Author Topic: 1976 CB500/550 Project "Squirrel" (Read 284965 times)

calj737 · « **Reply #425 on:** July 25, 2014, 07:10:51 PM »

Riv - it's worth mentioning a few things as most may not recall or know:

This is your first bike.
You recently obtained your M endorsement.
You have limited mechanical experience
You're a Mountain biker cum MotoBiker.
You've put together a pretty dang nice bike, on your own, with limited budget, and very limited experience.
You've got the world's Second Best Wife (First Best is reserved for the writer and reader of this, and no man can honestly say another's wife is better than his own)
And you're doing an absolutely bang up job of decrypting A/F effects on a 40 year old bike at extreme elevations.

So, hats of to you, young Sir. It's guys like you that make guys like me try harder. Now, buy the damn synch gauges yo cheap bastard!

Stev-o · « **Reply #426 on:** July 25, 2014, 07:17:39 PM »

+1 buy the damn sync gauges! These ain't the best but will get the job done....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Vacuum-Carburetor-Synchronizer-carb-sync-Gauge-GL-1100-1200-1500-Honda-CB-/380958623591?hash=item58b2e74767&item=380958623591&pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr

riverfever · « **Reply #427 on:** July 25, 2014, 07:26:20 PM »

Thanks Cal. I really appreciate that. I was just telling my wife today that this portion of the project (the A/F aspect) has been not only fun but really educational as well). I miss being able to ride the mountain bike but this motorcycle has so much soul. I'm ear to ear every time I'm on it or walk by it in the garage.

Steve...those are exactly the gauges I was looking at getting. I'll do it guys. My plan now is to sync them, put fresh plugs in and do that same ride again and take another look and see if 3 and 4 look any better and then go from there. Any harm in riding it until I can sync the carbs?

calj737 · « **Reply #428 on:** July 25, 2014, 07:29:47 PM »

No harm, but I'd love to see the results of you riding it at lower elevation. Just don't thrash it while the plugs look a bit lean. But then again, you're planning a rebuild come winter anyway.

Thrash on, Maestri!

riverfever · « **Reply #429 on:** July 25, 2014, 07:35:19 PM »

Are you wanting me to run it down lower and chop it with these plugs?

calj737 · « **Reply #430 on:** July 26, 2014, 05:18:45 AM »

Sure, but clean them up before you ride. I'm betting at lower elevation they're pretty spot on. Which will then force you into a decision about being a tad rich where you live so you can be spot on at lower elevation.

riverfever · « **Reply #431 on:** July 26, 2014, 08:34:46 PM »

Well I have ordered the sync gauges. Here's a question I have and I couldn't find an answer in the FAQ. I have 627B carbs. After a bench sync, the idle is a tad high (about 2000) and the idle screw is backed out all the way so I can't lower the idle. I'm assuming that I can correct for this when I go to vacuum sync. Is this correct? If so how will I do it? If I back out the adjusters does that raise it's corresponding slide/jet? I'd like to get the idle screw back a middle setting so it's actually functional if that makes sense. Thanks again.

riverfever · « **Reply #432 on:** July 28, 2014, 02:19:30 PM »

I took the bike for a ride down the mountain at about 5000' this morning. I got down there, pulled the plugs to clean them. They looked pretty lean. I did a 5th gear run at 60mph and chopped them. This is with 90 mains. Here's how they looked (very lean):

1

2

3

4

Obviously I don't like the way these looked. I threw them back in and did a leisurely ride back up the mountain to home. I pulled them again at home and they looked like this:

1

2

3

4

I still think 1-3 look a touch on the lean side and 4 is obviously got issues that may be addressed with the vacuum sync or screw adjustments.

Just for grins I decided to throw in the 95 mains. I chopped the plugs at 9000' with a 65mph run in 5th. Here they are:

1

2

3

4

It's storming now but when the weather clears I will ride back down to 5000' clean these and then do a ride down there and then come back up here and pull them to see how they look. What do you all think?

riverfever · « **Reply #433 on:** July 28, 2014, 09:58:02 PM »

Here's a bit of a random question...How much do you think I could get for my stock 4-4 exhaust if I was looking to sell it? The lower right pipe (towards the rear) has some scratches on it and the #3 header has a small dent in it. Other than that they are in surprisingly good shape considering how old they are. I can get pics if it helps.

calj737 · « **Reply #434 on:** July 29, 2014, 02:40:42 AM »

Don't sell it for less than $1,000,000.00. Many of these members who want truly original pieces have hoards of cash stuffed in their toolboxes for a rainy day, or just lying in wait for a naive newbie to sell his original pipes.

....Or so I'm told

riverfever · « **Reply #435 on:** July 29, 2014, 05:57:11 AM »

Well damn...I probably wouldn't think much at $500.

riverfever · « **Reply #436 on:** August 03, 2014, 11:39:19 AM »

Carb sync gauges showed up yesterday and I got to play with them today. It took about 20 minutes to get them to read the same but it wasn't too difficult. After I finished, I decided to go for a ride. I took the bike down the mountain. This is the same loop I've been doing while chopping plugs (from 9000 down to about 6000). Bike seemed to be running fine. I stopped to fill up with gas and went to head back up the mountain. Almost right away I could feel a loss of power. This is the same spot I had been doing plug chops in 5th gear at 65 the other day. Today with WOT and in 5th the bike was struggling to maintain 50. I downshifted to 4th and the power dropped. I limped it up a bit further because there really is no where to stop and it's dangerous through that canyon. When I got a place where I could pull over it died immediately. I was able to get it started again and get it to a safe spot to work on it. I pulled the plugs and they all looked fouled. 1 and 4 had no spark and 4 was drenched again. I did take pics of the plugs and I'll post if I need to but here's my question. I am still running 95 main jets. Please keep in mind I'm a nob at this but...if I just vacuum synced the carbs, would that alter the air/fuel ratio and possibly make those 95 mains too rich now? That's the only thing that changed from the other day before the sync when I was able to ride 50 miles and have zero issues.

When I made it home, cylinder 4 was the only one not firing. I will check to verify that I'm getting spark from both coils. Thanks for your patience.

Tews19 · « **Reply #437 on:** August 03, 2014, 11:50:22 AM »

What coils do you have? This problem would drive me nuts. If you have access to another coil set I would swap. Also check the points and timing. Maybe a coil went bad and has an intermittent issue.

Stev-o · « **Reply #438 on:** August 03, 2014, 11:53:38 AM »

The sync would not cause a rich cond.

Tews19 · « **Reply #439 on:** August 03, 2014, 11:56:30 AM »

Stev-o is correct. I'm thinking the coils may be toast or a bad electrical connection from them to cause the intermittent no spark issue. With no spark plugs will foul and be wet in most cases.

riverfever · « **Reply #440 on:** August 03, 2014, 12:42:05 PM »

Dyna coils, wires, and Dyna ignition were all very recently installed and worked fine. I still have not checked for spark straight from the coils or done any resistance checks. Kinda fed up right now. Thanks for the ideas guys.

riverfever · « **Reply #441 on:** August 03, 2014, 01:37:37 PM »

The big thing I don't lim about this is that every cylinder was rich again. Even and across the board. Here's pics of them.

1

2

3

4

Again...I know I don't know as much as you all but hear me out...a few posts back I asked how to go about bringing the idle back down before/while syncing the carsb. I didn't hear anything so here's what I did. I loosened the sync adjusters and started the bike up. I turned each one half a turn then blipped the throttle. The idle came down. I did it again. It came down more. This was enough that I now had the ability to use the idle screw where before it did nothing. THEN I synced them all. In my mind...I lowered the slide on all 4 carbs (slightly) to get the idle down. Doesn't this right there mean that I decreased the incoming air and caused a rich condition?

riverfever · « **Reply #442 on:** August 08, 2014, 07:04:19 PM »

I don't think this is an issue with the ignition system. With new plugs, I get great spark. The carbs are just so different in terms of how they run (likely due to whatever is going on in the motors top end) that I continue to drop 4 after it fouls out. Riding it on 2 and 3 cylinders certainly isn't fun so I think I've made the decision that it needs to come off the road. I would hate to ride it even one more time and have the motor blow and do more damage. This will probably not be a quick rebuild. I start work again on Monday but I'll be able to plug along with it this winter and a lot of next summer. This may have been a blessing in disguise because with the rides I did get to do, I was able to get a better idea of how I'd like to see it turn it out in the end. The idea of taking this apart seems a bit scary though.

TwoTired · « **Reply #443 on:** August 08, 2014, 07:47:31 PM »

If you are doing road tuning by driving uphill, you should mark your throttle to determine what position dominates your ride. On the way down, you throttle is much lower than the ride up so it will show lean. The ride up has the throttle is more open, but unless you are going WOT, the main is not being the dominant fuel contributor, the slide needles are.

Don't worry about lean on the downhill, as the engine isn't making enough heat to fear damage. But, up hill the engine isn't making enough heat to self clean the spark plugs, being cooled by extra gas ingestion.

I will have to figure out what is different about plugs that show different deposits. And, I would do that be fore trying to fine tune them. Fix the aberrations, then make them all respond to the whip in the same manner.

riverfever · « **Reply #444 on:** September 01, 2014, 08:15:05 AM »

Haven't updated this much now that school is back in and time has been an issue. Two Tired...I did mark the throttle and went for a few rides. During a typical ride for me (even coming back up the mountain) I only go over half throttle once in a while. Perhaps I need to start looking at the needle position?

When I bought the bike there was a single cable throttle tube and it was incredibly difficult to operate (even after lubing the cable). Very stiff and the spring seemed very strong. I ordered a new throttle tube from Devin at Cognito Moto but I had a small problem with it during the install. I just want to put this out there publicly because I know he's trying hard to build his business. He went absolutely above and beyond in order to take care of the issue for me. I don't want to go into too many details but I'll say that he has earned my business even though my build and budget are slower/lower than a lot on here. The new 2 cable tube went on fine and it is amazing at the difference it made in how the spring feels. My hand doesn't cramp in 5 minutes now.

I also have a set of carbs (022A) that I picked up last week (thank you for your help AGAIN Cal) and will rebuild over during the next month or so as time allows. If you remember, that number 4 carb was in real poor shape on the inside and I wonder if that might be causing some of the issues in that cylinder (along with the internal motor issues)?

riverfever · « **Reply #445 on:** October 04, 2014, 04:10:07 PM »

Work hasn't allowed much time to play with the bike but I have had some really nice rides on it before it gets too cold (which won't be long now). This was from a few weeks ago up near the Cripple Creek area.

This was another ride recently. I kept seeing really old bikes out this day and couldn't figure out what was going on. I finally saw this guy broken down on the side of the road. He was Italian and he didn't speak English but I hung out while he worked on it and eventually got it going again. This is a 1931 Moto Guzzi.

A few more miles down the road and I saw these guys working on this 1937 Indian. They were from Spain. I talked to them and found out the Cannonball had come through my town and they were on their way to Golden that day. Super neat to meet these guys and hear some of their stories since Daytona Beach. They eventually got the points working again and were off.

I played around with my rear fender a bit more. It's the same length but I rotated it up further and lowered the mounting location just a bit. I like this better.

I never liked the tail light I had on the bike so I swapped to this one. It's hidden nicely up under the seat but it's still plenty bright.

Now I'm not real happy with the front of the bike so I'll be making some changes there in the next few weeks.

Stev-o · « **Reply #446 on:** October 04, 2014, 05:24:37 PM »

Great pics, bet it was cool meeting those guys on the Cannonball. How's your bike running now?

riverfever · « **Reply #447 on:** October 04, 2014, 07:00:10 PM »

Oh I forgot to mention a pretty big thing. So I am in the process of rebuilding a set of O22A carbs and, while putting them back together, I began to think about when I put the ones on the bike back together. Specifically, I started thinking about float height. I set them wrong. I had the carbs upside down on the bench when I did it and the floats were compressing the float valves completely. So I stopped the rebuild, pulled the carbs off the bike and measured them. All were set at about 26mm. Wouldn't this cause a rich condition? I reset all of them for 22 and the bike seems better. It still smokes out of #4 exhaust but that's an internal problem. So I've put the carb rebuild on hold until I can get an ultrasonic cleaner and really make the carbs look nice. I have not fouled any more plugs and it's been running on all 4. I have not done another plug chop but if the floats being set wrong threw off the mixture then all that time doing plug chops and swapping main jets was a waste.

Mcwilliams570 · « **Reply #448 on:** October 13, 2014, 06:42:09 PM »

Bike is looking good..

Matt

riverfever · « **Reply #449 on:** November 02, 2014, 06:34:34 PM »

I finally got some time to install the new headlight brackets and Tarozzi clip ons from Cognito Moto this weekend. These are the low rise bars. I got everything back together today but only road it around town for a few minutes and it's supposed to snow tomorrow so it will be a bit before I can really try them out.

Really happy with how it cleaned up the front end.

These gaiter top clamps from Joker Machine are really nice. Thanks for the tip Cal.

News:

Author Topic: 1976 CB500/550 Project "Squirrel" (Read 284965 times)