SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550
Partially Restored 74 CB550
davidcumbria:
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Bryanj:
Nice pic of the knackered primary chain.
The 550 is a slightly different casting where the main oil gallery is compared to 500, on 500 the chain can cut a big groove into the ally and, reportedly, has even worn through!
McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Good point about having a soft surface for when the case is turned over etc - when I put the Hondabond on my 400 cases I wore disposable blue rubber type gloves - squeezed it out like toothpaste onto my left fore finger then dipped my finger into the worm cast then smeared it on with my right forefinger - it seemed to work for me. Not sure if I have the right sort of brush to get it on thin enough.
NJ gave me this tip - I had plenty of trials with my Groundhog phase.
davidcumbria:
I’ve been busy assembling the front end to get the frame ready for the partially assembled engine. Here are some tips and experience to share. Old news to some but more info than I could find when searching.
A steering head bearing seems to have dematerialised between counting them out and counting them in soo had to order one from DS. Bet they were cheering when they got that order! Good tip about tightening the bearing by turning the steering head with spanner held in place so the bearings are rolling. Had to remove some of the powder coating so the top yoke would fit properly.
Had three progressively better attempts to fit the fork seals. First attempt rubbish when my too small socket damaged one of the seal springs trying to straighten tilted bearing. Majorly pissed off as I had done this job ok loads of times before. Dug out some 1.5 inch abs pipe and with a bit it grinding it made a perfect sized drift which worked ok on second attempt but more hammering than I would have preferred to get seal perfectly lined up below circlip groove. At least one was done and I could stop fuming. Final fork I heated the top with my heat gun and then was able to have a couple of attempts to get the seal started straight and fairly well in just with fingers. Couple of taps with old bearing on top and it was in straight in a jiffy. Old seal is great drift because it’s easy to see the alignment between the top of the fork and the top of the old seal a few mm above it, not so easy with a drift sticking up a couple of inches. It’s all about getting the final push started with the seal square and the heating and use of old seal as drift really helped with this.
Bought some lovely new fork tops and protected the chrome with tape. With the stanchion in a vice my first efforts to push down the spring and engage the threads were frustrating. Even engaged her indoors to stand on my work mate where the vice us mounted. Was running out of strength and really worried that pushing and turning so hard was going to risk thread damage. Finally on about the the tenth attempt it worked and I could leave the garage happy but determined to find an easier way for the other one.
Searching found a post by K2 where he mentioned turning backwards first to find the thread lead in point. I tried this but couldn’t detect it. Problem is you have very little capacity to turn much and maintain gorilla pressure on the socket T bar. Solution was to take out spring and fit the cap then mark with permanent marker stanchion and fork top so you can see where to position so both lead ins engage. Obviously would have been better to do this before filling with oil. Anyhow it worked and got the blessed thing started on next attempt. A triumph of thinking over brute force. I don’t do enough of the former and haven’t got much of the latter!
On to the swingarm which I’m now having to have re powder coated since my freebie foreigner job at local factory was obviously rushed and the finish is rubbish. Pay peanuts get monkeys !
davidcumbria:
Bit of an update. New swingarm powder coating , bearings and fitted. Forks rebuilt with new seals and front end fitted. Once bike on its wheels fitted the engine single-handed with pipe lagging to protect shiny frame.
Barrrell Bores checked out fine with bore micrometer with just 0.05mm of barrelling vs .12 mm max spec. So I was surprised that the ‘new’ rings I thought had been put in were out of spec on ring gap in the cylinder. Got a good deal on piston kit from imd pistons and now have shiny new pistons and ring gap bang within spec. Piston clips stayed out of the crankcase !
Do I need to hone the bores to bed in the new rings ? Would a rub down with emery paoer suffice ? What grade ?
On the same theme the ‘ new’ cam chain tensioner blade didn’t stand up to close examination and had fatigue cracks in it that ran to about 3/4 of the blade thickness. See photo. CMSNl have a new aftermarket replacement for £33 , third the price of oem.
So barrels on next when the blade arrives with some great tips already logged from Teds thread on how to fit the tensioners.( protective cover taken off engine for photo)
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