Motorcycle Repair: 1977 honda 550 4, honda 550, cb series

Question
falcon amigo,i done what you advised ,the engine starts but when i used the throttle stop screw to get the idle the rpm is all over the place and the engine gets red hot .also when igo to kick in gear it dies help,regards jonny-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Falcon help me!I bought a550 4 its been garaged for 25 years with 2000 on the clock the problem is icant start the old bitch.I cant get aspark manually or through the electric start I tried bypassing the solanoid onto the starter motor,nothing doing,im no mechanic so im baffled,I can ride em and crash em.any advice would be much appreciated  ta jonny          
Answer -
Hi Jonny.
 Did you replace the old, now useless battery?

Did you pull, disassemble, clean and rebuild the carbs?

Did you check the electrical system for shorts and bad/dirty connections?

Did you check the fuses and fuse connections?

Does the engine even turn (at all) with the kickstarter?  If it won't move at all with the kickstarter, then the engine is seized and there is nothing, short of rebuilding the engine, that can help.

Let me know what you have done and what you find checking anything that ive mentioned.  We can proceed from there.

If the engine moves with the kickstarter, then the rest should be relatively easy.  The old CB series had some very bulletproof engines, so let me know what you find.

Good luck.
FALCON

Answer
Hi Jonny.
 After you cleaned the carbs, and got the bike started, did you synchronize the carbs?

1)  Are the spark plugs firing in the correct order?  You could have a couple of them wired to the wrong coils.  That would cause the spark plugs to fire in the wrong order and prevent the the idle from stabilising.  It would also cause the engine to heat up excessively.

2)  Check the carb synch.

3)  Check the valve gap and timing as per the repair manual.  This needs to be done with the engine cold.  It is best to do it after the bike has been sitting overnight

4)  I do not recall if they had begun installing the sidestand cutoff relays in 1977, but if you look in your repair manual it should show if there is one on your bike.  If you do have one, then either replace it or bypass it.
 Those were always the first things to go on every bike that has had one installed.

Check those and see what happens.

Good luck.
FALCON