Getting back to work. 82 550 seca

Since the bike has been torn down, i havent done a whole lot to it since i havent had money.

Well, i got my bonus from work, and im about to finally get my settlement money.

Time to get to work.

I've made myself a basic list of just about everything i need to do, and ide like to have a litle build thread i can look back on.

Here come all the pics of what ive done so far.



Here it is about a week before i bought it.


The carbs as they sit currently







The engine sits on a table right now as i figure out the best way at removing the paint and cleaning it.

My list is basically as follows

Fork seals & progressive springs
Rebuild caliper
SS Brake lines
Rebuild master cylinder
Clean maybe paint brake and clutch levers, controls, and gauges
Tear apart ignition, clean and grease
Upgrade steering head bearings
Rebuild gas cap & petcock
Insert inline filter
Check clean connections behind headlight bucket
Check coils and spark plug boots
Check relays

CARBS
clean again
polish bores
Throttle shaft seals
Replace float needles
Replace chewed up pilot jet
Replace float seats & orings
Dry set float heights (if possible?)
Polish float bowls & Clean hats
Replace float bowl gaskets
Replace stripped bowl drain screws
Bench tune
Replace enrichment cable
Check/seal/replace intake boots
Clean airbox

Replace alternator brushes
Clean & Strip engine
Double check valve clearances
Replace valve cover "Donuts"
Replace engine side drive sprocket
Check starter
check/adjust cam chain tension

Clutch
Replace cable
replace hub
Replace pressure plate
Replace bolts & springs
Add boss spring and corresponding discs

Replace oil sensor o-ring
Replace blown brake light
Fill/charge battery

Rear end
Replace chain
upgrade swingarm bearings
Clean up rear brakes inside, clean & polish outside
Replace wheel bearings
Replace fingers
Replace sprocket


Things will of course be added and removed as i actually go through everything, and i'll be posting everything as i go.



I also go my garage floor cleaned up, organized my tools, and got some free shelves and another work bench to throw in my garage.

I had everything pulled off my bike laying on a bench that belonged to my roomate, he moved out and moved everything over to my workbench. In the process, he didnt have everything laid out in order like i did, had a bunch of bolts fall out of what i had them sitting in for reference, and took up all the workspace i had in the garage.

I got a hold of another workspace, and some shelves that my work was just going to throw away. Cleaned up my garage and im ready to go.

Took some pics, had to post em, im proud of my garage now, lol. Its good to be back in it.






I hallf-assed put the bike back together to refresh myself on how most of it went, and seeing it halfway together got me excited again about the bike.

Hate to say it, i almost lost interest, now that the balls rolling again, i cant wait.

 

Good that you got excited about the build again!

I would add replacing the throttle cable also, since it's the only one not on your list. Might as well replace them all so you know you won't have any problems down the road.

 

I picked up a cheap siphon feed blaster yesterday, tonight ill be soda blasting the engine and sanding most the frame and blasting the rest

 

Not a whole lot done, didnt blast the engine or frame yet, but still been spending a little bit of time in the garage. Mainly blasting everything else.


I wound up getting a cheap siphon feed blaster, and sticking a gas valve in about 1/4 up the huge hose to meter the soda usage a bit. I tried using a 1/4 hose, but the baking soda would stop dead once it hits the barb.

Instead of doing it outside, since its damn cold, i wound up getting a roll of painters plastic, and covering one of my work benches creating a little blast booth.


Plastic, screws, staples, and duct tape.



It works VERY well, i was a bit skeptical, but the only soda it lets out, is a little cloud when i walk out. Its fairly sturdy too, my black lab got in there, turned into a white lab, thrashed around a bit, and yet the booth still stands!



I had trouble scraping all the baked on crap off of my collector, so figured ide start there to give it a try.

Heres all the crud



Fits nicely!



Did wonders, i need to loosen up a little bit more of it, its pretty thick. It couldnt get all of it, but did better than i thought.



I got excited and started blasting more stuff.




It did a great job stripping the steering head




After blasting a bunch of crap, i decided to have my roomate help me get my engine into the "booth"




After i find a good way to seal the intake, exhaust, and breather, im gunna blast that sucker.

 

well shoot, thats mighty interesting! keep it up! cant wait to see the engine after!

 

taking a break right now, that air compressors getting hot. The bottom part of the case is a little rough, everything else is looking nice though.

 

With having the flu for 3 days, then dealing with christmas, i havent spent too much time out there since, but i have some pics.

I've soda blasted part of the engine, the bare aluminum is cleaning pretty good.





The paint on the top half is a bit tough. I blasted the side of the jugs for a while to get this far:



You can see a lot of bits of paint left over on the fins. So im using a small brush and letting some aircraft paint stripper sit on certain painted areas and wiping it off to soften up the paint a bit, and see if it doesnt make blasting any easier.

Does anyone know if this stuff is safe to apply to the mating areas/on exposed currently sealed gaskets? I dont want to find out the hard way if it will eat them, so im just avoiding these areas with the paint stripper and am going to blast them.

 

The Automotive Paint remover will attack your gaskets, be very careful. That stuff is first cousin to industrial-strength gasket remover.

I hope the oil has been drained out of that motor before you started tippng it every which way; you don't want to end up filling the starter or alternator with oil if there's a less than wonderful seal somewhere.

 

That round rubber plug under the right round side cover leaks. Something that popped up shortly before the tear down. I read up on it on here, and im just going to superglue it. It only leaks when it runs, or in this case, when theres whats left of the oil inside pooling up on top of it.

Yes, oil was drained.

There cant be more than a couple tablespoons left in the engine.

 

"It only leaks when it runs" 8O Sounds like an old Triumph.

Seriously though; yes you can superglue it as long as you can get it flushed out dry; however since it's both protected and hidden by the outer cover, if it were me I'd use this stuff: http://www.permatex.com/documents/PX-03 ... eal.SS.pdf

Oh, and pitch those hacked mufflers, don't waste your time and blasting media cleaning them.

 

Lol, yeah they're in bad shape. Not only are they hacked up, the Chrome is gone on the underside of em, and theyre a little banged up too. As soon as I get another set, and if I can ever get that damn left muffler off the collector, I'm gunna get rid of em.

I'll have to check out that spray n Seal stuff.

 

Well its been a while, but im back at it. Quit my job because of the ridiculous hours and ridiculous salary pay for those hours. So now i have time, and apparently the money to spend on the bike. Ordered about 300$ in parts, and ive been back at it.

The goal has changed from safety, mechanics, and cosmetics, mainly to safety, and mechanics.

I took care of all the rust on the frame, and got it painted. I didnt use the best paint, but it should last me until the winter and im hoping to get alot of things powder coated.

Heres some pics.






Ive got the engine cleaned up pretty good, im not going to bother with painting it quite yet. I wish i had a before picture of under the shifter cover, because it was NASTY in there. Heres a before of the underside though




My brakes are all torn apart. MC is rebuilt, and im waiting on the SS lines from len, and the caliper rebuild kit. I havent tried to pop the piston out of the caliper yet, not really looking forward to it. lol



As soon as i took the caliper mount off of the caliper, the boots just crumbled and fell right off.



Freshly repainted steering head.



The frame with a few bits put back on.



Getting ready to paint the forks, the paint job was crappy, most of it just flaked off. I was debating on polishing them, but i think ill like the high gloss black on em.



Im probably going to stumble around a little bit trying to get everything back together. Its been so long im arguing with myself over what order to put everything back on in. Fortunately, i still remember HOW it all goes back together, just not the order. Im about to tackle the wiring harness. Only thing i cant really remember is where the grounds bolt to on the frame. I wanna say theres one on a coil, and one near the battery box. Anyone remember where they are on a 550? maybe a pic?

 

If you don't have a factory book PM with your email address and I'll get you the cable routing diagrams that show the location of things like the ground straps, etc.

I'll also send you anything from the dealer assembly manual that might come in handy.

 

Steering head races were pretty dinged up. It was pretty rough turning alone, cant believe i rode it like this

Putting the most on that i can while still leaving room for a few others

Carbs put back together, just yet to be racked up

forks painted

Up and ready for the steering head. I went ahead and used fitz's clutch writeup and put everything in there aligned and torqued correctly.

I would have been ready to have this thing damn near complete but peakmoto shipped me the wrong part, so im gunna have to wait a while to put everything on the front in order

 

I hope you rebuilt those forks so they don't leak oil all over the nice new paint as soon as you start riding the bike...

Those "back together" carbs don't seem to have any throttle shafts in them?

You're going to need to take them back apart to install the shafts, seals and butterflies correctly.

 

Fork seals were one of those things i put off purchasing in order to get the important parts in my budget at that time. However due to my steering head bearings getting shipped to the wrong place, which was the only thing holding me back from getting the damn bike back together, ill be able to afford get some new seals in there before i finish it all up.

Theres that stumbling i was talking about, lol.

Although i had a few beers in me, i thought i was okay to do what i did and still be okay to put the shafts back in. What will interfere?

 

Nothing will interfere with the shafts as long as the rack is still apart

 

They're Mikunis. The hats will need to come off and the slides come back out.