The International CBX Owners Association

Hey everyone pretty new here. I posted quite a while back asking some questions about some Ontario Moto tech stuff in preparation for a revival of my dad's 1980 CBX. Got some great responses and then didn't do anything and have been sitting on the bike. Well no more! I started heavily working on it this past weekend and figured I'd post some progress here...hopefully to gain some insight on things I may not be thinking about and to join this awesome community. Talking to my dad he was a member here many years ago and he still has the patch. t

A little backstory on the bike. My dad purchased the bike new rode it some...modified it a lot...and rode it some more. There are quite a few unique parts on it that I haven't seen many other places. The biggest reason I have delayed working on this bike is for this reason. It's hard to start pulling things apart when you don't know of you can find replacements. The bike was last run around 1996. She looks a little worse for the wear covered in dust and grease but we'll have that fixed up in no time with some degreaser and heavy cleaning of every little part. Still don't know exactly where I want to go with this build...my dad and I have had some talks about making this bike into several different things, but first things first it's time to tear it down and get a good baseline of where everything is at.

Here is the picture of what it looked like before washing it down. What isn't pictured is a couple different fairings he has for it. We have some sort of cafe fairing (don't know who made it off the top of my head). We also have a Don't Vesco rabid transit fairing that is paint matched to the bike as well.

As far as the work accomplished well here goes. A little while ago we turned the motor over by hand. No cracking or popping of rings (as far as we could tell) so that's a good sign. The tank is definitely going to need some love. Inside is all rusted. I did hear some good things on here about electroless nickel coating. I may pursue that as the bike is going to be repainted anyways. Anyone have thoughts on that process? The carbs are locked up and gummed up I'm sure of it. So they will come off. Don't know if I want to rebuild those myself or save some headache and send them off. It's going to need love with the brakes front and rear (neither work right now). And I'll definitely need to address the clutch. There is a Barnett's clutch in the bike that is so stiff and locked up. Don't know why that is yet either.

Anyways I figured first things first let's get that engine off the bike so we can do some work! Pulled the tank, seat side covers etc. Drained the oil. The oil looked brand new! I am a newbie and maybe I am wrong in thinking this but I think that's a good sign! Can oil separate after a while? I'll definitely check in the oil pan for anything weird. Followed the shop manual and disconnected everything that needed disconnected and I got the motor tilted. One bad thing happened when tilting the motor... Messed up some threads a little on the upper long engine through mounting bolt when pulling it out. I'll have to clean those up later. Then with some help and a few more things disconnected I got the motor dropped. This is where I currently am. Next step will be taking off the carbs and airbox and evaluating them.

Welcome ! nice to see another get recused ..Are you gonna keep it the way it is or go back to bone stock ? either way it will be worth all the effort . Did lots of powder coat on mine to help it stand up for 40 years again , Ceramic coat those Russ Collins pipes before they turn into Swiss cheese , looking forward to your progress Greg

Welcome! Sorry, don't know your name to address you properly. Anyway, great project you have there. Sitting that long, I assume you are pulling the head and block to check thing out? Depending on what you find, thee is some money in refreshing thing there. How many miles are on the bike? I gravitate toward a stock-looking bike, with some period mods occasionally. '80s are much rarer than '79s, so that's the way I might go with yours, but it's whatever you want. Holler if you want some ideas along that line, I've done several '80s. Let me know if you need carb help too.

Dave

Resto threads are great to follow as there always seems to be some different problems and fixes that we can all learn from.
The fact yours has a father/son connection works for me as well.

parts aren't a huge problem, they do get pricey though...CBX Used Parts, Six Center Motoren are IMO the best most complete sources for spares...

Carb clean and repair, Mike Nixon, Dave79 or a little north of you in Alberta, Vass Performance Cycle...

Gearheadgregg wrote:Welcome ! nice to see another get recused ..Are you gonna keep it the way it is or go back to bone stock ? either way it will be worth all the effort . Did lots of powder coat on mine to help it stand up for 40 years again , Ceramic coat those Russ Collins pipes before they turn into Swiss cheese , looking forward to your progress Greg

We still haven't completely decided the way we are going to go with the bike yet. I don't know if there is much value keeping it stock since since my dad modified it so much back in the day. We do have a bunch of stock parts though so we'll see. Yeah the exhaust needs some love. I was looking at it and they are rusted but nothing a good sandblast wouldn't take care of then repowdercoat.

A 1980 is always worth going back to (almost) stock. To some the U.S.-made Honda Marysville bikes are desirable, to others, the two-month only production Japanese bikes are, because they are the rarest of all CBX versions. A bike that has the original paint color and the original exhaust usually is worth a little more than most hacked-up customs.

daves79x wrote:Welcome! Sorry, don't know your name to address you properly. Anyway, great project you have there. Sitting that long, I assume you are pulling the head and block to check thing out? Depending on what you find, thee is some money in refreshing thing there. How many miles are on the bike? I gravitate toward a stock-looking bike, with some period mods occasionally. '80s are much rarer than '79s, so that's the way I might go with yours, but it's whatever you want. Holler if you want some ideas along that line, I've done several '80s. Let me know if you need carb help too.

Dave

Yeah we are going to be pulling the head and block apart. He painted the cylinder cooling fins black, and it looked good quite a few years back, but time has not been nice on the paint so I'd like to get it all refreshed. I was looking at some vapor blasting stuff on here and that looks sweet!. I am still hesitant with pulling the head and stuff because the engine was bored by ontario moto tech and I can't find any replacements (fingers crossed). I didn't know the 80's were more rare than the 79's. What carb help do you offer hahaha? Full rebuilds? I really loath the idea of doing the carbs myself on this bike, but it is so expensive to have them done by someone else, and there is that certain satisfaction in knowing you have gone through everything yourself. I can already tell this community is awesome I'm really excited to start tearing into this project.

EMS wrote:A 1980 is always worth going back to (almost) stock. To some the U.S.-made Honda Marysville bikes are desirable, to others, the two-month only production Japanese bikes are, because they are the rarest of all CBX versions. A bike that has the original paint color and the original exhaust usually is worth a little more than most hacked-up customs.

How would I tell where the bike was made? VIN#?

I have a 80 Marysville bike. On mine, the steering stem is stamped "made in the U.S.A. of U.S. and Japanese parts".

..if you are missing the VIN plate, U.S. made bikes have a VIN with a "1" at the 3rd position of the serial number: SC03-20 1xxxx

More progress has been made! I got a few friends over to help lift and mount the engine on a harbor freight stand. It will be much easier to work on this way... and I stole the idea from this forum! Tons of resources on here. It looks like the bike is a Japanese made bike. I took the plenum off of the carbs and found some heavy cracking where it attaches to the carbs... I've looked at doing pods as a replacement, but am still unsure about that. We will have to see where that goes later.
Here is a photo of the cracking. It continues in other places as well. Here is something troubling I have found. I am normally very careful about taking things apart laying them in order of removal and being organized etc.. but when I removed the plenum I noticed this spring it is below carb #4 if counting from left to right sitting on the bike normally. I can't for the life of me think of where this spring cam from. It doesn't look like the rest of the engine though (covered in grime and dirt) which makes me think it is from disassembly. Do any of you know where this could have come from. I have attached a couple of pictures for reference. Lastly I have followed the service manual to remove the carbs from the intake and have had no luck. All the band clamps are removed or loose as can be on both the carb body and the intake side. They just do not want to come off. Any tricks of the trade? Thanks for all the help

oneBEARDtwoWHEELS wrote: It looks like the bike is a Japanese made bike.

So, you have the rarest of all the different CBX versions. Less than 2,200 made.

oneBEARDtwoWHEELS wrote:More progress has been made! I got a few friends over to help lift and mount the engine on a harbor freight stand. It will be much easier to work on this way... and I stole the idea from this forum! Tons of resources on here. It looks like the bike is a Japanese made bike.

MVIMG_20190209_123933.jpg

I took the plenum off of the carbs and found some heavy cracking where it attaches to the carbs... I've looked at doing pods as a replacement, but am still unsure about that. We will have to see where that goes later.
Here is a photo of the cracking. It continues in other places as well.

MVIMG_20190209_122659.jpg

Here is something troubling I have found. I am normally very careful about taking things apart laying them in order of removal and being organized etc.. but when I removed the plenum I noticed this spring it is below carb #4 if counting from left to right sitting on the bike normally. I can't for the life of me think of where this spring cam from. It doesn't look like the rest of the engine though (covered in grime and dirt) which makes me think it is from disassembly. Do any of you know where this could have come from. I have attached a couple of pictures for reference.

MVIMG_20190209_122538.jpg

MVIMG_20190209_122543.jpg

MVIMG_20190209_122554.jpg

Lastly I have followed the service manual to remove the carbs from the intake and have had no luck. All the band clamps are removed or loose as can be on both the carb body and the intake side. They just do not want to come off. Any tricks of the trade? Thanks for all the help

That spring looks like the Oil filter spring ? I pushed down with both hands on the Carb rack and it released, get a Hair dryer and warm the boots and try it , Greg

How the heck does an oil filter spring end up in that spot? haha.
Probably 95% of the CBX ownership will advise against using pods. MANY threads on the subject.

As Greg mentioned, heat the boots up with a hairdryer or heat gun and apply some muscle. I find sitting on the bike and wrasslin' the carbs allows for the most leverage.
Resist using a pry bar, the engine fins are easily broken.