Topic: CB550K0 Build - 450T Tank mods

[calj737]

The wiring you have ditched between your Reg/Rec and Alternator has me confused. From Reg/area should be 3 loose: Grn, Red and Blk. Plug should contain: 3 Ylw, 1 Wht and Grn.

What gives with the plug wires?

[streak09]

The wiring you have ditched between your Reg/Rec and Alternator has me confused. From Reg/area should be 3 loose: Grn, Red and Blk. Plug should contain: 3 Ylw, 1 Wht and Grn.

Hey Calj, now you have me confused!    Are you saying that I should have loose wires somewhere? I have the Electrosport unit, and the wire colors don't match up, and being colorblind doesn't help the situation... . I don't have the plastic plugs any more, just bullet connectors.

I have:

     -3 white from the reg/rec going to the 3 yellow on the alternator
     -Green from the alternator going to a common ground with the reg/rec (black wire)
     -White on alternator going to reg/rec green. Brown from reg/rec going to switched power
     -Red reg/rec going to battery +. 

I hope I didn't screw something up. I would hate to fry my reg/rec, battery, or pamco!

What gives with the plug wires?

I just haven't installed the plug boots yet, so the plug wires are just cut at the end with a little bit of wire exposed. 

[P.abrera]

Took a little time yesterday evening to work on the airbox modification. Basically took a PVC coupling and ground down the flange side to make it thin, and bolted it to the airbox. I will paint the coupling black so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.






K&N filter to match the PVC diameter.



I think it should work out well, I need to make a new top attachment for the airbox to help support the carbs, the original tab has been cut off.

Anyone have any thoughts on checking oil flow to the head?

I have the same setup. I cut some old inner tube to match the flange hole/outer shape for a gasket between the flange and the airbox with a dollop of rtv along the edges as extra insurance.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[streak09]

I have the same setup. I cut some old inner tube to maych the flange hole/shape for a gasket between the flange and the airbox with a dollop of rtv along the edges as extra insurance.

Very nice P.abrera, I remember seeing your set-up while perusing. Your fabricating skills are light-years beyond mine, and it definitely shows! Thanks for the tip on sealing it, that should work nicely. 

[calj737]

My bad, I see your wiring code and you seem to have that unit correctly wired.

My earlier question about the plug wires was to the R/R plug, not the ignition plugs- more confusion. Ignore my earlier post

[streak09]

Ahh, okay, had me worried for a bit there. I hope everything is right. I'm really getting motivated to get this thing going!

[streak09]

Cleaned up the adapter edges to match the curves and shape of the airbox.






Buuuut, I was a doofus and decided to sand the airbox and paint it. Sanding did not go well and I basically messed it up, and the finish looks terrible. So I got a new one off of ebay. I kinda need the top tab that I cut off a long time ago anyways, so not a terrible loss. Painted the adapter flange and turned out much better than the airbox, so didnt have to toss that one.

Still waiting on gaskets from DSS so I can button it up.

[streak09]

Received my gaskets today. Unfortunately the mail man doesn't mind bending things that feel like they shouldn't be bent, and shoving them in the box  . The mail man at my parents would always put stiff or larger items inside out our screen door.





Fortunately, doesn't look like any damage occurred. I will try to get them on tonight, but may have to wait until later in the weekend. My dad and I are taking the motorcycle safety course Wednesday night, Saturday and Sunday morning. Should have our license by the end of the weekend! 

[streak09]

A bit of an update...

Gaskets are installed and she is holding oil  . Tried to kick it over a bunch to get oil to the head, but nothing, and I am unsure if this is normal or should raise a red flag. If anyone has any insight so I can put my thoughts to rest, I would appreciate it!

I finished up the air-box filter set-up. I think it turned out great. I found a foam seal at work that should work nicely. I'm in the automotive industry, and we use it to seal the front interior valance panel to the windshield. It smashes down nice, as you can see in the pictures, and should create a pretty good seal.










I had kind of been dreading putting the carbs on, because I know they can be a real pain. I don't know if it was due to all new rubbers, or just dumb luck, but I was able to get them fitted and connected to the manifold and air-box in less than 5 minutes  . Now, connecting the throttle cables is another story, and a new battle for another day.

I really like the contrast between the bare metal and black, and will probably end up adding some bare metal highlights to the lower portion of the engine to balance it out.





Slowly moving along! 

[riverfever]

Stupid question here but why are you running the K/N filter? Did you not have a stock box? Why not just run pods? I think it looks great Streak...I'm asking out of pure ignorance.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Most find the stock airbox easier to tune than pods.

Nice airbox mod! I think you will need to kick MUCH longer to see oil up to the head.

[streak09]

Riverfever, Cb750 has me covered. I've heard Pods are difficult to tune, and honestly, I like the look of the K&N better than the pods. Its a compromise of performance vs looks. Stock air-box and filter will give smoothest (if not best) performance, but I like the look of the open triangle, so I made a compromise of K&N onto stock air-box.

I think you will need to kick MUCH longer to see oil up to the head.

Thanks for the feedback, I was hoping for that answer. From what I have collected, if I leave a valve adjustment cover off during start-up, oil should come squirting out within a few seconds of it running. If not, it could mean trouble. Is this correct?


Plans are to get the exhaust back on, external fuel tank (aka: old simple green bottle) hooked up, sparkplug caps installed, and throttle and clutch cables installed this weekend. I am also going to modify a spare carb drain plug so I can check fuel level in the bowls.

After all that is done, its time to crank her over!

[riverfever]

I like the way it looks too. I hate removing and wrestling that intake on and off and dealing with this boots and would rather not have more tuning issues than I already do.

[calj737]

From what I have collected, if I leave a valve adjustment cover off during start-up, oil should come squirting out within a few seconds of it running. If not, it could mean trouble. Is this correct?

Correct. Plus, the Oil Pressure warning light will go out almost instantly.

[streak09]

Installed all the cables, plug caps, and got the exhaust back on yesterday. Everything went very smooth. This morning I hooked up the fuel and check fuel level. The modified drains plugs worked out great.



Carbs 1-3 seem a bit high, about at the top edge of the bowl. #4 seemed to be right on at 4mm below the top. I will get those evened out soon. I didn't bother adjusting for first start-up. Carbs are all tight and now leaks.

Picked up some plugs while we were out for lunch and got them installed. Gave everything a once over and decided to try to fire it off. After a few kicks I could hear a slight pop. A few more kicks and it sputtered for a few seconds. Getting pretty excited at this point... but starting to wonder if my electronic ignition is hooked up correctly, or if timing is off. Buuuut, an increase on the idle screw had her come to life! Had to keep steady of the throttle to keep it going, but didnt sound too bad. Eventually I took it off choke and the idle raised and I was able to dial the throttle screw back to a nice idle. Super excited now.

Seemed like it was a bit lean, so I back out the mixture screw out to richen it. Seems better. Felt the headers, 1-2 were really hot, 3-4 I could pretty much lay my hand on...  crap. Let it sit for few minutes and start it up again, and it idled really high. I thought it was a bad sign, but then realized it was running on all four and it sounded much better. Set the idle low and she just purred. Love the sound of the exhaust, loud, but not blaring. It just sounds so beefy and strong.

Very, very good day. Its been a long time, 2-3 years, since Ive had it running and it feels so good. A long way to go to get it road worthy, but getting it started is a huge milestone.

Some fine tuning will be coming up. Check dynamic timing, adjust floats, and syncing carbs will probably be the next steps.

By the way, anyone hear anything weird while its running? I hear a bit of cam chain noise, normal? or should I be concerned? And thanks for those who have helped along the way!

[RAFster122s]

Congrats on your running bike!
I believe some noise is to be expected, but I would check the chain has been adjusted. The water cooled bikes can dampen the noise a little easier with heavier walls and the water cooling passages.  They sound different from an aircooled motor I think.
Lots of factors in a motor's noise and the valve train contributes as well.

Does it matter if the fluid in the drain tubes checking height/fuel level is longer on some carbs? I lean towards it having a very minor impact, but I don't know...just a gut feeling. 

Good luck tuning and finishing up the build.  Just be patient so you don't make mistakes trying to rush it. I know it is hard not to.

David

[calj737]

More than likely the vacuum synch is all that's needed to resolve that noise. You'll be astonished at how quiet she'll become afterwards.

[streak09]

Thanks RAF. I will definitely take my time getting it right. I think I have done so thus far (well at least I've taken my good sweet ole time!), but it's going to be tough now that I have it running. I did tension the chain before start-up, so hopefully it is correct. I don't think you can really mess it up, just loosen the lock nut, let it self tension and lock it back down. I didn't hear any valve noise, so I suppose I adjusted them adequately.

Does it matter if the fluid in the drain tubes checking height/fuel level is longer on some carbs? I lean towards it having a very minor impact, but I don't know...just a gut feeling. 

I don't know how much of an impact it makes, but I've read many times on this forum people recommending adjusting bowl fuel level to be 4mm below the top. I tend to agree with you, I find it hard to believe that it would make much difference, but I have 0 experience in the matter, and it won't hurt anything, so why not?

More than likely the vacuum synch is all that's needed to resolve that noise. You'll be astonished at how quiet she'll become afterwards.

Calj, that's a good point. A sync probably will quiet it down.

[P.abrera]

Nothin like hearing them fire up after wrenching for so long

[minimo]

Oh, what a feeling. Congrats!

[streak09]

What a feeling indeed! I just want to go out to the garage every 10 minutes and just start it up. So far it starts up easy first kick with choke, let idle for ~30 seconds, then remove choke and she just purrs. Still a bit to go before a test ride so I wont know how the power band is and if any tuning will be needed  for a while yet.

I took a few minutes tonight to check the timing with a timing light. Never used one before, pretty neat. As some of you may know, I'm running Pamco Pete's electronic ignition and you cannot time it statically, hence the timing light.

I don't have a tach on it yet, so I do not know where my idle is, but I set it as low as it could without it sounding like it was laboring. Then checked timing. It was slightly advanced, so I adjusted it a bit to get the F tick dead on with the tick mark on the case. Then I checked at full advance, and at full advance, the tick marks do not line up. Has anyone had this problem before with the Pamco? Im thinking since most riding is done at full advance (i think its full advance around 2500 rpms?) it would make since for timing to be correct at full advance vs idle. Any thoughts?

I've got a pretty good list of knick knacks that need buttoned up so I will work on those for the next week or so. Pretty trivial things, but things to do none the less.

Later 

[streak09]

I spent a little more time with the timing light and I think I wasn't reaching full advance because I was setting the "F" mark at too high of an idle. I don't have a tach hooked up yet, and I busted up the one good cable I had while transporting the spare engine. I wouldn't recommend picking up the engine out of a truck bed by yourself, its not bad picking it up and walking it over to somewhere, its putting it down that gets you into trouble  . Anyways... As I was saying, no tach so I didn't realize how high I had the idle set. I was basically using up some of the advance at idle, therefore not allowing me to reach full advance at higher RPMs. Got her to idle veeerrryyy low, set the F, then confirmed full advance at higher RPM.

I even took it for a spin down the street and back to check the clutch and all. Very smooth and feels like a lot of power. Again, long ways from road riding, but got just a little hint and it makes me smile  .

I took some temperature readings with a touch right after I shut it down, this is after running it for about 10 minutes, mostly all idle. Readings are from the top of each header, about 2 1-2 inches from the head flanges.

Cylinder #1 - 275F
Cylinder #2 - 270F
Cylinder #3 - 270F
Cylinder #4 - 300F

Everything looks good until #4. While brainstorming why #4 would be running so much hotter, I remembered that my exhaust tappet cover on cylinder 4 interferes with the cam cover bolts that I had replaced with stainless allen heads. This didn't allow the tapped cover to seat all the way (not much at all actually). I'm thinking that air could be getting sucked in through there causing #4 to run lean, therefore hotter? Regardless if that assumption is right, It needed fixed so I replaced it with a phillips head that allowed clearance to seat all the way. Still need to replace the o-rings, but I'm hoping the condition will improve. I have not been able to verify yet.

I got another goodie in the mail today....



I sprung for the Morgan Carbtune. Ive got a buddy with a boat that I can put it to use on as well, and I think its a pretty neat tool. I know I could have gone the home-made route, but I wussed out  .

Probably wont get to much this week, heading to Norris Lake for a much needed vacation! 

[Restoration Fan]

Congrats!  That's a heckuva feeling when you hear her run for the first time.

[streak09]

Congrats!  That's a heckuva feeling when you hear her run for the first time.

Thank you! It sure is!

Well I ran the bike for a bit after tightening the tappet cover, and it is still running really hot on cylinder 4. Is there any other reasons it would be running hot other than being lean? I havent pulled the plugs yet, I suppose that will tell me if im really lean. I havennt vacume synched yet, will that make much difference? I guess I also have the fuel mixture screw to play with. I would like to get it tuned in fairly well before starting on lights, seat, tank, etc.

Hopefully I can keep plugging away a few days a week. My goal is a rideable bike by barber festival time!

[lrutt]

Could be something as simple as upping the mixture screw for that one. Don't always assume all screws at the same number of turns out is ideal. If you are measuring at idle, that is likely it. Would be a very minor tweak I'd think.