Topic: 1974 cb550; Fixin' this baby up!

[spdygnzlz]

I have a working reg/rect from my bike before I took the bike apart, I'm replacing it with a more modern setup.  Make me an offer if you want it. 

[dmonday]

I appreciate it, but I'm going to go the 70's F150 route.  Picked up a regulator on Friday and waiting for the rectifier to get here.  Currently building a new tray to mount all the electronics too.  I did get all the spark plugs changed (1 & 2 look rich, 3 & 4 looked "okay").  I finished getting the front brake line all mounted (cross threaded at the hard line, just needed to use a tap and dye to clean the threads back up).  Going to re-run the fuel lines with some new 90 degree fuel filters I picked up and then the last thing I can think of is syncing the carbs.  Maybe knock that out in a week or 2... 

[dmonday]

Put together my regulator and 3-phase rectifier and the battery is charging now!  I put 5.5mm fuel line on it and new 90 degree fuel filters that fit much better then the straight style I had.  I then started putting in my LEDs I had got to replace the standard bulbs but they aren't working...  Looks like I need to switch to a specific relay for LEDs.  This one gets me though; the LED for the brake light doesn't light up?  Not sure what's up with that.  The incandescent bulb lights up fine, so if any of you have a pointer for me on that one, I'd appreciate it. 

[Bankerdanny]

The LED tail/brake light should be plug and play. I have them on my Goldwing.

If you swap in a regular bulb does the brake light work? Do you have a car with 1157 bulbs? You can test the LED bulb in it to make sure the problem isn't the bulb itself.

The turn signals require a solid state relay or resistors to function properly.

[dmonday]

The LED tail/brake light should be plug and play. I have them on my Goldwing.

If you swap in a regular bulb does the brake light work? Do you have a car with 1157 bulbs? You can test the LED bulb in it to make sure the problem isn't the bulb itself.

The turn signals require a solid state relay or resistors to function properly.

That's exactly what I thought about the taillight too.  I should be able to run a wire straight to the led from the battery right?  I assume one wire to one of the (2) terminals on the bottom and one wire to the side?  The stock light works fine.  I used the ones from the superbright website that others recommended.  As far as the solid state relay, is that just the relay's made for use with LEDs?

[Bankerdanny]

Do you have a whole light assembly or just replacement bulbs for the existing housing?

There should be 3 wires to the tail light assembly:

• one for the tail light, which is hot when the key is on
• one for the stop light which gets power from the front pressure switch located in the distribution block between the fork tubes under the gauges and also a switch at the rear brake pedal
• and a ground

The solid state flasher units can be used with both incandecent and LED style bulbs.

[IndyFour]

I have an led bulb in my tail light and it works with no issues.  Maybe something is up with the socket or new bulb causing it not to make contact with each other?  Did you test the new led bulb to make sure it's not a dud?

I had led bulbs in my blinkers for a while and took them out because they were problematic.  Even with an electronic flasher, the shared dash flash indicator causes "bleed through" voltage and they do crazy things.  I think you can simply pull the dash bulb and they should work, but I just went back to incandescent.  The led bulbs I had weren't nearly as bright anyway.  You can add resistors as mentioned above to help, but it wasn't worth the trouble and expense for me.

[Tews19]

How did I miss this? Subscribed!

[dmonday]

I was able to take it on it's first roadtrip this weekend.  Got all the way to Bloomington and my pull throttle cable snapped within 100 yds of the football stadium (which was my destination).  Harley guy rode by......Yamaha R6 rode by twice...  A kid in a chevy truck ended up stopping and was nice enough to grab a wrench and a phillips from his apartment and I swapped the push cable with the pull cable and was able to ride it the ~50 miles back home.  What a fantastic little bike!





I'm just using replacement bulbs, not whole assemblies.  Thanks for all your guys help on the LED's.  I mainly wanted LED to use less power.  I pulled on of the wires to each front blinker so there wouldn't be a constant draw from them.

[dmonday]

Sync'd the carbs yesterday....what a difference!  Surprising to see how far "bench syncing" is from the actual thing.  No more hiccup at 4,000rpm, smooth acceleration, better idle and all around better response and feel.

[dmonday]

Just a little update.... I love this bike!  It's a very comfy, fun little bike.  I think I need to mess with carb tuning a little more (need to do some plug chops).

I noticed the other today that they bike seemed to "shift" in right handed corners.  When I got home I grabbed the rear tire and the frame and pulled/pushed opposite of each other and the swing arm shifts just a tad so it looks like I get to replace the swing arm bushings.  I'll probably just wait to do it this winter b/c I'm planning on tearing the bike down and having the frame sandblasted and powder coated and then I'll put new bearings (head bearings/wheels/whatever else) etc when I reassemble.  I need to replace the handle bars do to rust spots and I'd like to get something close to stock.  Any suggestions?

[jmelche2]

Vintage Wiring sells everything you need to build a brand new factory style connector if you want or just the correct internal spade connectors if your plastic housing are in good shape. They also sell the tool to easily remove the connectors from the housings easily.

I keep a supply of various bullet connectors and the connector tool from them on hand for misc electrical repairs as they come up. It was $30 well spent.

I've bookmarked their page, nice stuff!  My connectors are in good condition, I just wasn't sure if soldering to the wires to the new wires I have made up for the new fuse box would be okay or not.  Certainly easier!

Can you send me the link?

[RAFster122s]

Vintage Connections is the company name if I recall correctly. Google should be able to give the url.

[Bankerdanny]

Sorry, that's right, Vintage Connections.

http://www.vintageconnections.com/

[dmonday]

About time for an update.



 I love this bike.  It is a fantastic, smooth and eye catching bike to ride.  I find that older folks will break their necks to look at this one at the lights but the younger kids like my supermoto.  I've enjoyed it all summer.  I mainly ride this one when my wife and I get a break from our 2 kids and have a date night, but I also ride it to work and around town too.  Now that it's getting too cold to enjoy riding I've decided to start on my winter project....complete tear down and rebuild.

I'm going to get rid of the rear taillight/fender/turn signals and go with something a little more modern.  I came across this taillight that I really liked b/c it is LED, brighter than stock and has the turn signals built it.  I made a bracket to hold it from a cb350f part.  I'm saving all my stock parts and not cutting anything off so I can always return it back to stock if I'd like to later down the road.







This shows what the blinkers look like.  I held everything in place with zip ties to make sure I'd like it.


Welded up some mounts.



The tear down...
I'm sending the frame to be sand blasted and powdercoated.  I'm replacing the wheel bearings, steering head bearings, rims, spokes, handlebars, front turns, exhaust, replacing the o-rings on the carb "t" fittings, rebuilding the front shocks, replacing the rear shocks, painting the engine and polishing some stuff.  There's also a bunch of little things I'll replacing too.






After getting the engine out by myself, I decided I'm going to get some help to put it back in in a couple months! 


Question:  Does anyone know the correct fitting for the front brake caliper?  Where the hardline goes in.  I want to get an adapter to attach the stainless line directly to it.

A lot of people have helped me be able to do this by purchasing metal art that I make from motorcycle, car, dragster and industrial metal scrap. 








Those are just a handful of my builds, I build all sorts of stuff.  If you want to help fund my bike build or just want to see the cool things I turn out, check me out on Facebook and "like" my page "DaRk Metal Art".

[Stev-o]

Bike looks good and love the artwork.
May be interested in buying one,  I really like the one with the large muffler (7th from bottom)

[dmonday]

Thanks!  I think you're talking about the Ducati Monster (has copper exhaust pipes).  Paul Teutul Sr commented on my instagram over the weekend that he liked it.  I thought that was pretty cool.

I built an engine stand to hold the engine while cleaning 40 years of gunk off it and to hold it during painting.  I mounted it on wheels so I can easily move it around.  The only thing I have left before taking the frame to get sand blasted and powder coated is removing the swing arm bolt, it's really tight so I sprayed it with pb blaster and I'll go at it later this week.

[dmonday]

A little update. 

I got the first batch of stuff back from powder coating and it looks great!  I went with gloss black.  Getting ready to take the rims apart and have the rim and hubs done in gloss black too.  I installed the tapered steering bearings and used the smaller spacer.  Going to go with new stainless spokes.  I also ordered a Moto GP Werks (yoshi style) exhaust.  Really excited to get this back together over the next couple months.  I'll add pics later.

[dmonday]

Picture dump of what's going on...

My exhaust


Seat.  I'm waiting on new buckle brackets and trim piece.


Bits and pieces back from powder coat.






Installed tapered bearings.



Took the tires off the rims and getting ready to disassemble them to get them powder coated and put new stainless spokes in them.

[dmonday]

Here's an update.  I'll let the pics do the talking.







Swing arm bushing was very easy to do (no cutting of anything)







daughter helping install the progressive shocks


cb400 bars, wires ran internally

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Here's an update.  I'll let the pics do the talking.







Swing arm bushing was very easy to do (no cutting of anything)







daughter helping install the progressive shocks


cb400 bars, wires ran internally

Thanks for posting the nice pictures.  Assembly is coming along well.

[dmonday]

Took the bowls off the carbs last night to put the 105 main jets in and check float height.  Floats were all off (instead of 22mm they were closer to 32mm).  Every float bowl gasket was either crimped from coming out of the grooves during assembly or cut completely.  Also found that I was missing all the springs that push against the bowl to keep the main jet secure.  I lucked out though b/c I had bought a cb350 four that was completely disassembled and just happen to find that the previous owner did have those springs bagged up.  So I'll put them on it and save myself the hassle of rigging it or paying out $50 to replace them.  No wonder the carbs were leaking gas!  I thought it was the "T" line fitting.  I'm going to replace those O-rings anyways though.  Hopefully this helps performance (which I certainly thought was lacking) and also improve my mileage from 32 mpg hopefully to  about 50 mpg.  Still need to change the needle position.

[dmonday]

I have a Truck Lite LED headlight on the way, but here it is:


Trail Tech Vapor Speedo/Tach:


The engine after paint:

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I have a Truck Lite LED headlight on the way, but here it is:


Trail Tech Vapor Speedo/Tach:


The engine after paint:

Just a friendly heads up on the Truck Lite LED headlight.  I have one on my 750.  The bulb housing is about 4+ times heavier than a stock bulb.  It is substantial.  So much that my new reproduction headlight bucket snapped after taking a good few bumps in the street.  I would STRONGLY advise that you switch to a metal headlight bucket.  I found out the hard way and had to hold the headlight in one hand while I limped my bike home 15 miles.

Emgo makes one that you can find for about $45 (I bought mine off an Amazon vendor).  Emgo Part 66-65040.

[dmonday]

Great info, thank you!