a heavy 750 engine, even up to 7-to-8 layers. This little task will save you from backhanding your buddy like Lo Lo on Rodeo Drive when she’s gotten too far out of line. (Ask me how I know.)

The last and final suggestion we can make is to simply take your time. Don’t get frustrated if you have to clean up parts a second or third time to make them fit and don’t compromise any small detail. Before you know it, you’ll be burning gas and blasting by the ton with all your buddies in your dust.

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he first thing we like to do is fit the new bearing races in the neck and from there, assemble the

triple tree assembly. Before you start banging those races in though, make sure you double check you’ve removed the old ones. Sometimes they get forgotten during tear-down and can cause a hell of a problem if you double stack them.

In most cases, you’ll have a top-retaining cap that’s threaded which you turn down the stem on top of the topmost bearing and seal. If you’ve powder coated it or painted it, take a shop rag, triple it over and tap gently with a punch. This will allow you to save the finish while still tightening it. Now, how tight is too tight? Well, personally I tap it gently until I get some decent friction and then I keep going 2-to-3 times a little harder or until Herm yells “Yo, take it easy Hercules!” Whatever your barometer of success is, just know that it should move freely and smooth once you’re finished.

From there, you’ll want to slide the forks up into the trees, putting a little Strike Hole or WD40 on them will help in this. Be sure to fit your fork gaiters and headlight brackets first though. Once those girls are up in place, tighten the pinch bolts and set the front end down on the towel. From there, it’s on to the front wheel which makes for an easier install if you have an extra set of hands x 2 – two of you holding the left and right sides while a third person slides the wheel into place. Just finger tighten the nuts for now as you’ll be checking the entire bike in the last step.

Next is the ass end and the “swingin’ arm” as my friends from across the pond would say. With most swing arms, you’ll have the ability to ditch the internals and get a new needle roller bearing kit and we highly recommend it. It’s often gone untouched and it really is amazing how much of a difference a set can make when you hit the corners at higher speeds on these things. You’ll want to take care and make sure you use a file to take down and powder coat or paint at the

mounting points on the frame too. Anything that’s over OE spec’d height will cause you to have to jam it in and will play hell on the system when you’re going down the road.

Once you’ve got that in place, slide the rear axle up onto the rear wheel and slightly tighten the rear tensioners. For us, we have a Handi-Lift that allows us to simply lock the rear wheel in place and then with Herm on one side and me on the other, we just move it into place. If you’re working on the ground or a bench table, just get those two chucklehead friends of yours watching Moto GP to give you a hand. From there, you’ll want to run some ratch straps (if you don’t have a wheel lock) to secure it to the table from all four corners.

So now that you’ve got a rolling chassis, it’s a matter of putting all the other bits and pieces into their respective places. We find it best to simply start at the front and work back or in our case, meet in the middle.

Starting at the front, you’ll want to mount your bars, controls, master cylinder and gauges. Run your stainless steel line down to your caliper, bleeding out the brakes when finished. Mount your headlight and start to pull your wires through to be collected and connected. Mount your wiring harness and battery in the middle along with the rest of your electronics, then your rear brake assembly, be it linkage or cable drive.

From there, stand back. You’ll start to see your machine coming to life. Pretty cool feeling, no?

Next step is to get the engine in the frame and while some people seem to favor putting the frame on the ground and over the engine, we shy away from that. It’s all a matter of personal preference in the end. In our case, with two guys on the engine, a quick lift and careful jockeying of it into place, even the bulbous and gargantuan 750 engine falls right into place. Having a third person around to fit the main bolts helps too!

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t’s getting close to the end. Can you feel it? From here, things like connecting the wiring and

fitting the carbs come next along with running all the brake and clutch cables and doing the pre-ride

rough adjustments. Once we have all the essential items in place, we give everything visible a proper and final torque. In some cases, when you install the seat and tank, there’s fasteners you need to get to and will have to remove the body work to get back to.

Now for probably the most exciting part of a build for me: fitting the tank, seat and fenders. It’s at this point that you really get a glimpse of what you’ve created. Is she curvy and heavy up top and at the bottom with a skinny little waist line? Does she lean forward a tad giving her a nice side profile? How about the colors? Was Herm right or was I? (That’s always a fun one.)

With the checkered flag in sight, it’s time to secure any last bits and pieces, double check all the connections of cables, lines and electrics. Set the base idle on the carbs, put fuel in the tank, pray to the gods of speed and tip a little bourbon on the shop floor. This girl is about to come to life!

Stay tuned for the next and final installment of our 750 build project and we’ll introduce you to the lucky winner and the final shots of this resurrected speed behemoth.

- The Crew @ Dime City Cycles

Visit www.ironandair.com/dccjournal to follow the entire project leading up to it’s unveiling at this years Barber Vintage Festival, or check out a sneak peek hidden in this issue!

i&a cb750 giveaway, part 3

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