Topic: 76 CB550 Cafe build

[tshrey]

Yup! Gonna grab a ducati slave cylinder and weld in some bracing on the back side.  Will have to make some careful measurements and make myself a new actuator rod.


After riding 100 miles this morning I see that I have a very small oil leak coming from the alternator cover.  It is either the o-ring on the case plug or the crank seal.  Please someone tell me that seal can be replaced without breaking the case halves...

[tshrey]

Also, went to get the bike inspected.  NY passed a new law with a perfectly fine intention - prevent people from obnoxious exhausts from riding on the street.  But the way it is worded no inspection station will pass a bike now without a totally stock exhaust (not even a slip-on on a new bike).  The dealer that I normally go to said that my exhaust wasn't stock.  I'm like, dude, you find me a fifty year old stock exhaust that isn't rusted out and I'll put it on.  Surely there is a grandfather clause for old bikes.  Went down the street to another dealer and they slapped a sticker on it.  Law doesn't apply to anything pre-1980.  Thank god.  But hell, requiring a stock exhaust on a 1982?  Good luck.

[MRieck]

Also, went to get the bike inspected.  NY passed a new law with a perfectly fine intention - prevent people from obnoxious exhausts from riding on the street.  But the way it is worded no inspection station will pass a bike now without a totally stock exhaust (not even a slip-on on a new bike).  The dealer that I normally go to said that my exhaust wasn't stock.  I'm like, dude, you find me a fifty year old stock exhaust that isn't rusted out and I'll put it on.  Surely there is a grandfather clause for old bikes.  Went down the street to another dealer and they slapped a sticker on it.  Law doesn't apply to anything pre-1980.  Thank god.  But hell, requiring a stock exhaust on a 1982?  Good luck.

Just another reason to get out of that state.

[tshrey]

I'm the machine specialist for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.  Can't go anywhere else on Earth and have that job...

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Hey tshrey,

Your bike has been duly re-nominated for BOTM.  Please post that you "accept" in the following thread to be eligible for voting:  http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,180400.0.html

[tshrey]

Thanks.  You are a persistent man Don 

So after a couple hundred miles with stock carbs I had the confidence that the engine and everything connected to it is performing correctly and the motor should be broken in a little more.  I pulled the carbs and went back to the VM34 kit.  I don't know if it is more vacuum now from being broken in or maybe the exhaust with the baffle in it lowered the fueling requirement from the last time I tried, but this kit is so much quicker than stock carbs it is ridiculous and I don't have the stumbling off idle any more.  Maybe it is simply that I learned to drive an old bike and the need to be a little nicer with the throttle off idle (I don't think that is it, but who knows).  This thing is now what I would say actually qualifies as quick.  I did change the throttle cable routing from what the kit recommends and I think that genuinely helped.  The instructions want you to have the cables go up over the frame into the merge (throttle cable has a split coupling in it).  The idea is that they are able to float around and not bind.  My experience is that the coupling barely fits between the frame and the tank and would sometimes get stuck in a spot that pulled on the cables a little - you would come to a stop and have a 2500 rpm idle.  So I ran them like this:




The tying them together in the back and then tying that to the frame ensures slack at the carb end and the split coupling now lays in between the coils.  Everything is out of the way of the tank and gives a nice cable path to the bars.  The two carbs look great and are a lot simpler to work on than the stock system.




Also did some math and realized that my rear tire diameter is 1/2 inch smaller than stock; that won't help my rpm at highway speed.  Got a 120 rear in the garage that will go on and will also put on an 18 tooth front.  Right now 65 mph is 5400 rpm and I know you guys all say the engine is just getting going at that speed but it is just too frenetic.  I don't mind losing a little quickness stoplight to stoplight if I can get that down to 5000 rpm.

Stock carbs/plenum/3d printed adapter and K&N are going up for sale in the Sale section if anyone is interested.

[wolf550]

will be keeping an eye out

[tshrey]

Spent some time in the garage yesterday and finally took care of the last part of the seat quick release.



After powdercoating and installing.

[tshrey]

Beautiful day outside, long ride and a proper bath.

[calj737]

You’d better extend that exhaust and sweep the can upwards else it will drag in any decent corner. Worst case, it will drag, catch and pitch you ass over tea kettle.

[tshrey]

This true, I can see rubbing on the underside of the pipe holder.  Trying to see if I can get just the collector from Delkevic since I still have the rest of the system.

[nvr2old]

I just read through your entire thread.  Dang, you get a gold star for persistence, seriously.  On page 27 you were asking about the paint bubbling up around your filler neck.  I've been painting bikes for 50 years and the best way to stop that is get the neck down to bare metal from the opening all the way down the neck until about 1/8 inch from the tank.  If you can make a hard paint line there, better to do so.  Then mask off your tank around the filler neck to protect it while you put a swipe of JB Weld on top of the paint line.  This will seal the paint line and forever stop it from getting soft because of gas fumes.  If not, it will continue beyond the bottom of the filler neck and ruin your paint. I've done it 100 times with great success.  It's all hidden under the gas cap so you can't see it.  Good job on everything you've done.  Have another beer, to yourself!

[tshrey]

Finally rode the bike into work.  Couple guys there had (one still has) cb550's so I wanted to ask them about the buzzing under the valve cover.  The answer was 'I don't hear what you are talking about' so I guess that valve noise is just normal on these bikes    Makes me feel a lot better.

[tshrey]

Have a small oil leak behind the alternator cover.  Not much, but enough that a long ride ends up with specks on the toes of my boots.  Wasn't sure if it was the crank seal or the oring in the bottom of the case. 



I guess this winter I'll be splitting the case halves.  I assume I can just remove the bottom half and leave the top end alone if I take the cam out?

Ordered 1" riser clip ons from Woodcraft, just too much pressure on the wrists in the current position.  Keeps me from wanting to ride this more than 30 minutes at a time.

Also, had a little slop in my steering head.  Couldn't get it to go away until I cranked down on the steering nut enough that I now have drag in the bars when turning (this gives a crazy weird feeling when riding).  I'm going to drop the steering stem and repack the roller bearing with grease.  Seems pretty strange and the whole reason I went with All Balls bearings there in the first place.  Have to make sure it isn't the race moving a tiny bit inside the bottom of the steering head.  If it is I have no idea how to fix that.

[Kelly E]

Try backing off the nut a bit. One of the new races may not have been fully seated but should be now.

[tshrey]

Switched out the clip ons to 1" woodcraft risers. Pretty amazing what that small difference does for wrist comfort.



Original clip ons for GSXR are in the for sale section if anyone is interested.

[tshrey]

Switched out the throttle valves from 2.5 to 2.0, increases vacuum to richen the mixture just off idle.  That made all the difference.  At first it felt too rich, but then I turned the air screw out to 2.5 turns and now it is perfect, the extra vacuum must draw more through the pilot circuit as well.

Still have a very slight 'clink' when I roll forward and grab the front brake.  Any tighter on my stem spanner nut and I get dragging.  The movement is definitely on the bottom of the headset.  I'm wondering if when I tapped in the lower race I didn't have a little piece of something in there (I'm on Long Island, sand gets everywhere and in everything) that lets the race rock a little.  I don't know what else it could be.  It is subtle enough I could ignore it without an issue I imagine but the bike is now sooo close to perfect I need to get it fixed.

[calj737]

Two possible sources: at the bottom of the neck, did you use the dust shield and the correct spacer above the triple? The other, which may be less familiar to you, is the buttons on the rotors. Floating rotors are renowned for those “clicks” at slow speed (parking lot, foot speed) when you grab the front brake. My BMW does it, always has, drives me manic when I hear it even to this day.

[Godffery]

Two possible sources: at the bottom of the neck, did you use the dust shield and the correct spacer above the triple? The other, which may be less familiar to you, is the buttons on the rotors. Floating rotors are renowned for those “clicks” at slow speed (parking lot, foot speed) when you grab the front brake. My BMW does it, always has, drives me manic when I hear it even to this day.

My money is on the floating Rotors.

[tshrey]

I wound up just pulling everything off the front end.  I did a pretty good job with connectors and whatnot, only took about 20 minutes to get the whole thing off.

Turns out it was just another bonehead move on my part.  The all balls kits comes with different size spacers and zero instructions.  I pressed on the bottom bearing to the triple, then tried to assemble to find I should have used the spacer.  So I put the spacer in the neck above the bottom race.  Figured it was the same thing.  It apparently is not the same thing 

So now the stem and triple are in the freezer.  The last time I tried to get one of these bearing off it was a bear, no room to wedge anything under the bearing to wedge it upwards.  Let's hope it is easier this time.

[Godffery]

I wound up just pulling everything off the front end.  I did a pretty good job with connectors and whatnot, only took about 20 minutes to get the whole thing off.

Turns out it was just another bonehead move on my part.  The all balls kits comes with different size spacers and zero instructions.  I pressed on the bottom bearing to the triple, then tried to assemble to find I should have used the spacer.  So I put the spacer in the neck above the bottom race.  Figured it was the same thing.  It apparently is not the same thing 

So now the stem and triple are in the freezer.  The last time I tried to get one of these bearing off it was a bear, no room to wedge anything under the bearing to wedge it upwards.  Let's hope it is easier this time.

Hmm, If I understand your statement correctly, then I'm thinking that the sound or feeling you had described would not be form having the spacer above or below the bearing. As you had initially bedeviled, the spacing would still be the same.  The only difference would be where the bearing is sitting in the lower neck.
 I will typically install the spacer under the lower half of the bearing (the part that goes on the stem) just below the dust seal.  That way the bearing and seal is more deeply positioned up into the neck of the frame.

[tshrey]

Right. I had already pressed the bearing onto the stem and they are a #$%* to get off. Once I realized the error I popped the lower race out and installed the spacer above the race. That still gave me the correct total length, but the spacer must not be perfectly flat. Doesn't matter if it is under the bearing, but it does matter above the race, it let it rock just a tiny bit. New bearing kit coming because I destroyed the oil seal trying to remove it from the stem.

On another note, no one, not even sprocket specialists can get an 18 tooth 520 front sprocket right now. Is a standard sprocket hardened? I was thinking of just getting a 530 18 tooth and putting it on my lathe to turn down

[seanbarney41]

I have had shoulders machined off a few sprockets...but yeah, they are hhhaarrrdddd!  Have seen machinist that really knows his #$%* do this nice and neat with vertical mill.  And then the "some guy with a mill" ruin a couple tools and curse and resort to the grinder. lol

[Godffery]

 Have you checked with supersprox?
https://www.supersproxusa.com/

[tshrey]

So I grabbed a cheap 18 tooth front sprocket and put it on my mill.  I tried a 3/4 carbide insert end mill and all it did was make the surface nice and shiny    Stuff is hard!

That means a new 34 tooth rear to get the same effect.  Not really what I wanted to spend money on but it will let the wheel move back farther in the swingarm; right now it is pretty close to the front so I would rather do that anyway I guess.

After moving the spacer and putting in a new bottom bearing all the head slop is gone and the forks move very freely.