Am I the Pontius Pilate of this CX500?

That looks real nice great going

Thancx man !

Beauty.

Coming along nice. Painting is definitely a skill that needs experience. No matter how much you read or how many Youtube videos you watch, you need to do it to perfect it.

Got to agree painting is as much art as science. Back in the 80's I was quite good and painted a few cars, but 30+ yr's with no practice meant I'm pretty (very) bad nowadays. Can't even get new fangled HVLP gun set up properly (I think I have too much pressure?) There is also the heat and humidity in Florida I have no experience of

Thanks Sonreir.
Definitely. I know the next time it will be better, and so on. I could have practiced on some irrelevant item first, but I like to feel the pressure. And the memory that a mistake on the real thing leaves stays for a long time.

This project needs front brakes.
Got myself some second hand 07 GSXR-600 twin pot Tokico's.
Good externally but unknown history, so time to pull it apart, clean, and rebuild. All new rubber seals. Pistons were decent.



Old pads wear groove indicator gone, so new pads in.



Mounted, and new lines.



Fresh fluid, bled, good as new.



My next post will be the closing post to this build thread.

In the meantime, I'm just cutting and polishing the paintwork, fitting guards, and a few odd bits and ends, before I take it to the Motor Vehicle inspection station to prepare for road registration.

See you next post....

"My next post will be the closing post to this build thread. "

That's confidence for you.

Is it supposed to sneak up on me?

Of course pidjones, you've been there and done that, whilst I have not.......YOU WERE RIGHT!

My last post in this build thread optimistically declared that my next post would be the last. Alas, I have a problem(s). Of course, you knew I would.

I posted a first start video recently on the CX500 forum, and Murray replied that he thought it was firing only one cylinder. I thought (optimistically) the second cylinder kicked in...but I think he was right.

Today, I went to start it again for only the second time, and sure enough, only the right cylinder was firing.

Checked compression...155psi on both. Checked spark on motor casing...good on both sides.

I then checked the fuel level, and the left carb level was way low (see photos).

Right Carb



Left Carb



I tried knocking it with hammer and block of wood. No change. I then also noticed a bad fuel leak from the right carb. I thought it was coming from body/bowl joint, but then traced it higher. I'm guessing leak may be from fuel tube seal.

I bought a rebuild kit early on from ebay (before I knew better), later to find out that these may not be up to the task. I did clean and rebuild as per Larry Cargill's book. I also rebuilt the ones from a CX650E I have but I bought the kit from CX500 forum member JC, and have had no problems. JC is a CX guru and the stuff he sells is OEM or OEM quality.

Can the low fuel level on the left bowl mean no fuel getting to cylinder?

I think I'm going to have to pull them out to investigate....but I would like to know what to look for.

Thanks.

PS. I will never make a declaration of confidence ever again.

The right looks too high. I've not seen one set up to run at the bowl/body junction. But, I've never had a CX.

I believe that's where it should be on these carbs for the cx. Right at the body/bowl junction.

Have you checked for cracks in the overflow tube?

Not yet. Next stop is to remove them and inspect...although leak seems to be from higher up.

did you put new float needles in or floats?

No. Only replaced rubber seals and o rings. Cleaned up and reused everything else.

You did inspect shut off valves and re-set float levels? I've come across some really nasty, badly made stuff in the CB350/360 carbs I do. AFAIK, Honda never gave a fuel height for any CX, just a float height (back in the late 70's, early 80's, Kawasaki were the only people giving fuel heights) If you don't have the Honda general service manual (covers all the stuff not in factory manuals) you need to get it. I think it's on here for download? It's very important to have carb bodies angled correctly when setting float height.

FSM in hand. Float height 15.5mm (1/2 mm...really?). I have plastic non adjustable floats in this carb. Guessing something's stuck. I'll be pulling apart and inspecting on weekend.

A compounding of problems...solved.

As of last post I had the following problems:

1. Severe leak from right carb....pulled apart and found a pinched rubber seal between carb body and float bowl. Tucked it in and problem solved.

2. low float level in left carb and no fuel getting to left cylinder.....pulled apart and found that the left carb piston was stuck in the cylinder, thanks to some Penetrol that had seeped through between top piston cover and body which I applied to keep the carbs shiny, after I rebuilt them. Cleaned it up, and float level restored. Don't know if it's in any way related but there it is.



3. Left cylinder not firing. I thought it was the left carb problem as in 2. above, but although I restored flow to the cylinder, still no combustion. Checked sparks..OK. Swapped coils...nothing on either cylinder. Checked coils and pulse generator resistance...3 ohms and 530 ohms respectively, as per spec.

I then remembered that when I rewired, I had to lengthen the 2 blue and 2 yellow wires coming from pulse generator to sparkers. Honda marks the pairs with white sleeves, but I lost these and couldn't remember which went with which, so I just assembled and hoped for the best, only to forget about it until today.



I first swapped the 2 yellows around......no combustion in either cylinder. Put yellows back as they were and got the right cylinder going again.I then swapped the 2 blue ones around.....and HOLY GUACAMOLE BATMAN! it roared............

So I proceeded to set idle speed, balance carbs, adjust mixture screws and just enjoy the whole day....cause that's what you do when you have a good one. It's the first time I tune a bike, so I got myself a Colortune to help me. Turns out you can hear the RPM change as you adjust the pilot screws. I didn't think I would be able to do it by ear.







Here's a short vid. Lovely day.

https://youtu.be/Tqac5ajztTk

With an accurate rev counter you can probably set fuel screws using Honda 'rev drop' method to get even more accurate than the Gunson Colourtune. Set idle speed, screw in fuel screw until rpm drops by 50, screw out fuel screw (count turns) until rpm goes back to stable then keep going until it drops 50 rpm. Optimum setting is half way between the two screw in/screw out. I've found it works really well on any bike with fuel or air screws. You do need a better than stock rev counter though as graduations on stock are too far apart.