Some More Progress

The delay in updating this page was a result of waiting for some parts to come in.  During my initial inspection I decided to remove the cylinder heads and freshen things up in the simplest sense of the word.  So basically, I soaked things in Simple Green for a few days to try to get rid of the massive carbon buildup on the exhaust port, as well as try to clean up the valve heads a bit.  In the interim, I sealed off the heads as best I could and waited for the gasket kit to come in.  $60 for that, vs nearly $350 for the one for the Kawasaki 650 racer...

When the parts arrived, I began the reassembly.

4 valve, overhead cams, but with rocker arms.  Different for sure, and my first rocker arm engine build.  So far I have done Cam belts and Desmo valves (ducati), cam chain (everything else), gear driven cams (my RC51, but I didn't do anything to that engine), and now pushrods.  Neat.

Knitted together, with new coils from a DRZ400.  A good replacement, according to the forums.












I also did some work undoing the hamfisted maintenance of a previous owner.  This mainly surrounded the cooling system, so a bunch of parts were removed, cleaned (usually in simple green again), and then painted if need be.  For the radiator shroud, I ended up stripping right down to bare metal as wee rust spots were bubbling up under the paint.  Once bare, I used Hammerite Paint to put on a fresh coat.  I see myself using a lot of this stuff in the future.

The radiator itself has received some service, with fins being straightened, and a new paint job with proper radiator paint.  Waiting from some new drain bolt washers prior to installing the rad.

Next up was the seat.  There is no proper cafe seat pan made for the cx500.  Stuff can be modified, but as you can see, the frame has a goofy bend in it, that isn't seen on any other bikes out there.  With this in mind, I decided to make my own, starting with a cardboard male mold, covered in packing tape and sprayed with hair spray as a release agent.  Try it, it does work!  This is after I cut off a frame loop and replaced it (before cutting!!!) with two frame braces for seat and undertail mounting.



I am using epoxy resin (West System) -- this is aircraft spec stuff.  A bit more expensive that Polyester resin, but very easy to work with (when you have the pumps to dole out the proper mixture).  This also mates well with the microballons I will no doubt have to use when I start with a male mold.  The rear seat hump is from a Suzuki GS450 or something.  The plan is to mount a lithium battery under the hump.  I think I can also engineer it so that the hump mounts separately from the seat components.

Tail light (a proper DOT legal one) can mount to the back face of the seat hump.

Best non-creepy use of an old block parent sign?  The seat will keep me busy as several layers of glass and matt fibreglass will be required to make for a study base.  Then quite a bit of finish work will be needed for a smooth surface... much of which will be covered with a seat cushion anyway, but it is what it is...