CB125-T SUPERDREAM

Restoration Diary

After a helping hand from Ian to get the bike home from Houghton Regis with his van it was time to have a better look at what needed doing. I created a list of things that would defiantly need replacing or repairing:

Replacement right fork stanchion, as it was bent
Replacement headlight, as the surround is all broken
Replacement brake light lens, as its broken
Replacement Speedo cable, as its missing
Replacement tacho cable, as its snapped
Replacement rear rim, as its buckled
Replacement Sprockets and chain as they are worn out
Replacement Carb rubbers as they are perished
Replacement left hand engine cover as this one has been down the road
New battery as its missing
New front tyre, as its perished
New Brake pads
Passenger foot pegs, as they are missing
Rear trim needs repairing
Frame needs bending back into shape as front is slightly twisted
Fork stop needs replacing as someone has made a mess of it.

Lots to fix as you can see but I started by stripping the whole thing down and other than the centre stand there is nothing left on the frame. (the centre stand mount pin is rusted in solid so its easier to leave it in). With the frame stripped down I cleaned the frame up with a wire wheel in my angle grinder to remove any rust and the old paint to leave a good finish for fresh paint. Then after a good wipe down two coats of Hammerite smooth were added and I must say its looking rather nice. Although I forgot to repair the fork stop so didn't paint the headstock and will repair that next. The mono-shock assembly and swing arm all need cleaning and painting too.

Today whilst it was pissing down with rain (this is England not Wales dammit its supposed to be summer!) I decided it was time to clean up the rear suspension parts with the wire wheel. After cleaning all the links my grinder started playing up and making strange electrical popping noises and smelling funny. A quick strip down and brush and commutator clean got it running again as it was full of the skag that came off the frame when cleaning it. I cut off the bolt that is supposed to hold the rear drum link arm to the swing arm as it was holding it a little too well. With that removed I knocked a lump of dirt from the bottom of the swing arm only to reveal a nice little rust hole in it. After tapping a bit with a screwdriver two holes were found. I will see how bad the damage is tomorrow by cleaning the arm with the wire wheel. hopefully I can salvage it by welding a plate over the holes and as its on the bottom of the arm it shouldn't affect the cosmetics of the bike too much.

After cleaning the arm it was clear the rot in the swingarm had started to take hold of the centre part. I chipped the worst out with a chisel and then after sloshing on some rust remedy, welded a plate which completely covered the hole and now it should be good as new. Luckily the hole was on the bottom, probably from sitting water, so you cannot see the repair and it doesn't make the arm look untidy. After repairing the swingarm, I gave it and all of the other suspension components a coat of paint and cleaned and greased up all of the bushes and dust seals ready to install it.

A trip to BME yields a good load of replacement parts to help get the beast back on the road.

After the paint had dried all of the rear suspension components were fitted back to the bike frame and its starting to look much nicer. I now have all the parts I need other than a couple of bits of bodywork which I will have to repair. I cleaned the replacement rear wheel up and it has come up really nice, and as a bonus the detailing on the spokes matches the front wheel! Not much more i can do now until the parts I ordered come in.

After picking up my ordered parts from BME I can get back to work on it. I fitted the new rear sprocket to the wheel as the old one was worn so much the teeth were actually really sharp. I stripped, cleaned and re-assembled the drum brake and gave the outside surface a good clean. Finally before fitting the wheel I noticed that the wheel bearings were better in the bent wheel that was on the bike so I swapped them over as the ones in the second hand wheel I got were a bit gritty. I then fitted the wheel to the swing arm, now it can sit on the centre stand on its own!

Before I could fit the yokes the bearings had to be changed. The two shells in the headstock knocked out easily with a drift but the bearing shell on the bottom yoke can be a right sod. After beating away at it for ages it finally came off, be careful when doing this though as you must not damage the bearing seat and the threads at the top of the pivot that hold the top yoke on are fine and easy to damage. With the knackered old bearings in the bin I fitted the nice new taper rollers. Theses were nice and easy to fit. The shells were tapped into the headstock using a bit of wood and then a socket as a drift. I fitted the lower race using one of the old shells as a drift as you cant afford to risk damaging the roller cage as it fucks them up. The photo below shows the yoke void of any bearings.

With The yokes ready to be fitted I remembered that the nut that adjusts the preload was missing when I stripped the bike so I will have to pick up one from BME when I pop over tomorrow. Anyway with the yokes temporarily fitted I stripped the forks, cleaned them and gave them some fresh oil as the stuff in them was nasty. A quick polish and then I refitted them. The front wheel got the same treatment as the rear did. A thorough clean and as the hub was badly corroded I cleaned it up and painted it. Also it now has a new Bridgestone tyre that I had fitted last time I was at BME. Half an hour later and its rolling on its own! Now to sort out the handle bars and then the engine.

The handle bars are now fitted but the bars don't line up with the front wheel properly so the yokes must be bent as well as the forks look pretty damn straight, and when I rotate the stantions round the wheel stays kicked off to the same side. Will sort that out later when I can get to Ian's and try his set of CB yokes. Anyways instead of doing nothing I got the engine cleaned up and installed. And then gave the exhausts a good polish and in the worst areas of the manifold down-pipes a rub down with soft wire wool and Autosol to bring the shine back. With the air boxes on she is starting to come together.

With the bike looking like it might go I decided to sort the brakes out. The rear connected up a doddle but the front brakes were going to be a problem. The calliper was stuck solid and it had been pretty beaten about so I decided it was time to find another one. After rummaging through the box of callipers at Ian's I found an empty shell. With that, two piston kits and a set of pads I returned home to fix them up. (This thing is going to cost me far too much to get going again lol)

I stripped the old calliper I had down and cleaned up the pins and parts I was going to use again. Then after a good clean fitting the new seals and pistons to the calliper I had sourced from Ian's. Fitted the new pads and it was like new! I then fitted it to the bike and with the lever and master cylinder fitted I then found out the heads were screwed on the reservoir cap, drilled them out, filled it up fitted new stainless cap heads, bled the system and now it works perfectly.

With everything else coming along nicely I made short work of repairing the loom and getting all of the electrics working without any dodgy random wires running on their own down the bike next to the loom. Also repaired a few sections which had chaffed.

After sorting the wiring the engine had to be run up... started on the button however pumped out blue smoke from one cylinder and the other was only half alive and spluttering a bit. Having found a third of a piston ring in the sump I decided it might be a good idea to strip the engine and see what the innards looked like. The Haynes says it is apparently not possible to strip the top end down with the engine in the frame but I managed it ok ;). With the head off, the barrels off, to my surprise the pistons were almost new and there was no damage at all. I measured them and they turned out to be oversize from the standard measurement. Gave the crowns a good polish and refitted them as well as realigning the piston rings. With a new gasket and the barrels refitted I turned my attention to the head. AH HA, two valve stem oil seals missing. Took the valves out gave the head a good clean and a port and polish with the dremel. then washed all the shite out. Checked the valves were straight, cleaned and polished the heads, and then lapped them into the seats. Finally I could reassemble the head and then fit it back to the engine, set the timing up and adjust the tappets.

The front forks had tell tail rings of oil on the stantions after a good bounce of the bike so they needed changing. After another trip to Ian's to get some forks seals and stopping off at Halfords for some ATF I was ready to go. With the fork removed from the bike I drained the oil then removed the bottom retaining cap head bolt, once loose I used a wooden dowel with a blunt taper on it to hold the inside of the clamp still. Then the stantion was removed and cleaned. The oil seal was wiped out a new one fitted and tapped in with a large socket. Then it all fitted back together and a little bit of thread lock on the bottom cap head to make sure it doesn't come out (do not forget the copper washer as its not shown in the photo) Finally I packed the area above the oil seal with grease and then fitted the dust cover. This grease helps stop the stantion from pitting and corroding.

The wiring was easy i just refitted the original loom with a few repairs from where someone had bodged it and a few damaged bits of wire were replaced. With a nice new headlight there was plenty of room to fit the mass of plugs and connectors in to hide them away. A bit of rubbing down to the tank and a coat of acid etch primer followed by several coats of high build and a bit more sanding and the tank didn't look all that bad. a few coats of a nice bright red were to be added later.

With it all ready I took it for an MOT at Dunstable dirt bike centre, who promptly failed it on the rear shock absorber saying it didn't work (although they didn't notice high beam was pointing down and dipped pointing up), so I bought another a new shock from BME and fitted it, which felt exactly the same, maybe the people down dirtbikes didn't realise there is very little shock absorbing on a cb I don't know.... but i got it MOT'd else where and it flew through the MOT with the headlight wiring sorted. With the MOT under its belt I removed the standard exhausts and fitted two beetle baffles and re-balanced the carbs, these not only sounded great but gave the bike a bit more go! although on the way to work it backfired and blew them off and a truck promptly ran them over. back to that nasty Motad pipe it was.