1973 CB500 resto-mod

Took a couple of hours, but they're on! It really wasn't that bad. I snapped one little 10mm bolt that holds the two mufflers together. It must have been soft or something, because I wasn't even really torquing down on it.
Anyway, they're on! I still need to clean off a little exhaust paste and finger prints. I have to make a new center stand stop, as the one on the bike isn't quite long enough. And for whatever reason, my kick stand wants to foul the #1 pipe. I think I'll pick up another one and heat and bend it ever so slightly to clear. It won't take much.





 
Got the Speedhut gauge wired up today. I have a couple of old, sacrificial harnesses and I used the connectors to make it plug-and-play. I did this on the Pamco and the idiot lights as well. Everything on this bike is soldered and shrink wrapped...not crimp on connectors anywhere on the bike...and I'd say that more than 90% of them are the correct color wires and all of them are genuine Honda bullets or female connectors.




The Speedhut has built in turn and high beam indicators. I really wanted an oil and neutral light, too. Picked up some mini LED lights and mounted them here. I played around with making a bracket to mount them on the top triple or next to the Speedhut gauge, but nothing looked clean. This is all stealthy and right in my line of sight when sitting on the bike.




I'll probably move the whole headlight assembly up a few mm's, once the seat and tank are on. Just waiting to get everything lined up before tightening it down.
 
And you may notice that I have no rear fender/grab bar/tail light.
I found two chrome shops within 50 miles of me and just picked one. After a few weeks, I called to find out what's up. Turns out the one I chose is a Mom and Pop operation and "Pop" had a heart attack and had a pace maker installed. When he was finally well enough to get back in the shop, the chemicals in the tanks had gone bad. They're replaced the chemicals but are still having problems with flaking. My grab bar and tail light are done. The fender is in a batch with a bunch of other stuff that they can't seem to get right. Just my luck.

At this point, I'm ready to install a battery and I THINK I'm ready to fire it up. Maybe sometime in the next few days.
 
Heard from the painter today. The tank is done and side covers should be done in the morning. The tank started out as a nice original paint tank with zero rust inside and no dents or dings. Another find at the Spring meet at Barber last year.





And here's a teaser pic from my paint guy. I usually install the cap, badges, etc., but this time I asked the painter to do it. Replaced the gas cap with a nicer one; new rubber seal and hinge pins.Badges are new. I have a new genuine Honda petcock for it. The stripes are painted on, not decals.
I have the original tank trim but it seems to have a gold tint to it and just doesn't look right with the silver paint. Maybe I'll find something to replace it, maybe I'll just leave it off.


 
Picked up the bodywork today.





The tank badges are new. The gas cap was replaced with a nicer one and a new seal and pins installed. The side cover badges are super nice originals that were removed from broken original side covers years and years ago.


 
Well, I heard the pipes today! Hooked up an IV and fired her up. There's a little more valve noise than I'd like (sort of to be expected after a full top end rebuild). I adjusted the valves, but I'll go back through them again. The carbs were pissing fuel out the overflows. Again, I gave them a quick clean and once over. They were really nice carbs to begin with and I was hoping I could get by but, alas.... I'll pull them and have my carb guy do his thing. I was able to set the timing. I need to play with the Speedhut tach and get it the correct signal and pulse.
The idle seemed high, but wanted to die if I cut back on it too much. I mostly just held it as it was and even a little higher to help seat the rings. No smoke, no big oil leaks that I can see, no exhaust leaks that I can tell.
As a "proof of concept" start, I'd say it went OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe1E6yFMGuo
 
That tank and those sidecovers look FANTASTIC! Kudos to your painter, and kudos to you on an excellent build so far.
 
The carbs for this project, I picked up at Barber last year. They were super clean, had some chrome bowls and tops, and supposedly were on a bike not too long ago.
I took a quick look inside, sprayed a little carb cleaner through them, and slapped them on. That was a mistake on my part. Fuel pissing out the overflows like crazy. I've been through CB550 carbs plenty of times, but I have a carb guy within walking distance of my house. Yanked them off yesterday and dropped them off. Sure enough, the one area I didn't get into was the issue. I didn't pull the floats and fuel valves. The O-rings were crumbling.
Rick has a method of polishing and seating the needles and he installed new O-rings on the fuel valves, main jets and drain screws for me. He also cleaned them up a bit better. Ought to be good to go this time.
Hope to get them back on in a day or two and fire it up again and make attempt #2 and tuning it. I also re-adjusted the valves yesterday.





 
Just got through vacuum syncing them. Can't go for a real test ride until the tank is on, and I think I could use a larger pilot jet, as I ended up at ~3/4 turn out and stock is 1.5.
I think I can tune it this way, but if I ever have to go back in them, I'll go up on the pilot. I can't remember if there's a 38 or 40 in there right now.
 
Rear fender, grab bar and tail light are FINALLY on their way here from the chrome shop. I plan on finishing up the wiring now. I'm still trying to figure out why I have a lag in the tach on the Speedhut gauge.
I think I'll go ahead and install bodywork and seat and maybe ride it a little bit. I have access to a dyno shop in Concord. I think I'll ride or haul it up there and actually have the carbs tuned and jetted properly, depending on what I find once it moves under it's own power (other than up and down the driveway with the fuel in the bowls).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh5e0SMin20
 
FINALLY got my stuff back from the chrome shop.



I had a CL350 tail light bracket chromed. It looks like the original, but smaller.




Got everything on the bike. I'll probably go ahead and install the seat now. I'll position the GPS antenna to be as discreet as possible back there. I could probably go ahead and install the tank and side covers, but I'd really like to figure out what's up with the tach first. I'll leave that stuff off for easy access to all the wiring.





 
Installed the NOS seat today. The ONLY thing that's stopping me from installing the bodywork is waiting for a noise filter for the Speedhut tach to get here. I don't want to take the tank on and off to access the wiring anymore than I have to.

The seat and pan are beautiful. Even the logo.




This bike had the complete factory tool kit in the original bag, that nifty fuse holder (that originally had 3 fuses, but I broke one taking it out. I have some spares in the tool kit), and even the original owners manual.



 
Picked up an NOS kickstand (because I had cut off the ball on the old one and I ended up needing it) and had it tapped for a set screw.




This allows me to lift the stand without it hitting the pipe. This pic makes the gap look bigger than it really is. I might be able to go in another thread or two and tuck it up a little closer if needed.

 
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