Honda-SOHC

Thanks Julie,

I've just disconnected the shocks and the swing arm moves up and down freely, I cant feel it binding or anything.

It drops to the ground under its own weight.

On my vin plate it’s says built Nov 73

The nut is a lock nut.

How tight can I do the through bolt up?

No mate, the plastic bushes wear the collar just as much as the metal ones and are even more of a swine to get out, big problem is people dont grease the pin enough, i recon maximum 1500 miles or if its raining when you get home every time

Thanks Bryan, I’ll check tomorrow and see if I can get away with tightening for now.

Got a small amount of sideways movement in my swing arm.

Do I just need new bushes or is there anything else I need as well?

And is it just drift old bushes out and fit new ones?

Thanks.

Can’t seem to find one, most places have the later F models.
Are they the same, pictures look pretty similar?

I have just had a similar issue rebuilding the missus’s 1964 Vespa.
The new rings, even though they are the correct ones don’t fit.
Putting them in the bore to check the gap and they are perfect, however once they are on the piston you can’t fit it in the barrel.

I found that the new rings are thicker, ie the inside diameter of the ring is smaller so the ring sticks out further.

Checked with the supplier and they were the correct rings so no idea what was going on.

Luckily I have an engineer mate who managed to make a jig in his lathe and machined the inner diameter of the ring to the correct size.

Rings fitted perfectly after, engine runs perfectly.

I have my 74 550 sitting in the garage next to my Fireblade. I always go for the 550, in fact I’ve not used the blade this year.

There is something about the 550, it’s just more fun.