Topic: 1975 CB550F - Giving her some love

[fuzzystyle]

Hey all, long time lurker first time poster. My dad bought me 1975 CB550K as a birthday gift as my first motorcycle. I rode it for a year and she was a beast, despite having to charge the battery every other week. One day she decided to quit a few months after the passing of my father, would run okay for a while but anytime the headlight was turned on would give up. With a sigh and a shrug I started trying to get it working again, only to realize I was opening pandoras box.

This was her last time she was roadworthy, nearly a year ago.
Now for the what I've been doing in the meantime.
I decided to learn this bike inside and out with the hopes of building an awesome bike to survive the zombie apocalypse should it ever hit. So I started with a complete rewire, as previous owner had warned of electrical problems and rain had corroded a good deal of the connectors. So after reading and reading these forums I decided to get a electronic reg/rec and build a minimal wiring harness. After alot of headache (obvious tip: do not try to reuse old connectors) the wiring has been sorted... but considering it was partially taken apart.. might as well go for a well rounded tune up and customization. Now the fun starts.


Rusty exhaust, They worked okay, despite a hole in the muffler so didnt sound the best, plus loss of backpressure.

Months of hunting around for a replacement exhaust, I totally lucked out and found some vintage NOS MCM pipes, 29 years old on ebay! Brand new, sat in a warehouse. Only 400 bucks too, if I hadn't found them I wouldve sprung for motad


This exhaust collector makes me giddy.
While I had the exhaust off I decided to change the oil filter (all previous attempts had been shutdown due to seized/stripped bolt)

Here is the old bolt with the new bigger replacement. I was moments away from taking a cutting disc to it after trying heat/cold/pb blasting/alligator vise/hammering sockets. This moment was worth all the pain. Cutting a slot thru it and using a punch/hammer it came out nicely. (Thanks to threads here for that)

New oil filter and a nice cleaning of those hard to reach places!

Here she is jacked up without her forks, decided to give it a different look as far as headlightmounts/turnsignals/speedo/tacho. (Take my money, DCC!!)
I ended up replacing front fork seals and replaced springs with progressives (I didn't realize until I removed springs that I couldve gotten away without replacing springs)
At this point I have chrome fever something fierce. Found some NOS shiny shocks

MCM Exhaust and Assault Shocks installed.


Turn signals and lucas tail light!!
and yes, my garage was hit by a tornado.
This little one offered to help, but her cohorts had already clawed the seat up before I got garage, so I just let her watch.


Here she is before I rebuilt my master cylinder, replaced brake lines with stainless steel, and cleaned out my piston seal.
As soon as I get off work on friday I am going to hook everything up, give the carbs a sync, adjust the timingand hopefully hit the road! Will update with pictures soon! Thanks for reading.

[Stev-o]

Nice update to the bike, you'll be happy you installed new springs in the front [I recently did mine too].
The motor looks great!  Did you check play in the swing arm? Might be time to change out those bushings if you have slop.

[fuzzystyle]

I did not check that, but will certainly investigate it now that you mention it! I did notice that the assault rear shocks are way stronger then the old ones. They came with rubber fittings but I noticed the bottom bushings were super hard and too difficult to remove without breaking them. I will place orders for them asap. Thank you for the tip!

Edit: Looks like I confused the swingarm bushings with something else... lower shock mount bushings?
In any case considering I will be doing the swingarm bushings and that requires removal of it. I will probably use wire brush and remove the rust and paint from the swingarm, give the swingarm the stainless steel look.
On a related note while I do that.. anyone have opinion on removing rust from spokes. I was thinking of getting new spokes but I figure balancing the wheel would be a whole project. I might just take some steel wool to them and elbow grease

[goldarrow]

May be a little late to mentioned, or you might have addressed it already, but did you check the steering bearings?

[fuzzystyle]

I was contemplating getting new steering bearings while I did the forks but I hadn't noticed any problems with steering so I didn't replace them. Wondering what I should look for to see if they need replacing.
Given the age of the bike, I am sure I should probably replace more parts then I have. Seems like everything I take apart I find 2-3 things needing replacing, which is good better faster stronger

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Those ball bearings in the steering head are likely toast. You should replace them with roller bearings.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Fuzzy,

What part of the Golden State are you located?

Don

[fuzzystyle]

I am located in Los Angeles, West Hollywood to be exact.
I work full time fixing computers, so between that and shipping time for parts that has slowed me down.


Anyone know if I can wire my starter button ground directly to the neutral switch without a diode after neutral light? I have a LED+ resistor connected to it now but don't want to fry my harness or the LED

[fuzzystyle]

So today I spent some time working on the bike and pretty close to getting on the road. I hit a few snags but jumped some hurdles too. Got the wiring connectors all covered dielectric grease and plugged in. I ended up trying to connector my starter button ground straight to my neutral switch as a method of idiot-proofing.. I was worried it would mess things up, specifically popping my single LED + resistor neutral light, but both LED and starter button work nice.

So the only the problems I hit today are:
I can't figure out for the life of me how to adjust the clutch to disengage fully. I think I messed with the clutch arm adjuster and clutch cable adjusters and now it is all kinds of wrong so that's what I will be studying til tomorrow when I try again.

Exhaust had some clear liquid coming out of it, I tasted it thinking it was gasoline but it did not taste like gas more like water. Which might not be TOO surprising because I barely even got the engine hot today.
I should mention I connected the crankcase breather tube as it was originally intended, which PO had disconnected. Will disconnect it tomorrow and see if the two things are related.


She is a messy beast and needs a good cleaning but I love her.
I should mention the bike didn't come with sidepanels so until I figure out if I will paint the whole thing or not, black aftermarkets with some chrome trim and freshly enameled 550 Four logos. Also key relocation






Sorry pics look so terrible, phone flash isnt that great and I forgot to wipe fingerprints off everywhere. When I get clutch handled going to get some good nature shots.

[goldarrow]

Not trying to spoil your day or anything and seems like a nice progress so far, but you have F bike, not K   

[fuzzystyle]

Fixed, thanks. I am curious how you could tell?

[goldarrow]

I sold my F and I regret it

[fuzzystyle]

That is nice bike, I can see why you'd miss it. I assume that is a different year than mine based on alternator cover and side panel shapes, my guess would be 73-74?

[goldarrow]

Side covers for all 550F are same. That blue is 77

[fuzzystyle]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I just learned that I bought the K aftermarket side covers mistakenly, thankfully they still fit.

[flatlander]

Exhaust had some clear liquid coming out of it, I tasted it thinking it was gasoline but it did not taste like gas more like water. Which might not be TOO surprising because I barely even got the engine hot today.
I should mention I connected the crankcase breather tube as it was originally intended, which PO had disconnected. Will disconnect it tomorrow and see if the two things are related.

that's from condensation. it's normal before everything gets hot enough to burn it off.

[Stev-o]

I sold my F and I regret it

I sold my F and regret it too!  ('76)

[flatlander]

i keep my F so i won't have to regret anything

[Stev-o]

i keep my F so i won't have to regret anything

I have another but miss the Sapphire Blue paint with the brown seat and stock muffler...

[fuzzystyle]

Love that tank and exhaust Stev-o

[Stev-o]

Love that tank and exhaust Stev-o

I love the header, that is main reason I bought a 550F as my first SOHC.

[fuzzystyle]

Today was the best day in a long time. After realizing I was trying to adjust the play in clutch lever instead of the clutch itself (ha, what an idiot) I had it on the streets and riding like a champ.




All I can say is after pounding some cement with my revitalized CB550F (not K! lol) I have so much more respect for those who ride and fix these bikes. What a extraordinary legacy these beasts have left.

Now am going to look at the wheels, spoke rust removal, replacing wheel bearings, swingarm bushings, chain and sprockets. It also seems like the first gear clutch plate is worn down. In addition to all that I haven't been able to sync the carbs because the carb sync screws are well stripped, so will buy a big screwdriver in hopes of getting them out but if not it may get nasty

[fuzzystyle]

Oh I would love to put stainless steel spokes on it, I am just worried I respoke it and then the wheel would be all off balance and I have no idea how to balance a wheel. I would like to do that cause then could put some new tires on and clean it all up real nice.

[fuzzystyle]

Completely agree with that, calj737. Safety is utmost priority. Want to thank you for letting me know about that JIS bit type too, I have seen them before but knowing what they are called is a big help.

I've been thinking about what to do with the wheels for a while now and haven't decided yet if I want them respoked or to replace them with forged rims and keep old ones as backups. I do like the look of the 750 rims

I feel they would hold a polish nice.
Going to start the process of finding parts and looking into rim fitments. If i end up deciding to respoke I will probably just build a new set, cause current rim chrome has some rust and pitting.

[goldarrow]

Later 650 and 750 bikes come with comstar wheels.  Read up to see which one require less mods to fit earlier bikes