The CB250N Super Dream became a favorite with UK learner riders of the late seventies

IN FULL COLOUR

Honda CB500

Service and Repair Manual

by Phil Mather

Models covered

CB500. 499cc. 1993 to 2001 CB500S. 499cc. 1998 to 2001

(3753-256-4AD1)

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© Haynes Publishing 2004

A book in the Haynes Service and Repair Manual Series

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo­copying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

ISBN 1 85960 753 5

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Printed in USA

Haynes Publishing

Sparkford. Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ, England

Haynes North America, Inc

861 Lawrence Drive, Newbury Park, California 91320, USA

Editions Haynes

4, Rue de I'Abreuvoir

92415 COURBEVOIE CEDEX, France

Haynes Publishing Nordiska AB

Box 1504. 751 45 UPPSALA, Sweden

Contents

LIVING WITH YOUR HONDA CB

Introduction

The Birth of a Dream Page 0*4

MAINTENANCE

Routine maintenance and servicing

Specifications Page 1 »2

Maintenance procedures

Page 1»6

REPAIRS AND OVERHAUL

Engine, transmission and associated systems

Index

Page REF»53

o.4 Introduction

r-vThe Birth of a

Dream

However, the difficulties of getting around in the chaos of post-war Japan irked Honda, so when he came across a job lot of generator engines he realised that here was a way of getting people mobile again at low cost.

A 12 by 18-foot shack in Hamamatsu became his first bike factory, fitting the generator motors into pushbikes. Before long he'd used up all 500 generator motors and

started manufacturing his own engine, known as the 'chimney', either because of the elongated cylinder head or the smoky exhaust or perhaps both. The chimney made all of half a horsepower from its 50 cc engine but it was a major success and became the Honda A-type.

Less than two years after he'd set up in Hamamatsu, Soichiro Honda founded the Honda Motor Company in September 1948. By then, the A-type had been developed into the 90 cc B-type engine, which Mr Honda decided deserved its own chassis not a bicycle frame. Honda was about to become Japan's first post-war manufacturer of complete motorcycles. In August 1949 the first prototype was ready. With an output of three horsepower, the 98 cc D-type was still a simple two-stroke but it had a two-speed transmission and most importantly a pressed steel frame with telescopic forks and hard tail rear end. The frame was almost triangular in profile with the top rail going in a straight line from the massively braced steering head to the rear axle. Legend has it that after the D-type's first tests the entire workforce went for a drink to celebrate and try and think of a name for the bike. One man broke one of those silences you get when people are thinking, exclaiming 'This is like a dream!' 'That's it!' shouted Honda, and so the Honda Dream was christened.

'This is like a dream!'

That's it'

shouted Honda

r Honda was a brilliant, intuitive engineer and designer but he did not bother himself with the marketing side of his business. With hindsight, it is possible to see that employing Takeo Fujisawa who would both sort out the home market and plan the eventual expansion into overseas markets was a masterstroke. He arrived in October 1949 and in 1950 was made Sales Director. Another vital new name was Kiyoshi Kawashima, who along with Honda himself, designed the company's first four-stroke after Kawashima had told them that the four-stroke opposition to Honda's two-strokes sounded nicer and therefore sold better. The result of that statement was the overhead-valve 148 cc E-type which first ran in July 1951 just two months after the first drawings were made. Kawashima was made a director of the Honda Company at 34 years old.

The E-type was a massive success, over 32,000 were made in 1953 alone, a feat of mass-production that was astounding by the

Introduction 0.5

standards of the day given the relative complexity of the machine. But Honda's lifelong pursuit of technical innovation sometimes distracted him from commercial reality. Fujisawa pointed out that they were in danger of ignoring their core business, the motorised bicycles that still formed Japan's main means of transport. In May 1952 the F-type Cub appeared, another two-stroke despite the top men's reservations. You could buy a complete machine or just the motor to attach to your own bicycle. The result was certainly distinctive, a white fuel tank with a circular profile went just below and behind the saddle on the left of the bike, and the motor with its horizontal cylinder and bright red cover just below the rear axle on the same side of the bike. This was the machine that turned Honda into the biggest bike maker in Japan with 70% of the market for bolt-on bicycle motors, the F-type was also the first Honda to be exported. Next came the machine that would turn Honda into the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. The C100 Super Cub was a typically audacious piece of Honda engineering and marketing. For the first time, but not the last, Honda invented a completely new type of motorcycle, although the term 'scooterette' was coined to describe the new bike which had many of the characteristics of a scooter but the large wheels, and therefore stability, of a motorcycle. The first one was sold in August 1958, fifteen years later over nine-million of them were on the roads of the world. If ever a machine can be said to have brought mobility to the masses it is the Super Cub. If you add

The CB250N Super Dream became a favorite with UK learner riders of the late seventies

And early eighties

in the electric starter that was added for the I onda's export drive started in earnest in

C102 model of 1961, the design of the Super p^ 1957 when Britain and Holland got their

Cub has remained substantially unchanged I first bikes, America got just two bikes

ever since, testament to how right Honda got the next year. By 1962 Honda had half the

it first time. The Super Cub made Honda the American market with 65,000 sales. But

world's biggest manufacturer after just two Soichiro Honda had already travelled abroad

years of production. to Europe and the USA, making a special

The GL1000 introduced in 1975, was the first in Honda's line of GoldWings

point of going to the Isle of Man TT, then the most important race in the GP calendar. He realised that no matter how advanced his products were, only racing success would convince overseas markets for whom 'Made in Japan' still meant cheap and nasty. It took five years from Soichiro Honda's first visit to the Island before his bikes were ready for the TT. In 1959 the factory entered five riders in the 125 class. They did not have a massive impact on the event being benevolently regarded as a curiosity, but sixth, seventh and eighth were good enough for the team prize. The bikes were off the pace but they were well engineered and very reliable.

The TT was the only time the West saw the Hondas in '59, but they came back for more the following year with the first of a generation of bikes which shaped the future of motorcycling - the double-overhead-cam four-cylinder 250. It was fast and reliable - it revved to 14,000 rpm - but didn't handle anywhere near as well as the opposition. However, Honda had now signed up non-Japanese riders to lead their challenge. The first win didn't come until 1962 (Aussie Tom Phillis in the Spanish 125 GP) and was followed up with a world-shaking perfor­mance at the TT. Twenty-one year old Mike Hailwood won both 125 and 250 cc TTs and Hondas filled the top five positions in both races. Soichiro Honda's master plan was starting to come to fruition, Hailwood and Honda won the 1961 250 cc World Championship. Next year Honda won three titles. The other Japanese factories fought back and inspired Honda to produce some of the most fascinating racers ever seen: the awesome six-cylinder 250, the five-cylinder 125, and the 500 four with which the immortal Hailwood battled Agostini and the MV Agusta. hen Honda pulled out of racing in '67 they had won sixteen rider's titles, eighteen manufacturer's titles, and 137 GPs, including 18 TTs, and introduced the concept of the modern works team to motorcycle racing. Sales success followed racing victory as Soichiro Honda had predicted, but only because the products advanced as rapidly as the racing machinery. The Hondas that came to Britain in the early '60s were incredibly sophisticated. They had overhead cams where the British bikes had pushrods, they had electric starters when the Brits relied on the kickstart, they had 12V electrics when even the biggest British bike used a 6V system. There seemed no end to the technical wizardry. It wasn't that the technology itself was so amazing but just like that first E-type, it was the fact that Honda could mass-produce it more reliably than the lower-tech competition that was so astonishing.

When in 1968 the first four-cylinder CB750 road bike arrived the world of motorcycling changed for ever, they even had to invent a new word for it, 'Superbike'. Honda raced again with the CB750 at Daytona and won the

Introduction o-<

World Endurance title with a prototype DOHC version that became the CB900 roadster. There was the six-cylinder CBX, the CX500T -the world's first turbocharged production bike, they invented the full-dress tourer with the GoldWing, and came back to GPs with the revolutionary oval-pistoned NR500 four-stroke, a much-misunderstood bike that was more a rolling experimental laboratory than a racer. Just to show their versatility Honda also came up with the weird CX500 shaft-drive V-twin, a rugged workhorse that powered a new industry, the courier companies that oiled the wheels of commerce in London and other big cities.

It was true, though, that Mr Honda was not keen on two-strokes - early motocross engines had to be explained away to him as lawnmower motors! However, in 1982 Honda raced the NS500, an agile three-cylinder lightweight against the big four-cylinder opposition in 500 GPs. The bike won in its first year and in '83 took the world title for Freddie Spencer. In four-stroke racing the V4 layout took over from the straight four, dominating TT, F1 and Endurance championships with the RVF750, the nearest thing ever built to a Formula 1 car on wheels. And when Superbike arrived Honda were ready with the RC30. On the roads the VFR V4 became an instant classic while the CBR600 invented another new class of bike on its way to becoming a best-seller. The V4 road bikes had problems to start with but the VFR750 sold world-wide over its lifetime while the VFR400 became a massive commercial success and cult bike in Japan. The original RC30 won the first two World Superbike Championships is 1988 and '89, but Honda had to wait until 1997 to win it again with the RC45, the last of the V4 roadsters. In Grands Prix, the NSR500 V4 two-stroke superseded the NS triple and became the benchmark racing machine of the '90s. Mick Doohan secured his place in history by winning five World Championships in consecutive years on it. n yet another example of Honda inventing a new class of motorcycle, they came up with the astounding CBR900RR FireBlade, a bike with the punch of a 1000 cc motor in a package the size and weight of a 750. It became a cult bike as well as a best seller, and with judicious redesigns continues to give much more recent designs a run for their money.

When it became apparent that the high-tech V4 motor of the RC45 was too expensive to produce, Honda looked to a V-twin engine to power its flagship for the first time. Typically, the VTR1000 Firestorm was a much more rideable machine than its opposition and once accepted by the market formed the basis of the next generation of Superbike racer, the VTR-SP-1.

One of Mr Honda's mottos was that technology would solve the customers' problems, and no company has embraced

TheCX500 - Honda's first V-Twinand a favorite choice of dispatch riders

cutting-edge technology more firmly than Honda. In fact Honda often developed new technology, especially in the fields of materials science and metallurgy. The embodiment of that was the NR750, a bike that was misunderstood nearly as much as the original NR500 racer. This limited-edition technological tour-de-force embodied many

The VFR400Rwas a cult bike in Japan and a popular grey importin the UK

)-s Introduction

CB500

CB500S

Jack of all trades

There are some things Honda do better than anyone else and always have done. Giving customers value for money and quality in smaller capacity machines is one of them. Remember the old 400 cc Dream, that workhorse of the 1980s? It took the place in Honda's range previously occupied by the 400/4 of blessed memory. Heresy said the enthusiasts, ignoring the fact that the new twin was in every measurable way an Improvement on old multi. It was lighter, faster, better handling and cheaper to name just four areas of improvement. Sure the 250 Dream was under­powered, but that was just a sleeved down 400 for the UK learner market. The 400 Dream, and latterly 400 Super Dream, stayed in the range for what seemed like decades and was the most popular machine around for despatch riders, commuters and newly qualified riders.

The CB500 took on the challenge of doing the same job from 1993 and well into the 21 st-Century. Like the old Dream it is a parallel twin in a steel, twin-shock chassis and like the old bike it has remained very largely unchanged through its model life. The addition of a rear disc brake in its third year is the only significant change to the specification made since it arrived late in 1993. Like the Dream, the CB500 is a true all-rounder, unlike the Dream, the CB500 is also a good-looking bike.

In many ways the two bikes show just how far one often significant aspect of motorcycle technology has come despite the outward similarities between the designs. Although the claimed weights of each bike are nearly the same at 170 kg dry, the reality Is the new bike is considerably lighter and that is despite the water-cooling it carries to get through modern noise regulations. Its 57 hp gives it a top speed of around 115 mph, the Dream was a good 10 mph slower.

If you judge the CB500 solely by its spec-sheet, you would be forgiven for being under­whelmed. The riding experience is all here, it may have been aimed at the new rider or workaday commuter but riding it is a fun experience. In fact it is such a competent machine in every department that it is impossible to fault, if there is a weakness it is that the Honda is more expensive than its obvious competition in the twin-cylinder ranks. The fact it can handle corners as well as the commuter slog is born out by the all-action CB500 Cup that was run in the UK and France, providing the sort of action not seen since the good old days of the Yamaha 350LC Pro-Am. In the UK, there were classes for novices and national class riders and it was there that we first saw the talent of James Toseland who went on to race in Supersport and Superbike world championships as a works rider.

That bit of race-track cred helps explain why the bike has hardly changed since it first appeared at the end of 1993 ('94 model year), it simply didn't need improving. There were detail changes and a rear disc replaced the drum stopper for the 1997 model year. The Cup model was an option alongside the standard model - it had silver paint and a 'Cup' logo on the tank to go with the race series. The CB500S was introduced in 1998, a half-faired model with square headlight and modified instrumentation. Right through its model life, the other changes to the CB500 have been limited to new paint schemes for each model year.

Although the CB500 was obviously aimed at the new or impecunious rider, it would be a mistake to pigeon-hole it as mere commuter fodder. It will do just about anything short of long-distance motorway bashing with two people and their luggage on-board and it won't just do it, it will do it in style while providing the rider with plenty of reasons to smile. If you really need to know the verdict on the CB500 consider this remark which passed between two very high-up European members of Honda staff at the press launch. At a mid-ride stop, the two gentlemen who had better remain nameless for their own sakes took of their helmets, put their heads together and spoke loudly enough for one remark to be overheard: "Was it meant to be this good?"

Acknowledgements

Our thanks are due to Bransons Motorcycles of Yeovil who supplied the machines featured in the illustrations throughout this manual. We would also like to thank NGK Spark Plugs (UK) Ltd for supplying the colour spark plug condition photographs, the Avon Rubber Company for supplying information on tyre fitting and Draper Tools Ltd for some of the workshop tools shown.

Thanks are also due to Julian Ryder who wrote 'The Birth of a Dream' and to Honda (UK) Ltd who supplied model photographs.

About this Manual

The aim of this manual is to help you get the

best value from your motorcycle. It can do so in several ways. It can help you decide what work must be done, even if you choose to have it done by a dealer; it provides information and procedures for routine maintenance and servicing; and it offers diagnostic and repair procedures to follow when trouble occurs.

We hope you use the manual to tackle the work yourself. For many simpler jobs, doing it yourself may be quicker than arranging an appointment to get the motorcycle into a dealer and making the trips to leave it and pick it up. More importantly, a lotof money can be saved by avoiding the expense the shop must pass on to you to cover its labour

and overhead costs. An added benefit is the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that you feel after doing the job yourself.

References to the left or right side of the motorcycle assume you are sitting on the seat, facing forward.

We take great pride in the accuracy of information given in this manual, but motorcycle manufacturers make alterations and design changes during the production run of a particular motorcycle of which they do not inform us. No liability can be accepted by the authors or publishers for loss, damage or injury caused by any errors in, or omissions from, the information given.

Identification numbers 0.9

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