I think the red/black combo is the best looking F3 Honda made. Just by chance I've been able to find pieces opposite of my son's bike, so this project bike will be black/red, might go with white wheels as a tribute to the couple of F2s I've owned in the past. I just noticed the F3 on the side last week when looking at an F2 project on another forum, had F3-graphics on his replacement fairing...

SW Orlando, near Universal Studios.

 

I found a spare set of gauges that came in a box of parts I picked up, and that has a working temp gauge also. Only problem is they have the Illumiglo faces on them and the power source is shot, trying to see if I can source another one from somewhere for cheap, or figure out how to power them to see if they still light up. In any case, the gauges are good, so I'm set on gauges for this project, and another if it comes up.

 

Sneak peek of the "new" fairings....

 

"New" gauge cluster arrived today, swapped my existing tach into it and gave it a good cleaning. Pulled the white needle from old gauges, painted it, and put onto the tach with broken needle, now I have two sets of good gauges. Torqued everything down and took it out for a spin, only a few miles. Runs great, brakes are great, suspension feels good from initial ride. Sounds like it will need valves adjusted, and it pops out of 2nd at higher rpm. Most likely a shift fork, not sure if I feel like separating the case to replace that, or just look for a deal on another F3 engine.

 

Looking good sir... job well done

 

Thanks, it's getting there... Originally I wasn't planning on any paint/bodywork until sometime in the future, but now that the transmission issue has popped up, I think I'll take a shot at getting the panels cleaned up while I get that sorted out. First order of business is to remove the dent and paint the tank.

 

I'm planning on diving into the 2nd gear issue this week when I get some time. Does anyone know if the F3 shift drum and shift fork can be accessed without pulling the engine and separating the cases? I saw the write up posted by @backdoc for the 954 - https://cbrforum.com/forum/how-103/c...cement-151699/

I'll use that as a guide if it's the same for the F3....

 

This is from the Honda Factory manual.

 

I saw that in the manual also, was hoping it would be similar to the 954 and I could pull it out the side without dropping the engine and splitting the case. Looking at an F3 engine with the clutch already removed, it appears that by removing the shift drum setting plates (#13 in the parts schematic) and the bearing, the shift drum can be removed from the side of the engine. I'm going to give it a go and see what happens, might be able to avoid some extra time/effort.

 

I might be getting overly optimistic, but after pulling the clutch, it looks like I'll be able to pull the shift drum out the side. 6 of the clutch plates look pretty burnt up, so I'll look into rebuilding the clutch while I have it open.