Topic: 1975 cb500t, 3000 miles.

[jscro73]

team,
i'm picking up a 1975 cb500t tomorrow. The bike only has 3000 miles and a gnarly oil leak. other than that, it's perfect. i'm guessing the bike sat for a while before my buddy bought it and the seals/gaskets dried out and that's why the oil leaks. What should i do? What can i do to a 500t to make it run better than stock. i dont want to build it, but i know they are known to be underpowered for the size motor.

any thoughts? I figure if i end up having to pull the motor to replace seals and gaskets, i might as well go ahead and make some motor upgrades.

thanks.
i'll post a photo when i get it home, although, if you've seen a brown one, you've seen this one.

jason

[tbpmusic]

Where exactly is it leaking?? You may not have to pull the engine, depending.

As for performance, don't expect too much, yeah?? Any modern 250 will probably blow it into the weeds.
It will behave about like the smaller 450 it's based on. But a good-running 450 will win in a race......
There were no improvements at all to performance when they "upgraded" to 500, actually they lost a bit.
Any potential increases from the larger displacement were lost due to more restrictive exhaust, tamer cams, etc.

[jscro73]

yeah, i was thinking about finding a better cam, porting and polishing the head, opening up the exhaust and beefing up the carbs. Then i'll probably lower it a little bit.
My wife likes it, and she's going to be riding it, so i'm not too worried about it. Maybe i'll just fix the leaks, and do all the head work to my 750/4!

jason

[grumburg]

team,
i'm picking up a 1975 cb500t tomorrow. The bike only has 3000 miles and a gnarly oil leak. other than that, it's perfect. i'm guessing the bike sat for a while before my buddy bought it and the seals/gaskets dried out and that's why the oil leaks. What should i do? What can i do to a 500t to make it run better than stock. i dont want to build it, but i know they are known to be underpowered for the size motor.

any thoughts? I figure if i end up having to pull the motor to replace seals and gaskets, i might as well go ahead and make some motor upgrades.

thanks.
i'll post a photo when i get it home, although, if you've seen a brown one, you've seen this one.

jason

Restored a 500T 2 yrs ago and sold it right away. Don't expect any magical performance improvements. It's no CB450, but is a solid bike.  Where is the oil leaking from?