Mid-summer 2006 I got hyped up about getting a motorcycle. My cousin overheard my plans and offered up his 1977 Honda CB550K as it had been sitting in his barn for a couple of years, before he parked it he could only get it to run with the choke on and as soon as there was any throttle at all it would bog down even when it was running nice and hot. If the choke was put in it would immediately stall.
All I had to do was truck it home, and the tear down began the next day. I've lost a lot of the picture from the beginning of this over the past year. It's been such a long project because I had a possessive clingy lady friend, she'd get a little whiny when I spent too much time without her. The old catch 22 of choosing the loving woman or the engine. Well, I chose the engine and the project is moving along nicely now.
This is the day I got it home. I had more pictures of it in this state from a good number of angles. There was a dent in the other side of the gas tank, looked like somebody laid her down or just carelessly dropped it while it was parked. It had a few minor dings on the top of the tank as well.
30,000 miles give or take
First thing I did was order a gasket set for that engine, and in the midst of this discovered why it wasn't running (it would've been an easy fix but I already had the engine torn down), one of the plug wire caps wasn't connected, but the boot was still in place so it didn't appear amiss. 1 of the 4 cylinders wasn't firing. Ah, well, new gaskets and seals never hurt. The internals of this engine didn't show the bike's age, it was clean as a whistle with minimal wear - too bad the outside isn't as clean as the inside. The sprockets were sharper than sharp, don't know how that chain didn't slip before it was parked. The chain didn't look too pretty either. Carbs had no return on them, they were so tight the spring couldn't even pull them back to idle. Tires are bald, not the originals either. I managed to wrangle up a pair of 1973 550 original tires - not dry, 85% of the tread left!
I ground off all of the old paint, it was kind of a pathetic job of layer upon layer of paint. They painted over the original paint, which is really too bad - there was what seemed like an 1/8 inch of paint and primer and bondo. The bottom seam (as you can see in the photo, the grey strip) was JBwelded and poorly. I bought a tank lining kit from POR-15 and I definitely back that product, did wonders for me. I cleaned and removed the rust, etched the steel and put the tank liner (aluminum enamel based or something, tough stuff!) in. I did exactly what the previous owners did to the tank, JBwelded all of the holes (and nicely mind you!); although I pulled the dents with a spot welder and slide hammer and bondo'd them. I bondo'd over the Honda logo brackets for a smooth tank, inspired by my dad's Shadow. She's been wire brushed, sandblasted, and rust proofed to boot. Hopefully it holds up.
I'm going to take a step back from the project itself now to explain some of the issues I've run into due to a major event. In February of 2007 we had a garage fire. The bike was in there. I got the engine out before the fire really got going, but everything else was smoke damaged heavily. I'm grateful I got the engine out. During the fire a box of smaller parts was kicked around, sprayed around... I lost quite a few smaller things for the bike and I'm only just running into some of them as I put it back together. The sprocket plate, special washer for the timing advance, bolts for mounting the engine, gear for the tach cable, return spring for the brake pedal... I put some original handlebars back onto the bike, again from the '73 550, because the chrome on the ape hangers was smoked. I didn't like them anyhow, and they didn't allow me to top up the master cylinder.
My aunt reupholstered a seat I found on eBay, the pan is a bit rough but the upholstery and the foam are nice now.
I think for now I'll just leave this post where it is and give you parting pictures, the most recent I've taken. I'll organize this thread a bit more and give more details later on. Sorry for the bad lighting and all that!
Cheers
