Author Topic: CB550K0 Build - 450T Tank mods (Read 55052 times)

streak09 · « **Reply #50 on:** April 08, 2013, 08:44:48 AM »

Quote from: iron_worker on April 08, 2013, 08:06:45 AM

30PSI?!

Sounds like you probably have a valve hanging slightly open to bleed off that much compression.

I think you could probably get that much compression not running rings at all. lol

IW

Thats what I thought! I checked the tappets, and they were pretty far off. They had a lot of gap, which means they would be opening late? I readjusted them and got about the same readings.

Quote from: DustyRags on April 08, 2013, 07:25:06 AM

Oooh, share!

Well I was poking around on ebay and found stock exhaust for the CB550F model for $50! I think the only thing that will have to be modified on my 550K model is the brake lever and the kick starter. I just couldnt pass that up!

DustyRags · « **Reply #51 on:** April 08, 2013, 09:55:29 AM »

Oh man! Awesome score!

iron_worker · « **Reply #52 on:** April 08, 2013, 01:00:09 PM »

That makes sense that it would have a lot of gap. The gap would be because the valve cannot retract all the way so there is extra clearance between the rocker and the valve stem.

The problem is likely it's extremely carbon fouled or baked on oil and the valve is actually sticking in the guide. That or the valve is bent slightly preventing it from closing fully... possibly was over revved.

IW

streak09 · « **Reply #53 on:** April 08, 2013, 06:46:59 PM »

Quote from: iron_worker on April 08, 2013, 01:00:09 PM

The problem is likely it's extremely carbon fouled or baked on oil and the valve is actually sticking in the guide. That or the valve is bent slightly preventing it from closing fully... possibly was over revved.

IW

Now thats why I keep you guys around

Haha That could very well be the problem. It makes perfect sense because I tried the oil in the cylinder trick and it didnt raise the compression very much. When Ive done it on other bikes it has raised it dramatically, pointing towards rings. This case it points to valves because of the small difference in compression. Thanks IW!

Mcwilliams570 · « **Reply #54 on:** April 08, 2013, 07:00:31 PM »

I put the later model exhaust on my 1974 didn't have a problem with the kickstand but the rear brake pedal was a bit of a pain what made it hard for me was that I cut off the back exhaust brackets lol.

Matt

DustyRags · « **Reply #55 on:** April 08, 2013, 07:48:03 PM »

Man, I'm an idiot. Yeah- bent valve, fouled valve, that all makes so much more sense.

streak09 · « **Reply #56 on:** April 10, 2013, 05:43:57 AM »

Matt, your bike looks great! Im planning on swapping my kickstart and brake pedal for the 550f model, so hopefully thats the only modification that ill need to do for that. Pretty excited for that 4 into 1, I love the way they sound.

streak09 · « **Reply #57 on:** April 10, 2013, 07:08:00 AM »

Well, I stumbled along something else. I have a bad habbit of checking craigslist every morning, and saw that a guy is selling a '76 550 motor in my area. Hes asking $175. Apparently its off of a parts bike and ran when it was on it. If thats true, I would proabably have less in this engine than I would a rebuild on mine. I would definitely try to get it for less, but it may be be a good deal. Im assuming the engine is the same on the '76 and the '74 so it should be a direct swap? Anyone have any thoughts on this?

DustyRags · « **Reply #58 on:** April 10, 2013, 09:07:39 AM »

GO GO GO GO! That won't last long!

Bring your compression tester and some oil- kick it over a few times and see what happens.

streak09 · « **Reply #59 on:** April 10, 2013, 07:54:49 PM »

Quote from: DustyRags on April 10, 2013, 09:07:39 AM

GO GO GO GO! That won't last long!

Well I WENT WENT WENT and it payed off! Turns out the guy was just trying to get rid of it for space and I gladly took it off his hands for a single Franklin! Checked compression and got 115 on all four. Now thats with a cold engine that hasnt been ran in at least a year and I didnt have the throttle wide open, so I feel pretty good about that. The good part is that they were all the same. And it has the carbs and all! Supposedly the engine has about 10k on it too. The one I have on the bike now has 30K+. Just when I thought I was gonna put her away for a while, I find a jackpot of parts! Someones looking out for me... and its definitely not my girlfriend...

DustyRags · « **Reply #60 on:** April 11, 2013, 07:19:44 AM »

WOOOOHOOOOO! Drop that puppy in, change the oil, clean the carbs and ride it like you stole it! 'Cause you almost did!

Vinhead1957 · « **Reply #61 on:** April 11, 2013, 11:55:15 AM »

Great find

streak09 · « **Reply #62 on:** April 13, 2013, 01:26:51 PM »

Quote from: DustyRags on April 11, 2013, 07:19:44 AM

WOOOOHOOOOO! Drop that puppy in, change the oil, clean the carbs and ride it like you stole it! 'Cause you almost did!

No doubt! My exhaust came in today, and I must say, I stole that too. I have been looking for a while and I havent seen many in this condition, and definitely not for the price I paid. Ive been working on my cousins bike the past couple days, it has a bent valve. So when I get the parts in and button that up, its gonna be full swing on the 550 and I cant wait!

The corrosion you can see on the top of the headers is surface only. The muffler is pretty shot on the inside, but its better than the imaginary mufflers I have on it now

DustyRags · « **Reply #63 on:** April 15, 2013, 08:19:45 PM »

Dooooood! Envious!

Saw a big four-inline something-or-other with a For Sale sign near Hollister yesterday, but it was almost 8 at night and we were still almost 3 hours from home so I didn't make the gang turn around and oggle at it. But it was tempting.

streak09 · « **Reply #64 on:** May 02, 2013, 03:28:26 PM »

Well, Ive been working on my cousins bike lately. It had some bent valves, so I got some head work experience under my belt! It went pretty well. But she picked it up yesterday so I was able to bring the 550 back from my sisters to work on it. I graduated this past saturday

so I have a few weeks until I start working and I can get some wrenching time in. Unfortunately I will be gone most of next week to visit family down in Georgia, so I wont get as much time as I would like.

I started tear down today and got it down to this point.

Plan is to tear all the way down, clean the frame and do a quick paint job on it. Anyone have a good recommendation on paint for the frame? I know POR-15 is great, and Ive used it, but looking for something quicker like a spray. I dont want to strip the frame all the way down to metal.

From there I will freshin everything up (rims, brakes, yada yada). Make a brat style seat and slap that new motor in there (along with the 4-1 exhaust

).

Im really on the edge about painting the motor... I like black but I dunno... decisions decisions...

Alright, Im done blabbing. Hopefully Ill have a much faster progress on this now that Im not in school and will have some cash flow!

DustyRags · « **Reply #65 on:** May 02, 2013, 03:44:43 PM »

Congratulations on the the graduations!

Bike progress looks good too.

streak09 · « **Reply #66 on:** May 11, 2013, 02:03:55 PM »

Quote from: DustyRags on May 02, 2013, 03:44:43 PM

Congratulations on the the graduations!

Thanks! Some tough work but im glad I held out!

I did some more tear down today, and shes ready to flip over and take the engine out. I may get to it tonight, but if not it will have to wait till monday or tuesday.

Well I was visiting family, they handed this over to me.

Its a 1973 DT250. Pretty neat two stroke. Never owned a Yamaha or a two stroke, so we will see how that goes

. Wont be working on it much till I finish some other projects, it is running though.

DustyRags · « **Reply #67 on:** May 11, 2013, 10:37:57 PM »

Damn, some guys have all the luck!

Dream750 · « **Reply #68 on:** May 12, 2013, 06:11:52 AM »

The 1973 DT250 is a great bike! I bought one brand new and had endless fun with it, the suggested retail was $859. Those two-stroke enduros offered from Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki were all popular machines back in the day, as Honda was busy marketing their four-stroke CL and SL models. Yours looks to be in good condition, add the few missing parts and you will have a very nice survivor.

Here’s a nice example owned by Randy Marble:

http://www.marblesmotors.com/YamahaDT31973-01.htm

I no longer have my 1973 DT250, but kept some of the original sales literature:

streak09 · « **Reply #69 on:** May 15, 2013, 04:30:13 PM »

Those are some great advertisements there! It should be a fun bike to take on trails and fields.

Slowly but surely there is progress being made on the 550. I spent ALL day degreaseing and cleaning the new motor. Used a friends pressure washer and it worked out great. Got all the baked on oil and crud off of the swing arm, frame, wheels, and motor. I think Im to the point where I can start prepping the engine for paint. I decided to go with a satin black over the whole engine. Ill do some bare metal accents here and there, but it will mostly be black. Im planning on using VHT engine enamel. Ive researched paint types and methods ever since I started working on these things. All Ive learned is just prep well, spray in light coats, and pray it sticks well enough. If you follow that, usually duplicolor or VHT (I think they are owned by the same people?) will work most of the time. I know it would be better to tare down, clean thoroughly, remove paint, use a high quality paint yadayada, Its just not what Im looking to do on this bike. So therefore I will do what I can to make it turn out well, but be reasonable with time and money.

Here's how the motor sits now.

Plan is to use scotchbrite pads to clean the powdery oxidation stuff, then wipe down with acetone and let the paint fly! For those of you that have experience, would you sand (if yes what grit)? or will the scotchbrite pads provide enough scuffing to give the paint something to grip to? Let me know if you have some good pointers! Ive read more than I wanted to on this engine paint stuff, so Im just gonna go at it unless someone chimes in with some good knowledge!

Plans for the frame:

Now that Ive got the grease and muck off, Im going to take the wire wheel to some rusty spots, and use a rust converter (dunno if it works, but it couldnt hurt right?). Then im gonna have a small up angled rear hoop welded on the the back. Not sure if Im gonna run a fender, but either way I like the up swept hoop. Oh, and Ill do some de-tabing on the frame too. Clean up where the battery box and side covers would mount to.

Im planing on running this battery: http://www.shoraipower.com/Products/batteries/LFX09L2-BS12.html. Its 9Ah, could I run the starter off this, or do I need to step up to the 12Ah?

Thanks for any inpud

streak09 · « **Reply #70 on:** May 25, 2013, 02:24:11 PM »

Ive been cleaning the engine in my free time, and decided to get it soda blasted. Looks like I can get it done for around 50 bucks. I figured it was worth the investment, I would be really disappointed if paint started peeling of because of poor cleaning. I made this little stand out of kinects

for portability and easy of cleaning/painting.

streak09 · « **Reply #71 on:** June 04, 2013, 03:22:09 PM »

Got the engine blasted yesterday and it looks pretty good! 30 minute drive and 60 bucks later she looked like this.

The small discolorations are from where i used the wire wheel to remove some stuff. All the old paint is completely gone from the engine. I need to clean it a bit to remove the little bit of residue that the soda leaves and ill just about be ready for paint.

I think I need some more crap in the garage...

I found a new shop fairly close by that I never knew existed. They have this up for sale, pretty neat looking

My compressor kinda putted out on me the other day. It wasnt building up much pressure and sounded like it was working waaay to hard. I tore it apart and found the graphite/rubber ring was split and somehow the intake foam got sucked in and was holding some of the reed valves open. $37 in parts and I should have a pretty close to new compressor

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #72 on:** June 04, 2013, 03:39:59 PM »

Decent looking twin, except for the seat.

streak09 · « **Reply #73 on:** June 16, 2013, 02:03:46 PM »

I cleaned everything really well and I'm starting to paint now. When I took off the clutch cover I found some wear on the clutch. There was no gasket, only the liquid gasket stuff on there. Looks like the lack of the gasket caused the clutch to rub on the cover? I didn't see any markings on the inside of the cover though

.

Ill probably use the clutch from the other engine to make sure no shavings get in the engine.

Here's the clutch cover all painted. Im really liking the VHT flat black. I tried duplicolors, but it was just too glossy.

I painted the left cover also, but the last coat I used a new can, and apparently I bought the wrong paint!

I got GM Satin Black instead of flat black... So I guess ill be pulling another part of the old engine. Hopefully I can get the whole engine painted before I head south of the border for work at the end of the week.

Sorry for the long delays between posts

Bankerdanny · « **Reply #74 on:** June 17, 2013, 03:13:26 PM »

I much prefer a satin in this application. I did the cylinders on my 550 with semi-gloss.

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Author Topic: CB550K0 Build - 450T Tank mods (Read 55052 times)