Sometimes this build moves in a straight line. Then my dad shows up and twenty minutes later everything has changed. CB750F front end removal was not on the agenda for today. Painting the battery box mounting plate and maybe recording a short update was the plan. What actually happened was the wiring loom came out, the front end came off, and I am now staring at a bare frame on the lift wondering how we got here so fast.
Table of Contents
Battery Box Painted and Ready
Picking up from pulling the battery box out last session, the box itself got cleaned, treated with rust reformer in the rough spots, and finished with satin black. The secondary mounting plate that holds the regulator and other electrical components needed the same treatment, and that happened today. Rust reformer first, then a coat of satin black once it has had a couple of days to fully cure. The battery box rubber bumpers are a different story. Several snapped during disassembly since the rubber has gotten brittle with age. Replacements are available through Partzilla for around six dollars each, which feels steep for a small rubber bumper but is not exactly a crisis.
The Wiring Loom Comes Out
The wiring loom had been sitting loose in the frame since the battery box came out, and I had been circling it nervously ever since. When I opened the black box that I assumed was a fuse box, it turned out to be a junction point where a mass of wires from the headlight bucket connects to another mass of wires. No fuses. Just wires everywhere. I told my dad I was getting intimidated by the whole thing and was second-guessing whether I wanted to pull it.
He walked over, started unplugging connectors, moved things around, unplugged some more, and said something like “okay, you’re free now.” That was it. The loom came out of the frame and got set aside for the vinegar and salt cleanup I have been planning since seeing that technique on YouTube. There is still a bundle of wires coming out of the headlight bucket at the neck that will need to be dealt with as part of the front end work, but the main loom is out.
CB750F Front End Removal in Under 20 Minutes
Here is where the session went sideways in the best possible way. With the frame stripped from the neck back and the loom out, I was staring at the bike thinking out loud about power washing the bare frame in the yard rather than trying to clean it on the lift. That conversation led to the obvious next question: what if I just pulled the front end off entirely so I could carry the frame outside, power wash it, and have full access to everything without the forks and wheel in the way?
My dad picked up some tools. Less than twenty minutes later the front end was leaning against the garage wall and I had a bare frame on the lift.
The front end coming off this fast was partly because my dad has had this bike apart before and knows exactly what holds what. For anyone doing this on their own, the sequence would take longer and would benefit from more documentation along the way than I managed to get. I was moving fast trying to keep up.
What the Front End Revealed
A few things worth noting from the front end disassembly.
The brake lines had actual fluid in them when they came apart, which is a good sign. It means somewhere in the system the fluid is still liquid rather than fully gummed up, and that gives me some hope the front caliper situation will not be the same fight as the seized rear brake caliper. The master cylinder, on the other hand, is caked with nastiness and will need serious attention.
The fork tubes have some corrosion that I have been aware of as a potential problem since early in the build. The concern is whether the pitting is deep enough that fork oil will seep through once the bike is running. I put some WD-40 on a Scotch-Brite wheel and started working one of the tubes without even turning on the rotary tool, and corrosion was coming off with minimal effort. That is an encouraging sign that it might be surface contamination rather than deep pitting. I will know more once they get a proper cleaning.
The Head Bearing Scare That Wasn’t
The steering on this bike has felt stiff and sticky since my dad first pushed it into the garage at the very start of this build. His read was that the head bearings were probably shot and would need to be replaced. That has been sitting as an assumed future expense ever since.
When the front end came apart today, he took the bearings with him to clean them up and assess them properly. I just got a text from him saying he hit them with some kerosene and they cleaned right up. The grease inside had dried out and gotten tacky over the years, which was causing the stickiness, but the bearings themselves are fine. That is one legitimate piece of good news in an episode full of surprises, and it is one less thing on the parts list.
How the Order of Operations Just Changed
The original plan was always to strip the frame from the neck back, clean and touch up the frame, and then start reassembling from the rear forward. The front end was going to come later.
Now I have a bare frame and a front end leaning against the wall, which means I cannot start putting things back on the frame and then try to muscle the entire front end assembly back into place afterward. The cleaner path is to work on the front end as a separate assembly, get it rebuilt and ready, and then get it back on the frame before reassembly of the rear begins in earnest.
So the wiring loom cleanup is next, followed by front end work: the forks, the wheel, the master cylinder, and whatever the front caliper turns out to need. Once the front end is ready to go back on, the full reassembly picture will be a lot clearer.
Ride With Me
If you want to follow along as the front end gets rebuilt and this restoration starts moving toward reassembly, subscribe to the WaltInPA YouTube channel
so you catch every session as it goes up. If you know someone working through a vintage Honda build or thinking about pulling their front end for a proper frame clean, send this one their way. And if you want to be part of the conversation as the CB750F Restoration keeps moving, come hang out in the WaltInPA Discord where good people talk through exactly this kind of thing.
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