Topic: Somewhat Accidental CB550F restoration.

[betterthanurs916]

Hey everyone. Haven't been too active around here in awhile...but here is my story.

I bought this 1977 CB550F Super Sport from a guy in Birmingham in June of 2010.  There were 6500 original miles on the clock, and I believed it because (as you can see from the first couple pictures with my 1978 Datsun) the bike was pretty immaculate looking.  The only problems I noticed right off the bat were a small rust pinhole on the bottom of the muffler and a oil leak out of the left side cover.  The P.O. said that if I replaced the gasket on the sidecover, the oil leak would go away..  Not knowing anything about how the 550's engine is designed, it seemed believable.  I gave him a hefty $2000 and rode away.







My maiden voyage was about 100 miles down Highway 280 at night in Alabama.  The bike made it...but managed to spew out about 2 quarts of oil along the way.  I was very diligent in keeping it topped up.  By the time I got home my shoes were ruined. 

After I got to inspecting the true nature of the oil leak, I came to realize that it was from a crank seal in pretty bad shape.  I soon figured out that I had to split the case to fix this. Crap.

Well, I took the motor out of the frame and got to tearing down...

[betterthanurs916]

My dad helped me a lot with the engine teardown and other things because I was doing this project in my parents basement and I am rarely home to work on it, so when everything was apart we found a cam chain tensioner that was toast, and a primary drive chain with enough slop in it to start eating into the case.  Along with that, there was so much carbon buildup on the pistions, valves, and head that I had to do something to clean it alll up.

Well, my dad recently got a parts washer and a soda blaster...so that made that much easier to do than it would have been.  After awhile we completely stripped the whole engine and repainted it and put all new oil seals everywhere.  The bores and rings looked fine, and the valve guides were fine too.  The transmission forks and dog teeth showed no visible wear either! I guess nobody really ever rode this thing because of the oil leak.



While the engine was still out of the bike...I decided that it really deserved a freshly painted frame...I went with powdercoating for everything (frame, swingarm, triples, pegs, battery box, etc., etc.) This is what it looked like when it came back...



So, shortlty thereafter, reassembly began.  I found that the easiest way to get the engine back in the frame is to lay it on it's side like this...





So, after the fresh engine was in the fresh frame, reassembly continued.  So far the only non-stock item are 530 sprockets that I machined to 520 width and got an X-ring chain for.  I have only gotten as far as the following pictures show because I am waiting on some new Avon tyres, fork seals, and a few other things.  In the meanwhile, I am back at school.  Hopefully I will go back to finish within the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned!

[D.WHO]

 NICE! How long did that take? It seems like you really knocked it out! I'm trying to set up a time frame for my engine rebuild ya know... Despite the leak that's not a bad deal, considering what good condition everything ELSE is in.

[dave500]

itll be even more super clean than it was before,,nice one.

[Bunicula]

Wow very nice bike to start with. Can't wait to see it all back together!

[betterthanurs916]

Thanks for the kind responses.

Tearing the engine down, blasting everything, replacing parts, repainting, and polishing was all in all about a month of casual work.  That includes waiting on parts.  The teardown started right before New Year's, and has had various levels of effort since then.

Needless to say, I'm getting pretty anxious to get it all done.  Another couple weeks and I should have it knocked out.

[burnoutking1971]

Nice, thank for sharing. I was wondering the best way to get the engine back into a freshly painted frame as well. OK I feel motivated to start to restore my CB 550.

[Toxic]

Well the $2K would have been well spent if it was a perfect runner.  But just never know.
Now it will run as good as it looks and think of all the knowledge you have gained along the way.

Beautiful bike

[bikeboy]

stunning work so far.

ian

[betterthanurs916]

Got a needle roller bearing conversion kit for the swingarm as well as a Dyna S with coils and wires coming soon

Just got the Avon tyres in today, too.

So far my only deviations from stock are things that I think the original engineers at Honda would have done if they were allowed the budget to include them:

-520 X-ring chain conversion (fewer adjustments, less maintenance, less mess, lasts longer!)
-Tapered roller bearing conversion for the steering neck (more solid front end feel!)
-Needle roller bearing conversion for the swingarm (longer lasting, smoother, and more rigid than the stock plastic jokers!)
-Electronic ignition with new coils and wires (mixed reviews here, but I have one on a GS750 and love the starting reliability!)
-Tsubaki BF05M racing chain (fewer adjustments, stronger, flat side plates for reduced noise and tensioner wear!)
-Powdercoat instead of paint on the frame (you can argue this either way, but I think it looks great!)
-4.00" rear instead of 3.75" (nobody makes a 3.75" anymore...thought about converting to a CB750 rear wheel....)

[betterthanurs916]

I haven't been home to do any work in a little bit, but my dad got an itch to play with it some more (probalby wants it out of the way in his basement) and he sent me a few pictures of what he had done.

Needle roller bearings have been installed in the swingarm and the whole assembly has been put back on.





...more to come.

[hyde7278]

did you machine the sprockets or did you have someone do t for you? If you did did you have any problems since there hardened and did you re heat treat them to regain the hardness? Im interested in doing this and getting 620 front sprockets are hard to come by or expensive to have custom made.

[betterthanurs916]

did you machine the sprockets or did you have someone do t for you? If you did did you have any problems since there hardened and did you re heat treat them to regain the hardness? Im interested in doing this and getting 620 front sprockets are hard to come by or expensive to have custom made.

I machined the sprockets myself, it was pretty difficult and I had to use a very light feedrate with carbide tools...but about 4 hours later I was done with front and rear.  I actually hardness tested the teeth on the front sprocekt before and after the operation and got the following results:

Starting hardness: 52 Rc
Ending hardness: 49 Rc

Keeep in mind that this is only on the side of the tooth which certainly takes the shear load of the chain, but doesn't take the immediate surface wear and impact like the pitch point of the tooth does which still should have close to the factory hardness.  I could work out the calculations or run some FEA to show why I'm not particularly worried about the structural integrity for a stock CB550, but I'm tired right now, haha.

I didn't even worry about the rear sprocket because the greater tooth engagement means less load on each tooth...and if aluminum can take the loads no problem, even fully annealed steel will be up to the tast.

I made sure to use generous amounts of coolant to prevent unaccounted for annealing during the machinig process, too.

I will get some pictures of the machined sprockets put up next time I think about it.

[betterthanurs916]

Well, I went ahead and knocked everything out this weekend.  It was a couple late nights, but well worth it.  I wanted to ride pretty badly...

Here is where I got to somewhere Saturday Morning...





And here was Sunday afternoon...





The reason it took me as long as it did to get it together was because I soda blasted every single nut and bolt while I was assembling.  But I'm very satisfied with the result.  Put some oil in it, set the timing on the Dyna, and started it right up tonight

It feels amazing compared to how it was before.  I think the new tires, wheel bearings, swingarm bearings, steering stem bearings, and fresh bits all over the engine really did the trick.  Expensive trick, but well worth it IMO.

Here are a couple of shots outside...





All that is left is a little carb work and some polishing.  I might eventually do a tank and cover repaint, but the paint is almost perfect as is right now.  So that may be a few years down the road. Thanks for the support, hopefully I'll be posting pictures in the  "show pictures of your bike on the road" thread from now on

[bwaller]

Hey man, nice work, it looks great, I hope it treats you well now.

I have to admit when I saw your initial pics I was soooo hoping you weren't going to carve that beautiful piece of originality into something else.

Good on ya for keeping a great looking stocker...stock.

[betterthanurs916]

Thanks.  And, yeah...my original intention when I was shopping for an old CB last summer was to find a ratty one and make a cafe bike...when I went to look at this one...I really couldn't turn away.  There was something charming about it's stockness that captivated me and I wanted to really highlight that.  I just hope it isn't too nice for me to want to ride it now!

[Bikecrazy]

I been following your thread on this bike from the start when you bought it last year , I have one of your pic for my screen saver, I couldn't believe the great condition you found this bike in , and to restore it the way you did is amazing , I'm restoring the same bike I found it in a garage sitting over 35 years due to minor front end damage with only 2000 miles motor sounds great ,I'm hope I can get it to look like yours great job.