Topic: Getting a 77 CB550K back on the road.

[gloken]

Hey, time I posted a couple pictures. I've had a CB550K sitting in the garage for a couple years. It ran when it came in, and then sat ignored and unattended until I had some free time.



This summer I began the job of cleaning her up, and getting her running again.  The carb bank came off. Not too bad on the outside, but they had some shine in them by the time I was done.


Inside,  moderate amounts of lacquer, but tons and tons of green crystals and gook. What's that about? I cleaned it out and after a couple tries and some swearing, got the carbs all back together.



So after much swearing and taking them apart and putting them back together twice more, I had carbs. I went through the electrical at the same time and swapped out the points, plugs, and coils and plug wires -- near as I can tell the coils and wires were original, and showing their age.



Now with the bike firing up, I began to learn a little bit about syncing four carbs. That part wasn't so bad once I had the tool (after another two week wait for delivery), and she's running steadier now, but still rattling. The cam chain lock nut is seized to the adjuster screw, so I'm thinking the last owner wasn't one for adjusting the cam chain. The nut and screw will spin and spin counter clockwise, but not move back clockwise, and nothing will free them from each other. Bit of a dead end there.

With some clutch adjusting and an oil change, the bike is running and shifting well enough, but seems to have a real lack of power in second -- I haven't had her out of the yard yet, so who knows after that. I've recently learned that my pipes aren't stock,  and there are no signs that the carbs were rejetted for the pipes, so maybe that's where some of my power is going?



I'm getting insurance and registration sorted out so that I can take her for longer test drives, but given that I'm north of everything and it's october, it might be a long winter sorting some of this out.

[dhall57]

No doubt not the stock pipe gloken.  What looks like  the back end of a mid 70's Buick Lesabre conv. is that yours. In Running condition?

[gloken]

No doubt not the stock pipe gloken.  What looks like  the back end of a mid 70's Buick Lesabre conv. is that yours. In Running condition?

Good eye. It's a 71, specifically. (not sure if those rims are stock, I've seen pictures of both.) 

The car has a 455 big block under the hood, and drove into the garage on its own power. I rewired the entire thing and began to patch new floor pans in, but the amount of labour and cost involved in the restoration was killing me, so I thought I'd take a break and frustrate myself with old bikes for a while instead.

[gloken]

I've been fighting to get the clutch tuned up so that I can take it for a short ride and see how it handles before the snow falls. 

This winter I'll take the clutch apart, it's been sitting for long enough that I'd imagine the plates and springs need an inspection and scour. The kick starter is slipping, so I can look into that while I have the thing apart.  Probably go over the brakes and steering bearings as well.

I'm also going to have to think about rejetting the carbs, to match the pipes. That may require more reading, and I'm not sure that the slow jets on these SD carbs are removable.

I'd like to do some more serious renovations here, but  being new to this, I want  to get this poor bike running reliably before I start anything else.

[gloken]

It was twenty below freezing out, so I pulled the pipes off to chase an exhaust leak around the left header.
I put in new o-rings to fix the problem, and tidied up the rust on the pipes while I had them off. Once everything was all shiny and clean I hit the pipes with black engine enamel -- hopefully that stays, but it can't possibly look worse than they did before I started. Tomorrow it all goes back together.

[gloken]

Apparently that engine enamel's heat rating isn't high enough.

I fired the bike up and within a minute the enamel was cooking and smoking. Afterward I brushed a (gloved) finger along the pipe where it meets the header, and the paint came off as dry dust.

Now I have a stinky, smoky. poorly painted bike, instead of a scuffed and poorly painted bike.