Kawi2strokes.com Forum

After a Winter off I am starting a restoration of a 1976 Honda CB550 I picked up from toomanybikesmike on the NETRA Forum. The plan is a somewhat close to stock resto with the only real major changes would be to the color, which will be Porsche Speed Yellow and low bars. Here are some before pics.

Got the bike torn apart and have the long lead items separated and getting ready to send them out. The Powder Coat will be dropped off tomorrow. The chrome I am waiting on a better rear fender that should be coming in any day now from Ebay. The paint still needs the tank prepped, and I am hoping to get that done next weekend.

To make the engine removal easier I removed the oil pan and the breather cover on top of the valve cover. When I dropped the pan this fell out.





I seem to remember reading on the SOHC site the same problem coming up not to long ago and am hoping those guys can guide me to what it is. It is not a piston ring but looks like it could be something out of the cam or primary chain tensioning systems.

Nice project......gonna enjoy watching the build.
Are you going to take the engine complete down for a full rebuild ?

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Busy doing more riding than wrenching.......

Yes the motor will be completely gone thru. I am hoping to have to it ready by Deal Gap in May but I am getting a late start.

Cam chain guide.

Cool!, I look forward to seeing it done. I just finished a 1975 CB550 for Leroy to sell at the Vegas auction. I had not taken apart a rear hub on a CB550 and it was a little confusing at first. You have to take the sprocket off and then get a special tool or use a drift and unscrew the bearing retaining plate and then the hub will separate. I used a drift and wrecked the retaining ring so I had to buy a new one and I also bought the special tool for $75 and it wouldn't fit(it wasn't genuine Honda). I modified the tool and it worked.

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1969 H1, 1971 G3SSA, 1974 G5, 1973 H2A, 1975 S3A, 1975 H1F, 1973 Z1, 1988 HD FLTC, Captain America chopper, 2000 Excelsior Henderson, 1965 Bridgestone BS90

I did the exact same thing on a 400F I did a few years back. Had to do the same tool mod too.

When I restored a 1965 Black Bomber, Honda had a lot of parts available: valves, seals, cables, gaskets, etc....

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Busy doing more riding than wrenching.......

That back retaining ring can be a pain! I made a tool to install the new one I had to buy on my CB400F. The other thing I will say about these bikes is the carb synchronization is tricky to get perfect. Maybe the linkage is different on the CB550, but I remember it being kinda a bad design on the 400. I could get the carbs REALLY close, but no matter how many times I would try, not perfect across all 4 cylinders when accelerating. Despite this, it still runs really good, and no discoloring on my pipes. Sweet riding little bikes. And that cam chain follower is common, I have to do mine as well. I think the new ones are better than the originals, from what I remember reading.

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'75 Kawasaki H2C
'75 Yamaha RD350
'75 Honda CB400F
'86 BMW R80
'94 Honda XR650 'street tracker'
'04 Honda RC51
2013 HD Heritage Softail
2013 Triumph Speed Triple R