Ben’s -1975 CB360 Twin

I tinker and seem to have an unnatural draw to anything that’s no longer factory supported with replacement parts (I bought a polaroid camera the day before they announced that they would no longer be making film)

So I bought this bike a few years ago.  It ran alright (had charging issues).  I rode it into the ground and then stashed it in a garage for 18 months.

CB360 - together but not running

Now I’m learning how to fix things on it.  The tank was a barrel of rust flakes and so I pulled and cleaned the carbs, patched a few holes and evaporust / por-15’d the tank.  Now I’m dealing with some cross-threading issues with the spark plugs.

big bits

with bicycles the best way to chase squirrely threads is to come in from the side that hasn’t been buggered.  Any reason this is different here?  The plan is to tap them from the inside out.  I’m also worried about all this black crap in the cylinders.  Is there a good way to safely clean that out while the thing is apart?  I’m not entirely sure I want to get any deeper into this engine at the moment (if I can get away with that)

Also – I’m replacing bolts as I come to partially stripped ones.  Any materials I should avoid with the replacements?

p.s. loved the “just boil the hell out of it” carb article.  unfortunately I had already pulled everything apart and cleaned it with carb cleaner, but I did boil the gummed innards of an old Eskimo desk fan from the 40’s that had stopped oscillating.  Worked like a charm.

a bit worried about this black crap

 

So I have the mechanical bits back together and nothing happened.  I’m going to start trouble shooting the electrical problem, but I’m thinking I unplugged something (everything) essential when I was flipping the bars (rookie mistake)

I was going to rewire it down to nothingness, but I took a closer look at the diagram you posted for Cafes and choppers and I’m not sure I want to be that bare.  I’m totally into gauges (at least the spedometer) and a bit nervous about my rectifier having 4 wires coming out of it.

I don’t have a starter (ok, so I have one, but it doesn’t work – the chain has been disconnected and “something else” is wrong with it . . . and I don’t care enough about having a starter to try and make it work, or even figure out why it doesn’t)

so anyway – one of the rectifier wires is heading into the starter . . . why? (diagram for examples)
600

The other two go into opposite sides of the alternator via the voltage regulator – anyway.  at the risk of sounding dumb (which is better than doing dumb things) do I need the voltage regulator? It looks like I  can remove the starter line and run things anyway.

Also . . . I’m looking into ordering 16ga wire to rewire with . . . should I get larger (lower) gague wire? – McMaster Carr has some heat/chem/cut resistant wire – worth investing in or just eff it?

Ben

Evan Fell

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *