Author Topic: Cm 400 to cafe  (Read 45509 times)

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Rusty Bucket

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #45 on: December 23, 2012, 11:00:25 AM »
Watch out for the super-light foam's tendency to round corners  to excess - unless that's the goal - as the cover pulls tight the light foam absorbs the pull and equalizes by showing one long continuous arc to the seams where it touches heavier foam - where you get a visible step. This results in bubble-topped everything.  Given the depth of the pan itself I can see why the brat-style seat seemed unlikely;  given the topography of the base and the extreme step the stock seat had, even getting to a non-special/custom '70's flat seat will represent a significant change.

Donovan

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #46 on: December 23, 2012, 11:37:29 AM »
If you need some material to cover your seat then give Mike Hyland a call.  He has left over material from other projects in his shop.  He wants to sell his upholstery business and might want to get rid of some of  his material.

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #47 on: December 31, 2012, 01:16:15 AM »
I called Mike Hyland but he was all out of black. I went to fabric land as you suggested Rusty and they had a 1/2 off sale! I got 2 meters for $26ish bucks. Two way stretch, -45 no crack and weather proof...woot.

I didn't realize it but I have a friend who was a upholster for over a decade, needless to say I got some help. Turns out my spike strips were OK but really they should be facing the same direction as the stock spikes, I should have covered it with teralene to smooth out the transitions between the two foams. He wasn't thrilled to just stretch and fold instead of sewing but I was thrilled that it's done.  I think it turned out awesome but I will probably do a version two with the spare foam and pan I have.


I got most of the black paint off my spare front wheel and put it up beside to give an idea of what it will look like. I need to do the rear rim and then clear coat.


The wiring was a mess after dropping the bars that much lower. Spent some time learning to and then making an attempt at shortening and soldering the wiring. Took around 6 inches out (before and after shots), I need to get some bigger loom to rewrap a few of the runs and then connect/shrink tube the wiring for the dummy lights. Decided to criss cross the throttle and clutch cables and am ok with the tidier look. The random brown wires are for the dummy lights.




My to do list keeps getting shorter and shorter on this bike! It may be time to take off the massive horn...
« Last Edit: December 31, 2012, 01:22:03 AM by Hortons Heroes »

Rusty Bucket

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #48 on: January 01, 2013, 01:48:39 AM »
Stripped wheel looks good - and nice work shortening the wires;  that looks more sanitary than if I had done it, for sure.  Princess Auto used to have electrical harness wrap - exactly like your black electrical tape there, except no adhesive, so no gooey mess after a few weeks in the sun.  Mecca might have it as well.  Worth it if you don't change to the heat shrink/loom before the season gets underway.
 

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #49 on: January 01, 2013, 01:00:47 PM »
I will have to take a look, loom seems to be crazy durable so I will probably wrap it then loom over it. Princess Auto is closed today (I believe) so I will get some larger sized loom tomorrow and get busy. 

I need to figure something out for side panels as well now. The old ones are really rounded and don't really match the rest of the scheme. We have loads of diamond/checked aluminum that we could cut and bend into flat panels but love to hear what others have done.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2013, 01:05:18 PM by Hortons Heroes »

british bulldog

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #50 on: January 01, 2013, 03:14:45 PM »
  Your bike is looking good. I haven't hacked or chopped for a long time, just into restorations now. I am just wondering what if the gas tank was higher to expose the top of the head of the engine and blend the front of the seat in a little more. I could be wrong i have been there before many times. As you well know it takes many hours parts off and on fit and refit until you are satisfied. With clip on bars you can rest your belly on it just kidding you never know take the weight off your arms and back. keep up the good work. Please don' let the other members know this came from me they will never let me live it down okay. Again keep up the good work and have fun doing it. HAPPY NEW YEARS
                                                       
                                                  BRITISH BULLDOG   

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #51 on: January 06, 2013, 02:05:57 AM »
Noted, if anyone asks I'll say you were commenting on my Norton.

I played around with raising the seat and it would take more modification then I would like to do. To get a visible sight line under the tank it would have to go up a lot. Keep the ideas coming though.

Here are the latest updates!

Loom is done, dummy lights heat shrinked, and cables rerun/cleaned up.


Shows the fold in the rear of the seat. No sewing which was great for time but my friend wants me to redo another pan and spend the time and have him sew a better fit. I am happy with it.


Seat to tank transition. Shows the folds. Everything was done with a two way stretch fabric.


Here is the exhaust with straight pipes on mocked up. Need to tighten them up and see exactly where they fit and if they need a bend put into them. Going to toss in some baffles for back pressure.


Before and after, my pipes were super rusty but the wire brush on the angle grinder cleaned them up far better than I thought they would. Once the fit is all good I am going to paint them black.



Random question time-I am going to put the pipes from this bike onto my other bikes but the seal looks a little worse for wear. Do I have the right part to replace it in the pick below. I assume it some kind of band that crushes once the band around it is tightened.


Rusty Bucket

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #52 on: January 06, 2013, 10:50:20 AM »
Looks to be the right type of part alright - but be really sure you need to change it.  The original ones can really be on there and removing them can put the actual pipe surface at risk, depending on the tools you employ.  Madmac's 500 V4 exhaust had junctures - lots of junctures - made this way, and though the gaskets did eventually get replaced, my lastiing impression was, in that case,  we probably should have just left the originals on there... 

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #53 on: January 06, 2013, 09:20:00 PM »
I had one or two disentagrate on me, I was going to do all of them but with that advive I will happily not.

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #54 on: January 08, 2013, 10:24:23 AM »

I was warned it would take a ton of time...and it did. I made my baffles last night and installed them. The pipes are 1.5 inch and the pipe I bought to go inside was to big so we improvised and Ben had some near 7/8 size. The walls were crazy thick for our purposes but we made it work, a little redneck though.

Made discs for the caps and slotted the pipe as I had no interest in drilling that many holes without a drill press. Capped the slotted pipe then drilled holes in each end to line up with the pipe. I realize now this photo makes it look like I used an exacto knife to cut the slots.


Lucked out and found packing at the Harley dealership. The pipes are so small that it took very little wrapping. The baffles are around 14" long.


Ben doing the final welds. We drilled a hole in the pipe and tacked the engine side end in so no rattling.


Not the prettiest weld but we were in a rush to get done. Now I need to take them off, paint them and then cure the paint by running the bike for a while.


We started it up when it was just the pipe with no baffle and it was nice and loud, once we had the baffles in there was more noise coming out of the front of the bike than the back. We didn't do the pipes up really tight off the engine so there was some leaking, the baffles seem to be doing the job well. Once it was started we were able to talk without yelling. Need to run it beside one of my stock bikes to see which is louder now.

I am heading out of town for a few weeks but got the bike where I wanted it to be before the end of Jan. Running condition with lots of cleaning up and painting to do now. Bar end mirrors and try making new side covers are the next two things.

Rusty Bucket

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #55 on: January 08, 2013, 12:31:34 PM »
The engineering triumvirate for mufflers will always involve various combinations and compromises of the elements a) size (weight and volume) b) efficiency (flow) and c) noise.  A tiny muffler that is both quiet and flows well is the target everyone (well, almost everyone) would shoot for, but nobody could ever hit.  (Look at Harley Davidson's agonizing job to design a suitable muffler for their purposes on the V-Rod) So, compromise is the name of the game, how big, how quiet, how much performance is expected.  If your muffler is smaller than a stock one, and about as loud, chances are it will be somewhat restrictive - but there's nothing wrong with that;  everybody who attempts this faces the same problems, and will be making concessions in some area.
  That said, it looks completely workable to me - good job.  I have seen motors that go so far as to be difficult to even start with some exhaust/muffler configurations (the proverbial potato in the exhaust pipe), and your bike wasn't harder to start, so good on you - you have already ventured where few would dare, and though the depth of this field is almost infinite, since the decisions are personal choices, you are best-equipped to judge the relative success of your efforts.

Dennis

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #56 on: January 08, 2013, 02:29:50 PM »
The engineering triumvirate for mufflers will always involve various combinations and compromises of the elements a) size (weight and volume) b) efficiency (flow) and c) noise.  A tiny muffler that is both quiet and flows well is the target everyone (well, almost everyone) would shoot for, but nobody could ever hit.  (Look at Harley Davidson's agonizing job to design a suitable muffler for their purposes on the V-Rod) So, compromise is the name of the game, how big, how quiet, how much performance is expected.  If your muffler is smaller than a stock one, and about as loud, chances are it will be somewhat restrictive - but there's nothing wrong with that;  everybody who attempts this faces the same problems, and will be making concessions in some area.
  That said, it looks completely workable to me - good job.  I have seen motors that go so far as to be difficult to even start with some exhaust/muffler configurations (the proverbial potato in the exhaust pipe), and your bike wasn't harder to start, so good on you - you have already ventured where few would dare, and though the depth of this field is almost infinite, since the decisions are personal choices, you are best-equipped to judge the relative success of your efforts.

I have experienced the folly of too free a breathing mufflers; they sound great but often result in less performance unless the intake and jetting is matched.  Until my Ebay bobber, I never re-jetted and almost always saw a decrease in performance despite sounding way more powerful.  I once put pods and a Mac 4 into 1 on a GS1100 which was a rocket in its stock form.  After the pods and pipe, it wouldn't even go a 100 mph.  Same with my sporty with strait pipes.  Until I added baffles is was noisy enough to set off car alarms, but gutless.

Peace & Grease, Dennis
« Last Edit: January 08, 2013, 06:56:55 PM by Dennis »

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #57 on: January 08, 2013, 03:12:57 PM »
I have to wait to find out what performance has been affected, this CM 400 was the most gutless of my 4 bikes to start anyway (a carb tweeking issue) and I have put an a different carb so I may never be able to attribute a change in performance to exhaust or a different carb until I throw the other one back on.

Hortons Heroes

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #58 on: February 05, 2013, 01:03:46 AM »
after being out of town for three weeks I finally for some time on the bike. Got both the rims stripped of paint with a knotted wire brush on an angle grinder. The front was OK to do but the rear was a bummer with lots of hard to reach spots. Either way both done and here they are mounted

Had to replace the bearings and seals on the front wheel which was fairly simple.

The only other thing I got done (time went by fast as I had my little helpers with me) was replacing the seal around the tach gear. 3 of my 4 CM 400's have a leak there and it really is a 5 min job as I found out.

Next on the to do is side covers and paint the exhaust black.

I swapped my carbs with a spare set and my left float needs shimming. Where does one find shims to do such a thing? I can post pictures if it help to have others solve my problems. The float is sitting to low so it never gets a good enough seal to shut off the gas.

forgive the crappy picture quality.


Rusty Bucket

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Re: Cm 400 to cafe
« Reply #59 on: February 05, 2013, 11:37:30 PM »
Float shims... float shims...  nope, not something I have ever run into.  Usually the operating tab that actually presses on the inlet needle just gets bent in relation to the main float frame to raise or lower the fuel level.  Try that, unless your manual outlines a different procedure.