Author Topic: My CB550 K3 Restore Project  (Read 13348 times)

Offline heli_madken

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My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« on: June 21, 2020, 05:02:26 PM »
Hi Everyone,

I have just finished restoring a 1977 GL1000 K2 complete with Krauser luggage and a Vetter fairing -
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So its time to move on to my next project a 1977 CB550 K3 -
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The picture above was taken the day I bought the bike last February. Its very deceptive as the bike looks to be in good condition but in actual fact it was a complete mess, engine covered in crud which was almost tar like, exhausts shot, frame covered in surface rust, bodywork heavily scratched, wheels beyond saving, seat full of splits, would not idle steadily, cam chain rattling as well as the worst primary drive chain rattle I have ever heard.

Ok so the shop I bought it from saw this mug arrive and thought, "right one here soon palm him off with this piece of crap" snigger, snigger. The thing is that I fell in love with it straight away, it was in such a sorry state it just had to be rescued, and actually on the test ride it rode extremely well and sounded amazingly good on the move and was lots of fun to ride compared to the big heavy Gold Wing.

So a deal was struck and the owner retreated with a huge grin on his face and a few days later I took delivery. What I decided to do was get her initially in a state where I could ride and assess what has to be done so I spent a lot of money on a new exhaust from DS which is actually very nice. I spent two days with every conceivable degreaser I could find trying to get the crud off the engine and the rest of the bike, she has obviously had a hard life and been stored outside and not washed over the past two decades. I stripped off and fully rebuilt the PD46A's finding all sorts of nasty bodges as I went. Bought a new seat cover and refurbished the pan. Oil change, tried to fix the cam chain tensioner but the adjuster wont budge. Fitted a Dyna ignition system and new Dyna coils. Oh and replaced the extremely stretched and dangerous drive chain.

After lots of fiddling I got a good idle and the engine runs really nice but at low RPM sounds terrible. I didnt want to ride her too much but have had some fun but now its time for the work to start. I am going to do a bare frame restoration with a full strip down and refurbish of every component so this is going to take some time, especially as I have a full house to paint in between!. It is going to be hard work as every bolt I have tried to remove has been seized.

Some pictures to show the current condition after much cleaning.

Engine casings need further clean and painting -
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Frame is covered in surface rust but nothing that looks like it needs welding -
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Wheels and spokes are beyond saving so I will replace with alloy rims and stainless spokes -
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Offline heli_madken

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2020, 05:05:49 PM »
Disc is good but calipers and brake lines need a full refurb -
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Tank and side covers need painting and some work on badges, I will paint the stripes rather than use graphics -
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Clocks need some work, considering the bike has only done 26k she is in a poor state -
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I am really looking forward to getting stuck in to this bike, over the next week I hope to have most components stripped off and have a good look at the frame.

Also looking forward to making new friends on this forum

Ken
« Last Edit: June 21, 2020, 05:07:41 PM by heli_madken »

Offline Johnwebley

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2020, 05:17:04 PM »
Welcome. Nice GW.
the little one will repay kindness.

It will be a joy to ride.

Look forward to seeing the progress

Sent from my SM-A750FN using Tapatalk

lifelong motorcycle rider,and fan

Offline SPR

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2020, 05:38:09 PM »
Welcome ... they are addictive and bonus points for getting the carbs sorted :)

Offline Nurse Julie

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2020, 06:06:55 PM »
Welcome and good luck.
LINK TO MY EBAY PAGE. As many of you know already, I give 10% discount and do post at cost to forum members if you PM me direct.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/julies9731/m.html?item=165142672569&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2562

LINK TO MY CB400/4 ENGINE STRIP / ASSESSMENT AND REBUILD...NOW COMPLETE
http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php/topic,14049.msg112691/topicseen.html#new

Offline Bryanj

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2020, 07:05:11 PM »
Welcome, you picked the most unloved 550 model there but when sorted and used regularly(pd carbs are a shite) they are really nice and yes just a tad lighter than the GL

Offline heli_madken

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #6 on: June 21, 2020, 11:15:02 PM »
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone,

Welcome, you picked the most unloved 550 model there but when sorted and used regularly(pd carbs are a shite) they are really nice and yes just a tad lighter than the GL

Yeah, bike was registered in July 77, by that time the promise of 'Super Sports', 'F' models had come along, I actually bought a 400 four Super Sport a month later in August which I loved and I remember thinking how much more modern the 4 in to 1 exhaust was. So it must have been a very 'special' person to ignore all the modern trends and buy this bike. Probably an older citizen which of course I am now. And the funny thing is I love the 4 into 4 exhaust this bike has now so go figure!

And yes the PD carbs dont get a good write up, I would probably like to change them. But having lived through lots of pain servicing the GL 755A carbs until I got them right they are by comparison very simple.

Got as far as removing the valve gear/camshaft cover today (I love taking stuff apart). Everything looks kind of ok to these relatively untrained eyes with the odd exception.

Not a great start, I sprayed Plus Gas on everything over the last two weeks but I guess on these longer bolts it isnt going to penetrate that far -
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The remainder should not be too hard to remove-
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Rocker pads look ok as do cam lobes and there is no movement on the shafts, plenty of clean looking oil everywhere so oil supply is good -
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Worst thing is this, I can feel it with my fingernail and there is a witness mark on the cam journal, not sure how I am going to deal with this yet any ideas? -
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Cant see how something could have got to that position whilst the engine was running so I think its been there on assembly which means that someone has been into at least the top end of this motor before I think.
 
I can lift a link on the cam chain about 5mm so the chain feels pretty loose, is this normal?-
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Tomorrow I will remove the head and see what other challenges are waiting
« Last Edit: June 21, 2020, 11:42:59 PM by heli_madken »

Offline Bryanj

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2020, 09:06:56 AM »
Looks like a snapped 6mm screw to me Ken

Offline K2-K6

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2020, 09:25:21 AM »
Welcome to the forum.

The cam bearing looks as if it has a casting inclusion from original manufacturer,  with the fault "picked up" by their machining.

It's probably not going to affect it in any way now so safe to leave it alone.  Traditional way of dealing with it would be engineering "scraping" in which a curved riffler file is ground to a compound curve metal chisel and then used to plane the surface back locally to remove the high spot.

Cam chain,  I'd say is knackered if it's 5mm at centre of cam sprocket,  and most likely the primary chain too. You might as well change both if you are stripping it. It's well worth while as they are intrinsically linked to a sweet running engine.

Looks pretty good in there otherwise from first glance.

Offline K2-K6

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2020, 09:46:28 AM »
"And yes the PD carbs dont get a good write up, I would probably like to change them. But having lived through lots of pain servicing the GL 755A carbs until I got them right they are by comparison very simple."

Obviously there's clear and valued experience on here about the work in getting these carbs clean and running well.  They do hold an advantage though in my view,  in that they are more accurate especially at low speed range for metering fuel and probably outperform other fitment.
Specifically,  their fuelling strategy results in less unburnt fuel to first contaminate the engine oil,  and also the same for putting the byproduct of condensate  into the exhausts. No small consideration when the pipes cost so much.  The condensate is effectively laced with sulphuric acid from the sulphur in fuel and incomplete combustion,  which is what makes it so aggressive to the exhaust pipe internal materials.

Offline heli_madken

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2020, 11:52:28 AM »
Thanks everyone for the help and advice.

I will be replacing most serviceable items including the cam chain, tensioner and primary chain. This is an expensive hobby! I have a spreadsheet with over 2K's worth of stuff I want to buy, I have already spent £1,900, add this to the cost of the bike I dont think we do this to make any money do we  :)

The cylinder head came off relatively easily, I am still not seeing anything frightening.

The bores look to be in good shape, no discernible lip at the top of the cylinder or any marks, you can see the remainder of the crud the engine was covered in -
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Valves and combustion chambers look ok just needs a good clean/decoke, I will remove the valves to look at the seats-
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Amazingly after all the effort I put into trying to free the cam chain tensioner adjuster bolt it just popped out on its own, not sure what was wrong as the tensioner seems to operate as it should now. The rubber pad looks worn to me? and the rubber is perished in some places -
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I am going to clean the cylinder head now so I can get it on my drill press and tackle that sheared bolt

Offline Bryanj

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2020, 12:16:52 PM »
That tensioner blade is not worn as such, the side plates of the chain wear into the rubber till the rollers touch. You change them when the centre part is markedly lower than the outsides OR the rubber is cracking off the steel at the ends.

Check the mechanism carefully to make sure the gear on the end of the bolt and the teeth on the rack mesh well and evenly through the range, the steel frame gets "tweaked" out of true if the adjuster bolt is forced.

Pistons and valves look oily check stem seals and bore to piston clearance

Offline heli_madken

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2020, 10:40:25 AM »
Thanks BryanJ, I will be replacing valve seals and most probably rins and will hone the bores but take care to check clearances.

Yesterday I managed to get the sheared bolt out of the cylinder head ok then took the engine out of the frame which I found easier to do by simply tipping the bike over on its side and lifting the frame off the engine.

Engine out, I cant fathom out what the dirt is the bike is covered in, petrol, degreasers, diesel dont touch it. I have had to resort to Acetone which of course destroys any paint left but that doesn't matter -
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The primary drive chain is incredibly loose but as far as I can tell hasn't impacted the casing, everything else looks ok no visible signs of wear -
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Really thick oil residue below the pickup which has a fair amount of filings in it but nothing I dont think to worry too much about-
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Thats it for the motor at present I have put it to one side, I hope to get as much stuff off the frame as I can today, stripper and paint is on order

Cheers

Offline heli_madken

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2020, 03:35:07 PM »
I have a bare frame!, came apart easily enough
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I hate Scotchloks! real mess, not sure what was going on here as there are no accessories fitted. I will be replacing the core of the loom so it will all tidy up -
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Rectifier and regulator are real blast from the past especially the fully exposed Lucas 3DS5, but hey they still worked didnt they! I will replace with a single unit -
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This is inside the master cylinder eek I was actually riding the bike like this, shameful -
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Are the headlamp ears hard to find, haven't tried yet but I know for a GL they are getting scarce, these will clean up to a degree -
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Now to get the frame clean and start paint prep

Online paul G

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Re: My CB550 K3 Restore Project
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2020, 07:39:36 AM »
Whats the other side of the fork ears like.
They should come up nice when re plated  :)
Honda CB400 4
Honda CB550 K3 (sold)
Honda CB750 UK K1
Kawasaki Z650 C2
Kawasaki Z650 cafe racer (Sold)
Honda CD175 sloper

 

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