My neighbor Karl has three motorcycles that I know of.  Two are Harleys.  One is a Honda CB750.  Before I got Buster, I talked to him.  He was going to give his Honda to his daughter, but she didn't want it.  I offered to buy it from him, but he wasn't very motivated to sell it.  Then the Easter Bunny came.

We were in Grand Haven for Easter 2005.  As we came home, I turned the corner onto Lockridge and saw something big and black behind my truck.  I panicked, thinking something broke off of my roof.  As we approached, this thing turned out to be a motorcycle.  I figured it was Karl's, as we had talked about me buying it.  I told Lynn that I'd have to negotiate a price for it.  She said not to bother.  Six weeks ago, Karl told her he was going to give it to me, but to keep it a secret.  John named it Bergie.

Bergie's front brake doesn't work (could be there's no brake fluid), and his clutch doesn't disengage the transmission from the engine (could be just a bad cable).  He also doesn't have a battery in him.  And, no center stand.  He has light surface rust on his chrome, and needs a good scrubbing.  I pushed him around back, since with no center stand he leans too much to go in the garage.  He has extended front forks, and handlebars that are not quite ape hangers, but lean in that direction.  He's really comfortable to sit on.  1972 CB750.

I talked to Karl Monday morning.  He says drain the gas, put in fresh, and Bergie should start right up.  A new battery was under $33, including tax, from the local Honda dealer.  Hopefully, before the end of this week, I'll fire up Bergie!

April 4, 2005.  If only it were that simple.  The battery is charged.  The gas tank took some work to remove, as the fuel lines are stiff and the rubber ring that holds the back of the tank on is not in such good shape, both likely from exposure to the weather.  I ended up cutting the fuel lines to get the tank away, and cutting them off of the connectors on each end with a knife.  Two lines.  I thought I'd try splicing new lines back onto old lines through an in-line fuel filter, but the old hoses weren't flexible enough to even do that, so they're gone.  Drained the gas, put in the battery, put in new gas, and he turns over but doesn't start.  No spark.  Plug ends in the caps are corroded, so at least I need new plugs and wire end caps.  I already ordered new points and condensers.  I tested the circuit through the kill switch to make sure that wasn't bad, and I get voltage to the points but not through them.  I'll replace them and the condensers, and with the new wire caps and plugs I should have fire.  Gas may be another story, but at least fire.  Turns out Bergie does fit in the garage ok wthout a center stand, but he's tougher to work on without one.  That's on the way too.

April 12, 2005.  Got a bunch of new ignition parts.  New spark plugs and new plug wire caps from the local dealer, and new points & condensers from eBay.  Those inboard plugs are tough to get out!  Swapped plugs & wire caps during the week, then I got sick.  Points and condensers came on Saturday, but I was too sick to do anything with them.  Monday night, though, and they were on.  The screws holding the points on were pretty tight, and the heads started to round off, so I got to use my impact wrench, a tool I hadn't used since I had a CB550 back in the early 1990's.  It still works like a charm.  Special tip:  Put the bottom condenser on first, then the top one has something to set on.  I tried it the other way & could not get the screw back into the plate.  Old points look pretty crappy.  I pulled #4 plug and hit the starter-there's fire!  Same with #1.  Now, it's possible that I still don't have spark on the inboard plugs, but I doubt it.  Reconnect the fuel tank, and hit the starter!

He still doesn't start.  Sounded like he was trying to fire, but no luck.  I fixed the spark problem, but there still might be a gas problem.  I'm looking for something to spray starter fluid into, when I decide to pull the tank off.  I disconnect the hoses from the petcock, when lo and behold they are dry!  He doesn't have any gas.  I know there's gas in the tank.  I had the petcock on reserve.  WIth the hoses off and the bike standing straight up, fuel comes out of only one of the two nozzles.  I think for my test the bike wasn't straight up and down, and with low fuel nothing made it to the petcock.  If so, had I straightened it up, I still would have only had gas to two carbs.  Now, I drain the gas tank and disassemble the petcock.  I've never done this before, and I got to use my new tools for removing bolts with rounded heads to get the bottom of the petcock off.  Inside it looks pretty clean, with just a little bit of crud.  I can't seem to figure out how the fuel gets from the big tube that goes in the tank to the little nozzles where my fuel lines attach.

Was it only yesterday that I put the ignition together?  After some great insight from a post to the VJMC mailing list, I went home and ran a pipe cleaner down into one fule nozzle to the other.  Then I went the other way with the pipe cleaner.  I had the petcock bowl on, and when I took it back off there was a bunch of crud in the bottom.  So now my petcock is clear.  I reassembled it, put it on the tank, put the tank on the bike, and started to pour in the new gas.  As I've been working on Bergie lately, I've also had a sinus infection (thanks kids!).  I can't smell anything.  My first clue that there was a problem wasn't the smell of gas, but the sound of a stream running down from my tank to the floor.  I put a cup under the stream, and waited for the tank to drain down.

While the gas was pouring out, I went back to my newly acquired CB750 Shop Manual.  I can see that this book is going to help out a lot.  It has an exploded view of the petcock assembly.  The fuel selector-turns gas off, on, or reserve-sits up against the rubber circle and the spring washer fits ON TOP of the selector switch itself, not behind, like I put it.  Once the gas was done draining, I took the selector apart, put the spring washer ON TOP of the selector, put the mounting plate back on and tightened it down.  Poured in some more gas, and presto-no more leak!  Thus encouraged, I sat down on Bergie, turned him on and choked him.  It took a few minutes, but he sputtered, fired, then at 9:30 pm he started!  After at least 3, maybe 4 years of not running, Bergie was alive!  And he sounded pretty good too.  If I had another hour I'd have let him warm up, change the oil, then pop that clutch free.  That will have to wait until next week.

It's next week now.  Friday, April 22.  I was out of town all week, and today Lynn & I took the kids to see Thomas the Tank Engine.  Once we got home & put the kids to bed, I went out to the garage.  Started Bergie, and he was revving really high.  I controlled his RPMs with the choke-not the best of ideas.  After a minute or two I shut him off & looked under the tank.  One of the two fuel lines got stuck under the throttle slide of one carb, holding the throttle open on that one and the other three.  I need to figure out where the fuel lines really go.  Moved the line, started him up & let him get warm.  Drained the oil from the oil tank with no problem, then took the oil filter off.  That came apart pretty easily, and I had a spare filter that I was going to put on Buster, but never got around to.  Reassembeld, put in 2 and a half quarts of oil, and started him up.  Much like the gas squirting out, the oil literally streamed out of the filter housing.  Tried tightening, no help.  In fact, I think I rounded the bolt head a bit.  Loostened the assembly and, it turns out, rotated the assembly a degree maybe to line it up properly.  Retightened, restarted, and no oil leaks!  This is good, because I already have half a quart on the garage floor from this little oil change exercise. 

I let him run a bit, topped off the oil, and on a whim I kicked him into gear and tried to rock him back and forth.  Sure enough, like Karl said, the clutch started to work itself free.  With the engine still off, I got to the point where I could put Bergie in gear, squeeze the clutch, and move him around the garage.  It's about 9:30 at night again, temps in the low 40's, and a slight drizzle.  I couldn't resist.  I moved Lynn's car out of the driveway, pointed Bergie out of the garage, put him in neutral and started him up.  I squeezed the clutch, kicked him into first gear, and he didn't move!  Great!  I let the clutch out, and rode him up and down the street twice.  Bergie is back on the road!  I got realy cold really fast, so I rode him back into the garage and shut him down.  Tomorrow it's supposed to snow.

Six inches of snow fell that Sunday, April 23.  It all melted away on Monday.  During the week I started to work on the front brake.  First I put some more fluid in the master cylinder, and didn't notice any difference at all in the feel of the brake.  The handle moved, but nothing else.  Then I noticed the fluid leaking out onto the handle.  Time to take everything apart.  I took the mounting bracket off, noticed two allen head bolts that hold the caliper halves to the bracket, put the bracket and caliper back on, then reread my instructions and took it all apart again.  I didn't have the right size allen wrench, but I was able to turn one of the bolts with a screwdriver and channel locks.  There's a screw with a spring that keeps tension on the bracket and lets it float around a little bit-I used that to hold the caliper bracket to the bike while I turned this allen head bolt.  Got one out, but bent the screw a little bit.  Just a little bit.  The other one wouldn't move, so using 2 of the 3 bolts that mount the bracket I remounted it (third time?) and went at it with the screwdriver and channel locks.  Before I went too far I noticed that I was rounding out the head.  Time to buy more tools.

Armed with a set of allen sockets and an adapter to fit my impact wrench, the second bolt wasn't much of a challenge.  It looks like I can still use it.  I also disconnected the rubber brake line from the metal line coming out of the caliper.  So now the caliper is off the bike, and split in half.  The pad from the stationary half is easy enough to remove, but the real problem is the frozen piston.  I squirted some WD-40 all around the edge, and thumped it a few times with a hammer, then let it sit.  The next day I tried the same thing.  My repair instructions say that if the piston can't be pumped out by squeezing the brake handle (it can't) to try 80-100 psi of compressed air.  My bicycle tire pump claims to be able to do 100 psi, so I stuck a rubber hose on the metal end of the brake line coming up from the caliper, and tried to fit the other end of the hose into the clip on the tire pump. 

The hose is just a tad bit small, so I wrapped some electrical tape around it and tried again.  I got some air through, but could still hear it hissing.  Another shot of WD-40, another tap with the hammer, and another try with the tire pump.  I wasn't making any progress here.  A day or two later, after more WD-40 and gentle persuasion with a hammer, I tried again with a different piece of tube that had a larger outside diameter.  This was too big, so I whittled a bit off of it with a pocketknife.  Finally a good seal!  Such a good seal, in fact, that the tire pump wouldn't move.  I was generating pressure, but not enough to move the piston.  Time to stop for the night and try again tomorrow. 

Now it's Saturday, and I did the WD-40 and hammer routine again, then got out the tire pump.  After a few tries, I got frustrated and started looking around the garage for something else that I could use to pry or spray or do anything else with.  Then I saw my portable air compressor.  It plugs into a car's cigarette lighter, and the side badge says it will go up to 165 psi-much more than my tire pump.  My original hose fit into the clip on this compressor, so I hooked it up to the brake and plugged it into my truck's lighter. 

I turned on the pump, and when the dial hit 40 psi there was a big pop-the hose I was using popped out of the clip on the pump.  I put the hose back in, clamped it, and held the assembly upside down on the wheel well, pressing the hose into the clip.  This time, the pump got up to about 80 psi before I got another big pop-my hose shot off of the end of the metal line that went into the caliper body.  Put that back on with a lot more hose overlapping the metal, and went back to it.  A few times the pump cut out, and a few mroe times I would wriggle and the hose I was forcing into the pump clip would blow out.  I was beginning to lose patience again, and also wondering about what damage I might be doing to the pump.  Another try, and I watched the pump's doal go past 120 psi, past it's rated 165 psi, past 200 psi, and peg at 240 psi.  The dial didn't read any further.  Then there was another big bang.  The piston shot across the bed of the truck and crashed into the other side.  It was finally free!

The guts of the caliper are filthy, but should clean up ok.  I got the bleed valve bolt out, and it was completely plugged.  The metal line came off ok too, and finally the 0-ring inside.  It's all disassembled.  I have new brake pads and a master cylinder kit on order, so this week I'll clean the parts with brake parts solvent and steel wool, and reassemble as much as possible while I wait for new parts.  Weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend.

It seems like forever, but the new parts came in before I got the rest of the brake apart.  The master cylinder was a trick.  To say the parts were rusty doesn't do it justice.  There were 4 days of spraying, digging, and prying just to get the circlip out.  Once that came apart, the plunger and washer took another 2 days to get out.  The folks on SOHC4.US pointed out that I could have tapped the plunger out with a long bolt back through where the brake line hooks up to the master cylinder housing.  I had the housing bolted back onto the handlebars so I could pound away and spray it with liquid wrench, and I was planning on turning it upside down to drive the plunger out when I grabbed the channel locks again and gave it a tug, and it came free.  Hooray!  From there it was easy to clean everything with brake cleaning solvent, and reassemble with the rebuild kit.  It took me a while to get the parts all oriented the right way, but I got the master cylinder back together in relatively short order.  Mounted that, hooked up the brake line.  Then I put the caliper bracket on, and mounted the caliper to the bracket with its new parts.  Good so far.  Last step is to connect the metal brake line to the caliper and rubber line.  Can't get it.  I was absolutely sure about the orientation of that metal line, but there was no way I could get it to fit right.  Even looking at Buster I couldn't figure it out.  I guessed that I had to take the caliper back off and sneak the line between the bracket and the fork, so I started taking bolts off.  By now it was 10:00 at night, and I decided I wasn't going to finish, so with only the spring left between the bracket and fork, I pushed the bike back in the corner.  Dagnabbit, that caliper was squeezing the wheel pretty hard.  I was now convinced that I tightened the caliper halves too much, and would have to dismount the entire caliper and bracket to start over. 

The next day I took the bracket off-it was tight!  I started pounding on the caliper bolts with my impact driver, but in my hands the caliper turned instead of the bolt.  I mounted the assembly back on the bike and pounded some more.  That's when Karl came over.  He said he heard the banging and figured he better have a look before I hurt myself.  Good thing he did.  The first thing he figured out was that the caliper didn't have to come apart-it was tight on the disc because I had the mounting bracket behind both the fork and the fender.  Then he figured out that I couldn't get the metal line to fit because I was trying to fit it in backwards.  With a few words of encouragement I had it back together again.  Now I just need to fill the line with fluid & get the bubbles out.

Ha!  That's easier said than done. I got everything together in the right sequence inside the master cylinder, but there's a rubber ring that goes ON the piston, not in front of it.  Having this wrong meant that, like every other fluid so far on Bergie, the brake fluid all leaked out.  I took the master cylinder apart (faster this time) and reversed the orientation of this ring, but still didn't know it was supposed to be on the piston and reassembled.  It didn't leak, but it didn't pump up either.  This is when I emailed Bob from the SOHC4.US website.  Bob pointed out that the ring went ON the piston.  The drawing on his site is darned close to the one in my shop manual, but my shop manual is missing the dashed line that indicates that the ring goes ON, not in front of, the piston.  Tore the cylinder apart again (much faster this time), put the ring on, and reassembled.  It worked!  I spent some time getting fluid into the caliper, and the piston actually moved!  Spongy, but it was working.  I spent some more time bleeding the line, and got it working a bit better.  I got bored with this part of the job pretty quick, so on Monday I bought a vacuum pump to draw the air out.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a good seal at the bleed valve, so spent a lot of time Monday night with nothing to show for it.  Today I'll get some Teflon tape and a hose clamp to stick that tube on good.  Also, my new shocks should arrive today.  Yippie!

Oy.  Bleeding brakes is a challenge, at least for me.  I tried again on Saturday with the pump, teflon tape, and a hose clamp.  I think I made it worse.  Instead of spending a few more hours working on the same thing with no progress, I moved onto something else-new oil in the forks.  Fortunately the brake still held well enough to pump the fluid out from each fork.  That went great, but when I took the caps off the top of the fork the spacer pushed out.  Turns out I couldn't get it back on with the full weight of the bike on the forks, so I suspended the front end from the garage rafters with a nylon strap.  Also turns out that I couldn't get my socket on the cap squarely to reassemble with the handlebars on.  Took the bars off, poured the oil into each fork, then put the caps back on.  Handlebars went back on easily enough, and the job was done.

Feeling good now, I attacked the rear shocks.  After all, I can do almost anything.  This bike has a luggage rack, so I took that off with no problem.  The top cap nuts on the shock mounting bolt came off easily too.  I was making great progress.  This bike doesn't have a center stand, so I figured I'd use the nylon straps to keep enough weight off the back end to get the old shocks off and the new ones on.  I lhooked it up, lifted the back end with one hand, and tightened each strap with the other.  This got the bike off of the side stand, hanging kind-of straight.  On to the shock removal!  Years ago, my wife bought me a funky box end rachet wrench.  Seemed perfect for taking the bolt out of the bottom of the shock.  Got the bolt unscrewed, but then I couldn't get the wrench off.  Tried running the bolt back in, but then I was working against the wrench, and couldn't get enough clearance between the bolt head and the exhaust pipe.  Ran the bolt back out and pulled on the exhaust enough to get the bolt to drop off, which let the wrench fall off too.  Pulled the top part of the shock off of the mounting bolt, and it was off the bike.  Progress, despite the hour spent playing around with the wrench.  Here's where things went bad. 

The easier of the jobs seemed to be getting the lower bolt through the clevis and bracket on the swingarm.  Wrong.  I could not at all get that bolt in, so I took off the bolt that suspends the rear of the exhaust pipes (and the rear footpeg).  With the exhaust a bit looser, the bolt went in.  Not tight, but in.  I found a little screw on the ground, not sure where it came from, but I was making progress.  The job still wasn't done, I had the exhaust hanging loose, and the bike itself hanging from my rafters.  I wasn't feeling very safe, and my problem was about to get worse.

Essentially, I couldn't get the top of the shock back on the bike.  There's a rubber bushing that goes inside the big eye of the shock, then the shock and bushing go onto the mounting post.  Or, maybe the bushing goes on the mounting post then the shock goes on top of the bushing.  I tried pounding with sockets, squeezing with C clamps, spraying with lubricant.  I was just about in tears.  I think my son got a little bit of a vocabulary lesson.  Finally, I got my floor jack under the bike and lifted the back end so that the stud on the bike was exactly centered on the eye of the shock.  While I was lifting with the jack, I was acutely aware that I was relieving the tension on the straps, and that if the bike wriggled in any way it might just crash down and kill me.  After an hour and a half, I got it on and was able to hammer it in with the socket.  I imagine that there's some kind of special tool, or maybe just the ability to get the wheel off the ground safely, that would make this whole job easier.  I had to adjust the height again with the floor jack to get the lower bolt threaded, but that took only another few minutes.  Finally, one shock was completely replaced and the bike was back on terra firma.  I was relieved, but the job was still not done.  On Sunday, I rotated the bike so that the other side was facing out, took the exhaust hanger bolt out, and resuspended it from the rafters.  The assembly came apart pretty quickly this time-the value of experience.  Unfortunately, reassembly was just as difficult.  This time I got one end of the bushing into the shock eye, and started the other end onto the mounting stud.  Then, I got a couple of washers and the cap nut, and screwed it back together.  The even pressure forced the whole thing together.  Only took me half an hour to figure that one out.  By now, the thunderstorms stopped, so I took it out for a quick ride.  What a dramatic improvement!  Now if I could just get that front brake bled.

Oh, that front brake.  On www.sohc4.us, I read about a tool that a guy made to press the fluid down from the master cylinder.  It was a cylinder cap with a fitting on it that you plug a hose into.  The other end of the hose goes to a low pressure lawn sprayer.  You fill the master cylinder with fluid, put on the special cap, pressurize the system, then open the bleeder valve.  Constant air pressure from above forces the air out down below.  I ordered a cap, figuring I'll drill my existing one and have a replacement for it.  While I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that I could do something similar from the bleeder valve-push fluid up through it with pressure.  I posted a question about this on www.sohc4.us, and sure enough, someone had done something like this before.  He used a two stroke mixing syringe.  I bought one that day & took it home.  After an hour of squirting brake fluid all over my garage floor, I finally called my wife.  I set up a mayonnaise jar with fluid, stuck a hose on the bleeder nipple, put the other end of the hose in the jar, and took the cap off of the master cylinder.  Lynn did a little squeeze and I opened the bleeder valve.  Lynn did a big squeeze and then I closed the valve.  Lynn released the lever, and we repeated the whole thing.  A bunch of times.  Refilled the fluid from the top 3 or 4 times, and filled the jar down below.  Good thig I bought a big jug of brake fluid.  End result?  It worked!!!!  Took the bike for a ride at 9:45 pm on Tuesday the 24th, and it worked great!  I was so excited when I got home that I replaced a burned out turn signal and put in the new flasher.  Both work great too!  It's been just under two months since Bergie came to visit, and he's roadworthy. 

There are still some things to work on-some lights are out, so I need to go through the wiring harnesses and clean some contacts (every one I've seen so far has been dirty and corroded).  I need to adjust the cam chain tension, and check the valve clearances.  Points need to be gapped correctly, and ignition timing has to be checked, but, today at least, the bottom line is that Bergie is back.

Bergie's been great for the last month.  I got Buster's electrics fixed, so I'm riding him again.  I just swapped out a drive chain adjusting bolt.  I'm going to replace Bergie's front fork seals, and take his chain off to clean it.  Hopefully I'll get that done before the end of the season.  Once that's done I'll replace Buster's chain and tear the petcock apart so his reserve works again.  Alternate bikes-one in for work, one out for riding.

Ha!  One bike in for work!  Two bikes, both need work.  Got the chain adjusting bolt in, as noted above, but the wheel wasn't straight.  Adjusted a couple of times, chalking the wheel to make sure it's not rubbing.  Took him for a nice long ride in the middle of August, and the lock on his seat wouldn't open.  Fortunately I had my helmet locked by the strap, not the metal ring.  Ask me about the last time I had a problem with the seat lock.

He's been a little bit hard to start for the last couple times.  One afternoon, Labor Day weekend, as I was preparing to ride him across Michigan, he flat out refused to start.  Pushed him into the garage, parked him & took off in the truck.  When I got back home,  during that week following Labor Day, I took out the #1 plug to check for spark.  It's sparking.  Put the plug back in, tried again to start him.  No luck.  Turned off the electrics, but not the gas, and sat there in the garage.  A few minutes later, he made a funny noise & marked his territory with a little puddle of gas.  This makes me think there's something plugging up the fuel flow somewhere.  More investingation is necessary.  In the meantime, I'll ride Buster, right?

Can you believe it's October already?  On Saturday, the first of October, Lynn had a family event to attend, without the kids.  What am I going to do with them?  Work on Bergie!  A quick exam shows spark in both outboard plugs (The left one is the one I took out of Buster after the crossthreaded exploding plug incident).  Another quick check shows that there is gas in the outboard carb bowls.  Draining the gas then turning the petcock on fills the bowls back up, so I'm getting fuel to that point.  Now I'm thinking maybe the airbox or filter is clogged-maybe a chipmonk is nesting there.  I take the airbox off, and it's dirty but not obstructing airflow.  Standing on the left side, I choke it, while bent over the seat and watching the fuel lines on the right.  Mystery solved.

Just before this problem started I was riding to work, when he started to cut out.  Behaved like he was out of gas.  I looked down at the petcock, expecting to have to change it from ON to RES.  Instead, I saw gas streaming out of it.  I shut the bike off, turned the petcock off, and pulled over.  Upon further review, one of the two fuel lines came off of the petcock nipple.  Since there are no hose clamps, it was easy to push the hose back on, and continue my ride.  What I didn't see is that the hose dropped down, then around, one of the levers for the choke.  When I reconnected it, it was on the outside of the choke lever for the rightmost carb, not between the levers for the rightmost carb and the one just inside.  This meant that when you closed the choke, the lever pressed up against the hose.  It closed off the hose, but more importantly it kept the choke from fully closing.  Even with no fuel flow from the one hose, there would be enough gas in the bowls to start, but there was too much air in the mixture without the choke fully closed.  I rerouted the hose, choked  him, and Bergie started right up.  Changed the air filter while I had the airbox off, then took the kids for a ride.