Author Topic: Yet another CB550 (Read 7310 times)

drumgod · « **on:** July 21, 2009, 08:15:41 PM »

Hi all. Well I found this board almost a year ago while researching a "barn bike". Well, It finally made it "home". I think this build will move a bit slowly, but I don't plan on abandoning it.

It's a 1976 cb550K. It seems to have 5260 original miles on it. It's been unmoved for almost 20 years. Some of the chrome seems recoverable. Other bits are not. Most of the aluminum is starting to corrode. I think she should clean up okay though. The engine is going to be the hardest part. If there is one thing I've learned by lurking on this board it's that you guys like pictures. Here are a few pics as found and with some bits removed:

drumgod · « **Reply #1 on:** July 21, 2009, 08:20:23 PM »

Here's a few interesting things. Factory tools, seemingly untouched owner's manual, and a genuine Honda helmet that brings back some memories... Did I mention I'm the second owner and this was the FIRST motorcycle I ever rode on? I was around 8 at the time.

drumgod · « **Reply #2 on:** July 21, 2009, 08:21:52 PM »

Okay... more pics tomorrow after I get the carbs off.

indyracer · « **Reply #3 on:** July 21, 2009, 08:29:59 PM »

Nice find. That helmet is awesome.

CaféElite · « **Reply #4 on:** July 21, 2009, 09:00:10 PM »

If the helmet ever comes up for sale I call dibs (IE: PM me what you want for it)

drumgod · « **Reply #5 on:** July 22, 2009, 11:01:07 AM »

If I decide to sell the helmet I'll let you know. I'm going to hold on to it for now...

drumgod · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2009, 07:08:50 PM »

Alrighty, the carbs are off. I followed TwoTired's removal instructions and all went well. Not a fun thing to do, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The worst part is the springy retention clip things holding the hoses on. Is there a trick for these? I ended up fishing the bundle of overflow tubes (and the two in the top middle, not sure of their purpose yet) up enough to mostly remove the carbs without detaching them first.

They are on the bench now. Externally, then don't look too bad. The stamp on the ears say "087A". Hmm. I was kinda expecting "022A"... I'm starting to realize that, after almost a year of lurking, I still have no idea what I'm doing.

What is under the smaller, two screw covers... looks pretty clean under there. I'll button it back up until I know I have a reason to pull them.

So, the float bowls are pretty obvious. Remove the screws. Man, those puppies are stuck on there pretty good. A couple seconds of shuffling for leverage and "pop"... Yuck! Okay, I'm sure these are not supposed to look this way. Everything is furry/snotty and reeks of condensed gasoline.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. I read through the CB750 carb rebuild link from the FAQs. The basic concept seems the same, but very much different in form. I'd like to avoid as many of those "stupid mistakes" as possible. Since I'm new at this, I'd also like to avoid breaking down the carbs as much as possible. I'm going to head over to the SOHC4 Bikes section and post some questions...

Enjoy the pics:

drumgod · « **Reply #7 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:48:56 AM »

Well, I haven't made much progress. I got some great answers here: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=55485.0 Friday night I started cleaning and disassembling the carbs and ran into a problem. Three of the four floats where completely seized. After after a couple of days of soaking with PB Blaster I was able to free up two and remove their pins. A third seemed like it was going to come out but seized again half way there. I was rotating the pin trying to loosen it up and though it was coming... and instead I separated the brass "sleeve" from the float itself. I'm not too worried about that. It should be pretty straight forward to braze it back in once I get the pin out... It's getting the pin out that's the problem.

It looks to me like I have two options:

1. Get (or make) replacement pins and use some careful Dremel work to remove the remaining two pins.

2. Make a pin press that can apply some pretty good pressure without braking off the pin stanchions. (or whatever people call them...)

Wish me luck. I'll post some more pics when I make some progress.

indyracer · « **Reply #8 on:** July 31, 2009, 08:55:39 PM »

I feel your pain man...doing the exact same thing. Thanks for finding the above thread, its a goldmine of info. I tried using a ultrasonic cleaner today, and it didn't do jack for my bowls. A dip in cleaner for a few hours will hopefully do the trick. Good luck and post pics of the before and after photos when they're done!

Zaipai · « **Reply #9 on:** July 31, 2009, 09:22:56 PM »

Good luck man, I let mine soak in cleaner for hours and they came free, however it was not as bad as yours. I did end up using a center punch and a small hammer and got the pins out and once cleaned they worked great.

Did you get the bike from a friend or from an advert?

drumgod · « **Reply #10 on:** August 07, 2009, 08:26:30 PM »

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a busy week.

I have continued to move forward with the bike though. It's slow going but I am making headway. The carb bank is separated. I did that to get better access to the float pins. They are now out. Here is the thread about that: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=55870

I'm working through the carbs one at a time. They are REALLY gunked up. Spray carb cleaner and Simple Green made them look nice and clean but was not enough to free up the jets. They are really stuck in there. I ended up getting a 1gal. can of "gunk" carb cleaner. It's been mentioned on the here on the board several times. $16 at Farm and Fleet. I pulled the slide and gave it a 30 min. soak, scrub with toothbrush, 30 min. more soak and the jets come out with a bit elbow grease.

Heres something I have learned the hard way: When I first opened the cards the ancient gas was syrupy and sticky. I pulled the first slide out without issue... After a few days of sitting, the remaining slides froze up pretty damn good. The Gunk carb cleaner released the second one, but it took more force than I was comfortable with. I still have two to dislodge. I'm tempted to let them soak a bit longer but that Gunk stuff is pretty caustic.

I'm still having problems cleaning the jets... The slows are completely blocked.

indyracer: I've been meaning to borrow an ultrasonic cleaner from work. I was thinking of trying the Gunk cleaner in it with the jets. What where you using yours on and with what in it?

Zaipai: I guess you could say it was a friend. The bike belonged to my (now) stepdad. Ages ago, around '78 when he was just my mom's boyfriend, he used to take me for rides on it. It was the first motorcycle I was ever on.

Well, I have the bodies of two carbs cleaned. I'm still working on clearing the jets. I have the fenders off the bike and hope to get them cleaned up this weekend. I have new master cylinder guts and new fork seals. I'll have to tackle them soon. If the weather cooperates this weekend I want to give the frame/wheels/engine some cleaning attention. I have a can of Gunk foamy engine cleaner and a gallon of Simple Green... I'll post pics when there is some sort of visual progress. Later...

Zaipai · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2009, 07:13:14 AM »

Don't know if this will help much but I went to crc2onlinecatalog.com and under the tools section (under tools) I found a carb cleaner (pictured below) and that really helped a lot. It was less then $10..

indyracer · « **Reply #12 on:** August 08, 2009, 10:24:13 PM »

I put the whole 4 carbs in the ultrasonic I used, with a mixture of water and baking soda. I didn't see any effect. If they are completely gunked up, I would try using a small 28 guage wire, or the tool mentioned above. I just pulled mine out of a lemon juice solution that I read about on here, and it did manage to free up most of the buildup on the bodies. I'll inspect the jets tomorrow. Keep us posted!

B.O.X.N.I.F.E. · « **Reply #13 on:** August 09, 2009, 04:25:35 PM »

Hey drumgod, you got a PM from me. Good looking bike.

drumgod · « **Reply #14 on:** August 16, 2009, 08:33:50 PM »

Well, work has continued. I'm almost ready to reassemble the carbs. I'm looking for someone local to polish the bowls and top covers and I need to try and braze the float I damaged with my pin removal escapades. The ultrasonic cleaner I borrowed has done a pretty darn good job of unblocking the jets. I was an idiot though and lost one of the springs from behind the idle mixture screw. The local Honda dealer has a pile of various springs. When I actually get to reassembling I'll go pick through them and try to find a match.

There where a couple of nice days last weekend so I was able to roll the bike out and do some cleaning. Foamy Engine Brite, Simple Green and some elbow grease later she's looking a whole hell of a lot better. I'm surprised at how well some of the chrome is cleaning up. There's a bit of rust here and there on the frame, but she looks pretty good over all.

This weekend I got the front end torn apart. There is more rust on the forks than I had hoped but less than I feared. The light mounting ears and fork boots cleaned up pretty well, so they will again hide the rust that is there. I had hoped to tear down the forks, master cylinder and caliper but time did not allow. I did track down the Dow Corning High Vacuum Grease and Raybestos Hydraulic Brake Assembly Fluid. Hopefully I can do that this week.

I've decided I *really* don't like the appearance of the stock tail light. I want to do something that accentuates the length and curve of the rear fender. My current plan is to have nothing mounted on the fender at all. I have some chrome turn signals a buddy took off of an old Yamaha that I am working on converting to dual element sockets. They mount nicely to the fender mount holes on either side of the seat. The goal is to run red lenses and have the pair work as combination running/turn/brake lights. That should be easy to accomplish using a "3-wire" trailer adapter box. I would then mount the license plate on the left side chopper/bobber style. I think the pair of lights should be visible enough if I use 3 or 5 watt LED dual intensity "bulbs". If not, I have a small but bright, seven LED, dual intensity bar I can mount on the top of the fender at the base of the seat. It's actually an aftermarket "enduro" brake light. If it all works I will document it with pics.

Speaking of pics, here a few more:

Zaipai · « **Reply #15 on:** August 16, 2009, 09:40:51 PM »

Wow, it did clean up nice. I will be waiting to see how the tail lights turn out. I came up with some thing on mine that looks better then the stock light, but not much better so I am looking to replace it with some thing. Perhaps this is the thing?
Well good luck and keep the pic's coming!

drumgod · « **Reply #16 on:** August 19, 2009, 08:03:16 PM »

I think this LED taillight thing is going to work great. I found the trailer adapter I need to mux the turn signals into the brake lights for $16.95 at U-Haul. I ordered a couple of 1157 sockets along with a pair of 3 watt LED "bulbs". The turn signals came apart easily and with some slight modifications the new dual element sockets fit right in where the old single ones came out. I topped the whole thing off with some red lenses. I think a pair of these assemblies is going to work great for running/break/turn signals while still keeping the vintage feel of the bike. Man, they seem really bright. In these pics the light is running off a 9 volt battery...

drumgod · « **Reply #17 on:** September 04, 2009, 07:50:51 PM »

Okay, I think I've finally reached the point where I am no longer dissembling and cleaning. Time for some reassembly!

I sand blasted the rusty exhaust flanges and sprayed them Dupli-color "ceramic" engine enamel. (DE 1615 Aluminum.) So far it looks to be a really close match to the factory engine paint.

I decided to go with Dunlop K70s. I got some good feedback about Dunlop tires in this thread: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=56537.0 I'm not really trying to do the Cafe thing so I passed on the TT100s for now. I think the K70s have a kinda' retro cool, meaty look to them. I'm digging them so far. I decided I didn't want to deal with mounting the tires myself so for a hair under $100 the local Honda shop removed the original tires, replaced a spoke, trued the wheels, put new tires and rim strips on, and balanced them up.

drumgod · « **Reply #18 on:** September 04, 2009, 07:53:14 PM »

I also decided NOT to convert the headset to needle bearings yet. The bike only has a bit more than 5K miles on it and the balls and races still look great. At some point I'll likely tear the bike completely down, have the frame powder coated and re-paint/polish the motor. I'll upgrade the bearings at that time. Based on info found here and the feedback I got in this thread: http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=57266.0 I rebuilt the forks with new seals, 6oz of 10 weight fork oil and some 1" shims I made on the lathe. If the forks seem to stiff I'll knock the shims back until I like the feel. Everything went together as expected. I got the turn signals mounted in the correct location as well. I cleaned up the corrosion on the fork legs with red, then green scotch brite pads. They came out with a nice "brushed" finish. I couldn't find any clear that was spec'ed to go straight on bare metal so I used a metal polish that is supposed to leave a silicone protecting layer... we'll see how they hold up.

The guys in the machine shop were cool enough to drill my $16.95 drag bars to re-run the wires internally. They stuck them in some CAD controlled machine and they came out great. She's sitting back on two wheels and is starting to look like a motorcycle again. I wonder if I'll be able to get it together before the cold forces it into it's winter sleep... We'll see.

Ecosse · « **Reply #19 on:** September 04, 2009, 09:04:11 PM »

they did a great job on those bars! and your progress isn't shabby either, nice work.

could i trouble you for a close up shot of the paint finish...?

Zaipai · « **Reply #20 on:** September 04, 2009, 09:05:54 PM »

Yea nice work.. The forks should stay shinny if you don't ride in the rain with out wiping them down after wards and if you can keep the bike in a garage or shed..

drumgod · « **Reply #21 on:** September 05, 2009, 03:33:31 PM »

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Quote from: Ecosse on September 04, 2009, 09:04:11 PM

...could i trouble you for a close up shot of the paint finish...?

No problem. The tank looks pretty good still. I haven't done anything to it but dust it off. It's darkish cloudy right now and I have to pack for a gig. Tomorrow I'll try to get you a pic in the sun.

Ecosse · « **Reply #22 on:** September 05, 2009, 05:21:25 PM »

i'm eager to see any pix ya can post but i shoulda been more explicit. i'm curious about the engine paint in particular.

drumgod · « **Reply #23 on:** September 06, 2009, 08:30:53 PM »

Quote from: Ecosse on September 05, 2009, 05:21:25 PM

i'm eager to see any pix ya can post but i shoulda been more explicit. i'm curious about the engine paint in particular.

Ahh... Gotcha. No sun today anyway.

Actually, I have not re-painted the engine at this time. Much of the bike started cleaning up pretty well so I decided not to do the engine until I decide when/what to do as a final direction for the project. For now I am mostly just doing a tear down, clean, repair/reassemble. The aluminum on the engine shows the characteristic corrosion of many older bikes. The lower painted areas look good and the fins are "okay". The exhaust collars are just kind of a test to see how the paint looks and lasts.

Ecosse · « **Reply #24 on:** September 08, 2009, 07:52:53 AM »

"ah, now i see" said the blind man.

those exhaust flanges look swell though!

staying tuned.

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Author Topic: Yet another CB550 (Read 7310 times)