Author Topic: 500K2 Jets  (Read 636 times)

Online philward

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500K2 Jets
« on: January 12, 2021, 06:48:28 PM »
I recently downloaded the attached table for the 500/550 but can't find the post now to ask a question about the abbreviations
I assume the following abbreviations are for countries - can the poster (Deltarider?) clarify please
CB500, CB500K1,
CB500K2 [A],
CB500K2 [F] ('76)
CB500 [ED, G, H]
CB500K1 [ED, G, H]
CB500K2 [ED, G] ('76)
Thanks
Current Bikes:-
Honda CB750K2 (1975)
Honda CB500K2 (12/1972)
Honda CR750 Replica (1972)
Honda CB350K0 (1969)
Kawasaki ZZR1100D3 (1995)
Kawasaki ZZR250 (1990) Project (Going on eBay ASAP)

Offline deltarider

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Re: 500K2 Jets
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2021, 08:00:17 PM »
I recently downloaded the attached table for the 500/550 but can't find the post now to ask a question about the abbreviations
I assume the following abbreviations are for countries - can the poster (Deltarider?) clarify please
CB500, CB500K1,
CB500K2 [A],
CB500K2 [F] ('76)
CB500 [ED, G, H]
CB500K1 [ED, G, H]
CB500K2 [ED, G] ('76)
Thanks
Sure. First some background. I became owner of my bike in 1980 and soon thereafter I bought the Haynes manual. Over the years that manual has frustrated me a lot. So many times the 'facts' in it did not match the facts on my bike; it drove me mad. Years later I had the opportunity to acquire the appropiate parts list for my model: the CB500K2 (ED, F, G) sold in continental Europe in 1976-1977. CMSNL has named this model the CB500K2 GENERAL EXPORT. This to distinguish it from that other CB500K2 that had been on the market in the US in... 1973, the CB500K2-A! Mind you: more than three years apart, both in assembly as well in marketing! No wonder so many things differed between these two K2's. Things that I was never to find in the Haynes, the Clymer or whatever manual. That parts list ment a hallelujah moment: finally things fell in place.
In  aftermarket manuals I had also seen CB550s described that I had never seen in real life, let alone that I had known of their existence. It wasn't until I met a girl from Alaska (in Egypt) that showed me a picture of her CB550K that she had toured the US with. I was surprised to see that her bike (a CB550K2) was a spitting image of my CB500K2-ED. Moreover her CB550 certainly did not look like the Fs or K3s we know here. That's when I realised there had been much more models. When I later discovered all these part lists had been collected by the Honda4Fun site, I've made it my mission to direct folks there to at least establish what exact model they have before they'd start doing things of which they could not oversee the consequences. I may be the joke of our community in this constant stressing how important it is to first establish what model you have. But you have to understand this stems from all those years of frustration I had never seen the facts of my bike represented in any document.
Now in the first few pages of forsaid parts lists you will always find the engine- and framenumbers listed that indicate to which bikes that particular parts list applies and to which not. Sometimes in such a parts list Honda specifies modifications halfway the production period by indicating the engine- or framenumber from which such a modification had been introduced. I can give you numerous examples where people went astray by not having the appropiate documentation. Also in these parts list you will find the carb numbers, colour codes and the abbreviations that refer to the various 'area codes', in other words: the various countries where the different submodels had been marketed. And-it-is-useful. It was only yesterday that I learned - on the German site - that the sidestand of my CB500K2-ED was different from the CB500K2-G because in Germany it was law to have a side stand that retracted itself as soon as you'd upright the bike. I couldn't believe it. Then I looked it up in the parts list and indeed... there it was. BTW, I wish I had had that sidestand on mine: it would have saved me a couple of narrow escapes.
The wiring diagram is another example. Some three years ago I finally laid my hands on the correct wiring diagram for my specific model. It is not in the Honda Shop Manual, not even in an addendum!
Ok, -A=US, -G=Germany, -H=Holland, -F=France, -ED=European Direct Sales -E=England, but there are more. But... you can discover them yourselves here: http://www.honda4fun.com/materiale-documentazione-tecnica/parts-list/parts-list-cb500
So far Honda4Fun has been the most complete in offering, be it that some parts lists are found in a much better, higher resolution elsewhere, possibly also here. Sometimes you will miss info however that Honda4Fun offers. For instance their CB550K3 parts list also covers the K4 model and the CB500K3. The British CB550K3 parts list only covers the England type CB550K3. Nowadays with the various CB500 and 550 models surfacing just about anywhere, I think it's best to have the complete picture.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2021, 11:05:22 AM by deltarider »

Online philward

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Re: 500K2 Jets
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2021, 10:01:33 PM »
Thanks deltarider - interesting and I've downloaded the parts lists
Current Bikes:-
Honda CB750K2 (1975)
Honda CB500K2 (12/1972)
Honda CR750 Replica (1972)
Honda CB350K0 (1969)
Kawasaki ZZR1100D3 (1995)
Kawasaki ZZR250 (1990) Project (Going on eBay ASAP)

 

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