FM Bike Works

With all the seals in hand, and a few hours of work today I was able to actually finish most of the engine work on the CX500.

The new stator is in place and the CDI advance pulser has been removed. I was also able to significantly reduce the number of wires coming out of the back of this engine. So now I have 1 ground, 2 pairs of high speed coil wires. 3 power wires off the stator coil and the neutral indicator switch!

New oil seal is installed… This was a bit of a pain. the various ’79 microfiche indicate a totally different seal size, so I had to track down the right seal for the job (what a pain!)

After closer inspection, the shift cam tensioner spring was a bit tired, so when I ordered the new water pump oil seal I also ordered a new spring

Since I was trying to reduce the amount of oil leaking out of this thing (which wasn’t much) I took the opportunity to replace the shift shaft oil seal. This is primarily where most of the oil drips would come from, that said, it wasn’t much at all and I would only find a few drips after a long ride and allowing the bike to sit in place for a few days.

Also, when I scraped off the old rear engine cover gasket I noticed that coolant had penetrated it. This was due to the o-rings which you see above (new ones installed in these pictures). So those got replaced as well.

New gasket is installed. Time to button her up.

One thing I should have noted here (which I didn’t get a picture of before reassembly) is that if you have a failed mechanical seal on the water pump, NOW is the time to replace it. It can be replaced while the engine is on the bike and rear cover is on, however it’s not a simple job.

With the rear of the engine back together it’s time to address the oil leak out of the clutch arm on the front of the engine.

This little seal, no bigger than a dime has been a massive annoyance to me. It weeped oil out right at the clutch arm shaft and would end up coating everything behind it (due to wind blowing it everywhere)

The seal took all of about 2 minutes to replace, and another half an hour scraping the old gasket off.You can clearly see where it was leaking…. How annoying.

Any who, with some effort I was able to reinstall the engine on the bike by my self.

Next step is to torque everything down, reinstall the radiator. oil and coolant, etc. Likely this won’t happen this weekend as I’ve decided to replace the exhaust gaskets as well. They look alright but probably will leak a bit, so I’ve got another set ordered and they should be here shortly.