Ok guys I came across a guy today who had a few parts lying around, he had no idea of the condition of them or whether they were from a 500 or 550...They were pretty messed up and lying around for years so I took the gamble and grabbed what I thought may be useful for my rebuild.
Carb rack:
I managed to pick a carb rack which was in pretty poor state but, few bits here and there were missing but I wanted the needles from them. They were Keihns 069A which is what I wanted. missing one slow jet but the rest were the originals with 38 stamped on them. the needles were 273004's, exactly what I was after. not sure what the main jets are though. My 77/78 CB550F has 40 slow jets and 98 or 100 mains. Would anyone be able to shed some light on exactly what bike these were for? and what the main jets would more than likely be? Also are the emulsion tubes the same across all these carb variants?
Head:
I also grabbed a head minus one set valve springs and retainer. it was pretty gunked up but I figured it could be used if the bearing surfaces were still good and the valve seats ok which ill check out. failing that I figured some of the valves could be salvageable. My question is how do I know if this is for a 500 or 550? the only differences I could see were the inlet manifolds 'don't' have the screws for the vacuum gauges?
Tappet cover:
I also grabbed a tappet cover it was broken but had all the rockers in there and the follower surfaces looked reasonably clean (better than what I have) I did notice compared to mine the pins/shafts for the rockers 'do have' some sort of dowel or screw to stop the pins from rotating, something I read about before stop the pins from rotating and wearing out? Again how do I know if this is for a 550 or 500??
picked up a few other bits including an alternator cover which wasn't dented as mine is and has cracked so this should come in useful.
Ive attached some pics. as you can see everything is quite filthy but hopefully some of it will get some use and nice to have some spare parts sitting around.
Thanks for reading
rosewood..