Author Topic: My 1977 CB550F project (Read 20366 times)

RAFster122s · « **Reply #75 on:** March 20, 2017, 12:53:02 PM »

Seen at least one bike where the plate was tucked way back under the tail... Wonder if it would give any ability to defeat traffic cameras, not that I advocate breaking the law or doing stuff that is stupid (which might be inferred by getting snapped by a traffic camera). I am seriously not a fan of them, as I don't like some of their shortcomings and the revenue purposes that the companies who push them are getting (the bulk of the fine). Because of the money breakout, I think it is a corrupt practice that should be stopped in many areas, they do have their purpose but I think they are abused by many areas in their use and definitely in their operation.
When they can tweak settings of less than a second in timing to increase ticket yield by more than 20% I feel that is wrong. It should be more on the benefit of the doubt rather than lowering the margin to increase yield.

Sorry, to segue off subject...a rant.

Bike is looking great and I like the tail-light. Look forward to more.

David

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #76 on:** March 30, 2017, 06:18:49 PM »

I am not a fan of red light camera's either.

Thanks, I think the taillight is nice also, would be perfect if it had a little bow to it to match the curve of the seat hoop.

It's been a slow process due to time & money, but we are getting there.
It's a nice Father & Son project

We have the seat hoop, seat and exhaust roughed in.
We had to remove the seat hoop and shorten it, the seat we ordered was not quite as long or wide as specified by the seller.
On a positive note shortening the seat hoop made the lincense plate a little more visible, but maybe still hidden from spying eyes

A local muffler shop bent the 21/4" exhaust pipe for us for free, it took about 2 minutes with his machine, maybe not as nice as mandrel bent, but we like it

I found a work around for the desinergrated starter button PCB

We will be using a simple SPST momentary push button switch in conjunton with a relay switch NC headlight NO starter solenoid.
(5) pack of relay switches for $12 on Amazon shipped

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017VDI0GY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The relay is supposed to be able to handle 30/40 amps at 14 volts DC and only takes about o.5 amp or less to operate the relay switch.

The connector comes with 16 AWG wires, should be good for about 10 amps which should be plenty since the headlight and starter solenoid or on a 7 amp fuse

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #77 on:** April 10, 2017, 07:36:05 PM »

Exhaust modifications complete.
Rear frame cross brace modified to accept license plate bracket.
License plate bracket fabricated with rivet nuts & rubber strips installed for attaching the license plate.
License plate bracket installed on cross brace using rivets.
Seat hoop has been shortened and welded back onto the frame to accommodate the reduced seat size, the seat was smaller than advertised

Cutting and shaping sheet steel for rear fender and seat attachment.
There will be two 3/8" thick x 2" wide black neoprene rubber strips running along the perimeter between the seat and the sheet steel, this will provide raceway for the electrical wires connecting the lights.
Once the seat installation is complete we will work on the following items.
Ignition switch will be replaced with old style Honda ignition switch.
Compartment mod behind the left side cover will be modified to allow for electrics and tool kit.
Wiring harness for rear signal, tail, brake and under frame lighting will be made after installing all the lights.
Next year maybe we will lace up a 5.00 x 16 rear wheel or a rear set.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #78 on:** April 10, 2017, 07:43:14 PM »

Brake/Tail light brackets made and installed, brake light installed, this is the tail light lit up from 50 feet away at night.

Sheet metal cut for seat support & tool box.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #79 on:** April 27, 2017, 08:20:01 AM »

1977 CB550F - The recent rain and a sinus infection slowed me down for awhile, but I am up and running again

Battery holder mount modified to allow seat/tool box installation, tool box fabricated,and installed.
Tool box fabricated the old fashion way, no CAD or CNC, used graph paper, made a paper template, traced the paper template onto the sheet steel, cut the sheet steel with the band saw, used vise, hammer and large electricians pliers to bend the sides of the box, used a grinder to make final shaping where needed then welded it in place.
Next steps
1. Replace #45 pilot jets with # 42 pilot jets.
2. Finish electrical wiring, install USB port, relocate new ignition switch.
3. Install neoprene rubber strips on frame then install the seat, this will provide a raceway for electrical wires from the rear signal, tail, brake and license plate lights.
4. Sync carbs and ride

You will probably notice that the tab for the front side of the tool box is about 1/2" shorter than the rest of the sides, that is to allow for the tongue on the bottom of the front of the seat to slip in and hold the front of the seat in place

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #80 on:** May 06, 2017, 07:20:50 PM »

1977 Honda CB550F update
Wiring for tail, brake signal and license plate lights finished. We might end up painting the chrome signal lights with a semi-gloss black paint. The bright white light is from the license plate light, we might have to put a small resistor in line with that light or not. All these lights are LED's.

calj737 · « **Reply #81 on:** May 07, 2017, 04:11:47 AM »

I'd offer 2 bits of advice on your wiring: The harness side of those connections, try to use stock colors for troubleshooting (you or the next owner). It makes things MUCH easier later.

And, you might want to use a bit of shrink wrap on the ends of the sleeving. It will prevent it from fraying later and hold it in place. Like in the picture attached.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #82 on:** May 08, 2017, 10:50:20 AM »

It's hard to tell in the wiring photo, but i have Yellow for the brake light, brown for the tail light, Orange & blue for the signal lights and green for the ground.

I used my hot air gun to melt the ends of the sleeve, I plan to use some zip ties on the ends of the sleeve, bur heat shrink would be a good option also

I found a few loose wires on the stock wiring connectors so I am going to remove them from the connectors one by one and solder the wires to the terminals.

I have to thin out the wires in the headlight bucket also, it's a bit crowded in there with that halogen headlight.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #83 on:** May 14, 2017, 04:34:01 AM »

1977 Honda CB550F Super Sport update

The new seat installation with 3/8" rubber strips between the seat and frame to allow for electrical wiring raceway, rear frame mod and lighting are complete.

Tomorrow I will change the oil (Castrol full synthetic 10W40 motorcycle oil), install new ignition switch( actually an ignition switch from and earlier year), replace #45 pilot jets with #42 pilot jets, sync the carbs, I hope

Then Monday and Tuesday I will finish up electrical wiring tweaks, paint the chrome signal light housings a semi gloss black and test ride.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #84 on:** May 23, 2017, 08:33:17 PM »

The seat has a tongue under it in the front that slips in under the frame work and two bolts to attach it with a couple knurled brass nuts.
The 3/8" rubber strips attached to the seat frame provide a raceway for the electrical wires and a little more shock absorption.
We have a small tool box area under the front part of the seat. Our license plate is tucked up under the seat in front of the rear wheel and is visible for the man to seefrom about 5 to 50+ feet away.
We replaced the ugly original stock ignition switch with an earlier model version attached to the front right side of the frame 😊
We made a new custom exhaust from the header collector back and installed screened velocity stacks on the carbs and increased main jets from 105 to 110, what we really need are 107.5 main jets, but I can not find any 😞 Do you know of any one capable of drilling out some smaller main jets to 107.5 size? New Biltwell synthetic rubber recoil hand grips are very comfortable.
The electric starter is working again, the PCB circuit inside the housing crumbled, I replaced it with a DPDT NC (normally closed) NO (normally open) push button momentary switch and a relay switch.
Since I could not find a micro DC switch, I used a DPDT AC switch to provide more contact area by wiring each of the two poles together.
The relay switch handles all the heavy current draw to the halogen headlight NC and the starter solenoid NO, the starter button only handles a small amount of current to operate the relay switch. The relay switch for the headlight and starter is attached on the under side of the tool box.
The black/red wire from the starter switch that use to send power to the headlight is now a power source for some future LED lighting.
We painted the chrome signal housings semi gloss black.

I think that about covers most of the changes made from winter 2016 to Spring 2017

The bike is running great, I was having so much fun riding it I almost did not take it to my son for him to ride

My 9 year old grandson Gabe posing on the bike

Our next mod for this winter is a 1977 CB550F Fat Boy ... Not

Fezzler · « **Reply #85 on:** May 24, 2017, 07:14:09 PM »

A looker!

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #86 on:** May 25, 2017, 05:30:02 PM »

Thanks

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #87 on:** June 15, 2017, 09:59:15 AM »

FYI - Blown main 15 amp fuse.

Apparent cause lose connector to Black/White coil wires.
All four plugs had no spark even after 15 amp fuse was replaced.
We are running DynaTec electronic ignition.

Repair
Connector cut off, wires soldered together and covered with heat shrink.
Cranked the bike up and it is running Great
As a matter of fack it is running stronger than it ever has in the 2+ years we have owned it

About 200 miles have been put on the bike since the repair and no blown fuses

It's till running rich in mid to top end and we are not able to find 107.5 push in main jets
So I guess we will drop the #42 pilot jets down to #40 pilot jets, then remove what little baffle there is from the exhaust except for the resistance caused by the bend in the tail pipe and see what happens.

Surprisingly the bike is not real loud with straight pipes

RAFster122s · « **Reply #88 on:** June 15, 2017, 02:45:09 PM »

Playing with photochop eh?

Nice build, hope it gives many years of riding pleasure. 550 is a great handling bike.

David

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #89 on:** June 15, 2017, 07:37:13 PM »

Thanks, I am sure it will, it only has a little over 16,000 miles on it

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #90 on:** July 12, 2017, 06:17:01 PM »

My son has had the bike for about two months now and has put about 700 miles on it, the bike is running great and there have been no issues about the license plate location from law enforcement

I am going to have to commandeer the CB550F so I can ride it some

Hope all of you are having a great summer!

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #91 on:** July 26, 2017, 08:42:33 PM »

I found 108 main jets for the later model screw in main jets, but none available for the earlier MODEL push in main jets

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #92 on:** August 07, 2017, 03:55:23 PM »

I finally got around to making the bracket to install the earlier model ignition switch.

Just need to dress it up a little and paint it, then install it on the right front frame down tube

I'll place a piece of old inner tube between the frame and the bracket to help snug it up and provide a little anti vibration for the switch.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #93 on:** August 20, 2017, 06:59:56 PM »

I overlooked something, but I think Murphy had a hand in it

Right where I planned to install the ignition switch bracket turns out there is a cross tube between the two front frame down tubes

Back to the drawing board or at least the bracket, drill press & band saw, in the end it all worked out.

Some rivets, JB weld epoxy, a beer and a few *@#! it's all good.

SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan · « **Reply #94 on:** August 21, 2017, 08:59:47 AM »

Hopefully, the bike makes a positive impression enough for Gabe to ride it someday.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #95 on:** August 24, 2017, 09:19:52 PM »

There's a good possibility Gabe and his older sister Kinsey both may ride it some day as we have no intention of getting rid of it.

My son Shelby and both grand kids are into skate boarding, surfing and dirt bike riding as well.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #96 on:** August 24, 2017, 09:50:44 PM »

I just finished checking the float level only one was slightly off.

Changed the pilot/slow jets from #42 to #40 with the #110 main jets and that seems to have brought air fuel mixture where it needs to be

I also opened the baffle up a little more, almost straight pipes, but not quite.
The bike feels real strong

Spark plugs are no longer sooty black, they are a nice tan and brown color.

No need for the #108 main jets after all

Thank goodness I was not looking forward to drilling out 4 main jets in hope of getting them all exactly the size of a #108 main jet.

Jet needle clip on 3rd notch from the top
#110 main jets
#40 pilot/slow jets
Air screws out 2 1/8 turns

The bike now has 17,000 miles on it, we have put 5,000 of those miles on it

We have had no problems with law enforcement about the license plate location

I need to sync the carbs one more time.

RAFster122s · « **Reply #97 on:** August 25, 2017, 02:09:51 AM »

Great work and glad to hear the jetting change sorted out your issues. What was your final setup in comparison to stock jetting? What is the stock starting point on a 77 carbs given your 110 and 40 w 3rd needle position.

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #98 on:** August 25, 2017, 08:16:09 AM »

Note (The 1977 K models are slightly different from the F models and use a newer version of the carburettors with Screw in #100 main jets and Press in #40 pilot/slow jets, why, I don't know)
Personally I liked the earlier model carbs like the ones that were on my 1974 CB750 with the spring clip to hold the float bowls on instead of four screws

Stock 1977 CB550F Our 1977 CB550F
Jet needle clip on 2nd notch from the top Jet needle clip on 3rd notch from the top
#98 Press in main jets Press in #110 main jets
#38 Screw in pilot/slow jets Screw in #40 pilot/slow jets
Air screws out 1 1/2 turns Air screws out 2 1/8 turns
Stock air filter Screened velocity stacks
Stock muffler Straight pipes slightly baffled
Stock coils Dyna 5 ohm coils
Points & Condenser Dyna Electronic Ignition

Looks like we might get another 5,000 miles on the dunlop tires, I am thinking about some Bridgestones for the next set of tires if they are the same quality or better than they were in the late 60's early 70's

The Bridgestones did not last quite as long, about 8,000 miles, but they had real good traction

JMS28411 I'm no Spring Chicken · « **Reply #99 on:** October 29, 2017, 10:19:16 PM »

The disc brakes had been sticking, not fully releasing.

Saturday my son and I took the calipers off one at a time and found debris from the orange paint that was on the metal backing of the EBC brake pads gumming up the housing where the pads are located.

We cleaned up and removed all the orange paint from the pads and housing then applied some brake lube to the caliper housing and the metal backing on the pads.

No more sticking disc brakes

News:

Author Topic: My 1977 CB550F project (Read 20366 times)