Topic: '77 550K in Huntsville, AL

[Antangil]

Hello all.  Since you'll likely be seeing a lot of newbie questions from my corner, I thought it might be a good idea to formally introduce myself.

My name is Ian Maddox; I'm a mechanical engineering student at University of Alabama Huntsville.  Mostly as a favor to a classmate who needed some free cash, I purchased a non-working CB 550 K.  I've been thinking about buying a motorcycle for a couple of years now, but fully intended to get one that, well, ran.

Theoretically, a mechanical engineer should be relatively good at fixing engines, but I'm taking a masters degree with a concentration in numerical methods; I'm one of those engineers who is perfectly happy to sit behind a computer for hours at a time without ever coming near a machine shop.  Nevertheless, it seems silly for me to graduate with my degree without actually having some real-world mechanical ability - it looks like I've got my chance to learn. 

So now I've got my bike.  It doesn't run, and I'm not sure I know why yet; the PO said something vague about the carbs needing a float adjustment, but I'm not sure that's it.  I know I'll need new right-side mufflers, a new back taillight, and who knows what else.  If all else fails I'm considering using it as a donor chassis for an electric motorcycle conversion, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen. 

For now, I'm just enjoying having a motorcycle in my garage.  The work starts this weekend. 

See you all around the fora;

Ian

[burmashave]

Hey, Ian, welcome to the fun. My dad was an ME, be he was a materials engineer himself. That came in handy whenever material properties were involved. ;-) On the other hand, he, like most folks, got his hands on mechanical abilities from doing.

Think about posting a picture or two, even if it's not looking presentable at the moment. The folks here are a very visual bunch.

As for getting started, you might want to check out the FAQ. It's got lots of good information.

Good luck.

[Antangil]

I've got pictures up in the gallery; like you said, not too presentable, but you've got to start somewhere. 

[burmashave]

Good on ya for puttins pictures up so quickly. Sorry, I couldn't find them, but then again, I can never find anything in the gallery. :-(

[Antangil]

Not sure if this is the right spot for a bit of PO ranting, but I'm a bit furious at the moment. 

I've figured out why this bike hasn't run in a while, and I'm not sure whether to blame my PO or the original owner of the bike.  At the very least, I think I may have paid a bit too much for this machine.

1) Bits are missing.  There's nothing inside the air box but air; certainly nothing to make sure that dust, bugs, or small children couldn't enter the carburetor and make a mess of things.  There may or may not have been a black widow spider living inside one of the tubes from the air box to the carbs; whatever it was, I killed it with the rusted-out remnant of the right-lower exhaust.

2) The gas tank looks, let's be honest, a bit rusty on the inside.  Fuel doesn't seem to flow out of the tank; it might be that sediment is completely blocking the valve or it might just be a bad caulking job - it looks like it was liberally slathered in that clear adhesive sealant stuff and then scraped clean.  What fuel did manage to escape the tank appears to have been flooding the carbs for a non-trivial amount of time; when I got the carbs off, more gas spilled out of the little nozzle than seemed physically possible.

3) The electricals appear to have been repaired by a blind guy; the rear blinkers operate oppositely to the front (right front flash at the same time as left rear, and vice versa).

I'll put up some photos of the carnage at some point.  I know that bikes have been brought back from a lot further than this one, but I am suitably humbled at the moment.  <grin>

[clarkjh]

Welcome from New Brunswick Canada.  Enjoy the madness I mean fun.

James

[burmashave]

Gee, Antangil, I suppose most places in this forum have been used for PO rants. :-) The new member forum is as good a place as any for ranting about the PO. It's too bad about the missing bits, but they seem manageable so far.

As for the rusted tank, clogged lines, etc., you may want to look at the Fuel FAQ. There are a few threads with methods for cleaning tanks; this one contains a few:

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=21623.0

[fuzzybutt]

welcome to the forum from Columbia SC. now, you can have all the procedures memorized along with the torque rating of all the bolts/nuts but until you actually put your hands on the vehicle youre working on, you wont know how to do it. only after actually doing the job will you really know what to do. anyways, good luck with it, these old honda fours are a great bike which will get looks wherever you go.