Topic: Maduncle's got himself a 500/4

[maduncle]

Success!







That took me 90 minutes, I did get past stage one a couple of times only to backtrack.

What I learnt:

1/. Make sure all your inner spokes for both sides are in the hub before doing any outer spokes.

2/. Follow the direction of the holes in the rim.

3/. Don't worry if one set appears too long, they all pull up when you tighten the nipples.

The second wheel only took me 30 minutes.



They are now with a local mechanic for truing (I am not up to doing that myself yet).

[Damage Inc]

Well done, looking good.

[maduncle]

Got the custom luggage rack, rear fender, tail light mount, tail light and plate holder and rear indicators all mounted up tonight.



I was a bit out with my measurements for the luggage rack, but nothing a bit of good old Aussie 'make do' ingenuity and a scrap of steel couldn't fix! That's how we built this country.



For those who are a bit on the dubious side of my 'ratting of this bike - remember, this is 'round one get it on the road' build and 'round two make it pretty' will involve a long and careful rebuild in 2015 or 2016.

[dagersh]

The Tail Light looks great.  Nice work , Bro!

Gersh

[maduncle]

Dear all,

Do I actually have to remove the carbs to put the stock air box back on the bike?

I had a look today and I can't see any way of doing this without having to remove the carburettors.

Darn...

[Stev-o]

I've done it on my 750....

[wowbagger]

Yup, on the 500/550s the carb's have to some out to get the airbox in. Actually, your other option is to go the other way and pull the rear wheel, inner fender and battery box but it's easier to just pull the carbs.

[maduncle]

Yup, on the 500/550s the carb's have to some out to get the airbox in. Actually, your other option is to go the other way and pull the rear wheel, inner fender and battery box but it's easier to just pull the carbs.

Ah - well, given I have the rear wheel and inner fender off at the moment, might as well try that way first.

Thanks.

[Bootsey]

I'm sure SohRon has a good post on airbox installation somewhere, I'll see if I can find it....

[Bootsey]

Might help ya out

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=86697.100

[maduncle]

Might help ya out

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=86697.100

Oh I like this! Fantastic resource - thanks.

I shall be taking the laptop to the workshop this Saturday to open this thread and guide me through air box installation.

[maduncle]

Got fresh rubber fitted today - so my wheels are ready to put back on the bike on Saturday.



The black paint held up better than expected, one or two scratches that I will touch up with some satin black hobby paint.

[maduncle]

Meanwhile - DIY seat upholstery time.



What we have here (left to right) is the cut down skateboard seat pan, a lower layer piece of 20mm thick high density closed cell foam cut to size, an upper layer piece of 20mm thick low density open cell foam cut to size, all resting on a sheet of 5mm thick 'smoothing foam' which will go over the top to hold it all in place. Final finish will be a hand stitched 'pleather' cover made from an old jacket I have just cut up into usable panels.

This great site:

http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/index.php

Told me everything I needed to know.

[maduncle]

Todays progress -



Headlamp mounted, new speedo fitted and connected, blinkers fitted, idiots lights fitted above speedo, mounting bracket adjusted to lower headlamp.



Headers fitted, I had to shorten the pipe wrap at the top to get the collars back far enough to then slide on to the bolts.





Wheels on, but - I gave them a spin and they are nowhere near true, despite me taking them to someone to true them. Can someone else fitting tyres put a spoked wheel out of true in the process? Anyway - they come off Tuesday and go back for truing a second time.

And also - I used the excellent guide posted here for me earlier to get my air box in (worked a treat), I made up a tacho blanking plug (no looking at revs on this bike), and managed to get the rusted in bleeder out of the front calliper.

Now I just need to get the firmly wedged in brake pad out of the calliper -  i tried compressed air but no luck.

Ah well - back in the workshop for a day on the tools again next Tuesday.

[wowbagger]

Mounting a tire shouldn't affect a trued wheel. Try a grease gun on your caliper. It should screw on a couple of threads and the grease will pump the pad and piston out no problem.


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[Bootsey]

Coming along quick! The headlight/speedo looks great.
+1 on the grease gun for the caliper. Mine had the piston seized in there pretty well. Heated the whole caliper first, blocked of the bleeder thread with a bolt, and threaded the grease gun directly into the caliper body, and out it came.

[strynboen]

i have veldet this tool for true-ing hveels..just push that stick in and up..and move on  adjusting  until the stick toutch all over..then all is straight..renember to sentere it in mittel too...

[wowbagger]

I use a dial gauge to true wheels. I hope for everything to be at zero but honestly you won't feel anything within 10 thousandths out.


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[maduncle]

Well - the very experienced, well respected and friend of other Australian SOHCfour forum members mechanic (who tuned my CB450 to perfection) who did supposedly true these wheels is most apologetic and ready to take them back and true them again. Hopefully if I drop them off to him Monday morning I get them back Tuesday afternoon.

Then all I need to do is get a tail pipe made up for the exhaust, do the wiring (urgh) get the front brake calliper working and the bike is done.

Then - I can get back on to the CB450 Bob Hansen race replica project.

[maduncle]

So I got the seat all finished up last night. The thin blue smoothing foam is very stretchy and pulled over the seat base foam to give me a good smooth seat to then upholster.



Then I got stuck into cutting up the old pleather jacket panels to make the cover. No real pattern or plan - I just adopted a 'suck it and see' approach to the whole thing.



Top, front and two side panels on ..



All done. All hand cut and hand stitched. It came out better than I hoped, I do like the chocolate brown slightly worn material, and I have enough for a cafe seat later on.

it does look a little small on the bike, but for now it suits the whole 'make do' theme of the bike in its first incarnation.

[maduncle]

Today was my last day before Christmas in the workshop tinkering on the CB500/4.

Both wheels back on after some fine tuning of the trueing.

Front brake lines fitted, ready for the calliper.

Chain guard fitted.

Rear end, blinkers and brake/tail light wired up.

Fresh oil added - no leaks.

Seat bolted on.







That is basically how it has turned out (please excuse the exposed wiring). I am pretty happy with the overall 'scrubbed back' look for the first iteration of this build. It should serve me around town for a while.

Final steps are -

Complete the wiring.

Fit the front calliper.

Replace some old fuel line.

Build and fit a tailpipe/muffler.

Then - we ride.

[maduncle]

Last day working on the bike for 2014. I got the front brake calliper almost working, it is running fluid from the bleeder but there is not a lot of pressure there, not sure what to look for - no leaks anywhere.

And I need to now carefully wire up my new LED idiot lights for high beam, neutral and indicators as they are polarity sensitive and if I get it wrong they won't ever work. So I need to spend sometime with the multi meter and circuit diagrams, might get some sacrificial LED's...

Happy New Year all.

[wowbagger]

Low pressure is probably air in the line. I'd start at the top an bleed the MC and each banjo bolt down to the caliper. I've also strapped the brake lever in and left it overnight to help air work its way up.


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[Riceman]

If you don't have one already,these cheepo one bleeders
do the job.I use the on all my car projects...
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAMQjxw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autozone.com%2Ftest-scan-and-specialty-tools%2Fbrake-bleeder%2Foem-one-man-brake-bleeder-kit%2F46839_0_0%2F&ei=ER2iVMbQD4LeoASY6oLgCQ&bvm=bv.82001339,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNFMSoeHkKoHvTHU406YfcfS-Tydtg&ust=1419996748526736

whoah look at the size of that http thing

[maduncle]

Low pressure is probably air in the line. I'd start at the top an bleed the MC and each banjo bolt down to the caliper. I've also strapped the brake lever in and left it overnight to help air work its way up.


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Did just that wowbagger, bled from the top down and got a lot more pressure up.

Then I went on to my electrics - and promptly blew the main fuse the moment I turned the key. So I took a break from electrics for the day and fitted my mirrors (modified bar end mirrors $19 each local, now mounted on stock mirror mounting points), and wire brushed the engine to clean all that pale grey corrosion off. Cleaned the gear change lever, kick start lever and brake lever, painted the foot rest brackets and centre stand black.





Don't you just love all those fins? The PO before the PO fitted finned side covers and finned tappet covers. All to finny for me - I hope to replace all these finned extras with stock items one day.

Back onto the electrics tomorrow - I think I know where the short is...