Going back to the tranny bearing pictures for a minute...
I see lots of the 500/550 cases that look like that. They were not a tightly controlled in production as the 750 cases, for sure. The 350F was better than the 400F i this regard, too. But, neither seemed to have suffered for it?
The heat-stained cranks are also a common thing in these bikes. I think 754 has it right: they probably got the weights hot when hardening the primary gear.
And, the chewed-up cases from the loose Hy-Vo style primary chains is so common in the 500/550 that I just expect it. A real bad one will have broken off a piece of the case, and this sometimes ends up getting stuck in a tranny gear at some point.
Thanks for the feedback HondaMan, I haven't seen this discussed with a lot of people, OR documented well enough for me to just let it slide. Glad to hear some feedback and that it isn't uncommon or that big of an issue regarding the tranny bearings in the case. I'm just gonna keep moving forward with everything.
Since I've been waiting on funds to recover and for powder coating quotes, I started to disassemble the rear end to help with progress.
To remove the rear hub retainer, I drilled out the stakes, tried numerous different ways of breaking it free with no luck, until I tried a punch with a 1lb dead blow hammer. I also excessively sprayed wd40 and PB blaster in the threaded area to help spin it free, and hopefully prevent any damage to the threads in case I didn't drill through the stakes all the way.
Luckily, it looks like the threads were hardly damaged, and my retainer had an arrow engraved into it pointing to the left. I found a thread that indicated this is the direction you spin it in to
tighten, not to
loosen, so I found out it was reverse threaded early on. It seems like some people think there is a discrepancy with some of the retainers for the 500/550s?
I don't know if it's visible in any of the pictures, but there were actually already flat spots visible in the hub bearings with how the plastic cover was seated. It was actually indented in some areas. Anyways, this was actually almost impossible for me to remove using the (18mm I believe?) trick I found online. I think this was the case because I still had the hub attached to the wheel and tire, and the impact of the socket seemed to reverberate through the wheel instead of being absorbed by the bearing assembly. I heated the hub on both sides multiple times, lubricated them to no end, for about 2 hours or so with no luck. It started to mushroom out the top of the assembly, so I decided to try using a punch instead, and on the second try everything slid out beautifully. So if anyone out there is about to disassemble the rear hub, I would definitely give the punch a try.
Debeading the tire was easy, getting one side of the tire off: also easy. Getting the tire off entirely? I couldn't figure out a way to do it without a proper tire iron and something to hold the wheel locked in place. So I ended up just cutting through it to get it done. A little annoyed with myself because I've mounted and balanced tires dozens of times on cars, figured I would be able to do this, but at the same time I had absolutely no proper equipment for that in my garage. I've been told for mounting tires, you can try getting heavy duty industrial zip ties to hold the tire and tube in place, not sure how much that will work though. But regardless, I think the insides are a little too rusty for my liking. I really want to get a set of Excel Aluminum wheels considering they aren't that much more than new D.I.D chrome wheels. I really want to get some Avon Roadriders as well, I think it would be a perfect combo for nice handling, stability, and looks. That will probably be one of the last things I buy though.
Started to disassemble the swing arm, I have some bronze bushings on the way.
...And ended up tearing the rest of the frame apart and removing the engine. I wanted to make more space and move the old engine out of the way of everything else! Next thing I know I realized it was only a couple more steps to remove the wiring harness, and then only a couple more steps to remove the triple tree and front end...
So this is my life now, haha. I have to clean up the frame a little bit more to prepare for a new electronics tray and to trim the center stand clip things. I do want to get this powder coated, and I want to ask here first before I ask anyone else; has anyone here had their frames powder coated over filler? I used filler to smooth out some of the lines in the back, and if I get this frame coated, the rest of the original paint will need to be stripped/blasted. Should I just get the frame blasted now and start filling it back again, or should I just use paint remover on the rest of the frame, have them clean it before coating, and then see what happens? I know typically most people
do powdercoat over small amounts of filler (none is more than 1/5" thick) but as reassurance I'd love to hear your opinions on this.
