500 K cafe racer conversion - build thread

[Ewan 500 K1]

Removed the rear shocker bushes from the swing arm this morning ... bit stubborn !. Hammer and WD 40 got me nowhere

[Ewan 500 K1]

after searching the forums , I found the answer . 2 sockets and a vice. One socket the same diameter as the outer sleeve on the bush and another much bigger socket that the first one will fit inside. First I gave the bush a good balst with a blow gun, then ....Place one socket each side of the bush. Place in vice and tighten vice .... the bushes were so damn immovable that I had to put a pieve of pipe on the vice handle to get enough force to get the bushes out .... now got a vice with a nicely curved handle

[Ewan 500 K1]

didnt go quite so smoothly with the second bush. The smaller socket I was using ended up being slightly smaller than the outer bush sleeve and I overdid it with the blow torch and burnt the rubber out . End result of the vice job was that just the inner sleeve and the rubber came out leaving the outer sleeve embedded in the swinging arm. So ... had to (very carefully) cut the sleeve length wise top and bottom with a hacksaw balde to get it out as I didnt have a scocket of exactly the right size.

[Ewan 500 K1]

Shimmed up the brake capliper arms so that the calipers are in line with the discs. The right hand side was fine without modification. On the left hand side I needed to use three washer on the top front caliper bolt , 2 washers on the top rear bolt and 2 washers on the bottom bolt. Looking at the pictures the mudguard stay looks a bit odd ... have I got in positioned correctly with the top caliper arm brackets ?  See my sepeate post at http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php?topic=5571.msg27566#msg27566 for the pain and agony of setting up my dual discs

[Ewan 500 K1]

Now I know why the forks were replaced with 550 ones ... bent steering stem = front end crash in the past. . A bit disconcerting , hope whoever was riding at the time made it through it without too many injuries. I can nick the one off the 500 basket case that is / was / might be restored in the future ... but maybe I'll just carry on with the bent one ... it never appeared to affect performance over the past 17 years 

[Ewan 500 K1]

Something wrong there Ewan, the standard caliper arm should NOT under any circumstances need shimming.

  yeah , thats what I thought ... well odd (job) . just put it down to fact that it has 550 forks and I knew that the previous owner had been planning dual discs in days of ancient ... there is also the fact that I rebuilt the front wheel. I'll have a better investigation when i get it back from the powder coaters..  laterz ...See my seperate post at http://www.sohc.co.uk/index.php?topic=5571.msg27566#msg27566 for the pain and agony of setting up my dual discs You all have me convinced on replacing the steering stem   

[Ewan 500 K1]

hmm, so its 550K3 forks that are on it , although the springs seem over long at 470mm. Just need to get the flippin oil seals out now, dremel cutting discs ordered

[Ewan 500 K1]

got the buggers !!!     ... they wouldnt budge with flat head screwdriver.  So, applied a bit of blowtorch and then used a try lever. Tyre lever less likely than a screwdriver to score the mating surface anyway. Hope I've put the new ones in the right way up

[SteveD CB500K0]

  That looks upside down mate...

The side with the visible spring goes down (the flat surface goes up)

[Ewan 500 K1]

That looks upside down mate...

The side with the visible spring goes down (the flat surface goes up)

..... both sides had visible springs and both springs are the same diameter ... Both sides also have grooves in them running pralle to the circumference, although one one side the groove is much deeper. I've put the side with the deepest groove facing downwards, this side is also slightly thicker in diamter (see photos 1 & 3). The side with the shallower groove also has text markings, i've put this side facing up the way. See photo 2).

What do you reckon ?, I'll hang fire before putting new oil in.

Its great to know thet there are folks out there looking over my shoulder and keeping me on the right track 

[Ewan 500 K1]

Top pic is bottom of seal, pics 2 is the side you should see when installed.

off to put the oil in then ... then better pay wifey some attention for a couple of days 

[Ewan 500 K1]

Found this in an old thread "The post by Spitfire shows the capacity as 160cc which in my Clymer manual says should be 10W30 for the CB550K0,K1,K2 but the K3 forks were revised and I think that for them it should 190cc and ATF."" Can anyone confirm what the oil capacity of the K3 forks is ?

[Bryanj]

OK, I have all the genuine Hona workshop manuals and the way they work is if the spec has changed it is in the details if not you keep working your way back on models till you find the spec you want.

Doing that there is no change to fork oil after the CB550F and that states 165-170cc of atf for a stripped and completely dry fork

[Ewan 500 K1]

cheers Bryan .... there's contraditions all over the place. The shop manuals appear consistent at 165cc. , Haynes says 160cc , Clymer says 190cc ..... I'll go with 165cc then

[Ewan 500 K1]

Am I happy I took the wife out to the pub for a meal tonight for neglecting her over this week ? Well yep, too right. Bumped into Jim the bike who sorted me out with getting the tapered roller bearing seats out of the headstock. Jim nipped across the road to his house and came back with a right nifty wee tool for getting them out. Back from pub, in the shed and 10 mins later both seats were out . Frame ready to take to Triple S in Bingley for powder coating now ... small step for mankind, great leap for me ... no need to piss about with dremels and cutting discs. Procedure documented below:

Photo 1: Bearing seat in top of headstock
Photo 2: Nifty wee bearing seat removal tool
Photo 3: Tool in place on top of headstock
Photo 4: Drift inserted from bottom of headstock
Photo 5: Couple  of whacks on the drift with a rubber mallet and the bearing seat is out

Repeated all this at the other end to get the bottom seat out ... bit more tricky as this seat's diameter was about the same as the headstock inner diameter and was flush into the shoulder, so next to nothing for the tool to grab onto. Expanded the tool as much as possible and the first couple of thumps on the drift moved it enough through friction to get a gap between the seat and the shoulder it sits in for the tool to get a better grab on it. Easy peasy when you know a man who knows how and has a tool to hand. Well chuffed I am.