I came across another 77 550f parked in portland and realized I've never actually seen a stock-ish one in person. (It was pretty stock except for things like clip ons, cafe-ish seat, etc) I was concerned that I wasn't going to be a fan of the 550 tank and dimensions compared to 400f, but looking at and sitting on this one (sorry owner) I am more stoked than ever to build this bike - I think the dimensions and lines are actually nicer than the 400f.
At this point there's only a few questions I have about what I want the bike to be - really just what rims and seat I want to use. Maybe it's a shame that I'm going through the entire bike and not doing any significant performance improvements when it would be just as easy as putting the bike back together stock. I used to be into cars / autocross, and took performance mods there really seriously, but with bikes, I'm not really an advanced rider who would really appreciate performance improvements. I just want a solid, good looking bike that I can take out of the city and rip around and enjoy for a day.
Given that bit of inspiration, I went and finished pulling all the bits out of the cases and cleaning the halves. I scrubbed the mating surfaces of the cases with a brass brush, which doesn't seem to be harming the aluminum. I platigauged the main crank bearings and all 5 were within tolerances, so the only clearances left to check are the camshaft and check that my pistons and cylinders are going to work.
yay for clean:
pile o' transmissions:
Making a mental shopping checklist for assembling a running motor, I see that it's time to start shelling out the cash:
to do:
- plastigauge cam clearances
- measure and confirm my ebayed pistons/cylinders are usable
- inspect and if necessary get the cylinder side of the head gasket surfaced
- clean up and inspect the cylinder base mating surfaces
- clean up exhaust manifold and have it coated
- assemble, clean exterior and paint the engine
- put engine in frame
junk to buy:
- full gasket set
- all the oil seals I can find.. some of mine are pretty soft or deteriorating
- new cam chain, tensioner/guides
- air filter, oil filter, new oil filter bolt (I had to kill mine to remove it)
- electronic ignition/coils/wires (need to research more.. dyna s? appropriate ohms, etc)
- replace cracked tapped cover
- a variety of bolts that I had to drill and extract
- clean/rebuild carbs
- find appropriate muffler
I'm probably going order what I can from DSS and pay their premium, since they've got so much of this stuff all in one place.
The one thing I'm worried about is that main chain I pulled out of the motor had some corrosion, but it appears to only be on the outside of two links, so I'm thinking I can get away with it:
On one last note, I got in touch with Ginger at New Church about either getting my stock seat recovered or just making a new one. Her stuff looks really, really awesome (
http://newchurchmoto.blogspot.com/), but I still don't know if I want to try and use the stock pan and cut the foam down a bit or just make a pan.. I'd love the usability of the stock seat/hinge/lock, but damn is that one big, fat, long seat.