I've gone and bought this crappy CX500, with the intention of making something that looks a bit better! Hopefully the maggot won't turn into a fly!

Not only is this my first attempt at a blog! but it's also my first attempt at creating a"custom" motorcycle!! I don't really know what I'm doing in either case, so we'll see how it goes.

You'll have to look at the photo below to see why I chose the 'maggot'!.........see something good can be found in everything!!

Wrenchmonkees CX

Thursday, 22 December 2011

Thursday, 17 November 2011

Today's little ditty

Not much to report. Only seem to manage a couple of hours in the evening now & again.
 
I am still disassembling the second engine which seems to be pretty good internally. The various oil seals, 'o' rings, camchain & oil pump chain will all be replaced, but I seem to have become a little obsessed with scraping all the crud off the outside & trying to get the finish back to natural alloy. There are some patches of the original silver paint that I want to remove, which may prove to be rather stubborn!

I'm actually finding it somewhat theraputic!

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Latest update....

Having pulled the engine, & finishing the refurb of the heads, I pulled the rear cover to check the state of play, discovered that the gear change shaft was bent!!


Also, had another look at the cylinder & noticed that one of them had some signs of scoring, (don't know why I didn't spot that before!), so I decided to dig out the other engine that came with the original purchase. That looked as if the previous owner dug it up from a field!!, it looked rough so wasn't holding out much hope.



I quickly removed the heads & checked the cylinders, They were fine, as was the camshaft etc. I'll use this motor then!

 
I will use the refurbed heads from the other engine though.

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Today I mostly did..

Tonight I whipped the engine out so that I could start delving into the inner workings!
First bit I removed was the water pump housing...






yeeurgh!! Still turned ok, though I suspect things would have clogged up eventually!

Next I'll remove the rear cover to clean it up & replace the seals.

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Today's update

Just a quick one! Have nearly finished cleaning the flakey paint & corrosion off the cylinder heads (what a time consuming jobs that is!!), need to finish lapping in the valves fully, wash then fit new stem seals then they're good to go. Have de-rusted & undercoated a some more brackets. Will take engine out this weekend to clean & replace seals etc.

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Tonights bits

Spent an hour or so cleaning up the thermostat housing & connector tubes,

To start with....
ended up with this....
Just need to paint the steelwork & get a set of new O rings, then thats one little job done!!



Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Progress at last!

At last I've got my arse in gear & done a bit more!!

The engine looks shit with lots of aluminium 'bloom' & the old paint flaking off. So to start the process of re-juvination I took the heads off.
Found snotty gloop in the left hand cylinder water jacket...
Bit of judicious use of various scrapers & compressed air seemed to do the job...
 Spent a couple of hours on the head to go from this...
 ..to this...
the valves require a bit more grinding in before replacing valve stem seals & giving a final scrub, don't think I'll bother with porting, not sure if it'll make much difference.
Need to do the right hand head, then will remove engine from frame to delve a little deeper!

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Tipple Run

Off tomorrow with Sumo & co on the Tipple Run! weather look crap! Still it should be fun fun fun!!!