Removing the Seat Lock

I’m not going to post again until the weekend, but since I have the photos I may as well post the removal of the seat lock.

I’m not going to need it after I get my new bolt on seat from BCR.

There were only two bolts holding it down. Simple enough.

A quick note on pod filters and the 1976 CB550

Pod filters are cool.

They are all shiny and metal and sci-fi and they look a heck of a lot better than the stock plastic air filter, but….

They don’t fit my bike model.

Of course, the box says they do, and in their defense they actually do fit my carbs. 39mm, in fact, is a perfect fit, but what they fail to understand is that even though the filters may fit the carburetors they won’t fit inside the CB550 frame. Well, sort of…

The inside carbs offer easy installation of the pod filters.

But the outside carbs run into two problems.

1. The frame is in the way.

2. On the left side of the bike the choke lever is in the way. It would have to be bent in order to compensate for the filter, but even after that, the frame is still in the way.

What is curious is that I have seen images of CB550s with pod filters installed. I’m stumped again.

Maybe its the brand I bought. I elected to buy the cheapest filters I could find. Emgo.

This can only mean three things:

1. My frame or engine or carbs are from another year.

2. Emgo brand isn’t worth a damm.

3. I’m not trying hard enough.

UPDATE:

Evidently, K&N makes a set of filters that are supposed fit the CB550.

They are shorter than traditional pod filters, more cylindrical than conical. But even these require that some modification to the choke lever be made.

Here is a link to the PDF I grabbed from K&N’s Website.

I wonder if anyone else has run into this problem.

Replacing the the Throttle Pull Cable

The throttle cable didn’t need replacing. I was just being a little spoiled and bought a new cable because the old one was a little rusted near the adjuster and locknut. In fact the cable was in very good condition beneath the tank.

Removing the old cable was a piece of cake. The eccentric link pin slid right out of the cable crank once I loosened the lock nuts.

Old rusted throttle cable removed.

Installing the new cable was just as easy. Everything done in reverse. I slid the link pin in the cable crank and tightened the locknuts.

Nice and tight. All done on this end.

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The new cable was a few inches longer than the old cable. I knew this when I purchased it, but thought the new bars would compensate for the added length. They didn’t…. so managing the excess length was done by routing the cable over the ignition coils. I was able to turn the forks to both left and right locking positions and still achieved a proper snap back from the throttle. That means everything is okay.

Next was to adjust the throttle linkage and take out the slack. I was feeling about an inch and a half of slack on the throttle before the cable crank actually moved. This was such an easy adjustment it doesn’t even warrant an image or post.

I simply turned the adjuster toward me until the slack was gone and then tightened the locknut.

Done. Feels great and looks great too. No rust on this cable.

Removing the Tank.

Step one: remove the fuel lines from the petcock.

I doubt these were stock, but my petcock had tiny metal clamps holding down the fuel lines. My little CB200 I worked on two summers ago didn’t have clamps. Later tonight I’ll look through the manual to see if these are supposed to be there. So…. I just loosened the clamps and pulled the hoses. Obviously the petcock was set to off so no fuel spewed from the tank after I pulled these. However, I little bit of gasoline spilled out of one of the fuel lines when I tilted it a little too low.

I wrapped the hose ends with a plastic bag and a rubber band to make sure nothing got in the fuel lines.

Petcock with no fuel lines.

Next I just lifted the tank from the rubber tank mount and set aside careful not to harm the petcock. I dig the faded tank color. Its almost a perfect gradient from green to brown. I assume it must have a combination of heat and vapors that gave it that patina. Its going to break my heart when I have to paint the tank.

Bike with no tank. 😦

Overhead shot.

Removing the passenger pegs

I was going to need to do this anyway once I purchased a new exhaust, but I was bored and decided to take them out today. It was a simple process: unscrew bolt, remove bolt, remove passenger peg, replace bolt, screw in tight.

Removing the Front Fender (Oh, the Horror)

I started to remove the front fender last week but couldn’t get it off and was completely stumped as to why. Today after work it dawned on me that last week I only took one bolt out. There was only one. The adjacent bolt hole was empty. After closer inspection this afternoon I noticed that the second bolt hole did in fact have a bolt, half of one. I suspect it had broken off maybe a decade or two ago. So I had to loosen the front brakes enough to slide the fender over the broken bolt stem.

In the process I accidentally pulled out the speedometer cable. I didn’t think I could salvage it so I decided to try to remove it but…

The phillips screw holding it in was frozen. I’ll need to go buy an impact driver to remove it without stripping it.

I also think I may have screwed up the front brakes when I pulled this off. I’ll bleed them next week and put in some fresh brake fluid. All in good time.

Here is a shot of the front end without the fender. Maybe I’ll install some fork boots one of these days, but its not a priority right now. My only concern with removing the front fender is that it did provide a bit of cable management. But the brake line is doing well without the fender. No way of knowing how the speedometer cable will do until I replace it.

Installing Clubman Bars (The Hard Way)

It could have been simpler…

…and I made some mistakes along the way.

It looked simple enough until I realized the Clubman bars weren’t pre-drilled or slotted. This makes sense. It would be virtually impossible to manufacture bars that accommodate for all makes and models of motorcycles.

So I had two choices: route the wires on the outside of the bars (messy looking) or route them through the bars (clean).

I wanted a clean look and decided to route through the bars. Since the bars didn’t have any holes or slots, I had to drill them myself.

A fresh set of Clubman Ace Bars. Not as low as clip ons but they look cool and feel great.

First I had to mock them up to figure out were the control assemblies was going to be and mark were I need to start drilling. Notice that this set of Clubmans has the sharp corner weld. Its nearly a 90 degree angle and pulling wire through them was miserable.

So the two points I decided to drill where near the control assembly and about an inch and half from the corner weld. A few incremental drill bits later and I had four nice sized slots to feed and pull wire. I also used my dremel tool to clean up the edges. I didn’t want the sharp inner rim to cut or strip the wires.

I wrapped the exposed portion of the wires with masking tape, and in true MacGuyver style I fashioned some string from a shoelace and tied one end to the wrapped wires.

I spent all morning pulling wire for both sides.

Things I learned:

1. Some type of lubricant is required. I used liquid soap.

2. Never route through the bars. Its not worth it. I spent all morning doing it. Granted, it looks super clean, its just not worth the trouble I went through.

3. My stock control assemblies had little metal tabs that fit into pre-drilled holes in the stock bars. These tabs prevented the controls from sliding. I tore these metal tabs off thinking I wouldn’t need them and as a result my controls are sliding. I’ll figure out how to stop that later.

Here are is a before and after photo.

From 70’s japanese stock to 60’s London cool in one morning.

Removing the Air Cleaner and Element Case

Like much of this rebuild, this procedure started off fairly simple and then progressively become more difficult.

I lifted the inlet duct straight up and it came right out. Easy.

There were only two bolts holding down the air filter box. The manual refers to it as the element case. Whatever, I don’t want anything made of plastic on my bike. Easy.

After removing the two bolts it came straight out. Easy.

Air filter/cleaner and element case removed. Now the hard part… removing the air box that connects to the carburetors.

The rubber manifolds that connect the carburetors to the air box were rotted. They weren’t salvageable so I cut them off to make it easier to remove the plastic air box.

Each manifold had a metal fastener with one screw. They were was easy to remove.

As I mentioned early the rubber had rotted. They were no good, so I cut them off the air box.

This was the hardest thing to remove. It is shaped and positioned in a way that made it impossible to squeeze out of the frame without removing the carburetors. I didn’t want to remove the carbs, so I shaved a bit off the side of the air box and forced it out of the narrow frame. Its garbage.

Carbs with no filters 😦

Done for the night.

I’ll start up again tomorrow morning.

Removing the Battery and Battery Box

First I had to remove the side covers. It was a nice discovery to find the fuse box and rectifier under the left side cover.

Eventually I hope to reposition the electronics under the seat, but for now they can stay there.

On the other side of the bike under the right side cover is the battery. I pulled that out and am going to recharge it with my batter tender tomorrow.

The battery box/harness was covered in rust. Removing it wasn’t difficult at all. The bottom lower right bolt however required two wrenches and a certain degree of extreme torque to unfreeze the bolt.

This stuff is nasty. I hate using chemicals, and after tonight I never will again.

Tomorrow morning I’ll sand it down with some 220 grit sand paper and spray it with a protective enamel. Ultimately I plan on repositioning the battery in a custom battery box under the seat. For now though, I may as well clean this one up a bit.

Removing old bars

Today after work I set up my tools outside, put the ipod on shuffle and started the process of removing the old handlebars. I jumped in and unbolted the front brake and master cylinder. Piece of cake.

Then I removed the electric starter control assembly. It had two screws at the bottom. Easy enough.

Slid off the grip. Easy, but what I didn’t realize was the wiring for the electric starter was strung through the bars. I guess I kinda knew, but wasn’t prepared for how I was going to take the wires out. Eh.. I just moved on to the other side.

The turn signal, horn, and clutch assembly. Three screws. Easy.

Went to work on removing the pilot lights. Four bolts. Easy.

The bars were then off. So I had two choices. I could de-solder the controls and string the wires through the bars, or I could open up the headlight and disconnect the wires from the main harness.

I disconnected the wires from the main harness in the headlight. I didn’t bother writing down where they went. Everything is color coded and it should be relatively simple to put them back where then need to be.

This wasn’t easy. The handlebars had two curves in them. Stringing the wires through was a bitch. I’ll never do that again.

Done.

Gonna ebay the old bars.