- Location
- Smithfield Utah
Figured I'd share my winter project. The story my brother was told is its a running 1987 Honda CR500R with a new aftermarket pipe and a new piston for cheap so he decided to drive down and get it. Well it turns out it wasn't "quite" as nice as he was led to believe but he took it anyway. Shortly after he literally dumped it off in my yard saying "Here you go I figured you could use another project!"... Ugh... I took one look at it and couldn't help but laugh hysterically 
WHAT A POS! Everything--and I do mean EVERYTHING was either wrong, broken, abused, missing and trashed. Of course it did have a brand new pipe (as if that was a priority) and a brand new piston in it along with a million Metal Militia, Summit Racing and K&T performance stickers covering every inch of the plastics. A if that isn't enough it's a 1988 NOT the legendary 1987 :-\
Unfortunately I don't have any before pics so try your best to visualize this: Right off I noticed the silencer was welded to the new FMF pipe with what looked like 7018 ARC rod. Then I saw that the pipe was held on by a big ol' 3/8" bolt drilled completely through the frame rail and double nutted on the back side which in turn was rubbing on the shock spring. Apparently the 6m busted off in the frame so that was the solution and that's when I wiggled the exhaust and realized the exhaust flange that should bolt to the cylinder was very loose and held on with one wood screw and all three of the 6m bolts that should have held it in place were busted off inside the jug--yah It gets better. Airbox is completely missing and in its place is a piece of exhaust pipe hose clamped to the carb holding a tiny K&N filter with no oil on the element. There was no way I was even going to try starting this bike in this state of disrepair.
At this point I pull it completely down to the frame and start from there. Suspension linkage is non existent and what is there is seized up. Forks have no oil and the chrome is completely gone in spots. Radiators are full of hard water and passages are blocked, impeller is so full of corrosion I doubt it moved much if any water... When I pulled off the jug to machine it I noticed the brand new Wiseco piston had not been drilled on the bridge (big no-no) and it was about .015 too smalleek2 for the bore and the bore was trashed. Thankfully the porting hasn't been touched or I'd be looking for a new jug.
Repair list at this point:
-Wheel bearings shot.
-Replace piston/rings/hone
-Weld hole in frame
-Replace fork tubes (chrome is long gone)
-Replace rear brake rotor
-Replace inner hub of clutch assembly
-Replace kickstart lever (another 3/8 bolt--well I'll post pics no words can describe this one)
-Find entire airbox assembly
-Replace tires front and rear (yah a brand new $200 pipe but tires are so bald the chords are showing!)
-Machine and time sert exhaust flange bolt holes (3)
-Replace ALL linkage bearings
-Rebuild throttle assembly (missing bushings caused cable to destroy itself)
-Replace front master cylinder (sight glass broken)
After cleaning off all the gay stickers and polishing the tank and shrouds this is where I'm at right now. The only thing keeping me going is how sexy I think the blood red 88-89 CR's were
WHAT A POS! Everything--and I do mean EVERYTHING was either wrong, broken, abused, missing and trashed. Of course it did have a brand new pipe (as if that was a priority) and a brand new piston in it along with a million Metal Militia, Summit Racing and K&T performance stickers covering every inch of the plastics. A if that isn't enough it's a 1988 NOT the legendary 1987 :-\ Unfortunately I don't have any before pics so try your best to visualize this: Right off I noticed the silencer was welded to the new FMF pipe with what looked like 7018 ARC rod. Then I saw that the pipe was held on by a big ol' 3/8" bolt drilled completely through the frame rail and double nutted on the back side which in turn was rubbing on the shock spring. Apparently the 6m busted off in the frame so that was the solution and that's when I wiggled the exhaust and realized the exhaust flange that should bolt to the cylinder was very loose and held on with one wood screw and all three of the 6m bolts that should have held it in place were busted off inside the jug--yah
It gets better. Airbox is completely missing and in its place is a piece of exhaust pipe hose clamped to the carb holding a tiny K&N filter with no oil on the element. There was no way I was even going to try starting this bike in this state of disrepair. At this point I pull it completely down to the frame and start from there. Suspension linkage is non existent and what is there is seized up. Forks have no oil and the chrome is completely gone in spots. Radiators are full of hard water and passages are blocked, impeller is so full of corrosion I doubt it moved much if any water... When I pulled off the jug to machine it I noticed the brand new Wiseco piston had not been drilled on the bridge (big no-no) and it was about .015 too small
eek2 for the bore and the bore was trashed. Thankfully the porting hasn't been touched or I'd be looking for a new jug. Repair list at this point:
-Wheel bearings shot.
-Replace piston/rings/hone
-Weld hole in frame
-Replace fork tubes (chrome is long gone)
-Replace rear brake rotor
-Replace inner hub of clutch assembly
-Replace kickstart lever (another 3/8 bolt--well I'll post pics no words can describe this one)
-Find entire airbox assembly
-Replace tires front and rear (yah a brand new $200 pipe but tires are so bald the chords are showing!)
-Machine and time sert exhaust flange bolt holes (3)
-Replace ALL linkage bearings
-Rebuild throttle assembly (missing bushings caused cable to destroy itself)
-Replace front master cylinder (sight glass broken)
After cleaning off all the gay stickers and polishing the tank and shrouds this is where I'm at right now. The only thing keeping me going is how sexy I think the blood red 88-89 CR's were
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