CX500 GL500 650 Global

Thanks all for your help. I knew I was supposed to have free play at the lever, but I loosened everything up and it still had zero freeplay, which is why I was having such a hard time trying to figure out how to adjust it correctly. Well, I went back out today and figured out that part of it was hung up and not seated properly, which is why is was still tight. I've gone and finally gotten it adjusted so there's about 1/4 inch of freeplay like the manual says. Is it better to have a little more or a little less free travel? Or is it just a matter of riding it and fine tuning it?

You got it Kingston! At this point you will be armed with the knowledge of what you want in the fine tuning. Good job buddy!

Its funny, most of the problems I've had with this bike I've either caused myself or just needed to sit back and think about things a bit, I guess it really is true that patience is a virtue. It took me a month to transplant an engine and make it work, but I finally got it out for a short ride today. Everything seems to work pretty well, all the basics at least. It shifts into all the gears and stops, but I wasn't able to get it on the highway, so it didn't get over 5000 rpm today, but tomorrow's supposed to be rainfree and sunny, so it's looking like a good highway day. If I did everything correct, the stator tested fine on the multimeter, so hopefully that'll be fine. It didn't want to start, it took several tries to get her going, but its probably been at least a year since it was last in a frame, maybe more. It's pretty amazing how tough these things are! It's a hell of a lot quieter than my original, that poor thing had gold flecks in the oil when I drained it, so I'm sure when I finally get around to opening her up she's gonna have some internal damage, but hopefully not fatal. Its pretty amazing how much you learn when you start taking things apart, much better than dropping it off and letting somebody do it for you. Again, thanks all for the help, couldn't have done it without all y'all!

Rock on Kingston! Most of what I've learned came the hard way too, I just try not to repeat my boo-boos now!

Remember, next time your stumped and later figure it out, if your willing to fess up and post here, you might save some one els the same grief.

Good luck with the bike!

kingston73 wrote:Its funny, most of the problems I've had with this bike I've either caused myself or just needed to sit back and think about things a bit, I guess it really is true that patience is a virtue. It took me a month to transplant an engine and make it work, but I finally got it out for a short ride today. Everything seems to work pretty well, all the basics at least. It shifts into all the gears and stops, but I wasn't able to get it on the highway, so it didn't get over 5000 rpm today, but tomorrow's supposed to be rainfree and sunny, so it's looking like a good highway day. If I did everything correct, the stator tested fine on the multimeter, so hopefully that'll be fine. It didn't want to start, it took several tries to get her going, but its probably been at least a year since it was last in a frame, maybe more. It's pretty amazing how tough these things are! It's a hell of a lot quieter than my original, that poor thing had gold flecks in the oil when I drained it, so I'm sure when I finally get around to opening her up she's gonna have some internal damage, but hopefully not fatal. Its pretty amazing how much you learn when you start taking things apart, much better than dropping it off and letting somebody do it for you. Again, thanks all for the help, couldn't have done it without all y'all!

Copper flecks in the oil usually mean Big-end bearing failure.If you have caught it in time you can strip the engine and then get the crank and crank pins(Con rods) checked at a local engineering company that specializes in re-bores etc and also get the engine casing flushed/vapour blasted.I got them to machine polish the bearing faces of the rods and the crank after they had checked they were within service limits and of course the rods for stretch and burn.
Those parts are now in my Main CX and running well after around 2,000 miles plus.I also fitted new rings and decent cam chain and oil pump chain de-coked the heads,re-ground the valves and new valve stems seals,mech seal etc so it's pretty much a long term running engine now.
It does use a quite bit of oil but that's due to worn Valve guides which the cost of replacement to me with valves is too prohibitive(£300+/$600+) so I just use heavier cheap oil and keep an eye on the levels and an engine additive called Molyslip that cuts down on engine wear.

The good news is In all the CX engines I've stripped;built I've never yet seen the main bearings been damaged or worn enough for them to be replaced.This is most likely because main bearings have less chance of ,"Picking up a shell" as we say over here e.g getting F.O.D because of their position and also they don't have to suffer the extreme hammering that big -end shells get with the constant explosions from fuel ignition in the 4-stroke cycle.

Thanks for all that info Shep. I hope to be able to put the motor down in the basement and work on it over the winter and I'll be looking for a place to do the work you talked about. Would the bearing failure be related to cam chain damage? This engine supposedly had about 40,000 miles on it, but the odometer only showed 4000, so maybe it went over 100,000? Either way, it definitely has a broken cam chain tensioner, and since this was my first cx I drove it for about 2 weeks before I figured that out. I don't know how long it may have been driven on the broken tensioner before I got it. The oil had some very obvious gold colored swirls in it when I drained it. Oh well, I'll try to fix her up, but worst case I still have several good spare parts in her. I'm going riding soon on my new transplant, wish me luck, and thanks again for all the help!

I've only been running CXs for just over 4 years but from what I have seen on nearly all of the,"Basket Case" engines I've had off ebay and what I have read Cam chain wear/Stretching is most likely the single most common cause of these engines failing.This has nothing to do with the original weak Cam chain tensioner and small Tensioner plate.That was addressed early on in their History.

Almost every engine I've stripped has the tell-tale wear on the top bolt on the right hand side where the Cam-chain runs close to.This chewing releases alloy into the oil and these get picked up by the shells and then,"Bang".Shells and crank ruined and engine requires full strip and ultra cleaning and replacement crank/shells etc replacing.

It is suggested you can check the wear on the cam-chain by uisng a small inspection mirror but I think was started by conjecture.I've tried it with enven a filed down one and cannot see it.It would have been nice if honda had fitted a small inspection hole with a plate on it so you should seen when it was time to renew it.I've even though of modifyinf a back crabkcase with a small hole and plate to show this.I have a couple of rear cases that are in bad conditon so I may do a practice on one.

The good news is that the life expectency of a Cam chain is usually banded around as 40,000 miles which isn't bad but Also this guy reckons he got 87,000 miles,

http://www.turbomotorcycles.org/TMIOA/TechHelp_Honda_StickCam.html

The main thing is regular oil and filter change(Remove front engine cover and remove oil pump and clean sump and oil filter gauze if you have just got the bike and then again every other oil change IMHO),adjust can chain and tappets and that's about it once they are in serviceble condition.

There's a bloke on one of the the Australian forums who has owned a CX since new and put over 200,000 miles on it and all it's had is a couple of Cam chains replaced and an alternator stator other than normal consumables.