CX500 Cafe Fighter Build

Found this little gem on my door step when I got home from work today



Its a Ballistics 4cell and its TINY!

Next I had to find a place to put it. The battery location was a real concern because I really had no idea where I was going to put it. At first I was just going to put it along the backbone and on the cross member for the engine mounts. I wasn't wild about that and wanted something more hidden and concealed. I had the bike on the side stand and noticed that under where the back bone comes down and meets the frame continues in a U channel where the stock coolant tank bolts to. After playing around with the bike the battery seemed to fit perfectly in that channel. Only issue was I had to pull the engine out to get it in there, but it was almost out anyways so to finish unbolting it wasnt a big deal. To my dismay once I had the engine out the battery was 0.020" to wide for the channel. I decided to make it wider to fit the battery which created all kinds of work for me, but I think it will be worth it in the end.






Battery fits in there nicely and there is already the tab to the bottom right corner of the battery with the threads in it for the negative terminal of the battery which worked out nicely.

Still need to fab up the side plate and something to hold the battery in. Will get to that tomorrow.

Also drilled out and re tapped the hole on the clutch side head that had a broken bolt in it.

 

Can't wait to see this thing finished.

 

is that battery gonna be enough for the starter to work properly

 

It should be ok, the cx doesn't have a very heavy fly wheel. Make sure you clean the starter well though before you're all ready to start it, it's pretty hard to wreck the starter on these but I've seen a few that we're pretty corroded from lack of use. When I first rebuilt mine it just clicked the first time I tried to start it, turned out the started was frozen from corrosion but a bit of cleaning with steel wool and it's logos as new now.

 

I dont know what happens... I am making progress but this thing keeps coming apart!



But that led to this where I was able to finsih mounting the battery. I need to get a washer for where the screw is on the rubber but you get the point. Had to widen the boxed area approximetly 1/8" said and done. Everything is welded up and I am pleased with the outcome.





I am going to use the threaded tab at the corner of the battery for the negative terminal.

Finished weldeing up the shock mount and seat mount as well.




Then I found this... just chillin haha


Ended up starting to grind some of the welds around the seat, tank and electronics mounts so everything is flat and round again and stuff can mount flush. Ended the night like this.
Next I am going to start sanding/prepping for some paint before I put it back together.

 

Can you get to the terminals to put a trickle charge on it in the winter? And I really hope that battery had the guts to turn over the engine! If it was a dud, that would really really suck!

 

its got 135 CCA... stock battery was only 140CCA

it should be fine. I plan to get a trickle charger for it and I will be able to get to the terminals no problem.

 

Got the rest of my parts in, but had a busy weekend moving people and such. Got the frame and swing arm painted and started final assembly. Painted a few other things and got some odds and ends done.


Hopefully putting the engine back together tomorrow and bolting that back in. Starting to look like a bike again however.

 

OK guys, I have been busy and made some major progress. Unfortunately my camera was dead for some of it and I was busy/determined on some of it so I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted. The past 2 days have been crazy and I need to thank my good friend Brenden for help cleaning/jetting/rebuilding the carbs last night.

Finally got the gasket and seal for the tach housing and fan shaft. Got those replaced.

Also had to drill and tap one of the hole sin the head for the radiator/frame support to mount to

pulled and painted the coolant hose off the side of the engine since it was all rusty


Engine went in next, big steps!

and you can see the battery clearance on the back of the engine.


Wrapped the wiring in tape and started to finish that up, pretty much where I left it on Tuesday night.


My to do list on Wednesday


built the clutch cable stay so it doesnt get burnt on the exhaust

and then made a bracket to hold my coolant overflow bottle, which i will be painting black.


Exhaust installed ! Starting to look like something again!



After this I made a license plate bracket which i still need to paint and then i will get some pictures and extended the kickstand which I am not happy with and I am going to make a completely new one. Pics to follow. Got the carbs rebuilt/cleaned and installed and it fired right up. Sounded mean with the 2 into 1 open pipes but it was late and I didnt want to piss off the neighbors to much so it was short lived.

This is how it sits after all of that. Still have a few things I need to finalize before i hook it up to the small battery to run. Should get to most of it tonight and then its all cosmetics such as paint on certain areas. Hopefully be registered for early next week.











Built a stay to keep the clutch cable from getting burnt on the exhaust

 

It's looking good, I like the overflow bottle idea. One thing I'd be worried about though is protecting your radiator, right now those fins are kinda vulnerable. I know a few guys on the chopper charles site have made a metal mesh protector for it but I can't remember any specific names right now. Are you going to have a silencer on the exhaust or leave it as-is?

 

LOL you are going to have road grime all over the back of your shirt every time you ride that thing god forbid you hit a wet spot on the road... that being said the bike is awesome and looks great. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Got this thing pretty much buttoned up. Still need to redo the kickstand which I am not to worried about. Also need to play with the carbs to get it to run better. It fires right up and idles awesome, but it has trouble reving, which i suspect is the jetting. Also doesn't like to spin the starter, I dont think it is the battery (even when hooked up to my truck it has trouble) so i picked up a new starter and going to give that a shot as well as rebuilding it and doing the internal ground strap to the case.

Took it for its first ride Saturday afternoon around the neighborhood and it felt good, just didnt have much power because it wouldn't rev out. Should have it registered in the next 2 days and should hopefully have it going good by the weekend.

Got the front end and coolant bottle painted black.




License plate mount



Carbs all buttoned up and Vent lines, supposed to be red!!!!



Just some more pics of how it sits.









Still need front blinkers and to fix the kick stand... should get around to that this weekend, as well as playing with the carbs

 

Man that bike is so awesome!!! I wish I had the resources to do something like that!!!!

 

Pulled the "new" starter and the starter off of the bike apart last night. I have my doubts that the "new" one would have been any better than the one that was on there.

Here are some pics. Time to do some serious cleaning and to do the earth strap mod to both of them.

Top one is the new one and the bottom is the one off of the bike.





"new"



old




I am going to clean the front part of the armature up with emery cloth and contact cleaner. What can i clean the magnets with and the windings on the middle of the armature ? It looks like they are supposed to be coated ? I was going to clean them up with emery cloth but dont want to disturb any coating they are supposed to have.

Also going to clean up the grounding plate and remove the rust off of them, brushes look like they have some life in them still.

 

CRC (same people that make Brakleen) makes an electrical cleaner that I used on my electric door motors. It cleaned that motor up very well and brought it back to life. A starter motor is more or less the same thing, just a little bigger, right? I picked it up at Autozone.

 

what about the windings on the center of the armature ? can i use emery cloth or scotch brite on those?

 

To be honest, I'm really not sure. I don't have a lot of experience with electrical motors I just know that CRC Electrical Cleaner did a good job cleaning up my window motor, no sanding required.

 

Where did you get a "new" starter that looks that rough? Or is that a used "new to you" starter?

 

yes new to me.... if they sold brand new ones i would probably just grab one... rebuild coming along nicely and almost finished !

 

The good thing about those starters is they are tough to kill, once you get it cleaned up it'll work for a long time.