Hello all,
First let me say I am a new member to this form, but I have been reading it for about 6mo now. That was when my wife bought me this CB550 as a project bike.
It came with a Vetter faring, but I couldn't stand to look at it, so it got removed before any pictures, as did the seat.
Here she is. My wife paid $400 for it at a garage sale. Supposedly it ran up until it was parked in 1996. But it has no battery, and all the cables are locked up so I haven't been able to test it prior to disassembly. I was able to check using the kick starter and it does appear to have compression, thus I figure everything else can be fixed (and I'm praying for no transmission issues.)
After it sat 6mo under the carport, we finally got the garage cleaned out to move it in there to be worked on.
Tonight we got started. Removed the rear fender, rear lights, the air box, battery box, and electrical panel. Also removed the carbs.
Then we moved to the front of the bike and removed the front fender, instruments, and ignition. Started to remove the handlebars and ran into the first "challenge." Because the bike had formerly had that Vetter faring the wiring was all in the headlight assembly. Not only was it all a birdsnest in there, but there had been some modification to the wiring to add the faring harness.
So, after many disconnected wires, and a few cliped "modified" connections I was able to get everything out with its respective harness. Thus was able to remove the handlebars as well.
So I think it was a pretty good use of the 2 hours prior to Sons of Anarchy this evening. Now if I can only remember how it all goes back.
Looking into the future here is what I expect....
We are looking to do a cafe style bike. If usable we will keep the tank, but will replace the seat with a fiberglass one. While I am very inexperienced, I hope to be able to reroute the electical components and battery to under the cowl for that clean open look.
I plan on rebuilding the carbureators myself. Then rather than going back with the airbox, go with individual K&N style filters.
The big unknowns at this point are the costs involved with the paint scheme we want to do, and whether or not it will run when all back together.
I apreciate you looking at my project and welcome any tips, advice, and comments.
