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Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 7:06 am
by whatscooking
I bought the bike based on cosmetic appearance knowing it had carb problems and trusting the seller, not anymore. I worked through the total carb rebuild buying a ultrasonic cleaner and the book. Took some time for me to find the missing spring in the mechanical advance, who would purposely remove that spring? The bike seemed to appreciate and respond to the repairs but along came another problem.
Oil usage tuned out to be what I considered excessive. A quart in 500 miles. I put on 3500 miles trying to bring her out of it but not. The crazy thing the only time you could see it smoke was when you would let off the throttle and even then it wasn't excessive. I ran Sea Foam, Mothers, even tried injecting water thinking I could slow down the oil usage. I finally had enough and started calling around asking about changing valve seals with the head still on. Found out it can be done with a little rigging. I was just about ready to do this and then I made another call.
I have bought several parts from Bill at Tim's when he brought up his mechanic, Roger, that does his engine rebuilds. I gave Roger a call and he spent some time with me discussing the problem. I was quickly impressed with the way Roger would take the time and convince me that more was needed to correctly bring the engine back to where I wanted it. I took the whole bike to him. When he got inside the engine he found that #1 cylinder had the most but all of the cylinder sleeves had severe pitting.
He replaced #1 cylinder with another so that we could go with the first over bore. Worked over the head with bead blasting the intakes and exhaust ports, grinding valves and seats and trueing up the deck. Roger found some other things going on that I am glad that he did that he took care of along the way like a thrust washer broken on the cam. Dyna coils to go along with the Dyna ignition I already had and the clutch upgrade and a new resto exhaust. I got the call that all was complete without any issues come get her. I have only been able to put 100 miles on mostly because the damm salt on the road. I can honestly say that I completely trust Roger to do the things needed and not to gouge. He is a pleasure to work with. The bike is a whole different animal now and I cannot wait for some good weather. :twocents-02cents:

Re: Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 7:32 am
by steve murdoch icoa #5322
Thank you for the report on your bike.
Glad to hear your engine troubles have been fixed.
There are so few places that will work on these brutes it is great to hear about such positive results.

Re: Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 10:55 am
by Larry Zimmer
Good to hear. Now, about that riding weather here in the 'north'......... At least most of the snow is gone. Now, for some temps above freezing. Merry Christmas, all.

Re: Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:03 am
by Syscrush
You and I have gone down similar paths - including engaging Bill and Roger for engine rebuild work. It's great to have access to that depth of CBX-specific knowledge. My experience was overall positive, but a bit more checkered than yours - I'm at 90% trust now rather than complete trust.

It is very nice that you were able to deal with just one source for all of the parts and work - I ended up coordinating 4 different shops (Roger, local mechanic, local mechanic's machinist, and local ceramic/powder coater) and 4 different vendors for parts (Bill, Honda, Louis, and a local used CBX parts vendor) kinda second-guessing each other at times, but that (plus my own paranoia) also meant some stuff got double-checked and caught that otherwise would have been missed.

I know how hard it can be to wait for riding weather with a bunch of exciting new mods - I'm really looking forward to a bunch of happy ride reports when you can get out and enjoy the bike!

Re: Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:20 am
by whatscooking
Hope I got this right, here is Roger and my bike loaded for the trip home.

Re: Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:46 am
by Syscrush
Super cool! And nice to have a face to put to the voice. :)

Re: Just got my CBX back home.

Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 1:16 pm
by Rick Pope
So now we need a picture of the bike with YOU. :D