Topic: 1975 CB550 Winter 2013 Build

[Chaser60]

Thanks for kind words on the bike.   I am so ready to ride....However, as this picture shows, I am now into a carb cleaning fiesta !   Great help from the forum members.   Pulled #1 apart and sure enough, the walls of the slider and the tube were varnishy...(is that a word) and so I ordered gasket only set of kits and have pulled 3 out of 4 carbs apart.  I am holding the 4th hostage so I have a guide to get one back together.   They are all cleaned and ready for reassembly.  Got a little screwed by PARTZILLA and US postal, so am stuck doing little side projects waiting for my gaskets to arrive from Georgia to Virginia via Florida...GO figure.



This forum has many carb threads and I also found an article with great pictures at Motorcycle Classics Project Café: Motorcycle Classics BikeBandit.com  Honda CB500.   Very useful for a carb newb.

On quick question.   For the main jet, I can not find any numbers marked on them anywhere.  How do I know what it is?

[Chaser60]

like I said, side projects.   Here are the little muffler brackets I fab'd from a bit of flat steel.   These come off the rear pass pegs and follow same angle down to the Cone Twins.   







Used same steel and the rubber centerstand stop from original pipes and fab'd up a centerstand stop.  Didnt get a picture of that one, but it works pretty slick.

[onetruepunk87]

Partzilla is probably one of the cheapest part sites but also the slowest, I waited 2 and a half weeks on an order from them.

If memory serves me the jet size on mine were written on the top ridge of the jet on the side, it was very faint and had a little keihin K symbol next to it.

[Chaser60]

The side projects continue.  Gaskets arrived.  Got 3 carbs back together.   The sticking is all solved so I am glad I took them all apart to clean them...Then a small disaster.  Was putting #4 together and as I hand tightened the low speed jet, it broke off in the carb body...Was able to extract it since I had not really tightened it in much.   Harisuluv was James on the spot and shipped me off a jet.   Sadly USPS was my new gremlin and according to the tracker, my little jet has been hanging out in phoenix for days.    So while still waiting on a new jet for the #4 carb, I am still doing side projects.   Here is the center stand stop.   

[Chaser60]

When I bought the bike, it had some gel coated after market side covers.   Straight black and kinda nasty.    I had some ideas to fab my own, then I found these at DIME CITY.



The fit is not great overall, lots of trimming and since I am still using the seat hardware, had to trim off a corner too.   They are ABS plastic and I wet sanded them here which is why they look so bad... .

I bought these because I liked how they filled the side frame triangles.   



I did not want them painted so while watching a show on velocity network, got the idea for 3m film wrap.     1080 film is pretty easy to work with.   lots on the interweb and 3m PDF files.   I am no expert, and I can see flaws in what I did, but overall I am pretty pleased with this.

I bought the black carbon fiber version, but there are dozens for you to choose.    Overall, I like this concept.   

[Chaser60]

One thing about these side covers if you are not moving your electrical panel.  The left side will not fit very well.    The top 2 connectors on the left of the panel stick out too far.   The grey box above the 3 fuses sticks out even further and then there are the fuses.   So I moved the fuse and mounted them to the inner fender



Plenty of clearance.   A little worried about vibration, so may remount with rubber washers

Then fab'ed a 90 degree bracket to move the largest box in board



Then moved the top two connectors in side and flat side.  Will attach those with wire ties, once have the carbs back in and can check for interference with the air filter box.

I think all these little changes seem ok, but if anyone has suggestions or concerns, please let me know.

Good news.  Just checked USPS and my jet has at least made it to Virginia.  I am anxious to turn this thing on and get on and go.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Any particular reason to stick with the old tube fuses?  You could swap in an updated blade-style fuse block and carry some spares (just in case).  One of the better mods for less than $10.

[Chaser60]

CB750 CRF:  I should do that .   I have seen the Hondaman plug in fuse replacement module.   Like everything he does, awesome work and design.   I recall it to be $50 or so and I am just out of money for now on this build.  I have overspent nearly everywhere.   I had looked at the usual suspects of auto parts stores, but here in my part of VA, they only seem to carry a common ground 6 or 8 fuse box and I am already having space issues with these new and flat side covers.    If you could let me know where you found a box for $10, I will probably get that done while waiting for the carb jet.   

Any experience with the mini blade fuses?   They might solve my space issue if I can source a small 3 to 6 fuse block.

[Chaser60]

Thanks Calj,

I looked at those single inline fuses.  Didn't love the 3 individuals, but I may end up going there.   Another side project for another day.   I don't think we are ever "done' with these bikes.  That is the fun of it isn't it...

As for the film, 3m gives massive how to's on it.   It is relatively cheap to buy the film.  As you found out, professional install is not cheap.  I had basically 12 inches square for each cover and about $15 in film, so not a budget buster.  What is cool about film is that I definitely don't know how to paint to make it look like carbon fiber.  Time will tell on the adhesion.   A tank would look insane, but that would definitely need professional install.  With heat, you can easily over stretch or melt this film.   I am also not sure how well this film would handle gas spills in a tank application, but carbon fiber tank would rock the right build.   Sort of all high tech fighter jet stuff.   Hmmm could be concept for my next build ...If I ever finish this one !!!!

I did look at frankenstuff's side covers.   Excellent looking products for sure.  I just was going for a bit more of a departure from stock 550 or 550F styling.   

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Thanks Calj,

I looked at those single inline fuses.  Didn't love the 3 individuals, but I may end up going there.   Another side project for another day.   I don't think we are ever "done' with these bikes.  That is the fun of it isn't it...

As for the film, 3m gives massive how to's on it.   It is relatively cheap to buy the film.  As you found out, professional install is not cheap.  I had basically 12 inches square for each cover and about $15 in film, so not a budget buster.  What is cool about film is that I definitely don't know how to paint to make it look like carbon fiber.  Time will tell on the adhesion.   A tank would look insane, but that would definitely need professional install.  With heat, you can easily over stretch or melt this film.   I am also not sure how well this film would handle gas spills in a tank application, but carbon fiber tank would rock the right build.   Sort of all high tech fighter jet stuff.   Hmmm could be concept for my next build ...If I ever finish this one !!!!

I did look at frankenstuff's side covers.   Excellent looking products for sure.  I just was going for a bit more of a departure from stock 550 or 550F styling.

On my 550, I have a 6 channel like this one, and I carry extra fuses in the unused channels.
http://www.amazon.com/HELLA-H84960091-6-Way-Lateral-Single/dp/B000VU9D1G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1402929223&sr=8-2&keywords=Fuse+block

[Chaser60]

My #38 Jet arrived and so yesterday, I finished up carb #4 reassembly.  Thanks James !   Did a bench sync.  All carbs now working beautifully.   (at least they feel that way)  So time to get them installed and wrap this up.



Moved right on to installing them back on the bike.   For both the carb rebuild and install techniques, the carb faq and several other threads were very helpful.

[Chaser60]

Finished up rest the build yesterday.   Overall I am pleased with the way this came out.   



It started on 3rd kick so that was good too.   Need to check timing, plugs and such but it seems to pull hard through all gears.  Cant shake the uneasy feeling that I forgot to do something or did it incorrect, so will go slow with riding until I have gained confidence in my work.    Will post up some other pics and thanks at a later date. 

[Stev-o]

Looks good!  I get that same feeling after a big repair.

Do a "nut and bolt" - check all hardware for proper torque specs.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Great looking bike chaser. Finished with plenty of time to ride it all summer and fall.

[Chaser60]

Thanks all !  Just came back from a meeting and my nose tells me this project isnt quite done yet.   (but then they never are....)

Strong gas smell in the garage.   I am using stock airbox and sure thought I set the float heights properly.   However, in the 2 minutes I had to look at the bike, I see the following.

the ends of all four drain hoses are slightly damp with gas and there are signs of those drips on the floor under all 4.   In addition, the plenum drain hose is also a wet at the end and drips too.   I cant work on this today, but will have time to look in  the bottom of the airbox to see if there is gas in there too.

My first thoughts are float height not  right, or a cracked brass drain tube.  The bike only leaked fuel from the #1 carb once before, which i took as a stuck float, so it seems unlikely that all four of the brass tubes are cracked.  I am leaning towards I made a consistent error in setting the float height, however the gas also dripping from the plenum drain is a bit of a worry.   

I am sure I will have questions once I further diagnose.   I am not thrilled about taking these carbs off for 3rd time.  So if anyone has any ideas, I am all ready to listen and learn.

Thanks

[Chaser60]

Regardless of the above issue...The ride last night was glorious !  It is hard to describe the feeling when the engine came to life !

[Stev-o]

Did you leave the petcock on?  If the motor is off, petcock should be off.

[goldarrow]

Did you leave the petcock on?  If the motor is off, petcock should be off.

Yup.  Key off, petcock off. Key on, petcock on.  Make the habit.

[Chaser60]

alrighty fella's I may be having issues with the petcock, but leaving it on isn't one of them.  I did have to rebuild it.  This year of 550 and maybe part of the 76 had this bastard child petcock.   No parts available so I had to find o'ring that "felt" right.  I may have got it wrong and suspect it is not really sealing at the shut off.   Here is what I did to try to trouble shoot that.

Key on, open petcock, start bike.  Let run a little.  Close petcock, leave bike running but didnt run it out of gas.  Just ran for maybe 2 minutes.  Idea being lower the fuel in the bowls then shut off bike and leave petcock closed.   left bike to sit over night.   when I called it a day, there was no smell in garage and no dripping gas.    When I woke today, back to familiar gas smell and small amount of gas from the 4 overflow tubes that i caught in a drip pan.  By small I mean less than 1/2 oz.

So I am thinking part of this problem may be petcock does not provide full fuel shut off when closed.   Will pull the fuel lines off the petcock and see what drips directly out when the valve is shut.

Does anyone have any ideas what would cause fuel to get into the plenum and drip from that drain hose also.?   I don't see how a faulty petcock or bad stop valves or wrong float heights would lead to that issue.

[Stev-o]

I've had no luck rebuilding petcocks, if rebuild kit is not available, replace it. 

Your float vales could be sticking causing fuel in your air box?

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=50697.0

[Chaser60]

thanks Stev-O, Once I verify petcock leaks, I think you are right, time to replace.  I recall this year has an odd thread size on the tank so finding a replacement is going to be PITA.   I tried 5 orings and doubt I am going to find the 6th as perfect.   

thanks for link on the float levels.   I had all four carbs apart.   Followed carb faq, and several other threads on cleaning and rebuild.  All brass in good shape, so I cleaned and reused.  Also made sure I kept all parts from carb 1 with carb 1 etc.   They were not actually in bad shape as compared to other pics I have seen on this forum.   The floats and stop valves were all free and easy moving.  I am questioning if I may have set all four levels precisely and consistently but wrong...Will document how I did that to see if maybe I did that wrong, and there is also chance that I set my "gage" wrong.   Damn metric to inch conversions...

will finish trouble shooting petcock late today, and then have to be away for a week.  I cant have a puddle of gas in the garage when I return so have to solve that issue urgently.   I wont be able to work other problems until July now ... damn.

[Stev-o]

Take the tank off your bike if your leaving town, store it safely outside.  Been there, I always hear it from the wife if she smells gas.


Is this the correct petcock?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-1975-1976-CB550F-CB550K-Replacement-Gas-Fuel-Tank-Petcock-16950-374-671-/161329659145?hash=item258fff3d09&vxp=mtr

[Chaser60]

Yup...same issue in my house...And while it kills us to say it...in this case they are right...gas puddles are generally a bad thing and they should kick our ass if we are not dealing with them with urgency.

Sadly no that is not the correct petcock.   Mine has 2 outlets coming straight out the bottom.   Like I said, it was only used a one or maybe 2 years max.   And I think the thread size on tank is also different.  Have to find my notes on that.

Thanks for your help Stev-o

[Chaser60]

that is exactly the plan.   Had not thought about trying certain positions to see if it closes ... great suggestion...will totally mess with my OCD, to have that as solution, but right now I want this puppy done enough to be safely ride - able.   lots of time for perfection of little side projects later.

Greatly appreciate your help and interest in getting this queen off the trailer, out of the garage, off the workbench and out on the road where she belongs !

I must say, despite the set back on fuel from the 4 overflows, fuel from the plenum drain (related?), the noisy valve train, a small oil leak from the oil pan somewhere as yet found and what seems like a very hot running condition...Despite all those, when I look at this thing in the garage, I am really pleased with the creation.   Tons of help along the way from folks like you guys made it possible.  I have loved doing this project.   It has kept me sane at a time that I needed something fun to focus on.    When i get these things solved, this will be a joy to ride.

Cheers gents

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

that is exactly the plan.   Had not thought about trying certain positions to see if it closes ... great suggestion...will totally mess with my OCD, to have that as solution, but right now I want this puppy done enough to be safely ride - able.   lots of time for perfection of little side projects later.

Greatly appreciate your help and interest in getting this queen off the trailer, out of the garage, off the workbench and out on the road where she belongs !

I must say, despite the set back on fuel from the 4 overflows, fuel from the plenum drain (related?), the noisy valve train, a small oil leak from the oil pan somewhere as yet found and what seems like a very hot running condition...Despite all those, when I look at this thing in the garage, I am really pleased with the creation.   Tons of help along the way from folks like you guys made it possible.  I have loved doing this project.   It has kept me sane at a time that I needed something fun to focus on.    When i get these things solved, this will be a joy to ride.

Cheers gents

Pricey, but new. I replaced my cruddy old one and left my petcock problems behind.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231259641158?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649