Honda-SOHC

Hello chaps,

  I was here alot a couple of years ago when I corrected a terrible dis-service I'd bestowed my poor old 500-4. I recorded its resoration on here.
I have however become one of those thats just looks in from time to time.

Well to get to the point my Mother-in-laws gardner collared me the other day and asked if would be interested in getting his old bike going - he fancies a tootle round on it again.

"Hey that 500 looks great, would you mind having a look at a bike I've got..?"
"Yeah sure.. what is it..?"
"A 400-four"
"oh right, I used to like the Yellow ones"
"It is Yellow".
"Whats up with it.??"
"Nothing its just not been run since 1981".
"Yeah Ok I'll have a look at it".

Well bugger me....it  must of been a mint bike that had only done 1,700 miles when it was parked in a shed. Its been relatively well stored, but not been turned over or even uncovered since 1981.

The good bits:-
Paint work is Excellent,
Chrome is really good,
All brackets, nuts and bolts etc still have their original plating and look new.
Master cylinder and caliper/disc look new, as does all rear brake gubbins.
Engine exterior, Dusty and grimey, but looks perfect underneath.

The bad bits:-
The brake fluid has solidified,
Clutch cable has seized solid....I mean solid, and throttle cables are stiff.
The baffle components of the immaculate original chrome silence poured out onto floor as a pile of orange powder.The bits that are left just rattle around.
Carbs slides are seized and inside the float bowls is an horible mess.

THE WORSE THING OF ALL though is that he has tried to kick it over. The inlet valves are seized/very stiff in the guides (too stiff for springs to return them), it must of started to whizz over then went clonk and locked solid.
2 bent inlet valves and 2 broken inlet valve guides, exhaust valves are fine, cylinder bores are perfect. When I eventually got the head off the inlet valves were all jammed down in the open postion.


Bottom line though is that with not too much effort this thing will look incredible for an original untouched 1979 bike. I mean fix these valves and strip the front brake stuff, buy a new clutch cable and free off the original throttle cables ( at least they move) and give ity him back to clean....wahhay. So I rang DS to enquire about parts and was surprised to find NO INLET VALVES (been on order for a year), have to order pattern Valve guides, clutch cable £25.
Hmm, need a secondhand head or just a couple of guides and valves. I used to have tons of this stuff cos i raced a Yoshi 460 but I only have 500/550 parts now - typical.

Will post some pics shortly when its been degreased and dusted off. I cant wait to have a go on it..!!

 How many of you guys can trace your bike back to this....superb...!!! I was 50 on Friday and went up to a mates house in Mablethorpe for us both to do a track day. Whilst there I mentioned I was fixing up the old Honda and he said he'd recently found some pics...bloody hell I couldn't believe it. The pic is outside his dads house and thats his sister. It was her bike and I bought it off her around 1983.  As she was living in Lanzarote I paid the money to my mate. I had never actually met her, I think I'm in love now though.

Anyone bought one of those plastic base seats from Silvers..??  I have and it fits like crap. I have decided to modify it by removing the rubber bung supports from my old seat and drilling the plastic base to suit. I will then drill the seat bracket/catch to sit over the bosses rather than on top of them.
 As supplied it wobbles all over the place...!!  What have you done..?? The other thing is there is no place for my plastic wallet...I want to fit that back on aswell.

 
 Well rather than just talk about it I started it last night. My poor old 500-4 has been sat in the back of my Horsebox lorry looking very sorry for itself.

 I dropped down the back door of the lorry and was quite shocked at the state of my old bike. They tyres were flat and one had left a black stain on the floor. It was covered in cobwebs and straw/hay...it looked horrendous. I went and got a pump and blew the tyres up, I lifted the bike off its stand and heard petrol sloshing about in the tank. A sudden panic set in, that petrol is 4 years old at least, oh no, not again. I'd parked a bike up before (motoguzzi) with half a tank of petrol and the top of the tank rotted out. I carried on and wheeled the Honda out into the dark, and finally down to my garage. In the garage lights the bike looked even worse.

 Oh well I'll get the battery charged up.....hahahaha...no chance, first, when I pulled the sidepanel off it shattered into a about 10 pieces...man they go brittle, I opened the seat and found a huge mouse nest...my airfilter had been eaten. I cleared the nest and all the mess away.

 I attached my charger/starter to the dead battery and switched on ign. Hmmm idiot lights are OK, press starter, Hmm it turns over OK. Open filler cap and blow hard, petrol smells quite off, but its not rusty in there. Right lets see if she starts. Those carbs must be gummed to hell. Well I tried and tried for 10mins and then almost gave up, all it wanted to do was backfire everynow and then. This was going to be my last attempt....I pressed the button, and without even hearing the startermotor it burst into life and sat there at 4,000 revs as smooth as you like. I knocked the choke off and revs dropped to about 1000 and she just sat there and purred. Fooking superb.


Right I'd better see what I've actually got in terms of new parts. I go off to find stuff I bought 10 years ago. Well I found the new rear hub, I found the 4 new pipes and all the brackets and fittings, new revcounter drive, 2 complete sets of cables one for 500 and one for 550, Gasket sets, extra head o rings and camcover rubbers. I could not however find, my new mudguards, indicators, grab rail, headlight brackets, rear light bracket and other bits. I'm just hoping they haven't been chucked away in some box I didn't look inside of first. This was real panic attack stuff, the problem now is I have nowhere left to look so its looking bad - and expensive.

I took a couple of pics that I'll post up later when I've got them off the camera. I'm not stopping now until its a tidy respectable bike again.

Some stuff I tested once upon a time...
  The 4into1 and 4into4 exhaust stuff ....I had 3 types of 4-1, a brand new set of std 500-4 pipes, and a good set of std 550K3 pipes....The 4into4 550K3 pipes were by far the best..that was on a 500 a 550 and my 610 motors. No 4into1 got near them, they just made a better noise... ...

 Another thing I have tested is carbs...I have tried the stock 500 carbs...the stock 550 carbs and a set of 750 F2 carbs..modified.....again the best were the 550 carbs....the screw in jet type...not the push in. I have obviously religiously jetted them all. The 550 carbs on my bike at the moment with a 610 motor do 55mpg..super smooth right through with no glitches/flatspots..and I thrash the turdy out of the bike all the time...its always around the 100mph mark. With the 500four carbs - although performance doesn't suffer - it never does more than 33mpg...? The larger 750 carbs just weren't worth the effort....performed exactly as the 500four originals....I did all this when I raced the bike in 85-86. 

 Camshafts... I have 3 extra camshafts for it...a Yoshimura road and track (crap)...A yoshi IOM race (OK)...and one I had made by Joy cams...which was welded and reground to XL125 motocrosser profiles...(awesome 8,000-10500rpm)...she used to rev her tits off...great for racing but not too good on the road.

I did all this when I raced the bike in 85-86. My 500four bored to 610 was exactly the same speed as a GPZ600 on snetterton straight.