Rear brake assembly rebuild

A month ago, in Mid-May, I rode out to the Overland Expo which is about 35 miles from my house, just to take an evening ride.

On the way out there, the rear brake was acting kinda funky. Almost like it would reset after I hit a certain point. I figured I just needed new shoes on the rear drum brake, which I resolved to do as soon as I got home.

Well, as I pulled into the parking lot at Mormon Lake Lodge, there was a mighty THUNK as I pressed the rear brake, which pushed with enough force to kick my foot off the pedal entirely. I was going approximately zero miles per hour as this happened, which is good, because the rear brake was no longer usable at this point.

As seen in the photos below (sorta) I sheared off the bolt on the stay-bar that holds the rear drum from moving. That caused the drum to rotate with the wheel as I braked, which rotated the rear brake rod that attaches the pedal to the drum, bending it all the way around the axle and destroying the attachment to the drum as well.

My lovely lady rescued me in her car and even took me out to dinner, we only had to delay the reservation for 15 minutes.

This week I did some shopping on Ebay and got the bike put back together. The process itself was fairly easy, just took a little while to find the right parts. I probably had 2 hours start to finish, including time for drinking beer and taking pictures. A savvy bike mechanic could probably do it in 30 minutes.

After taking the rear wheel off, this is what it looks like. The inside of the drum is in great shape, the shoes are even pretty good, but there was some trauma to the rest of it.

Old (broken parts)

New part off Ebay. Happened to come with all the pieces I need!

I also bought a new brake rod, which apparently I didn't photograph. Basically, the new one is straight and the old one was bent fairly seriously (all the way around the axle)

Curiously enough, the cotter pin that holds the bolt between the pedal and the rear brake rod is TINY and very difficult to get to without pulling the right footpeg off the bike, which I was not about to do. The most painful part of this process was removing and re-installing that tiny little pin, pictured below (middle) next to tools for scale

Took it for a quick test ride around the property and mashed the brake pretty good. It held up well, stopped the wheel, and didn't do anything else, which is exactly as it should be.

Reassembled!

Now it's time to get back on the road! Motorcycle season is here and I am not about to miss it.

CM400 Chain, Sprockets, tensioner, impossible to find bolts and more!

The bike has been off the street for the last two months or so as I arduously went through repairs that I did not allocate a lot of time to.

The chain I got on the bike was in rough shape when I got it. The rain of the Northern Arizona monsoon season (17" in three months) did not help. The chain, along with the sprockets and several other parts quickly accumulated rust at a surprising rate. I finally decided to get things going.

A few pictures from before:

The parts list:

• 1 new O-Ring chain. I got it at 120 links and had the crew at my local shop cut it down to 102, which is the magic number for this bike.
• 1 new front sprocket (17 teeth instead of the original 15)
• 1 new rear sprocket (32 teeth instead of 30)
• 1 new left rear tensioner-thingy
• 1 bag of incredibly hard to find M7x1 45mm bolts
• 1 bag of much easier to find M7 nuts
• Incredibly pungent all-around cleaner to help get rid of accumulated debris
• GREASE, which was sorely needed.

I used a couple YouTube videos to learn how to take the bike apart, which was a minor pain simply because I'd never done it before. Probably took me an hour or two to get all my parts and pieces off and organized. Then another 45 minutes cleaning everything near the drive system. Everywhere around the chain area received a thorough cleaning.
That's when the fun started. Getting the front sprocket off was pretty easy, but the rear sprocket the bike had originally was surprisingly thick and came fitted with a guard to keep the chain where it belongs. I could not for the life of me get this damn sprocket off the wheel because of the sort of 3/4 circle lookin spacer thing... (can you tell I'm not a bike mechanic?).

Anyway, I had the shop show me how to get it off and with much grunting, I prevailed.


The old sprocket was spaced perfectly on the rear axle, with essentially no wiggle room. The new rear sprocket is much more skinny than the old one - which leaves me with some lateral wiggle. I could have a new spacer machined or probably snag one from a bike that's a couple years newer.
Well, the new sprocket that I ordered was WAY cheaper and far more available (they don't make the parts for these old Hondas anymore) so I put the damn thing together, tightened everything down and took it for a cautious drive around the neighborhood.

Lo and behold, everything works well! I've done another 100 miles or so since I completed the repairs and everything is working. Time for an oil change and the bike is ready to go into winter storage in my pseudo-garage. Sadly, I don't think I'll get much more riding done this season after this week.

Next time I do the rear sprockets, I'll have a new spacer machined that fits in the space to eliminate that lateral wiggle. Until then, I'll ride it as is.

Just Riding

Haven't bad much in the way of adventure recently. Doin about 150 miles/week in recreational riding. Enjoyed a ride out 180 last week. Before most people were awake, I'd already done a 100 mile run.

Couple of pictures from recent rides.

Upper lake mary

If you gotta wait at a train, this is the way to do it.

Replacing Nuts and Bolts

On a bike this old, especially a salvaged bike, pieces inevitably fall off once in a while.
Recently, I lost a couple nuts off the exhaust. Also lost the bolts on the rear axle that hold the wheel tension to exactly the right place.

Luckily for me, it seems they were all the same size/type. Metric, wouldn't you know.
M-7x1 45mm, which is surprisingly hard to find. I ended up getting the bolts off ebay, though local shops typically carry the nuts.

Spent a fair amount of time rummaging through the contents of my local hardware store to find the right stuff- bought some extras, and replaced some of the nuts that hadn't fallen off yet, but were clearly rusting to death.

nut was just gone...

Also, I have finally put some actual miles in this bike.

Had to pull over and snap a picture....

At about 23,000 I added oil (it was LOW), did the bolt replacements, clean/oil the chain, adjust chain tension, and checked just about everything. It seems to be doing well! It seems I burned through a lot of oil since I changed it last. Will do a full swap in another 700 miles or so, including the filter.

Still looking at getting a new chain / sprockets. Not sure when I'll end up doing that. I'm kind of nervous about taking it apart to that extent. Not to mention I have no idea what kind of chain/sprockets this bike has, so I'll need to have them off to order them from the shop. Looks like I'll spend a few days off the bike.

It's a labor of love!

Sunset

Quickie post: Some days, I think I could just ride forever...

Beautiful sunset ride yesterday along Route 66.

The bike is behaving very well. Everything seems to be functioning as it should.

Horn Change & Glove Upgrade

Found my horn (probably the original from 1981) was out of commission the other day. That simply will not do, so I dropped by my local motorcycle shop and snagged a generic $14 replacement until I can do proper research on a really badass horn.

Really quick replacement procedure.

1) take off the two electric leads (pliers helps)
2) take off single bolt

Had to drill out the hole on the new horn, which was originally too small. Bolt on the bike is 5/16 or something like that.

I'm really hoping for a big F**n airhorn. I've found some killer ones in the ~100db area for about $50. Should be fun once I get around to it.

Also upgraded my gloves recently. The pair I originally bought for $20 when I picked up the bike are not holding up well. New ones are leather with padding for the knuckles and carbon fiber accents, since I'm such a sucker for carbon fiber (really though, I am).

Chain and sprockets are still on the list, though I think I may have overestimated the damage in previous assessments. With a thorough cleaning and light lubrication last week, the chain seems to be performing much better. I think it just wants attention...

Front brakes and oil change

So I did the brakes a while back - just never got around to posting the process.

Overall, it was pretty easy. Took a little longer than I thought because the new brake pads were SO much thicker than the old ones that some additional adjustments were necessary.

old vs new

First, stripped out all the old parts and gave them a once over with a rag to clean off the excess gunk.

Tried to drop in the new pads after we cranked out the caliper, but that was a no go. Too tight. Had to put the brake assembly back on the bike (for leverage) and crank loose the floating thingamajig (can you tell I'm not a mechanic?) to push it wide enough for the new pads to fit.

leverage!

freshly installed gap...

Reassembled fairly well. The right pad seemed it was touching the disc - though after a quick ride it loosened up just fine.

They're a little squeaky right now - the whole bike needs a bath and to get all the gunk cleaned out and off the pads.

Today, I finally got around to an oil change, which it turns out was desperately needed. ALL kinds of crap was stuck in the filter and the oil that I drained was *nasty*.

I flushed it with a couple quarts of good oil to make sure nothing else was hanging out in there. I will probably do more frequent oil changes for a while to make double extra sure everything is running well. Every 2,000 or 3,000 miles for now.

I'm putting 10W-40 in it for now - that's what the people at hondatwins forums seem to like.

Naturally, nobody in Flagstaff carries the FRAM CH6008 filter that I need for this 1986 'Hawk 450. I've got it on order from O'Reilly with the promise that it will be in Tuesday morning.