The International CBX Owners Association

So Lady Luck has been very kind to me. I recently acquired a second 1982 CBX that has been sitting in a barn since 1997. It was advertised as a parts bike but I have found it to be complete and in good condition. It only has 11,000 miles. With a little work I was able to get Cylinders 1, 2 & 3 to fire. #4 will not fire and 5 & 6 only got luke warm at the headers.
I have spark at all plugs and took a compression reading......1-6 (except 2) were all in the 145 range while #2 read 170.

I removed the carbs last week and this is what I found so far... Everything is torn down and soaking in cleaner now. Thanks Mike Nixon for that carb manual you produced. Indispensable. I did a leak down test and surprisingly the side to side connections look good so I won't separate from the rack at this time. Whew...

Tank was rusty so I am now 1 1/2 weeks into the molasses soak. The old girl has a complexion problem as this photo shows. Naturally I have a lot of questions but will only bother you guys with 2 for now.

1. what can I soak the carb body in to clean that will not harm the o-rings?
and....
2. any ideas about what to do with the bubbling on the gas tank? I was thinking about sanding out and filling and then lining. I am planning on a re-paint anyways.

Thanks for any suggestions and I will post pics as I progress. I am planning on removing the engine this week for cleaning purposes.

Patrick

I hate to break it to you, but the tank is probably junk. Those 'bubbles' are very likely rust-through. Very common for tanks to rust through from the top, as all that's there is air and moisture. Hope not, but I'd poke around before doing too much to it.

You'd be wise to just go ahead and separate the carbs. Berryman's carb soak in gallon cans works fine.

Do check out the tank soon, so you know whether you need to look for one.

Nice find and certainly worth saving, bad tank or not.

Dave

The tank looks like it has been sprayed with brake fluid, which is possible since it's the right side. Do you see the same flaws on the left too? If so, it's probably rust. If it is brake-fluid damage, the tank could be OK; however, you will need a repaint.

Nice find, Patrick.
The "parts" bikes in NYS look a lot better than the ones around here.
Ha, the addictive nature of the big Six strikes again.

daves79x wrote:You'd be wise to just go ahead and separate the carbs. Berryman's carb soak in gallon cans works fine.

Dave

Ha. I had a feeling someone was gonna say that. I agree. Quit being scared and jump right into it. I do have Randaaks rebuild kit and being this bike has sat for so long, I am only setting myself up if I don't do a complete and thorough job of this. I'll be looking for some Berryman's as well. Thanks.

About the tank....It is rust-through. I can't help but wonder about some method of patching and applying a liner like the POR 15 I have read about. The underneath of this tank is in great shape and the system is not under any kind of pressure which might cause a patch to fail. But, hey if anybody has a tank they want to sell me .

steve murdoch icoa #5322 wrote:Nice find, Patrick.
The "parts" bikes in NYS look a lot better than the ones around here.
Ha, the addictive nature of the big Six strikes again.

No doubt Steve. 100% hooked and probably need some kind of intervention. I'll share a funny story with you guys......I truly do love my X and ride her everywhere. In the rain, in the cold, in the middle of the night I ride. Everyday I ride. Well I recently had surgery and was knocked out for about 4 hours. When I came to, the first thing I said to the nurses was ..."where's my bike? I've been riding and where did I put my bike"
Well, they all started laughing at me and one of them said
" Mr. Coady, I'm sorry but you haven't been riding your bike. You just came out of surgery".
I really did think I was out there on my CBX.

PC

pm sent

That wasn't so bad....
Now if I can only remember how it all goes back together in a month or so....

BTW this is the 1st motor I have ever dropped out of a motorcycle or car and 1st carb rebuild as well.

While cleaning carb parts yesterday, I discovered one of the pins on the float needle jets was absolutely stuck and not moving. I will be replacing all float needle jets.

Question: what is the function of that small pin on top anyways?
Thanks for any input.

Patrick

Are you talking about the plunger/spring on the valve?
I believe it is supposed to be like a shock absorber and helps maintain the level wile romping through the gears.

You have to insure all the float valve plungers are very free and pop right back when depressed. If you have some sticky ones, that will be a problem. A wet test will be essential and you'll likely be replacing some float valves. Aftermarket ones aren't very good and OEM ones are near $40 each so pick your poison.

Dave

steve murdoch icoa #5322 wrote:Are you talking about the plunger/spring on the valve?
I believe it is supposed to be like a shock absorber and helps maintain the level wile romping through the gears.

That's pretty much what I was thinking also..

daves79x wrote:You have to insure all the float valve plungers are very free and pop right back when depressed. If you have some sticky ones, that will be a problem. A wet test will be essential and you'll likely be replacing some float valves. Aftermarket ones aren't very good and OEM ones are near $40 each so pick your poison.

Dave

After quite a bit of work on it today, I was able to free it up fairly equal to the others. It was definetely stuck due to gelled up old gas that made its way in. Once that was purged, it started moving for me. I can't see myself using aftermarket crappola so if I gotta replace I'll spring for the oem.

I have been inspecting all components under a magnifying lens after I clean and polish and so far all looks good. The next few days I'll start on the slides which due show some wear. I thought this was odd for a bike with low mileage.....or maybe I'm making too much of it. Either way I will polish very carefully.

PC

Don't bother polishing the slides - clean them up and use them as they are.

Dave

daves79x wrote:you'll likely be replacing some float valves. Aftermarket ones aren't very good and OEM ones are near $40 each so pick your poison.
Dave

If you need only the needle valves (the brass seats rarely need to be replaced) you can get genuine OEM ones for less than $10 each from Sudco.

Thanks, Spencer. I keep forgetting about that.

Dave

Thanks for the info Spencer......

I spent hours going through their online catalog last night. A lot of stuff there.

Patrick

Progress has been going well.....
I am glad that I separated the carbs from the rack as most of the smaller O-rings were quite dry and brittle. The process was smooth and straight forward. I hope it's the same in reverse.

I ordered OEM float valves which came in this week. Jets, needles, floats, passageways, etc have all been cleaned and blown out over and over and over again. I was quite surprised how clogged the jets and passageways were for such a low mile bike (11,000mi). A good lesson on the effects of gas sitting for 17 years. Here's a pic of a little trick a local bike mechanic showed me after I enthusiastically showed him how clean I thought I got my jets..... Only 1 jet blew a nice steady stream of water out the bottom when he did this. Back to more cleaning and clearing out with a # 80 bit and all slow jets flow nicely now. This hose trick works great with a rubber tipped air chuck also. This leads me to asking for some advice prior to putting these carbs back together. As a rookie to all this, I am working on wrapping my head around the various combinations of jets, air box changes and aftermarket exhausts. Let's begin by looking at my goals..... I plan on turning X2 into a naked conversion. (X1, a 1982 also, will stay a stock touring machine.) I don't plan on taking X2 to the track or riding 100+ mph for extended times. I'm looking for low end and mid range performance improvements. Would it be a positive choice to go ahead and change the stock 35 slow jet for let's say a 40 and the stock 105 main for something between 110 and 120? I do plan on keeping the stock airbox for now and I plan on changing the exhaust for an aftermarket 6 into 2. Possibly a MAC or a Supertrapp? Or perhaps something someone on here suggests.

I hope this doesn't open up a "what kind of oil to use" style thread. Just looking for some real answers from real CBX experienced folks. BTW I have read and re-read so many of the posts on here.

Thanks and have a great day.

PC