A CX500 for Christmas

for those of you that have M.B.S. (multiple bike syndrome) and have the "silver wing" models.
as our sponsors also have supplies for those bikes and they are popular with the "wing" crowd.

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Easter
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#46

Post by Easter »

Today is Thursday, on Sunday evening I ordered my custom length stainless brake lines from a company in Canada, they arrived in this mornings mail and are now installed. Barely four days, Amazing. This is probably the fourth set I have ordered from them and have always been pleased.

Put antifreeze in the radiator today only to find it has a small leak. I may just leave it alone till I get it running to be sure none of the water pipe joints leak. Don't want to have to take it apart twice.

Painted rear fender goes on tomorrow. I had ordered an under the fender tail light but it turned out to be too wide for the fender so I will have to go to plan B (what ever that turns out to be). Also made some headway with the exhaust system, looks like it will work. (Pictures later).
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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delling3
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#47

Post by delling3 »

Really like where this is going Easter. Fender paint issue aside, really looking nice. Will this be a "keeper" or are you planning to "flip".

Always liked the "baby Guzzi".
Last edited by delling3 on Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
delling3

1979 Yamaha XS750SF

Previous:
1978 GL1000 - JUNE 2017 BOTM: Sold
2006 Kawasaki Concours: Sold
1995 Kawasaki Concours: Crashed/totalled.
1976 GL1000: LAST RESTORATION, sold
1981 Honda CB900F Supersport: 3rd restoration, sold.
1979 Yamaha XS-750F: 2nd restoration, sold.
1982 Honda FT-500 Ascot: First (only) new bike. Family forces sale.
1973 CB500 Four: First restoration, long gone.
1972 Suzuki TS-100: First bike, sold.

Only dead fish go with the flow . . .
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#48

Post by Rat »

Easter wrote:Today is Thursday, on Sunday evening I ordered my custom length stainless brake lines from a company in Canada, they arrived in this mornings mail and are now installed. Barely four days, Amazing. This is probably the fourth set I have ordered from them and have always been pleased.

Put antifreeze in the radiator today only to find it has a small leak. I may just leave it alone till I get it running to be sure none of the water pipe joints leak. Don't want to have to take it apart twice.

Painted rear fender goes on tomorrow. I had ordered an under the fender tail light but it turned out to be too wide for the fender so I will have to go to plan B (what ever that turns out to be). Also made some headway with the exhaust system, looks like it will work. (Pictures later).
Company is called 'Apex' .... they do good work ....

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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#49

Post by rcmatt007 »

if I recall, I had a small antifreeze leak on my cx500c... it turned out to be the mechanical seal... a real PITA to change
-Rodger-
all it takes for evil to prosper is the want of a few good men to do nothing-Edmund Burke
The question is not how much time do you have, it is what you do with the time that you have Gandalf
"One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation." Fred Rodgers
"it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert" ancient saying
78 constantly modified/customized since 1978, BOTM June 2015 de-evolving this very moment viewtopic.php?f=30&t=65511
76 Ltd "cookies bike" ALMOST DONE
79 project, finished, FOR SALE
'86 1200 (Beth's)(FOR SALE) with motorvation sidecar (sidecar sold) , July 2017 BOTM
'17 HD Road king and 08 HD Heritage softail (Beth's) (FOR SALE). I guess you can say we have MBS
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#50

Post by Easter »

RAT wrote:
Company is called 'Apex' .... they do good work ....

Gord (not affiliated) Jones
Could be the same company but they sell on ebay as "GT Autosport"

Unfortunately this leak appears to be coming from the fins. I do have another radiator but not sure if it is any better. I think I selected this one to clean up because it looks better.

Regarding keeping it, we shall see after I ride it a bit. And speaking of Guzzies, there is a sharp '73 for sale in the Houston Craigs List. Now if I could sell four or five bikes, maybe... :crosso
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#51

Post by Easter »

I am at the stage where things move along in sync with package delivery. Today was a good day with four packages allowing me to move forward with the exhaust and throttle controls. I also got a battery.

Copper rings in today's mail allowed me to bolt up the exhaust in final position. Everything fits good. Sportster pipes may not be the best choice for this build but I have them and they are in perfect condition. I was able to use sections of the Sportster plumbing to tie them into the stock headers. Unfortunately there is some discoloration from heat but since they are chrome I hope they will stay looking better than conventional exhaust pipe adapters.

I thought installing throttle cables on the GL1000 was difficult until I spent two hours trying to connect the new cables to the CX carbs. Persistence and scraped knuckles eventually won out.

A new master cylinder was also installed and mostly bled. Hope to get the last of the bubbles out tomorrow. I might have a leak at one of the caliper piston seals. Hopefully it will settle in. :-?

You will notice in the photos that I have an aluminum box beneath the seat. That will house the battery and most of the electronics. Installing it will require drilling a bunch of holes ranging from one inch down. I just hope I can get them all in the right place. I plan to install the ignition on the side of this box as well.
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Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#52

Post by Easter »

I spent a couple of weeks visiting family (Houston and the great state of Michigan) and am now back working my way through the wiring. I disassembled the stock harness and modified as required for different components and the relocation of the ignition and fuse panel. A real brain teaser for this old geaser! :IDTS:

The tail light assembly is a combination of five very bright LEDs mounted on an aluminum panel. I was able to use the stock holes in the rear fender to mount. They are concealed when the seat is mounted. Because the LEDs are single "filament" a different LED is required for each function. The tail light/running light is in the center while brake lights are on either side with turn indicators on the outside. The turn indicators on the rear are augmented with signals on the ends of the handle bar. the most difficult part of this process was soldering these near microscopic wires to bullet connectors. Standard color coding was maintained.
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Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#53

Post by Easter »

It lives :-D
The starter was dragging but seems to have cleared up. Turns over good, starts good and seems to run fine. I have only run it a few minutes on an auxiliary gas tank but it didn't seem to smoke and responded well to the throttle.

Radiator will definitely have to come off for repair or replacement. I have another one but am not sure of its condition. I have not checked the charging system yet so don't know if it is charging correctly. But we are close. :crosso
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Easter
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#54

Post by Easter »

I just knew things were going too well! Water leaks... plastic drain plug on radiator doesn't seal very well. No problem, all it needed was a new rubber seal. Radiator leak, minor but never the less, a leak. I found my spare radiator, gave it a bath in acid and after plugging all the outlets, gave it a shot of air. Leaks like a sieve from about a half dozen spots. Sooo, what to do with the one I originally installed? Radiator stop leak? :shock: Radiator shop? Well, we shall think on it some more.

But the worst water leak (I think) is coming from the bleed hole on the water pump cover at the back of the engine. What does it mean? Probably means the seals are bad and the engine has to come out of the bike! When this happens on a GL it is usually oil seeping out. Replacing the water pump and or seals is not fun but manageable in a couple of hours. This seems much more involved.

On a positive note, the bike seems to run good so it seems salvageable.
Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#55

Post by scootsx2 »

Replacing the CX500 water pump involves pulling the engine which is simple if you have a transmission jack or similar to roll underneath the lump.

Regarding the radiator, don't use stop-leak. It's a nasty kludge. Take the radiator to a competent shop for repairs. On my '82 CX500 police trike I had to have the radiator recored - now it's like new.
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1975 GL1000 Sidecar Outfit
1982 CX500-based Trident ex-Police Trike
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#56

Post by pidjones »

scootsx2 wrote:Replacing the CX500 water pump involves pulling the engine which is simple if you have a transmission jack or similar to roll underneath the lump.

Regarding the radiator, don't use stop-leak. It's a nasty kludge. Take the radiator to a competent shop for repairs. On my '82 CX500 police trike I had to have the radiator recored - now it's like new.
THAT is one gorgeous radiator! I plan to spend a day soon straightening the fins on my GL1000 radiator. I plan t mask off the business area of it and just paint the shell and tanks. Hope to avoid a recore, and don't want to cut the heat transfer with a paint layer.

BTW, pulling the GL1000 engine was facilitated by adding doubled 2x4s to a Harbor Freight furniture dolly and strapping the motor to that.
"Love 'em all.... let God sort 'em out!"
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#57

Post by rcmatt007 »

the leak is probably the mechanical seal. At least on my cx500c, you have to pull off the back cover and use a bolt and nut to press the seal and housing back into the cover
-Rodger-
all it takes for evil to prosper is the want of a few good men to do nothing-Edmund Burke
The question is not how much time do you have, it is what you do with the time that you have Gandalf
"One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation." Fred Rodgers
"it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert" ancient saying
78 constantly modified/customized since 1978, BOTM June 2015 de-evolving this very moment viewtopic.php?f=30&t=65511
76 Ltd "cookies bike" ALMOST DONE
79 project, finished, FOR SALE
'86 1200 (Beth's)(FOR SALE) with motorvation sidecar (sidecar sold) , July 2017 BOTM
'17 HD Road king and 08 HD Heritage softail (Beth's) (FOR SALE). I guess you can say we have MBS
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#58

Post by Easter »

After doing considerable research on the CX500 website and related posts on facebook and wiki, I determined that it is feasible and practical to service the water pump with the engine in the frame. The only issue is whether the oil seal is good or not. If bad, the engine has to come out to remove the entire back cover. There is a fairly simple process for replacing the guts of the mechanical seal without the necessity of removing the cup (or housing) of the mechanical seal which must be pressed out from the inside (as does the oil seal).

Unfortunately my problem is much more severe!! The impeller end of the cam snapped off leaving the water pump inoperable. (this explains why it was difficult to turn the motor over until it suddenly broke free) Eventually I will have no option but to tear the engine down to replace the cam and such other components as required. In the interim I can't resist the "opportunity" to explore the possibility of an external electric water pump. I have selected one and have it on order so we shall see how that works out. Cams alone are running over $100 used plus the other seals and gaskets and probably cam chain and tenshioner etc. will probably cost around $350 total. The automotive electric water pump is less than $50 and should fit on the side of the engine where the chrome water pipe resides.
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Bikes at present:

83 XL 600r with a 2004 XR650L engine
And a slightly worse for the wear BMW GS adventure bike awaiting repair
83 GL in process :IDTS:
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#59

Post by Sugs »

Ewww...that's a bit of a bummer.
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Re: A CX500 for Christmas

#60

Post by delling3 »

Fugly . . . sorry to see that.
delling3

1979 Yamaha XS750SF

Previous:
1978 GL1000 - JUNE 2017 BOTM: Sold
2006 Kawasaki Concours: Sold
1995 Kawasaki Concours: Crashed/totalled.
1976 GL1000: LAST RESTORATION, sold
1981 Honda CB900F Supersport: 3rd restoration, sold.
1979 Yamaha XS-750F: 2nd restoration, sold.
1982 Honda FT-500 Ascot: First (only) new bike. Family forces sale.
1973 CB500 Four: First restoration, long gone.
1972 Suzuki TS-100: First bike, sold.

Only dead fish go with the flow . . .
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