Topic: CB550 Valves Hanging Up??

[HondaMan]

Yes, I was thinking that, and that is probably what I will do; I like to put in new parts when I can, but that would seem to be a more cost-effective way to go. I was also just wondering where people are getting their parts these days.

I've used the ones from PartsNmore and VintageCB750 several times, work fine. Honda doesn't always have them in stock at South Sound Honda, which was how I first started using them. I had 4 CB750 engines in one winter (the winter of Covid) that all had at least one rusted starter roller, 2 of them had all 3 as slugs of dirt and rust. One of those had sat in a dusty, wet wooden shed for many years, while the other was on a 750K3 that was a running bike, but had very worn main bearings, indicating poor oil-change practice (and it had been using 10w30 oil for decades). The latter had a roller that could not rotate at all, being rusted in one position.

[Dr. Frankenstein]

I'm pretty sure it's the original chain, but there's not much slack in it - as the OP mentioned, you have to get pretty jiggily with it to get it to finally come out, and taking out the starter and all the rest gives you Just enough room to get it out; I was able to get the starting gear out of the starter clutch by leaning it a bit and then pulling it out, wrestled with the clutch for a bit to get it out of the chain and then it came out. Took a lot less time than I expected. I have a new spring and cap roller on the way to replace the damaged one, hopefully that will solve my problem - this bike's too pretty to sit!   

[bryanj]

Honest opinion you are making a mistake not changing the full set

[Dr. Frankenstein]

Yeah, maybe - Always time to do it twice...hopefully not; but I'm an optimist! 

UPDATE: Okay, so, after a bit of hunting I ordered a new roller and spring (roller - 28126-323-000 and spring - 28125-323-000 respectively) to replace the damaged one seen in the photo above, but when they got here I noticed right away that the spring was noticeably longer than the old ones, which I attribute to the old springs being compressed over time; okay, no biggie...but me being the stickler I am to buy bike-specific parts I noticed (1) the spring differences, and (2) noticed that the caps on the rollers weren't exactly identical. As you can see, the tops of the old caps showed wear (in the second pic, the new one is on the right), so I have another three of those on the way from the local bike shop at $6 apiece, but the new one's 'cap' (the one I received today) is not as tall as the other worn ones; the springs I had to hunt down and buy piecemeal online after they told me the springs are not made anymore.

K&L has a kit that supposedly fits a bunch of Hondas for $32, but noticeably NOT the CB550, although the rollers look identical; 4into1 has a kit for the CB550, but it's $60...although in retrospect I've spent about the same amount so perhaps the 4into1 kit was the better bargain - and Common Motor's kits are all Out of Stock! It was slightly maddening. And here's some pics for the eye candy...

My question is, are the springs and rollers for the CB550 interchangeable with any other bikes that you know of - (for instance the Honda Magna 750) - or do I / we have to keep getting bent over for new starter clutch parts for the 500/550?

4into1 has the springs for $10 apiece, but the part number is different: 28125-283-010 (the CB550 is not listed as a fitting part) as opposed to 28125-323-000...does that change in nomenclature make a difference?

   

[bryanj]

If you create a free account at cmsnl when you look up the part it will give a list of models that part fits to, some of those starter bits fit nearly 400 models.
500 and 550 are the same and i thought the 750 was but the part numbers are different so not sure now