1988 Honda CR500 back to 1987

Motor. No big deal here. Plenty of us on here have done them. I will cover it in order to have a history of what I came across and did.

I recently read a comment on Facebook in a make/model dedicated forum. A member posted his opinion regarding what constitutes a restore vs a rebuild. Another member was promoting his recent bike that he restored. He used this term in his post. So this other member challenges him by suggesting what he did was not restoring. 
It really got me thinking about what constitutes one or the other. I agree both are not the same. I consider myself a restorer vs a rebuilder. It’s why I try and use every original part as I received it. I will restore all parts independent of originality. It’s one thing to just buy a bunch of after market items and bolt them on. Nothing wrong with this approach at all. My passion comes from taking what came with the bike and trying to make it look brand new. I hope I can be seen as a restorer vs a rebuilder. I call myself as such and hopefully I meet the the standard for it. If there is one.

I was intrigued by these letters on the left side of the cylinder. Obviously whoever ported it. I would have preferred a stock or unmodified cylinder being that I prefer original.

A web search for this name provided no clues on who did the work. I’m hopeful someone here may recognize the initials.

This bike did not come with a kickstarter. Little did I know how hard it would be to find a replacement. I believe in 89 they changed the pipe route and such the kick starter was changed also. Using a newer starter means it will lay onto the pipe. I found a replacement but it was in rough shape. I did restore it as best I could. 
I was eager to get the jug off and see the shape of the cylinder. This is always the risk when buying a bike not running. I have been extremely fortunate so far in not finding major damage internally. I shouldn’t even say this now since I have 4 bikes I bought not running and I am doing all 4 at once.

I didn’t get a shot of the piston for no reason other than I forgot. It’s original sized and is Honda manufactured. The top end in my opinion looked excellent. I believe this engine was rebuilt with minimal use on it since. The carbon in the exhaust port basically wiped out using brake spray. Absolutely nothing more aggressive needed. Rod is super tight and the over all look on the crank is that it was recently rebuilt.

Couldn’t find EPW as a crank rebuilder/balancer. Again maybe one of you here might know who this is. Finding the balanced crank was a major score in my book. This service is not cheap and suggests that the owner who did this was serious about the performance of this bike.

 The biggest issue on this motor would be the water pump. But even that wasn’t as bad as what I have dealt with.

 You have to bead blast these to really know what you have.

 Backside is critical that there be no small holes.

 My approach will use epoxy to fill in as much as I can. Use my hand held mill (Dremel) to clean it all up and then Cerakote and heat cure. Boom.

I just looked at my after image and can honestly say it looks marginally better! Hahaha. I used a hand file to flatten the sealing surface and uniform it. I did lay down gasket cinch (rubber cement) as an additional barrier between the gasket. I know this will not leak externally. Cerakote is an extremely durable paint. Any areas not sealed by epoxy are sealed by that product. I made sure to narrow my fan on my touch up gun to get inside the passageways.

 The motor looks so good internally that all I’m going to do is replace all the seals. Including crank. Speaking of that crank I had to use a splitter to get the case off the crank and a press to get it back on. Normally I can get a crank to seat by carefully tightening case bolts in a pattern. This technique was subjecting those bolts/threads to greater force than I would have liked. Fortunately I have a tool to press on the left side case onto the crank.

Carefully cleaned up the cases and cylinder/head. Washed off with soap and water and didn’t touch the parts with bare fingers. I used super hot water and made sure to blow off excess water with compressed air.

Cleaned up the head studs using a worn down abrasive pad I took off the bench grinder. These pads/wheels are excellent in prepping surfaces. Additionally they make removing old gasket relatively easy. Just watch the direction you have the wheel to the surface. Ideally always in line with the surface. Avoid contact at extreme angles. The pad will soften edges if you’re not careful.

 All the mating surfaces of the motor were prepped like this. I know these surfaces are as close to brand new as I can get them. This is a normal approach for me on all my restores. I never rush a motor rebuild. Even when I put that 92 back together and placed a washer/shim in the wrong place I was being very careful. That was a fun one when after getting the motor back into the rolling frame it would drop into gear if I slightly tilted the bike. It’s funny to me now only because I was able to sort it out by pulling the motor again and splitting the cases AGAIN! The only major issue I had with this was re-installing the kick start assembly. This kicked my butt for awhile. It was the only one I did where I basically had to install that assembly first before putting in the clutch basket. It has to be rotated fully forward and then put the spring under tension. Mine would not lock into that position with the basket on. I couldn’t find any video on how this was being done. I figured it out just by trying many combinations.

More to come..

Some parts I cleaned up and cerakoted. That stuff is amazing. Perfect for motors and related parts. Minimal layers with super fast coverage.

 After. I even coated the magneto and the exposed arm of the clutch actuation arm. While I was at it I shot the water pump impeller.

Both those covers I cleaned up quite a bit. Bad image since they don’t show it. The mag plastic cover I tool off as much plastic as I could to clean it up.

 In the past I have been able to tighten up the tip of the gear selector. This is how I have done it.

 Lots of surfaces cleaned up.

There was some discussion about the inside relief made on inside case. That this was done to facilitate at least one larger gear. Since I wasn’t looking for internal gear mods I didn’t count teeth. Maybe the new owner of this bike can discover if this was done.

Yellow zinc on the oil drain bolt. Classy!
 

I dropped the lower half of the motor in so that I would minimize frame paint damage from wrestling that beast in. That’s the orginal piston about to be covered.

 Exhaust port.

 Motor in and all mounts torqued to spec.

 Blue tape with a note for me to tighten the mag and what torque.

Pipe and silencer.

This bike had a FMF set up on it. Just about brand new. I am not a after market pipe guy. Will always prefer stock for these restores.
I was able to get a stock pipe for this bike from the prior owner. Had some dents so I went to blow those out. Discovered cracks in several seams. Somehow I was able to weld those up to seal it. But it’s a used pipe and looks such. Because of my preference of a stock look I had both those pipes and others all powder coated black. That’s why most of my before images the bikes have no pipes on them.

Just no way was I going to attempt to find a used stock silencer. I went with the FMF one and just shot it with Cerakote. That’s actually 3 colors on it.

I was able to get together all the proper pipe fasteners. Most were missing off this bike. I don’t think I have come across one of these used bikes with all original mounting hardware intact.

These images may seem petty but you would be surprised how many restores I see missing this hardware. Not all of it but some.

This bike came with some brand new after market hoses. I was able to get rid of the brand name. Used a fine abrasive wheel. Just enough to take the white lettering off.

 As for the airbox. Totally cleaned with the bracket that secures the inner cage repainted. I shot the mounting hardware black. Repainted the entire box after cleaning it up and removing as much damage as possible. It had (4) small round vents. I removed them. Had these retainer rings re-zinc and cut some round coarse foam to fill them.

 Just another example of doing as much as one can when their skill set is smaller….haha. Probably pointless and does nothing given that huge opening at top. There was nothing in them to begin with. I hope it will be this small stuff that sets me apart.

 Threw a brand new O-Ring chain on this bad boy. Brand new sprockets. Went with a stock appearance vs anything else.

 Carb cleaned up much better than I anticipated. 
 

I purchased stock graphics to include the rear fender warnings. As far as I know I have every one possible on it. I rattle canned the yellow back grounds. The image of a new 1987 shows the yellow was painted as it wraps over the edges. I followed that style. Only the radiator covers and tank are original plastics. 

This one is done basically. I do have some fork boots the proper color that I need to put on. Can’t do that now since I have my 92 back in my shop being more faithfully restored. 

Items replaced. Front/rear fender, number plate and side panels. Seat cover. Tires/tubes. Chain/sprockets. Cables/grips/seals/some bearings. Brake pads/caliper seals. Hoses and less than 10 bolts/nuts. Radiator louvers. (2) pipe mounts. 

This was the sellers image.

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 A poster I designed to display the before images when I take these bikes out to pimp my work. Hopefully all this effort on all these bikes gets me some work.

All of these bikes I am doing will be sold at some point. This one like the last 2 I did will sit without being fired. As much as I would love to fire up this bike and ride it I know it wouldn’t have 0 hours on it since the rebuild. I can absolutely make it run for the new owner. But only after the sale is complete and hinges on as long as it runs.

Neither had I Chance. This was done to increase the fuel capacity of the float bowl. So both sides have that added. This motor serial number comes back to a 1986 model. The chassis is definitely 1988. Interesting that someone placed this motor in the frame. This bike was raced at one time in a SCORE event in the Ironman class. This was a serious effort to be either competitive or simply just last. I believe the rear sprocket was a 46 tooth vs 51 which is on it now.

‘I really did put in some effort to try and locate the rider who raced in that event. Only have a bill of sale from the last owner. He definitely was not the racer. 
 

I appreciate the kind words. The 86 I did last year or so was the best restore I had done until the WR. Now this CR is even better than the WR. I’m refining my techniques and finding ways to simplify processes. Doing these probably wouldn’t be half as enjoyable if it wasn’t for comments like yours and others here on Vital.

‘They really help keep you going forward with these since maybe I’m actually doing a good job. I look at restores on here like Rob Boucher (sp?) and feel totally humbled by my own efforts compared to his. There are a few others here with similar skills like his. Those efforts impress the hell out me.

Thanks Mitch. Still need to pull the forks and put on a more original looking Honda blue boots. I’m still enjoying how well it turned out.

I may have used this company or off ebay. I enjoy what Blueline offers since they replicate many of the original decals for the other areas.

https://www.bluelinedecals.com/home

Thanks for the props.. Good luck

Shimmering Silver was used. Basically the brightest color they have.

I recently talked to some representatives from Cerakote. Basically I learned that the Elite series air dry is a better product for sun exposure. This will cause me me to adjust to the air dry series.

I have experienced some yellowing from spraying the H series and clear coating over it. I used the Cerakote clear.

This should not occur with the Elite series.