r60celo5
New member
hello all.
I just got myself a 73 R60/5 with 38K miles on it that had been sitting for a few years. It was not running and listed as for parts, however it looked clean and all original so I took a chance with it. The speedometer hand is broken and the tachometer hand is bent up and skipped below 0. Under the seat I found a bunch of receipts for maintenance done up to 2014 such as carbs cleaned, points and valve adjusted. My plan is to get it running first then decide how far I want to take this built. I learned from my mistakes from my previous build; a 1976 Honda CB550, I might have replaced too many working parts, but it looks great and runs very smooth.
At first the starter would not crank even with a fully charged battery. After cleaning up all starter relay contacts I got it to spin. There is decent compression (130 left 140 right) with a cold engine.
Also cleaned all wire contacts going in and out of the coils and spark plug wires and measured about 23 kOhm from plug boot to plug boot. I forgot the exact numbers but spark plug wires read a bit over 4kOhm each, the coils read approximately 6.7kOhm each, the total added up to as measured from plug boot to plug boot. One spark plug reads 0 ohm across the other does not show continuity. However there is a purple-ish spark with both spark plugs pulled and shorted to the engine block.
Flushed the tank and added fresh fuel. The fuel lines appear to be wrapped in a cloth looking thing and appear to be wet. I dropped the carb bowls unscrewed the top of the carb and found the crabs to be really clean inside, however I did blew all passages with compressed air.
In to process of messing around with the carbs I removed the setting screws but did not take note of how they were set. After carbs were back in one piece, I turned the idle screw (small) about 1 turn out from all the way in as per Clymer manual and the big screw about 2 1/2 turns out from all the way in. I could not find a reference on Clymer on how this screw is set but somewhere on line i read that 2 1/2 is a good start. At first time I opened the petcocks I noticed that the left carb was empty while the right carb got filled up. However there is gas in both now.
With all of the above I cant get the bike to run. I can smell a slight gas odor from the spark plug hole when I crank it so I am guessing the gas makes into the cylinders. The spark plugs are dry. I also flooded the carbs pressing the black thingy, gas drips at the bottom of the right carb but not the left carb.
Also checked the point gap and adjusted the valves. Found out that the valves were set too tight with no gap at all. so I adjusted that to .015 intake and .02 exhaust.
The points appear to have this white char/buildup however the gap was ok 0.16mm. most likely new points are in order but there is spark.
so here come my questions.
1) any suggestion how the set screws (big and small) should be set? (maybe not enough gas in the mixture to fire up)
2) How do I make sure the sparks are firing when they are supposed to. (all info on how to adjust timing is with the engine running, I am not at that point yet)
3) how bad is a coil with 6.7kOhm?
4) any suggestion where to get spark plugs and wires, points, coils? What's a reputable online store with oem or decent parts for our bikes.
5) where to sent the speedometer for repairs? (its gonna cost a pretty penny)
As I stated in the beginning, first I wanna get this bike to fire up with minimum expense, then decide how far I wanna take this build.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long post, I tried to provide as much info as I have.
I just got myself a 73 R60/5 with 38K miles on it that had been sitting for a few years. It was not running and listed as for parts, however it looked clean and all original so I took a chance with it. The speedometer hand is broken and the tachometer hand is bent up and skipped below 0. Under the seat I found a bunch of receipts for maintenance done up to 2014 such as carbs cleaned, points and valve adjusted. My plan is to get it running first then decide how far I want to take this built. I learned from my mistakes from my previous build; a 1976 Honda CB550, I might have replaced too many working parts, but it looks great and runs very smooth.
At first the starter would not crank even with a fully charged battery. After cleaning up all starter relay contacts I got it to spin. There is decent compression (130 left 140 right) with a cold engine.
Also cleaned all wire contacts going in and out of the coils and spark plug wires and measured about 23 kOhm from plug boot to plug boot. I forgot the exact numbers but spark plug wires read a bit over 4kOhm each, the coils read approximately 6.7kOhm each, the total added up to as measured from plug boot to plug boot. One spark plug reads 0 ohm across the other does not show continuity. However there is a purple-ish spark with both spark plugs pulled and shorted to the engine block.
Flushed the tank and added fresh fuel. The fuel lines appear to be wrapped in a cloth looking thing and appear to be wet. I dropped the carb bowls unscrewed the top of the carb and found the crabs to be really clean inside, however I did blew all passages with compressed air.
In to process of messing around with the carbs I removed the setting screws but did not take note of how they were set. After carbs were back in one piece, I turned the idle screw (small) about 1 turn out from all the way in as per Clymer manual and the big screw about 2 1/2 turns out from all the way in. I could not find a reference on Clymer on how this screw is set but somewhere on line i read that 2 1/2 is a good start. At first time I opened the petcocks I noticed that the left carb was empty while the right carb got filled up. However there is gas in both now.
With all of the above I cant get the bike to run. I can smell a slight gas odor from the spark plug hole when I crank it so I am guessing the gas makes into the cylinders. The spark plugs are dry. I also flooded the carbs pressing the black thingy, gas drips at the bottom of the right carb but not the left carb.
Also checked the point gap and adjusted the valves. Found out that the valves were set too tight with no gap at all. so I adjusted that to .015 intake and .02 exhaust.
The points appear to have this white char/buildup however the gap was ok 0.16mm. most likely new points are in order but there is spark.
so here come my questions.
1) any suggestion how the set screws (big and small) should be set? (maybe not enough gas in the mixture to fire up)
2) How do I make sure the sparks are firing when they are supposed to. (all info on how to adjust timing is with the engine running, I am not at that point yet)
3) how bad is a coil with 6.7kOhm?
4) any suggestion where to get spark plugs and wires, points, coils? What's a reputable online store with oem or decent parts for our bikes.
5) where to sent the speedometer for repairs? (its gonna cost a pretty penny)
As I stated in the beginning, first I wanna get this bike to fire up with minimum expense, then decide how far I wanna take this build.
Thank you for taking the time to read this long post, I tried to provide as much info as I have.