Folks,
running at a glacial pace I'm finally getting round to attempting a top end rebuild on my (in pieces) CB550F2, the bike had been shed bound and unloved since 1982 when I picked it up in 2015! After battling with getting the rocker cover off and having to drill four of the screw head out I'm faced with the following dilemma and would appreciate the collective wisdom of you lovely experts :
So the bike was bought with a "locked" engine. Based on the sump contents I think its a case of stuck rings in the bores rather than a catastrophic failure. Having tried everything to turn it over (other than the electric start) I gave up and figured I'd need to at least strip the top end. Now I'm there of course I've got the inevitable issue that I can't get at the cam sprocket bolts to undo them and have no chance to rotate them. I've tried a ground down spanner but to no avail and I'm in danger of rounding off the bolt heads. If I'm understanding the situation I have the following options, none of which seem ideal to me:
1) Attempt to have another go at getting the engine to turn, possibly giving it a go with the electric start so I can rotate the cam and get at the bolts. I'm worried that might do a lot more damage to the bores if the rings are rusted and not going to budge at all.
2) Cut the cam chain and buy a split chain, then try and thread post to end rebuild so as to avoid having to split the crankcase (I wasn't intending on touching the crankcase unless I needed too). The David Silver cam chains look like they are endless and I'm sure I read in a few places that running a split cam chain with a link is not idea (are they even available?)
3) Cut the cam chain, man up and go for a full crankcase split and rebuild etc using a replacement endless cam chain
Any ideas or pearls of wisdom? your thoughts and experiences would be appreciated, anyone local to me in Bucks who fancies a good laugh watching a complete engine novice digging himself a very deep hole is also welcome
Alan