Topic: My throttle cables - 1977 CB550K

[Joe Danger]

I  snapped a throttle cable around the beginning of April, the pull cable.  It was pretty old, I suppose it was about time.  I hopped on the old Ebay, and ordered one up.  Got a great price, from classiccycleparts.com.  When it arrived, it turned out to be the push cable.  They were great about it, immediately agreed to send the proper cable.  In the mean time, I hooked that up, persuaded the throttle-tube end, and got it mounted as a loose, but functional pull cable.

The correct cable came today, it's a brand-new motion pro, looks great, feels great.  Here's the thing:  It's short.  It's short like the push cable, so it's hooked up around that little adjuster bolt on the front of the butterfly.  I checked the part number, it's a 41-2007, or 02-007, so it should be correct.  It's simply not long enough to go to the back of the butterfly and pull the pretty way, even with the adjusters slacked.

So, I have the right cable, hooked to the front of the butterfly instead, and it works great.  But somehow, I feel like I've missed something getting it hooked up.  Any insight?  It's about an inch shy of being long enough, pretty frustrating.

[Robert]

Hmmmm. I just finished rolling my own cables for a cb650 (took out that ape hanger vs. a handlebar from a BMW cruiser -> stock cables too long  ) and noticed that the pull cable (cable A) is about two inches longer than the push cable (B). routing and carbs/butterfly are quite similar to your 550 so I guess the "push/pull relation" is it too, so maybe your motionpro is simply, well, short.

Maybe another cable routing will give you the extra inch.

Apart from that, is the handlebar the original one?

[Joe Danger]

I believe so, it looks correct from the pictures of others I've seen.  The outer cable is quite long enough, I have the fitting routed forward from the throttle assembly and then bowing back.  Perhaps turning that inward would help.  Regardless, I just rode, and it sure was fun, even if it's not proper.

[Tim.]

Save yourself time trouble (and money) and get the cables from Honda.  They're not expensive, and still available.

[74cb750]

I agree with tintin, go see Honda OEM parts. What happens with many aftermarket cables is: they are manufactured to very loose tolerances, and sometimes if one cables is close enough to another, the seller says, sure they're the same. Just my 2 cents worth. Some people will do anything for a buck, non? michel

[74cb750]

Just recieved new throttle cables from Parts Unlimited via Dennnis Kirk and VERY unhappy. The cables don't match. One is black, with cheap plastic outer and the other is chromed! Give me a break! It looks like junk. Time to drive to the honda dealer, like I recommended.

[phylo101]

Hi guys. It s always better to reroute the cable, theres ALWAYS a better route than wot the factory used lol Its a pity that when the new-look site and forums (fora?) were created the old posts werent carried over cos this was done to death.....
Unless youre an originality freak, just junk the closiing/return cable entirely, especially on a 550. Its totally superfluous, unnecessary, and means an extra cable to lube. And letting it bung up or not lubing it creates a stick rotten throttle action too....halve your problems at a stroke, you'll NEVER regret it

phylo