1990 CBR1000FL...Sat for 14 years, alone....

[RideWithStyles]

On 17/01/2025 at 06:19, Egon247 said:

When she goes to work I can move the Alfa over and waddle the CBR out.

So your use to fixing stuff.

I’m an older era Honda and most Alfas fan by the way.

[Egon247]

57 minutes ago, RideWithStyles said:

So your use to fixing stuff.

I’m an older era Honda and most Alfas fan by the way.

My third one. Had a 147 ts, 159jtdm and now the giulietta tbi. It's not without it's foibles....lol

[RideWithStyles]

.

147gta, 166s 3.2 super.

Definitely .

[Egon247]

Nice line up. I love the 166. 

I've always fancied putting a busso v6 on throttle bodies in an rx8, just so I can upset two sets of purists in one go ...

Edited January 24 by Egon247
Bloody autocorrect

[Egon247]

Minor update as I'm awaiting delivery of some stuff, that's getting in the way of finishing other stuff and also it's still so very chilly in the garage.....

Rear caliper cleaned and painted to match the fronts, which was awkward. Not sure I've got my head around it but the caliper would only come off when the rear wheel was removed.

Odd. Just couldn't see a logical way of detaching it. 

Anyway, the real wheel came out, caliper off, did the cleaning and painting thing, awaiting the delivery of pistons and master cylinder rebuild kits for front brake, rear brake and clutch so that'll be fun. 

Manky Oem exhaust covers wire brushed ito within an inch of their lives and some vht paint applied. 

Wires from previous alarm install sorted out too.

Still taking an eternity to start though. Not sure if the fuel is getting there as it's got a decent enough spark. The choke cable is stretched (how???) so that needs help/binning. 

Centre stand needs to come off next to brush and paint as it looks horrendous. 

Slowly. It's getting there slowly.

 

[Simon Davey]

Steady, but positive progress. 

 

Do you have something to remove caliper pistons?

[Egon247]

1 hour ago, Simon Davey said:

Steady, but positive progress. 

 

Do you have something to remove caliper pistons?

No. I had to resort to violence again. I was hoping to use the "lots of hex screwdriver bits with an Allen key" trick only the pistons were the opposite way round to the fronts. 

I tried air at 80psi but one of them was properly wedged in. 

Not sure it had worked for a long time.....

[Simon Davey]

42 minutes ago, Egon247 said:

No. I had to resort to violence again. I was hoping to use the "lots of hex screwdriver bits with an Allen key" trick only the pistons were the opposite way round to the fronts. 

I tried air at 80psi but one of them was properly wedged in. 

Not sure it had worked for a long time.....

 

I found that pushing the pistons right into the calliper, made them easier to remove (much easier).

I reckon it's because whilst halfway out, they're at ever such a slight angle, and pushing them in, not only gets them moving, but levels them too.

Edited January 26 by Simon Davey

[Egon247]

I'll have a look for the pistons, this one had corroded between the seals. I think the crud seal had given up and it just decided it wanted to be "at one" with the caliper.

[Egon247]

Spanner day today. I have a rebuilt and fully operational rear brake! Yaaaay. 

New pistons, new seals, new pads and bled out. Took longer than it should cos apparently you need to remove the rear wheel to do the caliper. Odd.

Had to scour the interweb to find where the spring went in the caliper though, as it flew out when I took it off. Lol.

 

Exhaust fitted up properly now, had to Dremel out the clamps a bit as they didn't bite down hard enough to work properly. 

 

Dropped a minor bollock when ordering the front brake stuff and ended up with one pair of pads instead of two, which was annoying but hey, probably my fault for not reading the description. Lol. 

So front brakes awaiting pads before I finish them off. 

 

Got master cylinder rebuild kits for front brake and clutch, along with the clutch slave rebuild kit too. 

But...BLING!! bought a set of 316 stainless bolts for the bike, including the front mudguard, screen, mirrors, chain guard, fairing and nose cone. Shineeeeeeey. Turned up with copper grease too. All for 30 quid. Win!

 

Still struggling to get it to start up though. Not sure if it's the fuel tap or I've missed something in the carbs. 

One step forward....lol 

[Hairsy]

I'd happily eat my dinner off that rear brake - lovely job!

 

It's so satisfying to put things together with new parts.

 

Good luck with the running issue.

[Egon247]

15 minutes ago, Hairsy said:

I'd happily eat my dinner off that rear brake - lovely job!

 

It's so satisfying to put things together with new parts.

 

Good luck with the running issue.

 

I'm wondering if it's the fuel tap. It just refuses to fire up. It'll turn over n over and then one cylinder will pop every now and again. Then the battery will give up, it takes that long. After a charge it'll do it again until it'll try and run on two or three. 

It's got a decent spark. New air filter too, unless I ballsed up the carbs. But when it starts it runs fine. 

The fuel kinda dribbles out of the tube when you apply vacuum to it. It's not a "open pipe" kinda flow. 

[Hairsy]

At least some of those fuel taps can be taken apart. Some can also be converted to working without vacuum. 

 

From your symptoms, it does sound as though it's struggling to open with the amount of vacuum you're creating on cranking. 

 

On my last project I bought a cheap fuel tap from AliExpress and it was perfect.

[Ian Frog]

Is there a prime position on the original tap?

You could use it to verify no carb leaks and also to run the bike as gravity fed.

Forgive my ignorance if no prime option available.

Cheers

Ian

[Egon247]

6 minutes ago, Ian Frog said:

Is there a prime position on the original tap?

You could use it to verify no carb leaks and also to run the bike as gravity fed.

Forgive my ignorance if no prime option available.

Cheers

Ian

Nah, it's on, off and reserve. Vacuum diaphragm attached to intake 1. 

[Ian Frog]

Bugger ! 2nd hand Suzuki tap or @Hairsy Ali express sounds like best option.

If I have an old one in any of my random boxes I will let yo know and for the postage you`d be welcome.

Cheers

Ian

[Hairsy]

Anything here that could help? https://www.cbrxx.com/threads/anyone-remove-the-vaccum-petcock-feature.5226/

[Egon247]

I've already put a diaphragm kit in the fuel tap and cleaned out all the dried crud that was in it. I have seen somewhere that the springs are a bit weedy and may need a washer to help. Hmm. Maybe that's next. Or an AliExpress one. 

Cheers guys. I'll keep digging

[Egon247]

Moment of panic just now. My delivery arrived of new pads for the front and the clutch slave cylinder seals. 

Only the pads looked identical to the ones I just put in the rear. Like absolutely identical.

 

Panic..they've sent me the wrong ones, down to the garage to check and then unleash my inner Karen......only to find that honda used EXACTLY THE SAME PADS FRONT AND REAR. 

 

uh? Do what gov'na??? 

Yup. Same pads front and rear. 

Only I've put the sintered in the rear when they should have been organic....shouldn't be hard to change but wtf?

 

 

Anyway. 

 

 

Go and look at the gorgeous Ducati. 

Cos it is. Hairsy has done an awesome job. If I can get to 75% of the quality of that then I'll be a happy bunny.

 

 

[Hairsy]

Oh stop it!

[JRH]

@Egon247 my GPX750R used the same pads front and rear.

[Egon247]

15 hours ago, JRH said:

@Egon247 my GPX750R used the same pads front and rear.

Weird, isn't it? Still, can't complain as it's easily sorted. 

Rear pads swapped and front brakes now have pads. All torqued up to the correct clunk on the wrench.

Master cylinders for the front brake and clutch removed, along with the slave for the clutch, ready for some lovin' while I'm at work tomorrow. 

Might as well do it in a warm workshop eh?

[Egon247]

Quiet start to the week at work.

 

Minor technical difficulties in that the clutch rebuild kit didn't fit. Hmm. Might be for an older/newer model as honda were changing it every year just for shitsngiggles. Made it work though, cleaned out all the jelly like dot4 and cleaned up with a brush and some washing up liquid. 

Dried off, lubed up, fitted the kit parts that did actually fit and put back together. 

Changed the slave cylinder seals and left the oem spring in as it looked better than the new one

Wished I'd taken before pics as well as afters cos they were grim. Like 43,000 miles of grim.

Only casualty was one of the reservoir screws as it didn't want to come off, resulting in a quick drill and problem solved.

Need some shiney ones now. Lol. 

 

Bought a new skid lid yesterday too, in matching colours of course....my old one is approaching 20 years old so figured it was due for a change...

[Egon247]

Some days you're the dog.

Some days you're the lamp post.....

 

 

So. Today was let's have a look and see if we can figure out why it won't start , while filling and bleeding the hydraulics day.

Clutch took an hour to fill and bleed the old school way as I'm not graced with that modern vacuumy type of contraption.

Front brakes are hilarious when completely empty. Another hour of my life ebbed away while pumping and bleed nippling. 

Now both bled and happy again. 

 

So I took the tank off and tested the fuel flow on reserve, off and on. 

ON seemed ok.

Reserve sucked. Like royally. Hmm. Not sure if it's the tap internals or the tap internals. 

Lol 

Funnily enough, you know how manufacturers use common parts across their range? Saves money standardising and 5s, lean manufacturing blah blah....

 

Well they forgot to include the Poxy cbr1000fL.

 

No other honda model uses the same fuel tap. Funny huh? 

Gotta have a foible or two along the way.

 

Now, the vacuum diaphragm has been changed. Done. The next part is the "ball and hole" selector part behind the selector switch. Which will involve drilling rivets and tapping M3 holes. 

 

I digress. Apologies.

 

Hooked the carbs up to the hangy uppy fuel holder and attempted to start it. Annnnnnnnnnd.....

 

Nothing. Ffs. Nada. Flat battery and random popping ahoy.

 

So, with a few "oh my, that's frustrating" and a couple of "what a joyful opportunity to remove the carbs again and delight in their internals" later and I have 4 carbs, arse up, bowls off and staring with mild irritation at the clag in the bottom of the bowls.....

 

So off we go again. Cleaning. Poking, cleaning some more. You know the drill. 

 

Measured the float heights too. Oem says 9mm. 

1. 9mm

2. 8mm

3. 7mm

4. 9mm.

 

Put back together using the dead blow hammer and after finding the unplugged oil pressure switch (awesome immobilizer, unplug that and it ain't doing jack, which is what it did for ten minutes) then try and start it......

Aaaaaaaand.......started without flattening the battery.....

 

JUST.

 

 

carbs need another balance.

Tap needs beating with a celery stick.

 

I have retired to the relative safety of the lower end of a bottle of wine....

 

Oh, and just as I was giving up, my mate turned up with some Yamaha wr250f carb and asked If I could change the jets and seals as it wasn't running well ....

 

 

Shiraz. The saviour of sanity.

 

 

[Egon247]

Also, I realise that the float and Vernier picture is a tad pointless as the measurements are on the other end....