Topic: New here! any recommendations before i pull my motor for a rebuild?

[d3buttz]

is there anything i should do besides draining the oil warm before i dive in to this motor and tranny?  ive got a tired 1975 cb550....

[ghost]

wash it really good, sweep the floor have plenty of your choice of beverage chilled(or hot as it may be)

[Bouncer]

Have extra oil-dri, and or kitty litter on hand just in case. 

[Tim in Ohio]

Take lots of digital pics from all angles so you can put things back together properly.  This will also enable you to post pics on this forum in order to ask questions of the group.  If you don't have a digital camera, beg borrow or steal one.

[Really?]

#1 - Know what you are doing.
#2 - If you do not know what you are doing, ask
#3 - If that is too hard, sell your bike
#4 - Plan and research a lot so you have a clue on what to do, what you want to do, what you can do, what you can afford, what you can't afford, what to be careful of, what to stay away from (OBB), and blah blah blah.

You get the picture.

Edit:  Oh, improve on SearchFu skills!!

[Bouncer]

Giga's #4 point is a HUGE one. I miscalculated how much planning was involved until I tore the bike apart and realized how big of a money pit this thing is. Not in a bad way at all, but once you start rebuilding you realize all those parts you thought you may re-use you decide to replace (for a number of reasons: safety, diff direction, styling, etc) and it adds up REAL quick.

[d3buttz]

well, the motor was great when i got the bike, so i did rear sets, dual disc coversion-cb750 forks blah blah made the bike as well set-up as possible. i beleive im competent to take on this challenge. I want to get this motor rebuilt to 100% proper order before i add performance parts-but i want to go to a more aggressive camshaft, cr carbs and a better exhaust, igniton etc. here are my issiues
1. one of my worries is that after i replace my cam to a hot street .330 lift and a 290' duration(and of course stiffer springs)-will i have to do any thing to the pistons? i worried about my valve clearance.....my under standing is that there is 2mm clearance stock to begine with.
2. im going to have a shop do a valve job-is a 3-way worth it?
3. have plenty of time-i was thinking about a full teardown of my transmission for the purpose of inspection-but the transmission is in good working order(i will put in a new cluch and springs of course)-is it worth it to take it all the way down just to inspect and clean or do i just replace the clutch discs.Also i do leak tiny drops out of my shifter lever shaft when its at operating temperature.  Can i stop this leak w/o opening the case?.........thoughts?
3. do i replace the rockers too? if the wear isnt bad i can keep them right?

[drackett_19]

Yeah please take lots of pictures, I've got to replace the rubber pucks under the cam towers on my 75 550 and any pics before I take the top end apart will be helpful.

cheers.

[ieism]

What's the milage? I have two 550's, both well over 50.000 miles and have no need to dive into the transmission. The gearbox still feels very good, even compared to a new bike. I did rebuild the topend.

What are you're reasons for rebuilding the engine? Cosmetic, just checking, performance?

[ieism]

Oh, and the shiftlever dripping oil is a common problem on 550's. It's just an O-ring that needs replacing if I remember correctly.

Do a search, and you"ll find the solution to that problem easily.

[d3buttz]

i only have 22,000 on the motor,   the power loss im sure is the valve adjustment thats out of tune(tick tick tick tick!) in the past 200 miles and the carbs have the velocity stacks- i adjusted the fuel mix as high as i could go- i diddint want to spend 200$ on a full carb rebuild if i can get the keihin cr carbs for 700$(ouch) and get a huge difference.  thanks for the advice on the tranny- ill leave it alone-  Its bananas how cold it is out here and it'll last another 5 months ive got alot of time and drive to build the motor as fast and reliable as possible. thanks guys! 
does any one have advice on the hot cam and the clearance issiue im afaraid of?
 also the cam rockers?
i want the motor to do the rest of the bike justice. vroom!

[montana550]

To add to Giga's list:

5. Print out the 550 shop manual.

[Geeto67]

check your charging system and make sure there are no other problems with the bike. That when you you put it back together and it is not charging or something else is wrong, you know to check the things you touched first.

[mlinder]

The cam you are looking at using wont require stiffer valve springs, but it won't hurt to replace old tired ones.
Tha'ts a fiarly hot cam. It probably can't do what it was designed to do without at least either increased compression (the sohc's are low compression bikes, 9.0:1), increased flow by having some headwork done, or both. A hot cam without these other things done is kind of useless, though I've heard the stock 650 cam in the 550 wakes it up a bit.
You could take the money you were going to spend on CR carbs and give to MReick to have him do a stage 2 port and polish. He can do a serdi valve job for you while hes at it.
If I were you, for the money, I would

1. Have MReick do a stage 2
2. Have MReick do your valve job
3. Have MReick deck the head to increase compression without having to buy expensive pistons
4. Buy cometic thin head gasket to increase compression a little more
5. Buy a 650 cam off of ebay
6. Rebuild your carbs and jet them accordingly
7. Find an exhaust that compliments these changes

These 7 things will give you a nice, rounded, reliable engine with a healthy increase in power across the rev range. At a reasonable price.

[pablo78cb550]

run sea foam through your crankcase. then drain the oil.
this will help loosen and remove dirt in the engine.

[mlinder]

I'd never put additives in a bike with a wet clutch. Just my opinion.
Not unless you are replacing your clutch.

[Spikeybike]

Yeah please take lots of pictures, I've got to replace the rubber pucks under the cam towers on my 75 550 and any pics before I take the top end apart will be helpful.

cheers.

the 75 550 doesn't have cam towers ... 

see

[ieism]

Bigger carbs are probably not going to make a huge difference on the 550's. Like they said, get the head ported instead, and spend the money on something else.
So you're running velocity stacks, but what exhaust do you plan on using? Maybe you can get some more HP with a freeflowing exhaust?

[Tim in Ohio]

$200 bucks for a carb rebuild?  Naw.  For my CB350F rebuild, I got 4 carb kits for $20 each. 
You mentioned before that you were thinking about tearing into your transmission... if you have the guts to do that, then surely you can handle a carb rebuild yourself.  If you don't have one, get a manual... also study posts on this forum.  As far as do-it-yourself bike procedures go... I consider a carb re-build to be a "Jessica Alba"...   (EXTREMELY do-able).
 

[Spikeybike]

i also think the carbs are extremely do-able 


 

[d3buttz]

this forum keeps giving me more ideas! ack! what about the 650 cam and 600cc ninja pistons? to much cost/work?

[Duke McDukiedook]

22K and your bike is tired? I guess it could be if it sat too long but you would probably have a lot more leaking. I had some clicking on my 750K3 and rough idling recently (thought I would have to tear it apart also) and eventually found that my spark plug wires were ate up and my carbs were way out of synch (I originally synched then with the old pods on and changed to the old airbox). Clipped the wires a little and synched the carbs with the airbox on and voila! Can hit a ton easily and idles a lot better. Go through the procedure of a tune up first and check your spark and charging system like what was previously said (check compression also). If ya got the time and money for the teardown go ahead, but I don't so I won't quite yet.

[ghost]

if it was mine, i'd start with a 650 cam, have your head ported of corse, then maybe some ninja carbs and a quality 4 to 1 exhaust. that'd really wake it up. anything more than that i'd probably look into a more modern bike. that's just me though.

[d3buttz]

you guys are great-thanks for all the advice-the 650 cam and headwork seems like the best way to go for the internal motor work thats on the cheap. once again-thanks!