Repair an old friends Crashed CB750 Honda

Well, Merry Christmas everybody, it is Christmas day and although the weather has been really bad the last few days, I had a clear afternoon to mess around up in the workshop on this festive day, a buddy of mine was involved in a traffic accident maybe 15 years ago, I was behind him and saw the pick up truck veer over and hit him and the bike slid a few hundred feet on its left side. My buddy had some leg injuries but is now ok and enjoying life to its fullest.  he has had the bike sat in his garage since then and he dropped it off at my place a while back and I thought what would be quite an enjoyable repair for me on Christmas day, to see if i can at least sort the first of many repairs I need to attend to, before this old girl can get back up on her feet and ride again.

Well, I drained what little oil was still inside the motor and grabbed some spare covers that I had in a box that i had stored away quite a long time ago, although I new at some point in time i would be using these, so today was a perfect afternoon to set about this inline four Honda and get to grips with her once more, like I did when i built it for him 20 years ago,

As you can see, the stator cover had torn itself apart as she was hit by a pick up and then as she fell to her left, dragged along the road for what seemed like an eternity as i rode quite close behind on my machine, sending oil all across the road.

The stator cover was destroyed and I am sure the coil winding and Magnet inside were toast too, and I shall replace all of that, just hoping that the engine cases, Crank and flywheel are ok, but as it was not at a super-fast speed that the bike was hit, most of the damage was the bike coming down on its side and sliding along the tarmac in Anaheim.  The casing cover was pretty tight and took a little bit of persuasion to release from the dowel pins, but i was pleasantly surprised that the gear cogs were ok as well as the starter gearing, so that’s a blessing right there.

 

Of course, the flywheel is not hurt and all i needed to do was remove this, take the corresponding charging wires off the harness and take the cover with infield magnet and coil winding out and dispose of, as that was toast.

I took my times on the transmission cover as I could see the top part that sits against the case was slightly bent and would not budge when I had removed the Allen bolts, but with some gentle persuasion of a soft hammer, I managed to release the cover with out to much hassle and slowly she came off the locator dowels and slid off the gear shifter shaft quite smoothly, I inspected the transmission and she ran through the gear selection with no issues, another lucky save right there.

You can see that the mechanical side seems to be intact and no damage at all, i am super happy to see that as this is one of his best fun machines to rides and holds a lot of memories as the red devil used to blast around Southern California all the time with no issues.

The spare transmission cover that I had in a box with other parts was not in the best of shape in its outer appearance, but scratches I can shave off and buff out, so it was no problem for me to get that sorted out today, as I had nothing but time on my hands and I do actually enjoy refurbishing parts as I am sure many of you do too?

Some of the scratches were quite deep and I had to do a bit more sanding than I normally do but just one of those things, it’s been in boxes’ for many years, so is bound to get beat up from being moved around etc., but that did not face me as it was a solid unit.

I went ahead and linished the case as best i could, the trick with this sort of job is to make sure that you do not get the piece too hot, else you will distort the aluminum and it will not sit flat on the case when you fit it and then it will probably leak due to not seating flat, but not a problem for me as I have been polishing since I was 16 years old.

I still have a little more to do but its looking good, I also removed the Oil seal that stops the gear shifter shaft from leaking and will fit a new one when I fit the panel back onto the motor, but this looks way better that the one that was on the bike and the original one was out of shape to be honest.

I only use Genuine Honda gaskets and also, I have used Hondalube on here to make sure that this will be clean and leak less, doesn’t take long and is extra padding for the gasket to cinch up to when I tighten the screws, I also leave the covers for a day to make sure all is cured and good.

So, as you can see, the Stator is all on and the transmission cover, all screwed down with new stainless Allen heads and the Oil seal fitted, job done on that and can turn my attention onto the other things that need to be addresses, as the seat, and the fuel tank got damaged and they will need a bit of time to sort out, need to remove the carbs and the rear sets as they got broken, but- bit by bit this will get repaired and shouldn’t be too long until she is back up on the tarmac with some little updates and he can enjoy blasting around So-Cal once more. As this was a fast and fun machine.  The Red Devil…. Hopefully will be like this pic below once more in 2026.

So, stay tuned for more updates as and when I complete the tasks ahead on this old classic 750-4 machine and hope you liked what I managed to achieve this afternoon, rather than laying on the couch watching a Christmas movie lol.