Charmayne's rebuild of her 550L

[Juke Nukem]

Well today, I went to drain the oil out of my bike. I started to work on the front where the filter was then Scott was nice enough to remind me to drain from the oil drain plug which,” thank you dad it would’ve been a mess if you didn’t stop me”. After I removed the drain plug, the oil started to come out fast and very clear. Something didn’t look right which reminded us that Scott left the petcock on prime when he picked up the bike filling the oil with gas.

Sorry for digging up very old comments but how does the gas find its way to the oil? I'm asking because I had the same thing this spring when I drained oil! There must have been about 1:1 ratio of oil and gas, around 6 liters total. My best theory is that also a carb flooded and gas got on the cylinder head intake side and the valve happened to be open and gas finally dripped between the piston rings to the oil...???

[fastbysuzuki]

Sorry for digging up very old comments but how does the gas find its way to the oil? I'm asking because I had the same thing this spring when I drained oil! There must have been about 1:1 ratio of oil and gas, around 6 liters total. My best theory is that also a carb flooded and gas got on the cylinder head intake side and the valve happened to be open and gas finally dripped between the piston rings to the oil...???

petcock left in prime position, faulty petcock, petcock leaking fuel down the vacuum line into number 2 cylinder, or faulty float valve in carb.

[cowboyup3371]

We have had problems with her fuel gauge for the last year or two. After narrowing it down to the gauge itself on Sunday, I finally got around to fixing that today. Unfortunately, losing 5 hours on Monday due to work requirements and other scheduling issues means the bike still isn't finished but I'm looking forward to Saturday getting here so I can get it out for a road test.

[cowboyup3371]

Been busy with other things so I don't get to spend a lot of time in the garage but I'm still doing a little bit every night. I'm hoping to reconnect the wiring and pipes tomorrow so maybe be able to have the bike running for a test ride on Sunday

Engine and Carbs reinstalled by Scott Baker, on Flickr

[cowboyup3371]

Well, the bike is back together and finally running.

Bike Reassembled by Scott Baker, on Flickr

I didn't get it out on the road yet today but will after I put the license plate back on and wax the chain tomorrow after work. After we ran the bike in the video above and then let it sit for about 20 minutes, I grabbed the Harbor Freight compression tester and numbers are at 89/89/89/92 for each cylinder. This puts the numbers about what they were when I tested it with oil and the bike cold (remember that hot numbers with that tester were in the low to mid 70s). I'll test it again later this week with both the HF tester and one I'll rent from O'Reillys. However, I think that for now the compression numbers look better.

I hope we have solved her problem but only time will tell. One fix was verified though - her gas gauge is working again.

[chuck hahn]

Ride it a week or so and periodically goose it a bit..get those rings seated in real good then retest. Be sure to hold the throttle wide open when cranking the engine. UNPLUG all the plugs too when cranking.

[cowboyup3371]

Thanks Chuck. Will do.

[chuck hahn]

You can remove all the plugs when checking compression too. This will allow engine to spin easier and faster with way less stress on the starter motor.

[cowboyup3371]

And so after a minor hiccup with a loose nut (yes, the one between the seat and the handlebars, the bike seems to be running well. I'm not ready to say the original problem that drove us to this spot is fixed but I'll should have a better feeling of how well it's going to stay running by the end of the week. I did my best to break in the rings correctly in the first few miles but it's still smoking slightly. I'll keep an eye on it for a bit though.

[cowboyup3371]

So 50 miles in on the bike so far and the original problem seems to have faded away. I'll keep checking on it for a bit longer but sadly the bike will be leaving my garage soon and moving away to a shed near Columbus OH as Charmayne is moving.

The only concern I have now is still some blue smoke on acceleration. I'm hoping it will stop soon but we'll see. Rings were brand new but we did have to re-use the oil separators

[cowboyup3371]

Found today that I have burned through a quart of oil in less than 200 miles since the rebuild. We'll take the top end back off and put a full new set of stock rings in

[steve murdoch]

I would think a quart of oil in just two hundred miles would produce clouds of blue smoke.
Was it that bad?

[cowboyup3371]

In a word with enough to make ten letters - yes.

I was just hoping I was wrong

[chuck hahn]

did you put the first and second rings in the correct grooves? Round edged ring is top and the diagonal cut edged is second ring. See page 49 of tge service manual. AND there are little letters at one end of the rings...these go facing up.

[cowboyup3371]

Yes we did Chuck. I’m thinking the older oil separators that we had to reuse are the culprit since the new ones from Cruzinimage wouldn’t seat properly to lower the cylinders