Topic: Reviving Shenanigans CB550 Cafe: Phase longest build possible?

[Little_Horse]

I have been struggling with leaks too, seems it is the way my friend. Some people may get lucky in that regard but how many people are later posting on their original build thread their leak failures. I know I mentioned it but did I mention because of it I now need to repaint the motor. So don't think its just you.

You might be able to find a cheap gasket kit like I did on ebay. The motor is dirt simple to work on. It has an over exccesive amount of bolts and nuts but it is not complicated. You can download the manual section "engine" and it walks you through tear down and re assembly.

How did you verify that 1 and 4 where not firing?

Hang in there and godspeed!

[B.O.X.N.I.F.E.]

hang in there man, i've been working on a project non stop and am getting sooooo burned out that all the little things the last couple days have been wearing me down. with you working at a dealership you'll probably be less enthusiastic to sort out BS with your own bike.

worst case scenerio, TAS Classic Motorsports sells the Vesrah complete gasket kit for our bikes for about 65$. That, and you know the ignition issue is going to be some little nit picky crap, you'll just have to sort it out when you have the patience.

as for the right tools, when I did my full rebuild i used my basic tools, and the few things I needed special I bought at harbor freight, took good care of, then returned them when I was done.

[JAG]

Great build bud. Keep your head up!

Do you have a close up of those fork boots? How are they attached at the top?

I bought some fork ears off here and they are the wrong style. They dont have the attachment at the top for the fork boots. So I was curious how you did it.

Thanks!

[000jeremy]

It sounds like you've got your ignition problem sorted out and I cant really offer any technical advice that you haven't already thought of, but the right music always powers me through such a funk.  Godless Noise by Infernal Stronghold with a little Townes Van Zandt got me through a few tough days, but we all have our own tastes. 

[Shenanigans]

I guess anger is good motivator because I worked on the bike all day.

I verified 1-4 not firing by riding and then pulling the number one plug cap off, no difference and the motor ran the same. Did the same with number 4. Same thing.

I put a multimeter on EVERYTHING. Evey thing was in check. Searched the wiring harness top to bottom, took off all electric tape. I finally found a tiny wear spot in one of the wires that go from the ignition to the coil. It also happend to be right next to a tiny spot on the frame that had been rubbed raw from the gas tank. It must have been somehow jumping from that tiny exposed spot past the insulation to the frame causing the coil not to fire. I wrapped it up in a ton of electrical tape and the its now firing. So far anyways.

Float was sticking, mallet solved it.

Found a good cam end cap cover and stuck it on. One leak down. Cleaned the motor and put a new oil pan gasket in. No leaks, rode it around and it was leaking. Took off the sprocket cover kind of hoping I just messed up putting it on. Shifter seal seems good. I threw some baby powder at on that area. Leak is coming from the god damn oil pump!

I still have to figure out how to seal the aftermarket tappet covers but worse case I can just dig the seal out of my old caps.

Fork boots are from cycle-x and attach directly from the fork slider to the fork tube.

So any advice of what is mostly likely leaking with the oil pump?

[Shenanigans]

The problem area.

[Frankenkit]

....I'm curious too. That looks like my leak.  (but mine's pretty slow, and I'd rather not touch it until I have to...)

[IAmCitizenMe]

So any advice of what is mostly likely leaking with the oil pump?

I had a leak in the same spot. I got some o-rings from Bike Bandit which slowed the leak to an occasional drip.

[Shenanigans]

So any advice of what is mostly likely leaking with the oil pump?

I had a leak in the same spot. I got some o-rings from Bike Bandit which slowed the leak to an occasional drip.

How hard of a job was it? After finding some pictures of the oil pumps on Ebay it seems pretty simple. Just the one o-ring. I tried to take of the oil pump on my extra 550 bottom end but broke my impact driver bit. 

[IAmCitizenMe]

So any advice of what is mostly likely leaking with the oil pump?

I had a leak in the same spot. I got some o-rings from Bike Bandit which slowed the leak to an occasional drip.

How hard of a job was it? After finding some pictures of the oil pumps on Ebay it seems pretty simple. Just the one o-ring. I tried to take of the oil pump on my extra 550 bottom end but broke my impact driver bit. 

I didn't have a problem with it. There are two small o-rings and a larger one.
You broke you impact driver bit? Impressive.

[fastbroshi]

  I think I read on here the correct O rings are MIA from Honda, just need to get the correct size.  


Are these it (#18)?  If so I'd google it, maybe their available in viton from somewhere:

PN: 91301-268-020  13.6X2.4

[Frankenkit]

18 or 19?

[fastbroshi]

I'm betting it's the smaller ones.

[traveler]

Seriously....if you guys find a source for these babies, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know....I got a leak too!....

~Joe

[smack]

Hey everybody...I have that exact same leak. I just ordered all three O rings yesterday from my local honda
dealer Part# 91301-268-020 for the 2 small ones (14mm) and Part# 91302-250-010 for the big one (47mm)
I hope that this fixes the leak. But I did notice that when I took my Oil pump off, I only have 1 of the
small O ring retaining collars (#6 on the diagram) I can't seem to find those anywhere. I'll let you know if
the new O rings solve the leak.

[IAmCitizenMe]

I actually checked my oil leak today and, as it turns out, it DID fix the leak. The oil is dripping from the rocker arm covers. I replaced those with new o-rings from Bike Bandit and it still leaks. But the oil pump is tight as a drum.

[Shenanigans]

As soon as I can track down that O-ring I will do it. Its only like a couple bucks but I dont want to wait a week for it to ship. My next day off is Tuesday so I hope I can get it done then if not sooner!

[Shenanigans]

God damn it I hate seized bolts. Did they not use anti-seize in the 70's?

All three bolts had to be drilled out. Is there any reason I cant replace them with a normal bolt? Also the offending o-ring. I went to harbor freight and got one of the metric o-ring packs. One of them was pretty close so I tried it. I reused the big o-ring. I am going to ride it to work tomorrow to see if it worked, if not I am going to order from Honda tomorrow.

[Nortstudio]

Whatever happened to the refresh???

I happened upon this accidentally, looking for info for steering dampers on a 550.

Ever get this ready for the next trip?

Hope so.....

[Shenanigans]

Been too busy riding and beating it up. Its starting to get close to the next tear down. That oil leak was the last loose end. I never really got the leak to go away until recently. Long story short it DID turn out to be the inspection cover o-ring.

Life is trying to get in the way of another trip but its not lost yet.

[Nortstudio]

I'm sure if you keep it in the back of your mind, eventually life will lead you down that road once again.

Until then, keep beating it up!

[scottly]

Hey Chris!! Good to hear from you! If you're busy riding and beating up the 550, I guess the arm has healed well. Too bad you missed the relay; your photo-journalistic skills would have come in handy. 

[Shenanigans]

Well, something in the motor finally gave. It sounded pretty bad, "Click click clunk clunk  BAHHH" (or something similar) and then she seized. I expected it to be pretty bad and I finally got a chance to open the motor up. I was thinking it ate a valve or something along those lines. Turns out the far side oil passage under the cam appears to have lost pressure/got clogged and friction had a little bit of a party. When I took the head off I did not see anything in the passage and oil jets but who knows. I have another head that I am going to rebuild but I wanted to ask if this head is completely toast because of the wear?

It has also got me thinking. The Click click CLICK CLUNK sounded pretty horrible. I could feel it in the motor. It felt in the bars like someone was hitting the internals with a big hammer or something. So I need to check over the bottom end somehow. The cam scoring may have been an old wound.

Since I now have to rebuild the motor, I might as well put some good stuff in there. So phase 3 it is.

Here is the plan: I have a set of CB750 pistons Soos was kind enough to mill down for me. So those are going to go in. Going to do a decent cam and springs along with fresh gaskets, cam chain and O-rings. Rebuild the head. I also really want to do external oil lines to the head just to save the hassle of those leaking passage o-rings down the road. Maybe a little more cosmetic stuff too. I have an aluminum rear rim, just need to find a front. Maybe clean polish and paint some more stuff to get it looking better. I cant give up the 4-4 pipes so I might find some good stock headers and see what kind of mufflers I could rig up.

[lucky]

It is lucky you were not killed on that trip.

The confederate flag  probably did not help. You will learn about that someday I hope.

All those hormones runn'n around.

[Elniniomuchachos]

You should add a oil pressure gauge to your setup. I picked one up and am going to install it this weekend. Hopefully it will help me prevent blowing it up.

I see you are in Tempe. Any interest in getting a little shop or weekly ride together or something?