Am I the Pontius Pilate of this CX500?

Right again crazypj. Turns out the threads are stuffed. Retainer is made of a very soft material. Couldn't get it down all the way. I have ordered a new retainer from JC at bettysprocket.com.au who also stocks a fair few other parts for the CX family. Will replace it when new one comes in.
 
I made a scraper for them (probably 1978~79?)Old Phillips screwdriver that was worn got ground to a 60 degree point to make a 'lathe' cutting tool (easiest way to describe it) heated end to red hot and bent 90 degrees. Made it easy to clean out dirty or damaged threads. I've still got it even though it's only been used twice in last 30 yrs 8) Just dug it out for a picture
 

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I've had a set of 2007 GSXR forks for some time. Bought them on eBay. They are straight and no visible damage. I don't know what mileage was on them, so it's time to change seals and fluid, and check all components.

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I built myself a spring compression tool I saw used on a youtube by a guy called Joshua Hamby. Photo below looks strange...it's a composite of 2 photos to get full length of tool.

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Compressing plastic spacer. It works ! Just enough to expose the cap lock nuts.

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Fluid drained, all cleaned up. Stanchion looks good. No marks anywhere and straight.

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Took out the old seal...needed a bit of heat for this. Cleaned up and new oil and dust seals going in.

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Spring measured within specs.

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Reassembly using the compression tool and holding the rod up with some wire until there's access to the cap lock nut.

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Cap back on. One refurbished GSXR USD fork.

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Moving forward.

Fitted the CRK spoke wheel conversion rings to the rear wheel hub.

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Laced an anodized aluminium Sun rim with some chrome spokes.

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Truing wheel.

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Fitted an Avon Roadrider 120-80 /18 with a tube.

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Not ready for balancing. Waiting on a replacement bearing retainer after trashing the old one. Very soft stuff.

Fitted Suzuki 07 GSXR 600 front rotors on the Cognito hub.

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Balanced.

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Time to start rebuilding the bike. Sounds like the end is near, but I don't really believe it. Took me all day Saturday to do the following:

Bearing holders in the frame and the swing arm, packed with grease, bearings and seals in.

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But the powdercoat on the shaft ends wouldn't allow insertion, so out came the dremel, cleaned off coating, and in they went.

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Shafts pressed in, backed out again, and torqued up to 9 flb, then the lock nut to 70 flb

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Cognitomoto GSX-R 600 conversion stem with their upper and lower clamps and corresponding conversion bearings ready to assemble.

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But first to remove the old outer races from frame. The top one was easy...just used a heavy steel pipe as a drift.

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The bottom one not so. No lip to rest a drift. I tried lots of things, but when all else failed, I remembered a post by a member on the CX500 forum. I welded some beads onto the outer race...

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....and out it popped with a drift. Rescued by the ether.

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New upper race in.

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New lower race in.

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I want to get engine on frame but have to do the e-fan mod first. The CX 500 has a cam driven fan which means that it spins slowest when idling, and is also prone to cracking and can destroy radiators, although they have been known to do high miles before they can do that. Some say that the exceptional durability of the twisted twin is largely due to its ability to maintain steady engine temperatures, which can probably be attributed to the cam driven fan. It's also much simpler to put the mechanical fan back on. You can even still buy them new at reasonable prices. All good reasons to just leave the thing alone......

What the hell....I just want to do the electric fan conversion anyway! The first part is the physical set up.

I'm using the existing fan cowl to mount the fan.

Keeping the cowl means new rubbers.

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Using a second hand Kawazaki ZX6-R fan

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Some rubber mounts with male/female M6 ends

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Cut and bent existing tabs to fit, then welded some side support tabs.

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That's the female side of rubber mount.

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Fan in place centered inside cowl, attached via rubber mounts.

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Final drive cleaned up and painted with some self etching primer and 3 coats of caliper black, with some detailing.

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Splines greased up with lithium based grease and space collar replaced.

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Drive shaft also cleaned up, greased, and replaced in the swing arm.

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With an Avon AM28 120/80-18 + tube, inflated to 32psi, I couldn't fit it between the final drive and the left swing arm. Had to deflate it completely to get it through.

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I was struggling to get the axle all the way in. Banging it with a hammer just kept pushing the final drive to the right, until I figured out why.......

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....the dreaded powdercoating curse again. Caused a narrowing in the diameter of the mount - not for the first time, mind you. I'll hit it with the dremel tomorrow and see how it goes.

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Powder coat can be a PITA but at least you know it was done right to have it in all the 'holes' I've seen a few frames where PC was a bit 'thin' and didn't need things cleaned out, very doubtful it was done properly or thick enough to prevent long term corrosion
 
The slot in swing arm end is open about 3~5 degrees? Should be parallel when clamped
 
Rarely do I achieve in a day all that I plan to do. It just never goes as planned. Yesterday it did, and I had a great day.

I cleaned the powder coat out of the rear axle mount, and finished the final drive, wheel, brake and torque arm.
I was missing the axle clamp bolt but reached into my box of bolts and found a flange bolt M8x35, cut it down to 32mm as per specs.

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Stood back, looked, and I was happy.
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Now to finish some unfinished business with the engine.

First, I had put some non OEM head gaskets that came in an Athena kit. Although it has been said that they are forever needing re-torque, I can't give an opinion. What was more worrying was that I had used RTV black sealant on them, after reading in the FSM "coat surfaces with liquid sealer"...RTV was sort of liquid (more like thixotropic). Who knows, it may have worked, but I was concerned that the sealant may have gone into water passages and may cause problems for me.

So since I had to change them, I got myself some OEM gaskets, and some copper spray.
But instead of whacking the head with a mallet, I used the rope trick (thank you CX500 forum members) .
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I also took the opportunity to clean the tappets to remove mushrooms and swapped the rocker shafts (as suggested by cxman on an early post.

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Reset the valve clearances using Murray's quick set tool. Great aid.

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One of the water pipe elbow mounts needed to be re-threaded after having to drill out a frozen bolt.

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An M6 thread former placed.

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Engine pretty much finished. I'll refit the starter, then a wash and some detailing.

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And that was a good Sunday.
 
Wow. How did I miss this? I'm late to the party, again! I am enjoying watching this ugly duckling changing into a swan. love the gold rims, nice work
 
Thanks Popeye. Even ugly ducklings deserve a chance to shine. Keep watchin' n I'll keep postin'
 
Moving on.

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Electric fan mounted. Time to mount engine on the frame

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My son helped me move it off the bench onto a small trolley with some wood blocks. Once again, had to grind powder coat off mounting points to allow fit. Water bottle should have gone in. I cleaned it up and painted, but when I went to place it, it started cracking. It's very brittle, so it's going to be an aftermarket alternative. Will be mounted......somewhere. To be advised.

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I've been looking for this for months now. I thought I would have to conjure one up, but providence was with me today. I found it correctly labelled but incorrectly stored with the instruments and electricals. Who would have known......

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A pair of vise grips around the drive shaft was handy to manoeuvre it home. Married in to output shaft, and pinch bolt in slot. Torqued to spec, and cleaned up boot replaced.

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Thanks CRAZY.
I'm starting to gear myself up for the electrics. One small step for man.........
 
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