Hi Folks

Good afternoon folks, Allan from Preston here.
I hope you are keeping safe and well.
I currently run a 2006 CBR600F4i, last in quite a long line of mainly Honda machines.
I will shortly (when lockdown permits) be going to get my old mans 1997 CB500 which has sat in his garage for the last 10 years so I am starting to do the homework on what will need to be done to it to get it back on the road.
We did try to start it a number of years ago but it wouldn't go  
I intent to keep the 500 as well as the 600 so fun awaits.
I'm sure that I will have lots of stupid questions for you folks to help me with over the coming months.
Cheers
Al

hello and welcome to the forum. 
The bike sounds interesting, can't wait for your questions.
the cb500 is a very fun bike 

Thanks, will be some months away unfortunately, esp as I will have to trailer it down from Glasgow

Any luck  with getting hold of the bike yet?

I'm sure you'll be able to get it to run in the end.

You'll have to send us a picture of it in its 10-year resting place!

Unfortunately not yet. I have bought a new foot peg for it tho! Dad snapped the old one by reversing the car into it
I did a lot of work on my CBR over the spring so hope to have it down with me later in the year as the winter project!!
I will certainly get some pics of the events.

Have you moved it to Preston yet?

No not yet, covid and some major house jobs have prevented me from doing it, oh and snagging a trailer , it will be my winter job if I can manage to get it down here. I will be able to get some pics in the next few weeks as I am up to see the old man.

Well, if it's been there for 10 years a few more months won't make much difference!

We'll still be here to offer 'helpful suggestions' (abuse!) as you do try and get it going!

Best of luck in getting hold of it.

Thanks ET, yep in the grand scheme of things you are correct and any suggestions (abuse) are certainly going to be required!!
I did have ago at starting it a number of years back and it was having none of it, so I think it will be at the very least carbs off and tank cleaned along with the other maintenance jobs that will be required after it having sat for so long.

Al1040 wrote:I think it will be at the very least carbs off and tank cleaned along with the other maintenance jobs that will be required after it having sat for so long.

Yes, that sounds quite possible. If you can get most of the gunk out and assuming the engine mechanically turns over then you should at least be able to get it to start (fingers crossed!). I can see a new battery in your future

Managed to get some pics of the bike at its old home!!

Then at relatively short notice maned to get it down to Preston





Unfortunately when the old man had the fairing fitted, the sly devil that fitted it did not give him the headlight / brackets / indicators and tank panels **!** so I may not have the option of returning it to stock....

However that is a decision for another day, just to start the process of getting it running now...

As suspected the battery is knackered

The tanks only had a little fuel in it, so that bad and a bit rusty and of course the carbs will need pulling and cleaning, any hints and tips to get the carbs / airbox / tank out & cleaned gratefully received

As it has sat for so long should I take the plugs out and put some diesel or similar in the head and try to slowly turn the engine to lubricate the bores / rings? 

It will be some time before I will be getting around to attempting to start it.

Cheers
Al

What’s the fairing off? Personally I’m a believer in chucking a gallon of fuel in after making sure the tank is empty as possible of the old stuff , Chuck a battery on or jump start  and see what happens, on the positive side it looks like it’s been stored indoors….. put it in a high gear and try turning the back wheel I would be very surprised if it’s seized

I'm not really sure, I think it might have been a powerbronze fairing but not really sure.
It has not seized as I did manage to turn the engine over using the back wheel.
A new battery is on order, but the main issue assuming I rig up an auxiliary fuel tank is that the throttle is not operating, I think the carbs are seized in some way.
I managed to free off the choke as it was also stuck, but can't operate the throttle  Lubed the cables but still only about 20 deg movement on the throttle!
Has anyone has issues with stuck carbs?

I think they’re stuck with grime from evaporated fuel, maybe new fuel will shift it….

Thanks Rob, I did put some new fuel in and coupled with a new cheapo battery & aux tank what a miracle.. it did start.
However only on full choke and reving at 4k plus so I switched it off, the carbs are still stuck though, I will leave for a little while with the new fuel to see if they free off any.

Sooo, left the carbs for a few days, no joy still stuck and snapped one of the throttle cables for good measure!!
I now have them off the bike and the L/H side is completely seized (both butterfly valve and slide are solid)



The R/H will move about 30 deg as it is limited by the L/H carb  

Before I set about dismantling the carbs do any of you happen to have a good set of carbs at a reasonable price that I can purchase? (oh and any throttle cables as well)
I can then attend to this set of carbs at a much more leisurely pace.


I have cleaned it up a bit and now looks semi presentable with the exception of the engine and radiator.

Assuming you don't have any luck finding some other carbs you could do worse than spraying some carb cleaner in there and hoping it might dislodge some of the grot (it's pretty volatile, penetrating stuff). I don't know how compatible it is with the carb diaphragm, so you might want to remove that first.

Thanks ET, yeah I have been giving it a liberal dosing, but no joy so far.... on with the search.

Just had a thought - have you investigated the balancing/linking mechanism between the two carbs? The balancing screw is the one with the arrow:



It's just about possible that maybe something external is holding it open.... maybe? It probably isn't, but is worth a look while you've got them off the bike.

I was wandering if it might be worth trying to get the stuck slide out first? That might let you get at the other side of the 'flap'. I fear that you may have to apply some judicious heat to loosen the slide - maybe try a hair drier or paint stripper gun before moving on to the blowtorch

I know that other people have used ultrasonic cleaners/baths thingies to clean up carbs non-destructively. Might be worth a look. You could also try something like dunking them in parafin (or similar) for a while - might be worth taking the bowls etc off first before doing that though and being prepared to replace any rubber parts afterwards (mind you, same goes for heat, possibly).

Have you got any plusgas or similar stuff? It might be worth trying to get some of that into the stuck bits.

Thanks again ET,

I don't think it is anything external having had a good look at them, the main springs have not returned to resting position and do not get anywhere near resting on the idle screw.

I have also given them a liberal coating with a penetrating fluid not plusgas though (screwfix no-nonsense stuff)
I do however have some parafin so dunking then in that is a good shout, if I was having to strip them down I would be looking at replacing all of the seals / O rings as well.

Failing all of that, progressive less subtle methods will be employed

I have put a wanted add on to see if anyone is willing to part with a good set of carbs as the easy way of getting the bike back mobile (fingers crossed)

Yes, it would be a lot easier to just bolt on a new set... there are lots of parts to take apart on sets of carbs - it's not too bad if you are fairly methodical (I've done it on other bikes), it can take a good while to get to the bit you want! I might also suggest that a *good* set of screwdrivers will help in not mashing all the heads.

Best of luck!

Thanks ET, my thoughts exactly.

Well I have managed to source a set along with the engine bolts and stick coils from Andy_C what a star.

I will fit them in the next couple of months to make sure it will run properly then on the other stuff.

It will also give me some entertainment over the winter trying to rebuild the original carbs.

Excellent news!

If you wrestle them back on you might not be too far away from taking it for a ride, fingers crossed!

As it's a little quiet on the forum I though I would bore you all with the progress that I have made!!

As a reminder these are the before pictures





Had to really wrestle with the airbox / carbs but managed to get them off in the end.



As I mentioned previously the carbs were and still are firmly seized (will try to repair them over the winter), thanks to Andy a spare set along with new cables fitted.



As with most of the bike the radiator and fan assembly paint had seen better days!



So after a little TLC and copious amounts of smooth black Hammerite, it did not turn out badly at all, at least for a little while




It was then onto the most challenging job of the engine mounting bolts, the rear two were pretty easy, but the front was not for moving so had to resort to dremmel and drill to get it out, what a bitch!





Should really have removed the exhaust before stating this, but was not sure at the time if the header bots would come off so decided to leave them, did eventually take them off to paint the exhaust and managed not to snap the studs. One nut came of and three of the nuts and studs came out together, lots of copper slip on them when I refitted the exhaust.

Looks great with the new bolt in place.



Onto the rest of the bike now, has a few things that also needed replacing / cleaning
Caliper Pins


And Fuel Filter along with the swing arm chain rubber guide (no photo of that), but did manage to source a new one which I will list along with some other parts that i sourced at the end. 
Had to get a full petcock replacement as I could not find the filter on its own


It was then onto cleaning up the paintwork, removing 14 year old grease from the swing arm / sprocket areas and giving it a lick of paint



I still had the exhaust on at this time, but I then removed it to rub down and paint.

Didn't come out too badly on the whole.

As you can see I then had the front end stripped down, new fork oil and brake fluid and for cleaned up as best I could. The stanchions were quite pitted so had to resort to the araldite trick in a couple of places where they went through the seals, not sure how long that will last as I did not want to pay for new tubes.

The calipers actualy were not too bad once the pins and clips had been cleaned and greased. I thought that I would have to replace the pins and rubbers but fortunately not. 

It would appear that whilst in storage the rubber parts came out remarkably well unlike the metal bits.

Forks etc were refitted with a set of gators to attempt to slow down the pitting process


A quick clean and tidy and ready for the MoT!!!