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NC35 (re)build thread - tis the season for 400cc greybikes
- Thread starter thenewwazoo
- Start date
Daks
Jersey Devil
Looks like a pirate.
ircsmith
New member
- Joined
- May 17, 2005
- Location
- sunnyvale
- Moto(s)
- Ulysses, GSXR450, RVF428,
RVF400,
GoPed strung out on Lithium
Cool I got one of these too,, err sort of.I had to have one so I imported the parts in boxes from the UK, Japan, and one little part from Australia. It actually wasn't as costly as I thought until my rationality took a vacation from my head and I started springing for fancy parts.
Here's most of it. The rest is in the spare bedroom and the wheels are now on my NC30 for the time being. Hopefully I'll get it put together and out to a track later this year. Just need a few small things like an engine build, sprockets, chain, calipers, MC, rear shock, brake lines, and some nicer rads.
Looks like my spare bike! we should talk. working on a radiator because I hate everything that is out there for it. I have a set of calipers. I also have some suspension mods for the rear that really helped. I has my own link made to get the swing arm to a better angle.
Us V4 peeps have to stick together!
thenewwazoo
esculenta delicta
Right now, I'm going to plug Moto Shop. Basically, the place is amazing. I've got a fully-stocked garage where I do huge amounts of work on my stupid Porsche project and my daily VFR, but Moto Shop has everything I do and so much more. It's fantastic, and if you haven't been there, please go. Wilder and Aleks are great, the people there are great, the place is clean and well-stocked, and having a dedicated space to turn a wrench with supplies and expertise on hand is an amazing experience. Oh, and the lifts will save your back.
Naturally, that's where my NC35 went as soon as it got to the SFBA. In fact, Wilder and Aleks came out on their off day to push it inside for me, since I retrieved it on a Monday and the shop is closed Mon-Tue.
Once it opened back up, I bought a membership, and decided to take some "clothes-on" photos to document its state as I received it.
I think the sides present pretty well, with some minor fit-and-finish issues. The mirrors are missing (not a huge surprise) but are easy enough to replace, but so is the fairing stay, which is not quite so easy to replace, and necessary for mirrors.
First thing I check are the brake lines, since the brake lever just barely works (but it does work, which is promising). Turns out the lines themselves are braided. This makes me happy, as it means I won't have to replace them right away. They also come full of vintage brake fluids.
Behind the nose fairing is... well, a mess. The wiring is obviously a hack job that will probably need to be straightened out sooner than later. I'm very picky about my wiring, as evidenced by the crazy level of attention I give to building wiring harnesses. I did just get done building a complete harness for the Porsche, though, so I'm not exactly looking forward to tackling this...
It also answers the question about how the single headlight was accomplished: with a hacksaw and duct tape. Oh well, I like the piratical look anyway right now, and replacement assemblies are readily available from China.
About that gauge cluster...
Anyone notice that redline? Go look again, I'll wait.
19k?
Apparently at some point, this bike sprouted an CBR250RR (MC22) gauge cluster. The stock cluster has a redline of 14.5k and ends at 16k RPM. I suspect at some point in the past, this bike was raced with an HRC CDI box (which raises the rev limit to 16k) and the racer got tired of burying the tach at every shift. This bike most assuredly does not rev to 19k. Those black parts are also kind of annoyingly faded - does anyone have any recommendations for how to get them looking good again?
What else is behind the nose fairing? The radiator.
Ick. I'm going to have to give that a closer look in the future.
Continuing down the bike, I check out the brakes...
Ooooh tasty. PLOT Racing mounts with Brembo calipers? I'll take that. Finding rotors might be a challenge in the future, but they look okay right now, except that some rotor bolts are missing.
I had been hoping to find some trick suspension parts to match those trick brakes, but, well, this is the state of things...
That chain, too, is pretty nasty. Not a sign of neglect, necessarily, just further indication that the bike sat. And sat. And sat.
Lastly, let's pop the passenger seat and check for a tool kit, shall we?
Oh, well, apparently this bike did haul duty. Doh. I guess now I know where the turn signals went! More wiring to unfuck at some point in the future.
What I didn't take a picture of, and what I wish I had, was the tank. It was rusty as hell. Crazy rusty. Rusty enough that I was certain I'd have to source a replacement. Full of about a cup of green, viscous shit, and covered in big, dime-size flakes of rust. Hell, it didn't even smell like gas any more. And if the tank looks like that, imagine what the carbs must look like...
Looks like I've got some work to do...
Naturally, that's where my NC35 went as soon as it got to the SFBA. In fact, Wilder and Aleks came out on their off day to push it inside for me, since I retrieved it on a Monday and the shop is closed Mon-Tue.
Once it opened back up, I bought a membership, and decided to take some "clothes-on" photos to document its state as I received it.
I think the sides present pretty well, with some minor fit-and-finish issues. The mirrors are missing (not a huge surprise) but are easy enough to replace, but so is the fairing stay, which is not quite so easy to replace, and necessary for mirrors.
First thing I check are the brake lines, since the brake lever just barely works (but it does work, which is promising). Turns out the lines themselves are braided. This makes me happy, as it means I won't have to replace them right away. They also come full of vintage brake fluids.
Behind the nose fairing is... well, a mess. The wiring is obviously a hack job that will probably need to be straightened out sooner than later. I'm very picky about my wiring, as evidenced by the crazy level of attention I give to building wiring harnesses. I did just get done building a complete harness for the Porsche, though, so I'm not exactly looking forward to tackling this...
It also answers the question about how the single headlight was accomplished: with a hacksaw and duct tape. Oh well, I like the piratical look anyway right now, and replacement assemblies are readily available from China.
About that gauge cluster...
Anyone notice that redline? Go look again, I'll wait.
19k?
Apparently at some point, this bike sprouted an CBR250RR (MC22) gauge cluster. The stock cluster has a redline of 14.5k and ends at 16k RPM. I suspect at some point in the past, this bike was raced with an HRC CDI box (which raises the rev limit to 16k) and the racer got tired of burying the tach at every shift. This bike most assuredly does not rev to 19k. Those black parts are also kind of annoyingly faded - does anyone have any recommendations for how to get them looking good again?What else is behind the nose fairing? The radiator.
Ick. I'm going to have to give that a closer look in the future.
Continuing down the bike, I check out the brakes...
Ooooh tasty. PLOT Racing mounts with Brembo calipers? I'll take that. Finding rotors might be a challenge in the future, but they look okay right now, except that some rotor bolts are missing.
I had been hoping to find some trick suspension parts to match those trick brakes, but, well, this is the state of things...
That chain, too, is pretty nasty. Not a sign of neglect, necessarily, just further indication that the bike sat. And sat. And sat.
Lastly, let's pop the passenger seat and check for a tool kit, shall we?
Oh, well, apparently this bike did haul duty. Doh. I guess now I know where the turn signals went! More wiring to unfuck at some point in the future.
What I didn't take a picture of, and what I wish I had, was the tank. It was rusty as hell. Crazy rusty. Rusty enough that I was certain I'd have to source a replacement. Full of about a cup of green, viscous shit, and covered in big, dime-size flakes of rust. Hell, it didn't even smell like gas any more. And if the tank looks like that, imagine what the carbs must look like...
Looks like I've got some work to do...
chickwebb
Old & In the Way
Well, I was jealous until that last post! Godspeed, amigo. Keep us updated on your progress!
We've talked before. See those 4 small boxes right under that Aprilia jacket
I was hoping to have it done by now but had a few set backs so it's taking quite a bit longer than I intended. Definitely interested in what you come up with for a radiator. Last we talked, you where going to use one from a CBR and cut it down right?
That's a bad ass pic in your avatar BTW.
Last edited:
ircsmith
New member
- Joined
- May 17, 2005
- Location
- sunnyvale
- Moto(s)
- Ulysses, GSXR450, RVF428,
RVF400,
GoPed strung out on Lithium
We've talked before. See those 4 small boxes right under that Aprilia jacket
Definitely interested in what you come up with for a radiator. Last we talked, you where going to use one from a CBR and cut it down right?
That's a bad ass pic in your avatar BTW.
forgive me I did not put it together. no one ever said I was bright!
still working on the rad. the first one was not quite right and I found a better combo. should have it welded up next week. I let you know how it goes.
ircsmith
New member
- Joined
- May 17, 2005
- Location
- sunnyvale
- Moto(s)
- Ulysses, GSXR450, RVF428,
RVF400,
GoPed strung out on Lithium
I have a set of Repsol Tyga Body work with matching tank I would let go of. its not perfect, but close. was saving it for the my spare frame but its turning into a track bike as a back up.
thenewwazoo
esculenta delicta
Hie and get thee to Moto Shop, knave! Measure thee thine caliper mounts and be soothed by their proximity in measurement to contemporaneous alternatives!
ircsmith, are your parts NC23 or NC35 parts? Poor numist has an NC23 in need of salvation.
I think I have an extra set of NC30 calipers that might work for the NC23. I can take some measurements. They might need new piston seals and there's a little bit of pitting on the pistons but I'm almost positive you can get new ones at any Honda dealer.
New rotors are easy to get for your NC35 too.
If your interested, I'm going to be putting together an order next month for some replacement parts, including a new water pump for my road NC30.
New rotors are easy to get for your NC35 too.
If your interested, I'm going to be putting together an order next month for some replacement parts, including a new water pump for my road NC30.
Last edited:
Ya definitely interested! I think the NC water pumps from Rick O are around $250 but then shipping from the UK adds up making it a bit pricey.
I have wanted to join the titled nc35 /30 club for awhile. Can it be done for $4k or less? I think I know the answer to this question.
Maybe. There was one for sale down in SD for around 3100 but it wasn't titled.
The CA title is tougher to get but I know some people that have had it done. Just be glad you didn't spend 7k on one then realized you couldn't get it plated
Talk about not being too bright. It sure runs nice and looks good sitting in my garage though
creech
Active member
There's one that is daily driven to my office's parking lot. It's a beautiful bike.
thenewwazoo
esculenta delicta
Alright, so I'll do this one last update to get things up to the current state. I did a little bit of work that I didn't bother to photograph, including stripping the petcock and using POR-15's Marine Clean and Prep & Etch on the fuel tank. I'll take photos of those when I get around to them. My main focus right now is to get the bike running, which means making sure I do as much inspection of the outsides of the engine as I can.
After taking the last round of pics, I put the bike up on a lift at Moto Shop (where it lives, and where you should go) so I could photograph what's under the plastics and tank.
I'll spare you the detail shots of, e.g. the chopped fender and dirty engine vee, but I did find a few interesting things. Firstly, the tail plastics aren't in the greatest shape, which is not exactly a surprise.
It's doubly not-surprising since they're repainted stock Honda pieces!
At some point, I think I'm going to replace the tail with a new Tyga solo piece. Since the fasteners are mostly busted, the pillion seat doesn't fit quite right, and that bugs me. This is, btw, the wrong bike to be a perfectionist about, so I'm having work really hard to prioritize some things (read: getting the damned thing running) over others (everything else). It's... hard.
Remember the pic of the lower radiator from the last post? Well, now that I've gotten a good look at them...
Those have gone away. I don't have any pics at the moment, but I bought and installed some aluminum NC30 radiators from China. If any of the NC people reading this are interested in a more thorough review and details about the disgusting things I had to do to the hangers to get them to fit, I'll post up a review with some photos. I also replaced the hoses with silicone pieces. No drama there aside from some minor trimming. In case you want to follow in my specific footsteps, I bought radiators from "coolingsystemclub" and hoses from "gpi radiator", each on eBay. They were crazy cheap, and they are crazy cheap, but they're perfectly serviceable.
tl;dr: C+++ MINIMALLY ACCEPTABLE, WOULD BEGRUDGINGLY BUY AGAIN
The real reason I wanted to strip the thing down was because of that damned tachometer. As I said before, the stock redline is 14.5k RPM, and the stock tacho display ends at 16k. The HRC CDI allows revving to 16k, and in a race situation you may well overrun that on downshift. In any case, burying the tach at every shift is annoying.
So what's under the tail? This is...
Well, it's got an HRC sticker. That's good, right?
Erm, not really. You see those little white specks under the HRC sticker? That's where a part number should be. Both the street and race CDIs have part numbers, and it's written in white, right there. The HRC CDI does not have an HRC sticker on it out of the box, but neither does the stock part, obviously. So is it an HRC CDI? I still have no idea. The only way I'll be able to tell is to get it running and rev it!
To do that, I've gotta have fuel... so let's look into the carbs, shall we? Once again, I won't bore you with a thousand pictures of the carbs in various states of disassembly, but man, these things are tiny. They've got 30mm throats! Adorable. As to their condition, I think this picture will say what needs to be said:
Eeeeew.
I stripped the carbs down, each getting its own baggies for parts, cleaning as I went. I only busted one jet (a pilot jet, luckily a shared Honda part readily available) and ordered 112 main jets as a starting point for main jetting to replace the stock 108s. I also bought a stock air filter to replace the hacked-up foam thing that was in there, so going crazy big on the jets doesn't make sense. I toyed with the idea of buying an HRC jet kit, but the jets there start at 148. Basically, to use it, you've got to be running an open airbox and full exhaust, which I probably won't for the street.... at first, anyway.
I also decided I didn't want to split the carb assemblies. V4 carbs are notoriously finicky to reassemble, and there are some plastic tubes that are pure unobtanium (and disastrously expensive, if you can get them). I saw NorCal Cycles' advertisement for ultrasonic cleaning, so I gave them a call and they assured me that it wouldn't damage the plastic parts. Off it went! I was a little bummed they wouldn't drop the price any since I had already completely stripped the carb, but oh well. The results were pretty good, with only minor detail touch-up needed to get the insides of the various passages in the carbs and emulsion tubes cleared.
Because rebuilding carbs implies replacing all the tiny rubber o-rings, I also ordered a set of viton NC35 carb seals from LiteTek over in Thailand. If you don't know what viton is, look it up. In short, it resists corrosion by ethanol like no standard rubber does. The seals look like this:
They fit great, too. The kit includes all the o-rings you need if you split the carbs, but I didn't use them since I kept the assembly together, instead just using the jet o-rings and bowl seals.
After cleaning and scrubbing and ultrasonic-ing and reassembling, it was done!
I also adjusted the valves last weekend. It was a pretty standard valve job, since the NC35 uses 7.48mm shims. By the way, when you get accustomed to holding your breath before checking the availability and prices of every part, hoping like hell it's not Japan-only and will require you to order it from the Netherlands at huge cost plus 40 euros shipping... well, the fact that the engine takes standard Honda shims was a huge relief.
Obligatory gear-driven cams porn shot:
All the valves were out of spec, but luckily they were all tight. That's preferable, as lightly-used bikes often tend to build up carbon on the valve seats, which throws the clearance off in the other direction, and hurts compression. Speaking of compression, let's smear some moly/oil mix on the friction surfaces of the valve train, change the oil and see what the compression is! Only one problem...
Those are M8 threads. I had to use a deep-well 13mm socket to get the plugs out! They're seriously tiny, and no compression tester at Moto Shop has an adapter small enough to thread into the head. As a result, no compression test for me!
I apologize for not having any "overall" shots of the bike's current state. I've spent so much time ordering, waiting, and installing tiny little fiddly bits that I haven't had much time to contemplate the state of the bike as a whole. This weekend, though, I hope to fire it up for the first time and start working on making it road-worthy.
My wallet aches just thinking about it.
After taking the last round of pics, I put the bike up on a lift at Moto Shop (where it lives, and where you should go) so I could photograph what's under the plastics and tank.
I'll spare you the detail shots of, e.g. the chopped fender and dirty engine vee, but I did find a few interesting things. Firstly, the tail plastics aren't in the greatest shape, which is not exactly a surprise.
It's doubly not-surprising since they're repainted stock Honda pieces!
At some point, I think I'm going to replace the tail with a new Tyga solo piece. Since the fasteners are mostly busted, the pillion seat doesn't fit quite right, and that bugs me. This is, btw, the wrong bike to be a perfectionist about, so I'm having work really hard to prioritize some things (read: getting the damned thing running) over others (everything else). It's... hard.
Remember the pic of the lower radiator from the last post? Well, now that I've gotten a good look at them...
Those have gone away.
I don't have any pics at the moment, but I bought and installed some aluminum NC30 radiators from China. If any of the NC people reading this are interested in a more thorough review and details about the disgusting things I had to do to the hangers to get them to fit, I'll post up a review with some photos. I also replaced the hoses with silicone pieces. No drama there aside from some minor trimming. In case you want to follow in my specific footsteps, I bought radiators from "coolingsystemclub" and hoses from "gpi radiator", each on eBay. They were crazy cheap, and they are crazy cheap, but they're perfectly serviceable.tl;dr: C+++ MINIMALLY ACCEPTABLE, WOULD BEGRUDGINGLY BUY AGAIN
The real reason I wanted to strip the thing down was because of that damned tachometer. As I said before, the stock redline is 14.5k RPM, and the stock tacho display ends at 16k. The HRC CDI allows revving to 16k, and in a race situation you may well overrun that on downshift. In any case, burying the tach at every shift is annoying.
So what's under the tail? This is...
Well, it's got an HRC sticker. That's good, right?
Erm, not really. You see those little white specks under the HRC sticker? That's where a part number should be. Both the street and race CDIs have part numbers, and it's written in white, right there. The HRC CDI does not have an HRC sticker on it out of the box, but neither does the stock part, obviously. So is it an HRC CDI? I still have no idea. The only way I'll be able to tell is to get it running and rev it!
To do that, I've gotta have fuel... so let's look into the carbs, shall we? Once again, I won't bore you with a thousand pictures of the carbs in various states of disassembly, but man, these things are tiny. They've got 30mm throats! Adorable. As to their condition, I think this picture will say what needs to be said:
Eeeeew.
I stripped the carbs down, each getting its own baggies for parts, cleaning as I went. I only busted one jet (a pilot jet, luckily a shared Honda part readily available) and ordered 112 main jets as a starting point for main jetting to replace the stock 108s. I also bought a stock air filter to replace the hacked-up foam thing that was in there, so going crazy big on the jets doesn't make sense. I toyed with the idea of buying an HRC jet kit, but the jets there start at 148. Basically, to use it, you've got to be running an open airbox and full exhaust, which I probably won't for the street.... at first, anyway.
I also decided I didn't want to split the carb assemblies. V4 carbs are notoriously finicky to reassemble, and there are some plastic tubes that are pure unobtanium (and disastrously expensive, if you can get them). I saw NorCal Cycles' advertisement for ultrasonic cleaning, so I gave them a call and they assured me that it wouldn't damage the plastic parts. Off it went! I was a little bummed they wouldn't drop the price any since I had already completely stripped the carb, but oh well. The results were pretty good, with only minor detail touch-up needed to get the insides of the various passages in the carbs and emulsion tubes cleared.
Because rebuilding carbs implies replacing all the tiny rubber o-rings, I also ordered a set of viton NC35 carb seals from LiteTek over in Thailand. If you don't know what viton is, look it up. In short, it resists corrosion by ethanol like no standard rubber does. The seals look like this:
They fit great, too. The kit includes all the o-rings you need if you split the carbs, but I didn't use them since I kept the assembly together, instead just using the jet o-rings and bowl seals.
After cleaning and scrubbing and ultrasonic-ing and reassembling, it was done!
I also adjusted the valves last weekend. It was a pretty standard valve job, since the NC35 uses 7.48mm shims. By the way, when you get accustomed to holding your breath before checking the availability and prices of every part, hoping like hell it's not Japan-only and will require you to order it from the Netherlands at huge cost plus 40 euros shipping... well, the fact that the engine takes standard Honda shims was a huge relief.
Obligatory gear-driven cams porn shot:
All the valves were out of spec, but luckily they were all tight. That's preferable, as lightly-used bikes often tend to build up carbon on the valve seats, which throws the clearance off in the other direction, and hurts compression. Speaking of compression, let's smear some moly/oil mix on the friction surfaces of the valve train, change the oil and see what the compression is! Only one problem...
Those are M8 threads. I had to use a deep-well 13mm socket to get the plugs out!
They're seriously tiny, and no compression tester at Moto Shop has an adapter small enough to thread into the head. As a result, no compression test for me!I apologize for not having any "overall" shots of the bike's current state. I've spent so much time ordering, waiting, and installing tiny little fiddly bits that I haven't had much time to contemplate the state of the bike as a whole. This weekend, though, I hope to fire it up for the first time and start working on making it road-worthy.
My wallet aches just thinking about it.
Mickey_D100
Scares Children
Enjoying your progress so far, and best of luck!