Topic: things to look out for on a 74 cb550?

[griffin]

hey all, on friday i'm going to check out a 550 and i was wondering if you guys had any tips? the owner says it runs and was just inspected this month but says it needs "a new ignition and it has a charging problem." first what do you think he means by "ignition" points, distributor, starter, wires? second is there likely an easy fix to the charging problem? if it just means i'll have to kick start it every time i don't mind that at all. and its only $450.
i'm a vespa guy now but i'd like something a bit faster and give it a cafe racer style as a winter project. i'm not a good mechanic but i'm trying to learn
thanks and heres a pic from the ad.  i know those bars are UGLY and would need to go quickly

[griffin]

he says he put 1000 miles on it this summer but he doesn't know the overall mileage as it doesn't have the original odo
do you think it will be tough to ride with such big bars?

[yooperlou]

Hello Griffin, Just got done with a full restore on a 74 myself.  Some of the issues with the charging system I also had  and as Wykydtron mentioned it was a PITA to diagnose but easy to fix.  Points/condensers are very reasonable but if that doesn't fix things you may have to replace coils, regulator etc.  That is what I had to do and ebay became my friend along with several other parts companies mentioned often in this forum.  Ask the questions that Wyky mentioned, good advice.  I had to replace almost everything on his list and it did end up being a little more than I wanted money wise but in the end it turned out to be a great bike.