mcenz25
Stop, listen, and then listen again.
The subject line says it all, I've gotten my hands on a 74 CB550, and I am as new at this as I can be. The only thing I bring to this project is passion and a plan. The passion is self explanatory given the company kept on this forum, but the plan is where I will likely need some guidance. Here is what I know; start small, complete a single task before moving on to another, and be humble enough to ask for help where needed.
I’m attempting to document as much of the tear-down and build as possible. I have a few pictures of the bike as delivered. They’re not great images as I’m a newbie to photography as well.
I knew up front that there was the possibility of low compression across all four cylinders. To date I haven’t run a compression test. I really wanted to see if I could just get the machine to breath again before running any tests. New gas, cleaned petcock screen, drained carbs and I was off to the rodeo. It runs! Well, sort of, it was (as reported) low on power. I used a IR temperature gauge to see how much difference there was between cylinders. One & four were much cooler than two & three. Points? Checked ‘em. Condensers? They both fell into range. Turns out a solenoid ground pulled out of the harness. I hooked that up and excitedly hit the starter. Did I mention that the bike would idle (sort of) before finding the solenoid ground unplugged and while firing on only two cylinders? Now with all four firing I can’t keep the engine running more than thirty-seconds or so.
This is all part of the learning curve for me and while I’m certain that some of the veteran’s in the community are getting a chuckle over my fumbling, I couldn’t be happier!
I hope to share the project with the community, ask questions now and again, and maybe learn a little along the way.
Maybe one question or two...
Most of the chokes I have experience with have been operated by pulling a knob to close the butterfly. This bike has a lever with the word Open and a curved arrow pointing down. Here’s my assumption, pull the lever up to horizontal to start and then push down to vertical for normal operation? Have I got that correct? Any idea why the bike would run better on a closed choke than an open one?
Greg
I’m attempting to document as much of the tear-down and build as possible. I have a few pictures of the bike as delivered. They’re not great images as I’m a newbie to photography as well.
I knew up front that there was the possibility of low compression across all four cylinders. To date I haven’t run a compression test. I really wanted to see if I could just get the machine to breath again before running any tests. New gas, cleaned petcock screen, drained carbs and I was off to the rodeo. It runs! Well, sort of, it was (as reported) low on power. I used a IR temperature gauge to see how much difference there was between cylinders. One & four were much cooler than two & three. Points? Checked ‘em. Condensers? They both fell into range. Turns out a solenoid ground pulled out of the harness. I hooked that up and excitedly hit the starter. Did I mention that the bike would idle (sort of) before finding the solenoid ground unplugged and while firing on only two cylinders? Now with all four firing I can’t keep the engine running more than thirty-seconds or so.
This is all part of the learning curve for me and while I’m certain that some of the veteran’s in the community are getting a chuckle over my fumbling, I couldn’t be happier!
I hope to share the project with the community, ask questions now and again, and maybe learn a little along the way.
Maybe one question or two...
Most of the chokes I have experience with have been operated by pulling a knob to close the butterfly. This bike has a lever with the word Open and a curved arrow pointing down. Here’s my assumption, pull the lever up to horizontal to start and then push down to vertical for normal operation? Have I got that correct? Any idea why the bike would run better on a closed choke than an open one?
Greg