OK Welcome!
So my name's James, and i'm an alcoholic. I say this as many of my photos over the forthcoming months will normally have a beer in the back round, it's almost a law of mine, precise engineering can't be accomplished without a bud-wiser...right?
I've always had a passion for cutting things up, and a desire for sticking things back together, so whilst looking for a newer project after completing the last (a 600cc go kart) i stumbled across Cognito Moto on Facebook and that's where my inspiration started.
I spent several days looking for the perfect project bike, primarily a 750 because bigger is better right? eventually i stumbled across a 550 that had been dry stored for 10 years in a barn; no keys, no log book, no knowledge of it running but it was perfect. With it only being just up the road from where i work, i set off to find this tiny little warehouse where a small independent business was just selling of some stock to make some room....Lucky me!
With the exchange of 350 hard earned beer tokens, the bike was swiftly being loaded into the van, and en'route back to Bridgwater before the guy had a chance to strike up a conversation about how crap the weather was...I was keen to get the spanners out!
As soon as it was home, i connected some power and destroyed the ignition barrel in the hope to get some power, and believe it or not, some things lit up, and the headlight flashed with the indicator...Brilliant, Next thing was to see if it would turn over, and yes it did, stiff, but it turned non the less, although every 4th stroke gave me a strange clicking sound, this filled me with hope
. At this point i kind of knew i was going to be stripping the engine down, if not for mechanical reasons then it would be for cosmetic reasons.
Immediately after deciding that a strip down was happening either way, i stripped the bike, and was surprised how easy everything came un done, it was like every nut had that much oil and grease on it, nothing had a chance to seize up! the only rust i really had was in the tank, a quick shake of the take and it sounded like i had my very own oddly shaped maraca...I think that's one for the skip!
Once the bike was stripped, and the engine was out the frame, i immediately set to work on way to many things at once, (i get distracted easy)
1st was the forks, i already had a set of Kawasaki zx636 front forks, so it just made sense to use those. In the end to get them to fit, i ended having the stem from the original CB bottom yoke pressed out, and pressed into the 636 bottom yoke once a sleeve had been fitted to increase the diameter, that plus a new set of bearings meant the whole lot fitted up perfectly and will be ready to rock and roll soon.
Whilst the fork stem had been at the engineers, i started to strip down the engine only to find a multitude of sins. water ingress on cylinder 2, 1 bent valve on cylinder 2, both rings on cylinder 2 had seized and to Finnish it off, the cam chain tensioner wasn't working very well due to the adjuster bolt being in 2 parts. (thanks to Ken for the replacement)
Always handy to take some pictures of an engine before stripping it, just for reference later on.
I sent all the engine cases off for bead blasting, and whilst they were away i ordered up some new piston rings, gaskets, seals, valves, bearings filters and some new nuts and bolts from my local "nut and bolt shop"
As soon as i got all the cases back and my parts had arrived the bottom end was rebuilt, the barrel got honed and now everything is currently awaiting the arrival of my cam tensioner from ken before i can put the head on and tie everything down. I did spend a little time prettying things up on the engine, i painted the barrel and head with black enamel engine paint. and polished the edge of the fins off to give that desired look. All you do for that is file the fins flat prior to paining, paint it all but between coats remove the paint from the fins with some emery cloth. once enough paint has been applied use some clear engine lacquer and cover the exposed aluminium, as we all know aluminum will oxidize very quickly - Many people think oxidization is caused by water, but in fact just the air it's self will cause corrosion!
Secondly for the engines appearance, i wanted the casing's polished up as they were in a poor state and needed some love. So i rigged up my polishing wheels onto my bench grinder and set away....2 bloody days i was at it non stop, by the time i had finished i looked as if i had been sweeping chimneys and lost the bloody from my fingers while doing it! non the less i had some good results.
Tonight i had managed to paint in the "Honda" and pretty them up ready to go back on as and when it was ready.
I hope you guys enjoy the thread, i do have some more to add, but i'm hungry and my bottle is empty. il bring you right up to date shortly, and then i can update as i go apposed to writing my life story.
regards
James
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