Honda CB160 Restoration Thread

That's looking good.

Now your making me think about doing something similar with the exposed bits of frame on my bike. Damn you and your making it purdy ideas .

Lmao... It just kind of came together that way. Thanks though, its appreciated. I gotta tell ya, this thread is FANTASTIC for help and ideas on these bikes. And it just keeps going... at this rate we will need out our website for the 160's.

Checking back in after a while, great to see some other builds.

My 160, not bad but a little ratty (see earlier in thread -- although I spruced it up some), took a 1st place trophy here in PHX, best Japanese bike. Could have been only Japanese bike... although there were 5-6 others.

Stupid question #1: I've developed a slight leak where the shift lever comes out, drips onto the exhaust. Anyone have a part # or size for the seal? I haven't looked more closely at it yet, as I don't want to get into it until I have the part. Some seals on Ebay are "transmission" seals -- right part for the job?

Not-so-stupid question #2: I am working on a CB350F and am going to cafe it -- big plans include 4-4 pipes but off of a CB400F header. Other big plan: speedo and headlight as one piece. Anyone who did a cafe number on their bike and/or eliminated their headlight wanna sell theirs? Speedo needs to work...

Not sure what seal you need but I have similar leaks. Honestly, I am going to pour some engine stop leak in there and see what happens.

I started trying to get my CB175 K0 to ride-able condition as it has been sitting for awhile. The last time I fired it up in March, it was running but somehow there was not acceleration even the throttle was wide open. So my first thought was the carbs. I ordered a rebuilding kit from Jerry Cycle, replaced the stuffs 2 weeks ago when the parts arrived.

Turned out the battery was weak when I tried to fire up with the new carbs bits and pieces. That's not all, the throttle cables seems to be stuck, the right carb leak like it's drowning. The "t" piece I bought to distribute fuel from 1 pet cock to to 2 carb melted (guess the plastic was not meant for Gasoline). Opened up the right switch housing trying to lube the cable broke the throttle sleeves as it was really dirty in the right switch housing and the sleeve just got brittle after a long period of non service to the innards of the housing, that was full of greasy substance. Bought 1 cheap sleeve to try get the cable going and check if the cable action was block by something. Attached photo taken 2 years ago, now it looks slightly tired. Will post pic of current state later, with some parts being removed.

Thought I'd jump into this thread at last. I've been mulling over this little one slowly for a few years now. Started out with a frozen engine and a bunch of other missing bits. Just about done with it except for a few loose ends.

I'm having some difficulties with getting the headlight/tailight to work. Headlight bulb lights tests as good but will not light up otherwise when on the bike. I cannot trace down whether it's the toggle for the high/low-beam on the handlebars or what. I've got the speedo lights all functional, including neutral light and it seems to pull power from there.

Odd thing is that the tail light also won't light up except for when the brake pedal is depressed and the ignition is set to where the gauge cluster isn't lit up. I don't have any holes or open spots in the stock wiring harness (except for where the starter relay would go — but that shouldn't give me any troubles — should it?)

What gives?! Any thoughts guys? This thing is nearly ready to go except for this and it's killin' me. :huh



Everybody loves pictures…

Before:


Currently (the shiny black on one on the right with CB77 bars):


I know, I need to re-route the throttle cable.

Don't put stop leak in your engine!! The oil journals for the top end are very small and only operate on 3-5psi, any loss of pressure or volume and goodbye cam and cam blocks along with rocker arms. There is a seal on the shaft that is easily replaceable without taking the engine off/or apart. I have seen many of these engines that use cam blocks that have eaten up the blocks/cams/rockers due to low flow often caused by lack of cleaning the slinger out, you want things clean and flowing, I would rather have a small annoying leak than a trashed upper end.

Ok Ok!!! No stop leak then.... I am going to seafoam it though. I seem to have gotten it to idle finally but there is still some issues when riding, though they are lessening. I suspect it has something to do with sitting for 20 odd years. Maybe the seafoam will get the last of the crap out of the carbs.I cleaned the slinger out once already and I am planning on doing it again soon. Turns out my fancy dancy 2-1 exhaust is blocking the oil drain plug though. Ooops.....

Nice Bike! Have you checked the ignition switch? It has like three positions on it, and one of them makes the lights come on. Mine didn't have a switch so I put in another one and rewired at the plug so the lights come on when the key is on all the time. If I remember the white wire in the harness is for the taillight, brown is for the headlight, they are on the same circuit. There is a CB160 wiring diagram on here somewhere that lays it out, that's how I got mine going. Actually wait a minute...




There you go. Oh, I also wired mine so the second set of charging coils are on all the time, figured I might as well what with the lights being on and having indicators on the bike now. I charge at between 12.5-13v. Not a whole lot but enough to get by. I only have two wires coming out of my ignition switch (it is from a CL175), the rest of the changes I did at the ignition switch plug with spades so it would be reversible. Oh yeah. check your grounds.... there is one inside the headlight (green wire) and the headlight switch just grounds to the bars I think.

Thats a nice bike man. Good luck with the repairs!

How'd you do this? My regular battery was draining pretty quickly, so I replaced it with a gel battery that lasts much longer, but I still need to recharge it, especially if I've been riding at night. I thought I just had a weak coil, but if there's a way to get more juice out of it maybe it'll help.

I think I connected the pink and yellow together at the switch, but I don't remember 100%. Best to go over the schematic and break out the multimeter.... Pretty sure that's what I did to kick in the other coils though. I still need to go around and make some new grounds, they are pretty weak on these bikes.

Pink and yellow at the ignition switch?

Yeah, thats what my 67 had up there. Actually if you can find my earlier posts I probably posted something about it when I first did it.

And now mine isn't charging corectly either.... fuuuuuck......

I think I might screw around with that these guys are using:

http://www.hondatwins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=7933

Seems almost too simple, but worth a trip to the electronics store.

So, always one to add information..... I realized this morning that my carbs had no rubber boots on the tops where the cable goes in. First time I even thought of it, and those of you who have followed my progress have seen me bang my head against the wall trying to get the bike to idle. Anyways, I made some boots for the tops and fired the bike up. The idle immediately went through the roof, and it runs like shit now. But, I think I may be onto something..... and it might just run like shit due to the weak battery I discovered. At least ALL the vacuum leaks are sealed now, the throttle snaps shut like a trap for a change too.

Ok, well I raised the needles again after going ahead and installing the rectifier the other guys were talking about ($12.99 at the electronics store). Bike idles mostly and I have a throttle again. I realized that along with doing the carb top boots I lowered the needles thinking I was running rich, and I was too pissed off over the way the bike ran last night to even realize I was starving it for fuel. Next up is another rewire so I can turn the lights right off with a big toggle to save on the charging system. Old bikes are fun..... Anyways, the rectifier is indeed the same as what the oregon rectifiers are, so it's a cheap and easy upgrade to the charging system. Easy install too, yellow and brown to the AC pins, battery to the positive pin, and just make a ground to the battery for the negative pin. These things are way smaller than our orange ones and you can put them just about anywhere. The one I got is rated for 25A at 400v, should be plenty. Go for it people....

Thanks for the wiring diagram, and kind words. I've enjoyed watching your CL come to life in the thread! Gonna try to work on mine tonight, hopefully I can work out this bug with some of your input.

Wow, thanks man. I am glad some people got a kick out of watching all my half assery turn into something semi cool looking. I am sure some of my posts and pics left people laughing. And of course, if I can add to the wealth of information on the internet all the better. I will let you know how my own rewire goes. Good luck on yours man!!