Mohawk

Hi Terry, I’m not certain if all previous primary chain driven engines were the same, but most like the CB750/900 had a primary drive or lay shaft. i.e. they had a crank rotating clockwise when viewed from the right, the primary chain spins the primary shaft in the same clockwise direction. A gear on this shaft drives the first gearbox/clutch shaft anti clockwise, then the second gear / output shaft clockwise. The 550 did away with the lay shaft by running the crank backwards or anti-clockwise when viewed from the right side end.

Top banana Terry wins the free air. Just breath a little deeper on your next inhale 👍😀 I’m not certain but I think it was the first production bike engine to run backwards. In the UK it had a terrible reputation for cam chain issues, I’m fairly certain that was caused by people turning the crank the wrong way whilst setting the valve clearances. I never had an issue in many miles on mine. And yes 572cc

Ah but do any of you know what’s unique about the CBX550 engine ? 1L of free air to the first person with the right answer ! It’s a good one as one of Ho da UK senior techs did not know it !!!👍😀

Water pump shaft seal leak. The drip hole is there so you notice it. Drain coolant, remove pump, replace pump shaft seal. Reassemble & refill coolant.

For a target rich environment 👍😜

The 4 terminal top is just there to make it universal fitting !

Time to delink ! As it should always have been & the last gen has gone back to, all be it with ABS in europe.

As another avenue, the clutch switch actuator arm, i.e. the plastic peg that the clutch pushes to activate the switch wore out on my Y2K version. Switch was fine, just the end of the peg wore down a bit. It got intermittent, I added a little JB weld type stuff to the clutch lever to make up for the short peg. All good now 🙂

And if the package got lost you could only claim insurance for the stated value ! Just saying ☹️

Yeah Kerosene or Paraffin as its called in the UK will do the job. I've also found diesel to be a really cheap cleaner as well as being an oil. Either just melts the chain lube by thinning it out & thus makes washing the accumulated dirt off so much simpler. For lube I generally use hypoid 80/90 gear oil, applied to a warm chain is best. Not the best anti fling properties, but excellent lubrication properties.

LifePo4 is the one you want. 10% heavier but very stable & charge/discharge torlerant.

Well it is only an OVER temp warning, as in the engine temperature is now critical. This should NEVER light in normal use if the cooling system has coolant & the fan system & coolant pump are working. Find something else to worry about. You have a temp gauge for a reason if that didn’t work then you can worry about the lamp.

Back on the clutch slip thing. I’ve had this twice on my bike both times the clutch springs were below spec at 35K & 55K miles. The second set were “heavy duty” springs. As I had a couple of spare low mileage clutch packs I swapped both plates & springs the second time.

On mine #3 always gets tight, its the HOT cylinder IMO with the rear headers out back & the thermostat & rad hose restricting air around it. So its my gauge for the rest. IME The inlets tend to tighten up & the exhausts tend to loosen up.

Look up the bucket & shim record method. Basically check every valves clearance. Record it against each valves location on a table. Then if you have to remove the cams to change one, you can compare shims from a tight ish valve & a loose one. Often you can switch them around to get a middle of the road clearance. So no mew shims needed, or less of them at least. Get yourself a magnetic picker tool to lift the buckets. Often that will lift the shim too ! And remember the cam anti lash gear painting BEFORE. you lift a cam. It really does make refitting much simpler. Have fun.