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CB550 Bottom and top end rebuild

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Topcat:
Hi all,

Been a long long time since I checked in. Actually a fairly long time since I've had any time to work on the the 550. Thought I'd give you all a quick run through of what I've been up to, it's taken me so long to get round to this as I've had a bunch of other projects taking up time, including some building work that ended up causing problems (and a lot of time and money to fix).

However in the odd 5 or 10 mins I've had spare I've gone through the following on the cb550 engine.

Stripped down the engine back to cases and inspected all the internals.

Cleaned and rebuilt the bottom end and top end including replacing all bearings seals o rings, chains pistons etc


Where I am up to now is installed the rocker cover (freshly assembled new arms and shafts) to the head using the elastic band trick to hold the arms off the valve stems (don't really want to bend anything at this point).

At this point I'm just waiting on some new bolts for the rocker cover and need to source a L hand stamped plate and some soft washers that sit underneath. Does anyone have a plate and/or set of washers (think they are aluminium) they'd be willing to sell?

I can turn the motor over using the kick starter and can feel the pressure building up so once the cover is installed I'll do a compression check and leak down just to make sure everything is nice and sealed.

Finally my two big concerns at the moment is the cam chain tensioner seems not to have much in the way of free play in it. I'm assuming this is because the chain is brand new and will give a bit over time but can anyone confirm how much tension should there be on a brand new chain? (I've gone through the chain tensioning procedure where you move the 1-4 TDC then 15 degrees on (or where the spring attaches) before adjusting but it seems there is very little or no slack.

And finally the oil pump has a chunk out of the casing on the external side of where the o ring sits. I'm hoping this will still give a good seal under pressure but I may need to replace the pump if not.

Adding a few pics if it'll let me.

Topcat

Bryanj:
New camchain is usually very tight so not much movement on tensioner, for soft washers use 6mm "Dowty" washers(alloy with rubber insert) but fit them carefully, as to the bracket i am afraid you will have to keep scouring ebay till one comes up, i actual have right hand but not left

Nurse Julie:
Thats looking great.

If you give me the Part number of the  bracket i will look on my stock list for one .

Trigger:
They are strange elastic bands holding up the rockers, they look more like the silicone 0'rings that seal the liners  ::)

Topcat:

--- Quote from: Trigger on October 19, 2020, 04:52:39 PM ---They are strange elastic bands holding up the rockers, they look more like the silicone 0'rings that seal the liners  ::)

--- End quote ---

Haha yeah they are some strange ones, only ones I had on hand but have since bought a big box of proper elastic bands for all future bike building uses :D

Topcat

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