SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550
Partially Restored 74 CB550
davidcumbria:
Continuing my conversation with myself ( nothing new there 😊) Valve lapping yesterday. I had splashed out £10 on one of those drill attachments that produce a side to side motion. Going by the reviews like others felt I had wasted my money because nothing would get the sucker to stay on the valve. Finally cut out some high strength Velcro and stuck it to valve and sucker and halleluha it worked. But even though I kept turning the device and restarting it still produced the dreaded ring scores that you are trying to avoid by using a drill conventionally. So my conclusion is useless !
Found my old lapping stick purchased in 1976 to do my mums mini at the bottom of a tool chest. That was satisfying. It struggled a bit too with suction on the small diameter exhaust valves ( I’ll forgive it after50 years ) but Velcro did the trick. Good to know there’s been some progress in ideas over 50 years.
Another new bit of kit used were the polishing discs/ brushes recommended by Ken which did a great job removing the baked on combustion residues.
QUESTION - is there a correct orientation for the valve springs on a 550 in terms of the windings like there is apparently on a 400 ?
McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
On my 400 the inner springs iirc are clearly a sort of tapered coiled design. The springs on my 500 were completely symmetrical they might not be original though.
davidcumbria:
Thanks Ted, yes my 550 springs look symmetrical so seems not an issue 👍
davidcumbria:
So reading a few threads about starter clutch screws loosening I lost faith in my prior efforts to stake them and to avoid the niggling worry decided to redo them. This meant taking the engine out again ( not a problem since no block and only 3 mounts loosely in place). Reasonably straightforward to get the clutch out using this method.
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=122084.0
Although I had used blue loctite it was imho still too easy to loosen them so I was gratified that this whole reversal hadn’t been a waste of time. New screws on order, decent staking tool obtained and red loctite at the ready. No need for these screws ever to come out again and ear worm dealt with !
davidcumbria:
Health warning !
I found refitting the starter clutch very tricky with engine out and sump cover off upside down on the bench. Could not imagine how difficult this would be trying to work under the bike with engine in frame. Very hard to retrieve the small starter gear and correctly align it so the pin will go back in when access is so limited by the starter clutch and Mainshaft gears. Did manage eventually with help from missus as three hands needed. ( lift / wiggle starter clutch , retrieve/ manoeuvre starter gear with long screwdriver, insert pin. ) key breakthrough was using a screwdriver in place of the pin to hold/ manoeuvre the starter gear into alignment before removing carefully and trying the pin. 2 hours of frustration but got there in the end.
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