So it's not really my first bike, my dad bought me about a 1970 Yamaha 90 HT1 back in 1983 that I got to ride a couple summers on before I think he sold it to buy pot or keep me from killing myself, probably a little of both. I have had a lot of car projects over the years, most recently a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda (now sold), a couple of PWC rebuilds but have never done a bike. Anyway so now I'm 45 and must be hitting a mid life crisis but my 22 year old son-in-law is into bikes and I wanted to start a project with him so I picked up a very cool 1975 Honda CB550F. It is pretty original but a few things have gone missing, the entire airbox and the chainguard. Somebody pulled the carbs off, but they are there with 4 rebuild kits, and all the lines are gone. The previous owner is a professional auto painter and painted the tank a somewhat original but custom orange. The side covers are missing but he said he would paint match those for me when I find some.
The best part is that the serial number is in the first 600 CB550Fs ever made and it has 3200 some miles on it.
Yesterday we changed the oil and filter, plugs (had to go buy the $20 socket from the Honda dealer), put a little MMO in the plug holes. We got a new battery from aformentioned dealer, and although the carbs are off I wanted to check out some of the other parts. The headlight isn't working and it seems there might be an added switch in that circut. All the turn signals but one worked along with some annoying alarm. Horn good, brake light good, oil light came on but we couldn't get the Neutral light to come on without a bunch of wiggling around of things. The shifter was working and it was in neutral but the neutral saftey switch must be gummed up. Anyway that light finally came on and starter then turned over really well.
The carbs were partially taken apart (the little leaf springs gone missing and now on order) and now they are mostly taken apart and been boiled in lemon juice. That is basically how I sit now. going to put in what new carb parts I can waiting for those retainer springs. I also need a fuel shutoff petcock and it looks like mine is a 20mm.
Looks like a lot of good help here so thank you already for hours of reading, -Bryan
