Topic: '76 CB550F Super Sport Project

[Darren Jakal]

That's a great looking bike. Can't wait to see it with pipes and carbs.

later, dj

Updated to bring a pic forward.

[Smudgemo]

Thanks, guys.  I really, really like the stock, nothing fancy sort of bike and this one fits the bill.  I could probably have it ready to ride at the end of next weekend if all the parts I need were to show up before.  Home-stretch?  I hope it runs, but I know the carbs and compression are good, so it'll be down to electrics.

I decided to splurge on an alternator cover when I placed an order from CMSNL recently since they had them still in stock:

[Smudgemo]

On Saturday I got the carbs and exhaust installed and fired it up.  Interestingly, it barely spent any time turning over like it wanted to run again.  Thankfully the electrics all appear to be properly hooked up, so now it's just a matter of fine-tuning and adjusting.  I had two exhaust systems, and of course, the better muffler was not attached to the better headers.  The muffler isn't great, but it's not full of holes like the other one so it'll do for now.  Here's how it looks now waiting for a carb-sync and the tank/side covers.  Other than not being currently registered, it's ready to start testing it on the road.  I mailed the check Friday, so it should be here in a few weeks, I suppose.



One question I have is should it sound a bit rattly at very low rpms?  I notice it less when it warms up and idles better, and it goes away immediately when the rpms go up.  I'm guessing it's just running at too low an RPM, but would like opinions from anyone that's familiar with these bikes.

[Stev-o]

That OEM is better than most originals on a 550F, they tend to rust out and get replaced. Mine is holey too, you could use some high temp JB Weld on it.

Have you sync'd your carbs yet? That may quiet it down some. These motors are noisier than modern bikes if that is what you are comparing to?

[Smudgemo]

Definitely quiets down and smooths out when it warms up.  I'll probably try to do the sync this weekend when I have some extra time to see what happens.  It smooths out around 1,500 per the tach, although I have no idea how accurate that thing is.

As for the muffler, it mostly looks like the end cap is bad.  I'm sort of thinking I could maybe (maybe!) braze on a new cap maybe from Cone Eng or somewhere if I ground a bit of chrome off the edge.  Probably talking out my ass, but I like to fix stuff, and I'm never sorry to break out the torch.

[Smudgemo]

I popped on the tank and side panels just because.  The tank needs the WD-40 rinsed out and hooked up.  Other than that, I just need to hit each service job in the manual and it will be all done.  I wish I'd have taken a few more before shots, but this is a pretty good comparison.

[Darren Jakal]

That turned out great! Nice bike.

[Smudgemo]

Thanks!  I'm feeling pretty good about it - everything seems to be working properly.  I just checked and the battery voltage is following the revs, so at least the system is charging.  One more thing I don't need to worry about right now.

This is a better before/after shot.

[palepainter]

It really cleaned up nicely!!!

[Smudgemo]

Thanks.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Today I set the points gap, set the timing, sync'd the carbs, installed the fuel tank, installed new exhauset gaskets, new o-rings for the oil pump and painted the kill switch with fabric/vinyl paint.

[evinrude7]

smudge, what paint did you use on the motor?   

[Smudgemo]

Duplicolor engine enamel "Aluminum" plus a coat of their primer.  For prep, I spent a bunch of time with sheets of the red scotchbrite type of abrasive using tongue depressors to get between the fins followed by an acetone wipe-down.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and it looks great with the vapor blasted stuff.

[Smudgemo]

I've been riding the bike, and there are two issues.  One is the engine has a pronounced rattle when it's less then fully warmed.  I think I'm going to do a top end rebuild on the extra motor I've got so I can keep riding this one until it's ready.  Second is cosmetic stuff.  I'm waiting for new gauge faces, so I focused today on the tank.  I decided to spruce up the Honda emblems. 

[

Well, half-way through of course, but they're looking pretty good.

[Smudgemo]

Seems kind of stupid to replace the stupid warning decals, but I'm shooting for the showroom + 600 miles look.



And I like it, so that's all that counts.

[calj737]

Its a lovely bike, Smudge. You might need to grab some type of aluminum protectant to help stall the oxidation on the cam end caps and carb plate. Shame to see your hard work turn to snow 

[Smudgemo]

Thanks, Cal.  Nils blasted the caps, but they were corroded such that they came out pitted.  I'll probably replace them at some point.  I should have done more clean-up on the carbs, but I have a second set that need a rebuild that I'll do a bit nicer looks-wise.  My neighbor George asked me the other day if it's ever really going to be done, and I said no.  Sure is fun to ride, though. 

[Stev-o]

Seems kind of stupid to replace the stupid warning decals...

Not really, I like them too.....

[Smudgemo]

I just spent some time swapping out photobucket broken links to my long-time Flickr account photos, and I realized there are some other parts of this build that I feel like bragging about sharing.

One rebuild I did was the keyed switch/lock.  Originally, it worked except the tail running light wasn't working properly.  It would come on occasionally, so I knew there was a contact issue somewhere.  I decided to pull the switch apart and see what was what.



Pretty simple, actually.  I did a thread somewhere that's got broken photo links that illustrates how to fix this.  The round piece with the hole in the center used to have two tangs that held the switch assembly in the lock housing, but they were broken.  The switch cover was also no longer whole, but not a piece that you can buy, so I learned how to work a free CAD program and made a replacement via 3D printing.  But because the tangs were gone from the round piece, I added them to the cover as an 'improved' design (the orange part.)



This allowed me to assemble the switch with the cleaned contacts and have it properly held in place as intended.  Here you can see it assembled plus the original cover and a cover w/o the 'improved' tangs.



Admittedly, the cover wasn't a perfect fit (mostly the tangs), but it's just plastic and I was easily able to bring it to size with a few small files.  Here you can see it plugged into the wiring harness.  Perfect fit for that.





Before installing the lock, I decided to make sure it was good to go.  This particular model was only held together by a set-screw and a couple of dimples.  The cover came off fairly easily.



There is another thread on this too, but it all comes apart easily from there.



I took the opportunity to fix the bent key door while I had things apart.



And polish the outer housing.



Came out looking pretty nice.

[Smudgemo]

Decals.  I asked for suggestions on removing the old decals and got a number of responses.  The one I went with was this big-ass 3m eraser wheel https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00063VT0G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And boy did it work well.  Not a bit of paint damage, although I only used it on the tank and fuel door, not the sides.









Not sure what I'll do with the remaining 99% of the eraser wheel, but I've got kids and one really likes stickers..

[Smudgemo]

Gauges.  I bought a set of gauges from a '74, I think, but the faces were the blueish color, not the proper green.  I decided to try to refurbish the set I got with the bike, so I tried ordering new faces from an outfit on ebay.  My mistake that they didn't fit my model as I didn't pay enough attention to the measurements.  But I was very underwhelmed by the quality of the lines and wouldn't have wanted to use them.  Then I found a set of gauges on ebay where the odo had less than 2k miles, but the housing was damaged and had some rust.  No trouble as I've got a couple of sets worth of parts.  The red zone on the tach was faded, but my brother suggested this outfit he and my dad get R/C airplane graphics from.  The owner scanned my tach face but misunderstood my ask and sent me red numbers and hashmarks to put on the faded pie slice.  This should be rectified shortly and I'll post my results.

Meanwhile, I was able to find a way to make the retaining bands easier to reassemble.  Some guys cut/JB Weld them together, some guys buy new ones.  I think this way to smooth out the band plus a flat face pliers to re-crimp will be fine.  A bigger diameter piece of scrap would be better, but this is working well.



Results:


I'll add some more on this when I get the decals and have some time to get this assembled.  The hard parts is getting the band off, and next hardest is to carefully remove the needle if you want.

[Smudgemo]

Just a shot in the Berkeley/Oakland hills.  Good roads to ride for fun.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Looking great Ryan.

[Smudgemo]

Thanks, Don.  I just took a look at your 550 build thread and like the look.  Might be where I take the floor-sweep special I'm accumulating parts for.

[nvr2old]

I've been riding the bike, and there are two issues.  One is the engine has a pronounced rattle when it's less then fully warmed.  I think I'm going to do a top end rebuild on the extra motor I've got so I can keep riding this one until it's ready.  Second is cosmetic stuff.  I'm waiting for new gauge faces, so I focused today on the tank.  I decided to spruce up the Honda emblems. 

[

Well, half-way through of course, but they're looking pretty good.

Something to try if you ever do that again, is to spray paint the entire emblem, and then with a rag tightly wrapped around your finger tip and dipped into acetone or lacquer thinner then just wipe off the letters.  Takes less then 5 minutes.

[Smudgemo]

Something to try if you ever do that again, is to spray paint the entire emblem, and then with a rag tightly wrapped around your finger tip and dipped into acetone or lacquer thinner then just wipe off the letters.  Takes less then 5 minutes.

Good idea.  I've got another set for a future project that I'll probably give that a try on.

More recently, I got my red zone decal back from the maker and got it installed.  The face was otherwise in great shape, so I think this set of gauges is going to mostly look new when I'm done.  I just need to remove the red paint and get some orange on the needle.  I tried the red in error because I had it on hand.