Topic: New Bike

[Pawsoff]

Woot!
New Bike, my father checked with my uncle who had a 1977 CB550F sitting in his shed for the last 15 years, if he wanted to sell it. He did
they brought it down today for me, a complete surprise, of course I said yes
The other bike will go back into storage for now, as this is a much better platform to work off of.
I am quite excited as this bike is in better shape than my original and should be all ready in short order.
I will have to do a couple of things, mostly small items, mostly I will have to POR-15 the tank as it has a fair amount of surface rust.
The POR-15 kit was just ordered from www.por15canada.com and should arrive soon
The small items so far look like:
- replace the kick start (was welded back on a some point, orientation is off)
- replace the points cover
- replace the right rear turn signal (yes, it does seem that at one point the bike was laid down)
- give the carbs a quick clean
- start removing some of the rust from the chome pieces.

Things I would like to do soon after the bike is running:
- install a Dyna S ignition
- change the fuse block to an ATC style one

Here are some pictures

[KB02]

Nice! I would take that in a heartbeat, too.

[Pawsoff]

spent a few hours today, giving most of the chrome bits a once over with polish.
I have to say, chrome can be a P.I.T.A but when its shiney..... its pretty much worth it
Managed to get the front wheel, front fender, headlight bucket + ears, gauges, bars, mirrors,
exhaust +header, grab rail, rear fender and taillight assembly....... a quickish once over.... my fingers feel
the effort.

I noticed that the front rim has a dent on the edge of it and after cleaning them, I believe my other set of rims/tires are in better shape and newer, so I will switch them over.
I was going to swap the kickstart from my other bike but noticed that it is a different style, I don't know if I feel like cutting the kick
start and rewelding it properly (PO), so I may grab another one.
When polishing I noticed the botton of the exhaust had a seedy spot, as well as the rear fender underneath the taillight assembly. I figue I will have to grind em out a bit and weld or seal em, to prevent more rot. Any suggestions?

[Alan F.]

I figure I will have to grind em out a bit and weld or seal em, to prevent more rot. Any suggestions?

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/klean-strip-rust-converter-wrc22-p-12824.aspx

You can get this stuff at walmart, I've used it everywhere on my bike.
Very highly recommended.
-Alan

[Pawsoff]

Thanks for that info Alan, I will give it a shot on the fenders, I don't know how well it would hold up on the exhaust though.

[cb350twin]

I believe my other set of rims/tires are in better shape and newer, so I will switch them over.

Ya was gonna say. I don't think Yokohama or Nitto make tires anymore for motorcycles.  So there probably pretty old. How much did you get her for?

[Pawsoff]

still negotiating price, but I figure around $500

[cadaver]

Nice find ... happy build to you.

[Pawsoff]

bought some new NGK D7EA sparkplugs this morning, and am mostly done reassembling the carbs,
the float bowl gaskets..... I HATE THEM, some of the stock ones were in rough shape, so I was going
to use the aftermarket ones from my other set of carbs. One of them must have gotten pinched on the last reassembly and has a cut and of course them seem to have swelled and won't sit down into the groove for reassembly.
As suggested by some posts...
I think I will try: putting them in the over at 200 degrees for 10 mins and either some superglue in the corners or spray adhesive to get them to sit down in the groove.
This bike has pods, the slow jet is a 38 and the main is 98, does that seem like the correct set up?

[flybox1]

YEAH...those new gaskets can be a biiaatch! if they contact gas, they will swell.  just let them air dry and they will shrink.
super glue works for reattaching at splits, and strategically placed tiny strips of double sided scotch tape can help hold it in for reassembly....

[Pawsoff]

Thanks Flybox, I have the bowls and gaskets in the oven now, found some superglue, will splice the that and put a wee dap in the corners to keep em in the groove for reassembly.
I did some searching and found that 38 and 98 are indeed the correct jet sizes, I have note taken them apart enough to look at the clip position and don't intend to this time round.
However I did note that the floats had different numbers on the black float part, is this something of concern?

[flybox1]

i havent seen the floats of a 550F, so i dont know if numbering like this is standard.  (my 350f has no numbering) the important thing is to get the each bowl to fill and maintain the same fuel levels while running.  if you suspect these floats are not all similar because of the numbering, you might want to install the carbs, drain the bowls, screw clear 1/8" tubing into the drain holes and secure the tubing up next to the side of the bowl@ the gasket seam.  turn the fuel on and see where the fuel level stops.  if its @ 4mm under the gasket seam line, your float height is correct.  if its not, you'll need to indivdually tune that float setting to get the fuel level correct.

[Pawsoff]

I ended up using superglue to splice the broken newish gasket and using double sided scotch tape to hold the corners down, it worked!
Mind you, you have to be quick as that tape dosn't hold very well, or for very long.
I brought out the heat gun, warmed up the carb insulators and popped on the carbs, next up....
see if I can get spark.

[patricke9]

Little late I realize, but I usually use a little bit of Hondabond in the corners to hold the gaskets in place.

[Pawsoff]

No spark..... grrr
I am not that well versed in the use of a multimeter but so far I was able to test the battery (12v), the points (9.7v... I think). I did not know how to test the coils offhand so I swapped my coil pack for the one on my parts bike.... it was working last year.... but still no spark.
Looks like I will have to research the site some more and find out how to trace the wires that give spark.
Pray for me 

[Pawsoff]

anyone have a indicator assembly they want to sell? the back half of mine is missing a chunck of the plastic housing. The first pic in this post shows which type it is

[bucky katt]

put the ohmmeter leads onto the power terminals to the coil, that will show the resistance (like stock 750 coils are 5 ohms and my green dyna coils should be 3 but one showed 3.8 the other one 7 ohms) you can also test the resistance of your stokc spark plug resistor caps those as far as i know are all 5k ohms i think.

[Pawsoff]

IT LIVES!!!
I spent some time this morning, completing the last stage of the POR-15 tank liner, I rolled that tank around for 1.25 hrs solid. Last time I did the liner on my other tank, I had about half the liner fluid left over, this time however... there was nothing left to drain out, the whole amount ended up getting spread around. This is ideal as I had no other use for it anyways and I would rather have a thicker coating of it in there.
I will let is dray till about tuesday, to ensure that its good to go.

After done with the tank, I went back outside and followed the advise of many posts, and cleaned up the electrical connectors by the coils, left side cover and the points. While I went in for lunch, my brother played with the points a bit and got it fired up!!!
For not running in 10-15 years, it sounded pretty good, its a bit rough at the moment but that is to be expected as there is only one new plug in there at the moment and its not been tuned up yet. Tomarrow I will clean up the rest of the electrical connections.

[Alan F.]

That's great news, I'll bet it feels great too. Congrats!
-A

[Pawsoff]

I just placed an order on Z1 Enterprises for:

- Dyna ignition
- Dyna 5 ohm coils
- Dyna sparkplug wires
- NGK sparkplug caps

I feel like christmas presents are comming

[Pawsoff]

well I am 95% done cleaning up the electrical connections and of course... near the end... one of the double female bullet connectors broke. I clipped off the same plug from the parts bike and will put it on tomarrow, picked up a heat shrink/solder connecter to use with it. I was quite surprised with how well the electrical parts cleaned up, everything is all shiney and even the clear plastic sheaths cleaned up.

[Pawsoff]

Things accomplished so far:
- Cleaned chrome bits, first pass anyways
- lined tank with POR-15
- cleaned up the carbs and swapped out some o-rings/gaskets from my other set
- replaced rear signal
- installed Dyna Coils/wires/ignition, NGK plugs/caps
- cleaned up all the electrical connections I could get ahold of
- put on new tire/rim/sprocket assembly from parts bike
- repaired right side panel with flexible plastic repair epoxy
- removed pods and reinstalled airbox assembly
- set valves and dynamic timing
- replaced sparkplugs with NGK D7EA
- corrected kick start (PO had it attached backwards)

Left to do:
- swap front tire over from parts bike
- change airbox to correct style (comming in the mail now) and get a filter.
- change oil/filter (rotella)
- Prime/Paint the tank and side panels (already prepped, brother will paint in 2-3 days!!)
- rebuild the master cylinder (have kit)
- clean up the font caliper and replace seal (have seal)
- replace Throttle (push/pull), speedo, tach, brake cables (preventative)
- synchronize the carbs (morgan carbtune in the mail)
- RIDE THE BIKE!