Been working almost all day every day these last few weeks on My CB500/550 book. At least the weather's been cooperating: it's too #@$! cold out there to do anything in the garage except for taking [whatever I missed] back apart for another picture. I think I have most of the bases covered, using My CB750 Book as the guideline, but dropping out some things that ultimately didn't need to be there so the cost will be less, I hope? That book has covered the globe, now, which was...more than expected, by a stretch!
What CB500/550 things do you think need to be in this book that aren't well covered elsewhere?
Honda's manuals aren't terrible, but they were never great about details, either. I think I have those missing things covered a little better, at least in the engines. I've used the 022/a carbs as the example simple-method teardown/clean/reassemble without the entire disassembly, because nowadays that breaks the (very expensive) rubber seals on the throttle linkage - and it's not required to remove those just to clean in the slots. The same process applies to the other 5 versions of carbs found on these bikes.
I don't list a lot of vendors for the parts within the pages, because of those listed in My CB750 Book, several are gone now. The internet is the best source for parts now.
Electrical is covered in some detail, including (I think) every circuit on each of the bike types. This isn't one schematic, but a breakout by function, like Lights, Alternator, Power Wiring, and the like - with wire colors noted on the drawings. Honda's schematics are complete, but in their 50th regeneration of someone else's scanned-in, not-enough-resolution images on the Internet they are almost illegible now: I used a 5x and 10x magnifier to follow the wiring lines on the best ones in Honda's old manuals because they were shrunk from a 30"x42" page into the 6"x8" manuals' format to begin with, and went downhill from there!
...and I'm an Electrical Engineer type, too...
In the carbs' section I don't try to "fix" the 1977-78 PD carbs: they have no parts sources except for some of the rubber seals and the occasional discovery of NOS parts somewhere, so that task is becoming more fruitless every year.. The book isn't about resto-ing the scarcest of bikes, but about making a good ride out of the ones you can put together.
The way the carbs work, including the PD carbs, is covered, and with cutaway-style drawings to help understand what is different from non-PD to the PD carbs - and 'why'.
I've explained the alternator issue with some detail so builders can make smart decisions about power needs and load requirements.
A full teardown-inspect-rebuild cycle is covered for the engine(s), both types.
Some detail about the suspension and its needs and/or good points is there, and some simple, effect improvements are outlined.
The brakes are the brakes: no special mods are shown there, either: that could be an endless upgrade for cafe' bikers to play with.
Discussion about how modern tires affect things ("Why does the bike lean over so far on the sidestand now?", etc.) is included.
There is some explanation about HOW the CB500/CB550 became like it is, including market forces and legal issues that were foremost at the time of the bike's development and introduction, to help understand how it got like it is, and what can be done to make it better now that the politics is out of it. This particular motorcycle came at a time when the whole world was changing re: motor vehicles in general and motorcycles in particular, in some countries. Those things affected this machine more than most others that I know.
I don't cover such things as the aftermarket toys like wiring kits, accessory lighting, cafe' work or the like: this is about stock machines. Those "other" things could be gone tomorrow and make whole sections of the book irrelevant and useless to future rider/builders - so, it's about Honda's design and build. From there the builder can decide how it will go.
The Transistor Ignition IS covered, though, because it has brought so many of these bikes back to the pavement. That's my fault, so I owed up to it.
It also made me realize how many of them I have lost count of, now...
Drop me your ideas?
If I can make it work within the bounds of financing the thing, I'll see about getting it in there.
My CB750 Book turns a chunk of its proceeds over on each royalty to help keep these webpages alive, so it has helped everybody here: so will this one. I can't think of a better way to do that!
