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 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!!!