Doms CB550F1 project

[DomP]

Are you turning the air / fuel mix screw the right way?. Out for more air = leaner, in for more fuel = richer.

My bad! Yeah I turned it in rather than out by mistake

[Nurse Julie]

Are you turning the air / fuel mix screw the right way?. Out for more air = leaner, in for more fuel = richer.

My bad! Yeah I turned it in rather than out by mistake

Yea, that's what I guessed 😊😊😊

[DomP]

Short of biting the bullet and stripping it down are there any tests I can do to detect what sort of wear I might have?  I think I know the answer to this one!  One thought I have had, could it be a weak or intermittent spark causing the roughness and therefore the smoking/smelling rich? The HT leads are pretty rigid and the coils a bit knackered looking.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

My brief experience with coils is to look at where the HT leads just exit the coil if the outer insulation is cracked then they are probably part of the problem.

[DomP]

I'm going to order some new ht lead and caps (plugs are new non resistor type) and do the 'Ash fix' on the coils to rule that out as a possible cause.  Could the carb sync being out be enough to cause it to sound so bad?  Going to get a load of airline to perform a carb sync as well and see where that leaves me, if all this doesn't solve it it is at least nothing lost and I can move on to looking at a rebuild.

[Trigger]

If the carbs are not all balanced correctly, the engine will sound ruff 

[DomP]

In my haste I've only become synced,

[Trigger]

If the clunking is that bad, you will find that the primary chain and rubbers are well past its best 

[DomP]

To be honest I'm a bit excited by the idea of splitting it, I've got room on the kitchen table now the carbs are back together too 🤣

[Bryanj]

If you are going to split i suggest getting as many parts as possible first.
Gasket set
Oil seal set
Primary chain (kawasaki)
Cam chain, see oddjob
Primary damper rubbers x 8 Honda and not cheap
Possibly cam chain tension blade
Probably cam chain cushion
Maybe pistons/rebore

Bank loan

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

If you split the casing you're looking at a potential budget of £1k plus a tad more if you need some gearbox bearings as well. These old bikes are like black holes with costs.

[Trigger]

Check for bent valves and cracked valve guides  And they are not cheap if you can get them .

[DomP]

I'm prepared for it to be expensive, that's not really an issue as I'm in no rush and will be doing the work myself as far as I can.  Having turned the air mixture screw out to factory setting again I began syncing the carbs with some cheap ebay vac gauges and got it running a whole lot better and quieter.  Family life then intervened so I still need to finish tweaking but I think I'm getting somewhere.  Bit of a weep coming from the head gasket though!

[DomP]

I've bitten the bullet and bought a Morgan Carbtune so I'll get the carbs balanced on the weekend.  Is there a recommended setting for the throttle stops? 

[Oddjob]

Depends what you mean by throttle stops