79cbxmike

I’ve taken to putting on a rubber glove and applying a good coating of standard wheel bearing grease to the drive chain. Comments? :icon_think:

Thanks, never heard or thought of such techniques but might be darn handy. I'm going to check with machine shops around here to see if they do this kind of stuff.

This sonic ultrasonic metal destruction technique sounds interesting but I was unable to find anything on it. Please send a link so I can read more about it. Thanks, Mike

Getting confused here, are we talking about the head gasket or the head cover gaskets? After restoration of a CB750, two CBX’S and just routine work on my 02 Bird (plus installation of the Audiovox speed control and HID lighting) some real hard lessons come to mind: 1. Have a Honda Service Manual AND Honda Parts List on hand (we have these online) 2. Gently clean and smooth all surfaces, get all that shit out of the grooves and off the to be adjacent surfaces (like new) 3. Discard and replace all rubber components with genuine Honda parts, worth every cent down the line. 4. If, during reassembly things don’t seem to fit easily (you have to pry and pound) then you are fucking up somehow (step back, look at the books). These bikes are built like fine watches, one of the reasons for their overall excellent reliability. Before our trip out west last year I asked what tools we should take and the reply was “Tools? Hell we’re riding Hondas, we don’t need no stinking tools.†5. Take millions of pictures at different angles for reference if needed. 7. Review the our Garage and Help sections of this and other sites keeping in mind they probably won’t be step by step complete but overall a huge help. These rules are a direct reflection of the rules I developed as a veterinary surgeon: One must be completely prepared right from the start. Our advantage with machines is that we can pause, re-evaluate and think on the problem overnight or longer without the worry of having to go back in to correct some problem, or watch the patient die because of our incompetence. Installation of HID lighting (where to mount the ballasts, what type of connections and wire routing is needed to insure solid connections to handle the needed power while maintaining the ease of removing the nosepiece) took a month of planning while I thought and fiddled the problem.

Looked at the parts list and service manual. I believe those cylinder head cover bolts are what Honda calls FLANGE bolts (the washer is a part of the bolt, gives more gripping surface) Can’t see the actual bolts without taking things apart which were just re-assembled after installing HID lighting and destroying a mouse colony between the air box and the engine cylinder head cover -- big operation by those guys, lots of construction, anyway they got some good rides while they were residents. Just finished a similar operation on my car, had to use a Dremel with a cutoff tool on the head and washer followed by lots of penetrating oil and patient turning in and outto get the damn thing off and out. The threads had corroded into the block. Tight space too. (4 or 5 hours total). But with the flange gone that bolt should come out fairly easily once the cover is off. Those bolts have rubber washers/seals on them, might as well replace them Honda had them in stock along with the bolts at reasonable price. Picture might help.

How goes it?

Left hand drill bit. A little more thought leads me believe you should be able to remove the VALVE HEAD COVER without much trouble (no tilt needed) then the broken bolt with a lot of work using vice grips. Keep several cold six packs handy and plug the kid’s ears. How about a picture? Good Luck! Mike

Not there but getting close. Prize to include a bottle of actual -- genuine Kentucky branch water.

After seemingly endless looking, thinking, pondering and tinkering I got off the dime and installed Hi and Lo beam HID lighting in the Bird. I was worried about vibration, jittery lighting and what the road would look like. Attached one ballast on each side the instrument cluster with sturdy Velcro pads. Replaced the standard 12 volt supply connectors with locking types and shrank some tubing to insure they stayed together. I modified the existing H7 lamp holders and added a metal washer and silicone caulking to stabilize the new lamps rather than use those rather flimsily adapters supplied. This is a massive improvement in lighting the road ahead, no jitter and the road has a daylight look. Should be a standard piece of safety equipment on every auto/motorcycle. Had to remove the gas tank and evict a city of mice and clean out their housing. Getting the nose piece on with all those cables and ram air ducts lined up correctly is always a bitch. I'm going to give "Her" a new name --- Bottle of Woodfords to whomever gets it first. :icon_think:

Thanks Dion!!

Confused and Need Some Help :icon_think: Have installed HID lighting and am ready to button up and get to riding. But there is some confusion as to which is the low beam lamp, upper or lower bulb? I find references that conflict, no other Birds around. Please help. Thanks

Workouts: We have a “WELLNESS CENTER†here at the Rockcastle County Hospital, $10.00/month for those over 60 and $20.00 under, free to hospital staff (in fact they get a small bonus for hours in the GYM), and first responders. It’s well attended, has about 25 machines, ellipticals, treadmills, and a free weight section plus some balls and trampolines. Its nine miles from home so it costs me more to get there than the usage fee. 4 – 6 times/week, I do a set workout, starting with 5 minutes on a bike then at least 10 reps on every machine (about 55 minutes/session), it would be better called a loosening up than a workout but has literally saved/prolonged my life helps with back pain also. In spite of that I find myself fighting myself to get off my fat ass and go to the GYM.

RodeRash, Thanks for these important FACTS about bread consumption. I have some statistician friends right there in your home town, so I’ll forward this to them for a rigorous statistical analysis. Let you know how it turns out. Mike

HID tail light? Maybe a mistake.

Dodge Ram 3500 -- same symptoms, cleaned up the air idle control motor, no fault code, that fixed it, easy to do. Good luck

Have seven of these, two in my truck and three on a trailer and two in the garage. Hold the bikes well but for safety sake still use a couple tie downs on the trailer and truck. They work good.

Three hoses and a wire --- How hard can that be?

Getting at all that stuff is a major project, especially the first trip. Why torture yourself taking off the PAIR system for no real gain. :icon_think: But if you are into torture; check the valves while you are in there.

I did talk to the Honda dealer (a rare find, competent, trustworthy) and they have never dealt with a knock sensor problem and were not even aware of this device in the Bird. That said; they do have an excellent library and file system for updates and service bulletins, there are no service bulletins on the Bird knock sensor or testing. We did agree that the procedure is faulted; as soon as the weather moderates I will roll my Bird out of the garage and test it. Also plan to look at the waveforms at the sensor and ECM. Rarely manuals do contain mistakes; the original CBX shop manual had one installing the camshafts incorrectly causing the cam timing chain to snap. Knock sensors work on the same principle as some microphones, some vinyl record pickups and many other devices that have been around for decades (senses vibrations and puts out a voltage) no new technology or rocket science here. They have a constant low level output signal which increases when the engine knocks. The questions are – 1. how does the ECM generate a fault Code? Does it display a fault if the normal signal is missing OR display a fault with excessive knocking – OR maybe either/both? 2. What does the ECM do to ignition timing in face of no sensor signal? We are thinking your problem is a bad/intermittent connection between the sensor and the ECM.

What year is your bike? Could be the regulator. The newer rectifiers are improved so use one to them if the present one is bad. These Birds are like any machine and have problems from time to time. But on balance they are beautifuly built machines and well worth the little problems one sees.

Today I am going to follow the procedure on Pg. 5-54 of the shop manual on my own Bird (which runs perfectly ) and consult with the local Honda dealer, there may be a service bulletin on this test. I believe the manual has some errors in the proceedure. A dirty or bad connection could cause your code. Hang in there a while, don't go spending a fortune on an ECU yet.

You can verify integrity of ground wires on a sensor or device by running a separate ground wire from the green terminal (on a sensor or device) to the engine, chassis or battery negative terminal. I would suggest connecting a wire to the chassis ground on the frame cross-member to an alligator clip you have soldered on the other end. I believe the knock sensor is grounded through it’s own case threads and has only one wire hooked to it which runs to the ECM. Maybe just loosening and reseating the knock sensor will insure a good contact. Keeping it simple I would check the wire to the computer as describe in the manual on page 5-54 (could be wrong here maybe someone else on the forum knows this for sure). In any case: How do you know the knock sensor is good? Just asking.

Keep in mind that while there are three major ground points (battery to ground, starter ground, and the lug on the cross-member) there are many splices within the wiring loom as it branches off to serve devices (sensors, lights, switches, etc.) Exactly why is this important to you (and the bike of course)? Just curious.

By the Way: The service manual is pinned and available in the useful threads section of the Public Discussion Forums guide.

Remove the seat and you will see a ground connection on the frame cross-member left side, a lug screwed down with two wires on it. There is a battery to engine ground connection accessible mid-engine just below all those hoses and sensor connections. The heavy wire leads back to the battery. See page 1-27 in the Honda shop manual.