SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550

Camshaft Regrind

(1/3) > >>

Murf:
As with just about everything else on the 550 the camshaft was knackered with a lot of wear on the lobes.  Finding a good used one seems impossible with all the ones I saw for sale being either as bad or worse than the one I had.  I decided to see if it could be reground and contacted Newman Cams who were really helpful and good to deal with.

I have just got the cam back from them and they have done a fantastic job, the cam is as new.  The cost including return postage was  £159 which I think is very good.  Especially when you consider what people are trying to sell knackered used camshafts for.   

I had a standard profile reground on the cam.  I haven’t used the cam yet but from my dealing with them, the quality of their work and great packing of the returned cam I feel I can definitely recommend Newman Cams.

Photo of cam in the cylinder head is of cam when I first stripped the engine.  I am sure the wear mostly on one side of the cam lobes was caused by the badly worn rocker shaft mountings which cause the cam follower to contact the cam lobe on an angle,  putting all the pressure and wear on one side.  I had 3 very bad shafts in the rocker box.  For the rebuild I have sourced a later rocker box which has the locked shafts to eliminate the problem.

McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Looks like new, is it reground and case hardened or do they metal spray so the lobe dimensions are as original.

I remember Newman's from my ADO15 Mini days, they made affordable alternatives. I could not always afford the prices of BL Special Tuning parts.

Murf:
I am not sure what was done to mine,  but in general I think it depends on the depth of the wear, if it is shallow then they can just Regrind the lobe and keep costs down.  In terms of hardening again I think it depends on how deep the damage is. If the damage is deep then they can add metal and Regrind.   It’s good to know the cam can be saved.

Oddjob:
It's a pity they didn't regrind the journal surfaces as well. I'll be using them for my regrind but not going with standard profile next time, they can also do rocker arms BTW.

Murf:
In practical terms can’t really Regrind the cam journals because the cam journals run directly in bearings formed in the aluminium of  the cylinder head and there are no shell bearings, so no possibility of using oversized bearings.
Now I am not saying it isn’t possible to line bore the bearings in the head out to a larger diameter, then find or make some shell bearings to fit, because I met someone that had done this on a CBX 1000 sprint bike that he he campaigned many years ago.  But the cost is going to be more than finding a head with good bearings.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page