Topic: UK 500 four cafe racer build

[Ewan 500K1]

bodged battery holder for under the seat hump
( I think I like it the way it is without the tank and seat  )

[Ewan 500K1]

new headlamp spaghetti and idiot lights

[Ewan 500K1]

Screen Trim used as replacement for tank trim

[Ewan 500K1]

bit of a funny one when refining the dual discs set up today. The caliper arm for the additional disc on the right hand (speedo drive Side) was perfectly aligned with the disc without any need to mess around contrary to al expectation (photo one) , but the original set up on the left hand side was misaligned (second photo) and had to be brought into line by putting some washers in between the caliper arm an the fork.... although thinking about it now maybe the mudgaurd mounting bracket is supposed to go between the caliper arm and the fork leg. Just now I've got the caliper arm directy onto the foork with the mudguard bracket on top of the caliper arm. Anyone know what the right set up is for this ? (later on ...see my seperate thread at http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=125869.0 for the agonies I'm going through with setting up my Dual Discs)

[Ewan 500K1]

so , thats it for now. Stuck the tank and seat back on and sat with a bottle of beer and a fag an just looked at it for a while....
Still to do ... finish the electrics, get a hold of longer rear shocks, buy some rearests, powder coat the frame and sort out the rear light / number plate set up

[Bankerdanny]

Very sharp. The black and white tank makes me think old BMW.

[Ewan 500K1]

Very sharp. The black and white tank makes me think old BMW.

cheers Danny, its been that way for the last 17 years

[Ewan 500K1]

Shimmed up the brake caliper arms so that the calipers are in line with the discs. The right hand side was fine without modification. On the left hand side I needed to use three washer on the top front caliper bolt , 2 washers on the top rear bolt and 2 washers on the bottom bolt. Looking at the pictures the mudguard stay looks a bit odd ... have I got in positioned correctly with the top caliper arm brackets ?  (later on ...see my seperate thread at http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=125869.0 for the agonies I'm going through with setting up my Dual Discs)

[Ewan 500K1]

New custom wiring loom all finished. Amazingly everything worked first time except the starter button which needed grounding to the frame. .. and the crappy mini  indicators that I got from HALFORDS, which blew the fuse and screwed the relay. Old indicators still working fine , so there must be a fault in the halfords ones, they have some bad reviews. Frame all stripped again ready to go and get powder coated. New fork seals arrived. Cant get new rear shocks from Hagon till end of September and Tarozzi are on holiday till Sept , so rearsets are on hold too. So so near to finishing now its killing me

[Ewan 500K1]

Removed the rear shocker bushes from the swing arm this morning ... bit stubborn !. Hammer and WD 40 got me nowhere

[Ewan 500K1]

after searching the forums , I found the answer . 2 sockets and a vice. One socket the same diameter as the outer sleeve on the bush and another much bigger socket that the first one will fit inside. First I gave the bush a good balst with a blow gun, then ....Place one socket each side of the bush. Place in vice and tighten vice .... the bushes were so damn immovable that I had to put a pieve of pipe on the vice handle to get enough force to get the bushes out .... now got a vice with a nicely curved handle

[Ewan 500K1]

didnt go quite so smoothly with the second bush. The smaller socket I was using ended up being slightly smaller than the outer bush sleeve and I overdid it with the blow torch and burnt the rubber out . End result of the vice job was that just the inner sleeve and the rubber came out leaving the outer sleeve embedded in the swinging arm. So ... had to (very carefully) cut the sleeve length wise top and bottom with a hacksaw balde to get it out as I didnt have a scocket of exactly the right size.

[Ewan 500K1]

Now I know why the forks were replaced with 550 ones ... bent steering stem = front end crash in the past. . A bit disconcerting , hope whoever was riding at the time made it through it without too many injuries. I can nick the one off the 500 basket case that is / was / might be restored in the future ... but maybe I'll just carry on with the bent one ... it never appeared to affect performance over the past 17 years 

[Ewan 500K1]

hmm, so looks like its 550K3 forks that are on it , although the springs seem over long at 470mm. Just need to get the flippin oil seals out now, dremel cutting discs ordered

[Greggo]

Replace that lower triple!  Just a suggestion, of course.  But, it's not hard to find a good used replacement, and that one looks too far out of whack to go back.

[Ewan 500K1]

Replace that lower triple!  Just a suggestion, of course.  But, it's not hard to find a good used replacement, and that one looks too far out of whack to go back.

Been riding it with that triple on since 1997    I've got a basket case bike with a decent triple on it , so will use that and try and get hold of a decent second hand one for the basket case later on

[Ewan 500K1]

got the buggers !!!     ... they wouldnt budge with flat head screwdriver.  So, applied a bit of blowtorch and then used a try lever. Tyre lever less likely than a screwdriver to score the mating surface anyway. Hope I've put the new ones in the right way up

[Bankerdanny]

If you did it wrong, you'll know after a few miles on the road.

[iron_worker]

Hard to say for sure from the pick but it looks like they are the right way. The side with the little spring wrapped around should be on the pressurized side ... IE to the inside.

However, the confusion starts when some of them are double lip seals and have a spring on both sides!

IW

[Ewan 500K1]

Hard to say for sure from the pick but it looks like they are the right way. The side with the little spring wrapped around should be on the pressurized side ... IE to the inside.

However, the confusion starts when some of them are double lip seals and have a spring on both sides!

IW

Yep, both sides had visible springs and both springs are the same diameter  ... Both sides also have grooves in them running pralle to the circumference, although one one side the groove is much deeper. I've put the side with the deepest groove facing downwards, this side is also slightly thicker in diamter (see photos 1 & 3). The side with the shallower groove also has text markings, i've put this side facing up the way. See photo 2).

What do you reckon ?, I'll hang fire before putting new oil in.

Its great to know thet there are folks out there looking over my shoulder and keeping me on the right track 

[Bankerdanny]

Photo 2 is the top.

[Ewan 500K1]

Photo 2 is the top.

I guessed right then , thanks for confirmation 

[Ewan 500K1]

Am I happy I took the wife out to the pub for a meal tonight to make up for neglecting her over this week ? Well yep, too right. Bumped into Jim the bike who sorted me out with getting the tapered roller bearing seats out of the headstock. Jim nipped across the road to his house and came back with a right nifty wee tool for getting them out. Back from pub, in the shed and 10 mins later both seats were out . Frame ready to take to Triple S in Bingley for powder coating now ... small step for mankind, great leap for me ... no need to piss about with dremels and cutting discs. Procedure documented below:

Photo 1: Bearing seat in top of headstock
Photo 2: Nifty wee bearing seat removal tool
Photo 3: Tool in place on top of headstock
Photo 4: Drift inserted from bottom of headstock
Photo 5: Couple  of whacks on the drift with a rubber mallet and the bearing seat is out

Repeated all this at the other end to get the bottom seat out ... bit more triky as this seat's diameter was about the same as the headstock inner diameter and was flush into the shoulder, so next to nothing for the tool to grab onto. Expanded the tool as much as possible and the first couple of thumps on the drift moved it enough through friction to get a gap between the seat and the shoulder it sits in for the tool to get a better grab on it. Easy peasy when you know a man who knows how and has a tool to hand. Well chuffed I am. 

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I wish I had that tool when I was removing mine.

[crazypj]

That mudguard bracket looks way off, doubt if you can get wheel and tyre in place set up like that
 You'll probably find the frame flexes pretty good, the tube from swing arm pivot to front of tank always flexes at the joint, usually rust present
This is a CB360 frame but it's really similar to the larger 500/550 frame where it matters
I weld a box section to brace one side against the other and the top tubes


Also, you do have the axle installed correctly?