Topic: Patina Hyena - 550/650 674cc Hybrid Cafe Build

[DaveBarbier]

I like the leather seat! Now we need a video of it running!

Here's just a quick little walk around this afternoon before I went riding. Thanks, the seat took me about a week but made it from scratch with leather from Ebay. Also, fuel was spilled on it recently...you can see the stain in the video. I'm not too upset, it actually fits the theme, haha.

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1978 Honda CB550K

[Maurice]

Excellent, great work, enjoy the riding now! This morning was 29 here and it felt great.

[MickB]

Like it, it's got that rat bike look, cool.

[MickB]

Seat looks great, so hard you can't fart.

[DaveBarbier]

Seat looks great, so hard you can't fart.

You're telling me!

Thanks Mick.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Relocated my choke knob. Was looking around for a way to switch these PD46C carbs to a lever operated instead of cable operated choke. Didn't find anything. So I shortened the cable and installed it right under the steering neck where the coils are. Seems to work very well there and isn't intrusive. My choke knob has always been a little hard to pull. Anyone else? It's always been routed fine and the little adjustment thing on the knob is loose. Seems like the butterflies are what's giving the resistance. They function smoothly but it seems like maybe a spring coil is wound once too many. Maybe I'll check that out.

**Edit: Not the butterflies. Must just be the routing. Oh well.

Hacksawed and drilled out the cable.


Cut the cable, sheathing and inner spring coil to length. And then re-crimmped the metal cap. It's full of flux and I'm about to solder it back in.


Soldered.


It's about a foot and a half long.


Made a little bracket.


This is where it's going. What are these threaded holes for originally?


In place.





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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Another project I'm doing this winter is making the ever popular empty triangle under the seat. That means re-routing the wiring. I'm not going to re-wire the entire bike, but just extend the wires to reach comfortably up to a tray under my seat. I'm going to use 18ga for most and I think 14ga for the extra shielded red power wires. Also something more robust for the battery cables.

My question is structure related. I was planning on drilling 4 holes in the frame under my seat and tapping them to be able to bolt on my tray. Will that make the frame a lot weaker? Is that a big no-no? I don't have a welder so I can't weld little tabs in.

Thanks


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1978 Honda CB550K

[calj737]

If you're drilling holes thru the frame rails, then as long as the holes are 1/4" or less in diameter, you'll be fine. You could install threadserts and that would be both better looking, and prevent moisture from wicking into the tube over use.

Remember, your weight is large part of the adhesion of the seat, so you needn't go nuts and bolts to bolt it down. Pardon the pun 

[DaveBarbier]

What are threadserts? Just a sleeve that I press into the frame that has threads inside? These holes will probably be something like M6 1.00 pitch.

Oh, and my seat is attached just by a wingnut in the back with two locator dowels up front. You're, right, no need to go nuts, haha. I'm asking for the electronics tray.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[calj737]

Yup, exactly that (Threadserts).

[DaveBarbier]

Great, thanks.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Yup, exactly that (Threadserts).

Thanks for the recommendation. Threadserts are awesome.






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1978 Honda CB550K

[calj737]

Nice and discreet too. Now you can use a button head socket screw so you can carry the Allen key in your tool kit should it need to come off roadside.

[DaveBarbier]

Nice and discreet too. Now you can use a button head socket screw so you can carry the Allen key in your tool kit should it need to come off roadside.

Totally. My plan exactly. Now it's just a matter of running the wires up there and maybe eliminating the block connectors to save space. Maybe I'll do bullet connectors, undecided if that'll actually shrink the overall size of the harness.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Just a little update. After I made the electronic box I'm starting on wiring. It looks like I won't actually need to lengthen the wires at all, which is good because it'll cut down on soldering and rigid connections. I bought some flexible marine 4awg wire for the battery and starter but when I got it it just seems too big. So instead I ordered 6awg. Hopefully that'll be a little more flexible. Seems like really good quality stuff though; got it from Ebay.







Was going to start soldering yesterday but saw and felt that I needed a new tip on my old Weller soldering iron, so I just got a new iron instead. 40W instead of 25W. Also went on to cycleterminal.com and got bullet connectors and heat shrink. So far this site seems really reasonable and it was a pleasure to order from. I saw people mentioning vintageconnections.com but at the time they didn't have the 3 way 3.5mm connectors I wanted.

Anyone have any recommendations on wiring? Tips for organization or anything? What's going in this box is my battery, starter solenoid, blinker and ignition relays, 4 way fuse block, and the little "silicon" thing that I have no idea what it is or does. How should I mount that stuff in there? I was planning on welding little tabs to hold the rubber mounts for the starter solenoid and silicon. (By the way, got a little MIG welder. Lincoln Handy MIG for like $320.) As for the battery, relays and fuse block I was going to weld on nuts to the floor of the pan and just bolt them down. With rubber on the battery for vibration reduction. Any other methods? I don't want any screws or bolts sticking out the bottom of the pan.

Oh, and the new reg/rec is being mounted under the battery outside the pan so it's exposed completely to air.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Ok, another update.

Check out my welded box! Terrible welds but for my first time I'm psyched. Nothing in there is structural so it's strong enough.



Currently wiring up the box. While I was looking at the mess of wires it got a little overwhelming but I just disregarded that and worked directly from the wiring diagram. Much much easier for me.



All connections are crimped and soldered.





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1978 Honda CB550K

[MickB]

Dave it looks great, a bit of paint will hide your welds, and it goes under the seat, no one will see it.

[DaveBarbier]

Dave it looks great, a bit of paint will hide your welds, and it goes under the seat, no one will see it.

Thanks Mick. Yeah before I paint it I plan on doing a bit of touch up work with an angle grinder. Just a little to soften some of the crazy slug looking welds, haha. Even if it sucks I'm proud. Welds only a mother could love I guess.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[Tews19]

Put some kind of insulator between the electrical pan and the electronics. You don't want to fry anything.

[DaveBarbier]

Put some kind of insulator between the electrical pan and the electronics. You don't want to fry anything.

That's exactly my plan. After painting I'm going to glue in a thin rubber mat on the bottom and sides. In hindsight it may have been nice to make a plastic tray instead but not sure if that would've worked.

But now I have a question...in my haste I cut off my new regulator/rectifier's plastic connection and just thought of something. There are three yellow wires that go to the alternator. Does it matter which yellow wires go to which yellow wires? I'm thinking yes, but also thinking no. Yes because there are obviously separate wires and no because they would have colored them differently.

I'm not talking about the yellow points wire. That solely goes to a coil.

I'm going to look around for what I can find.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Ok, while doing some research it seems the yellow wires are interchangeable.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[calj737]

That is 100% correct

[DaveBarbier]

That is 100% correct

Good to hear. I'd hate to have to try and figure it out based on how the snipped ends in the connecter look compared to the reg/rec.


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1978 Honda CB550K

[DaveBarbier]

Question on extending starter wire. I've looked at a number of posts and it seems the best solution is to put terminal ends on both sides and then bolt them together. Is there really no other option? Something a little more graceful? Would it be possible to notch out the wires like the picture below, solder and then crimp and heat shrink?



I'd love to just replace the entire wire right down to the starter but I hear that they're hard wired in and I haven't seen a post where someone successfully did that. Anyone familiar with the '78 550K starter? I'm not with the bike and can't see how that wire is attached. 


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1978 Honda CB550K

[calj737]

I would trim some wire, tin the exposed wire, use a but splice connector, crimp and cover with heat shrink. (Obviously heat shrink goes on before splice connector).