The Fix

Things are happening slowly. Damnit!  I just got my engine back from a local Aluminium welding shop, who, attempted to fix my broken engine mount in the lower crankcase.

Ended up not too bad.  Being a perfectionist, I would have liked to see it looking 'as new', but, alas, my $80 only stretched so far according to the guys.  Bit rich really, as I suspect it would have taken them a whole of 30 mins max.  Anyways, beats the hell out of stripping the engine and splitting the cases, to swap cases over!

So, she looks nice from the front now, and the rear, is well, under the engine, but might try and tidy it up with the dremel some more! :)

Best I get to and strip the rest of the paint of the engine now, to make it look decent.

The Head Stem Bearing Seat

Hmm... I knocked the top bearing seat out with a few well placed taps with a large screwdriver, and a hammer.  No problems.  The bottom one?  Different story.  Gawwd.  A quick google suggests that they are put in by heating the head tube, and freezing the bearing seat, to shrink the bearing, and expand the head tube.  Voila!

How to remove?  Brut force flogging was not happening.  Prying wasn't either.  I fashioned a special one off "Tool XYZ", bearing seat remover.  Bashing the bejeezus out of it was still not budging it.  Twas like it was welded in place!

Brother in law to the rescue.  A loan of his awesome little Dremel rotary tool, with 2.5 cutting discs, a few incisions across the seat, a few well placed blows with "Tool XYZ" and PING! Out she came!  Only took me a week and a bit to figure out how to get it out!

Lil' Dremel will come to much use now... gave the forks a once over with the polishing tool.  Awesome.  Gets in all the nooks and crannies. :) Perfect.

A few pics of the remnants.... and a lil' visitor I had to place back in his natural habitat after he landed on me whilst trying to remove ones steerer bearing seat.....


Thanks god for Mr Dremel.  Bravo.

This is what happens when you flog the hell out of the frame... causes static electricity, and all the filings created these fabulous patterns! :)

 The offending bearing seat....

 

Tool XYZ! 

 

The 'Uh Oh'

Hmm... change of pace.  Lets see what I've bought as far as the engine is concerned.  Until now, have left the engine, very non-shallont, half on its side, in the middle of the floor & constantly in the way. Complete with fossilised spider eggs, webs, and some sort of ancient worm like creature wedged in a crevace around the gear selector shaft.

Testing my new strength thanks to 4 weeks with Tony Horton (P90 and P90X excersize videos), I easily lift the engine on to a trolley and wheel it outside and drench it in degreaser.  I give it a good hose off and inspect it to see where to needs a second squirt of degreaser.

Hmm... whats that? In the immortal words of one Homer J Simpson... "DOH!".   "Oh dear..." "Good lord" and other such words were exclaimed, and there it was.  The bottom right front engine mount hole in the lower engine crank case, is cracked through in 2 places.  The top crack is clean thru and a daylight gap of 1mm is visible.  The bolt hole is now oval, from probably 30,000kms (18,000 miles) of Oz's best roads wearing the hell out of the hole.

My suspicions have been confirmed.  This bike has had a decent accident on the right side, damaging that engine mount, the rear engine bolt, and foot peg bracket that I have replaced, as it was bent.  Doesn't help, that the engine weighs more than the rest of the bike.

The dilemma?  A quick google, and ring around, suggests that the engine, MUST, be pulled completely down, and I either have to replace the upper and lower case, or, hope that I can get the lower one welded up and strengthened.  Looking like either way, the engine has to be rebuilt now.  I was planning on cleaning it up externally, and running it.  Alas, that will no longer happen.

The next decision?  Do I try and pull it down and rebuild it myself, with my only prior engine work experience being a 140cc 4hp Briggs and Stratton re-ring 15 years ago?  Or, save my pennies and eat Maggi noodles for the next 6 months and send the engine to a experienced mechanic?

Decisions decisions....

The Polish

So the elbow grease starts...  I decided to polish the fork lowers, and some of the crank case covers, for that, not mirror, but nice shiny alloy look.

Of course, I don't have a bench grinder with polishing pad, or a dedicated polisher, only a couple of drill attachments, and good ol' elbow grease.  :) Trying to get the shine even is the challenge. 

The fork at the bottom of the pic, is as is, after stripping the paint off it.  NB: Motospray Quick Strip, is awesome pressure pack paint stripper.  Spray on, leave for 5-10mins, and hose off!  I even rang the chemist at the manufacturer, and checked that it is safe for alloy.  No problems there!

Cant' wait to attack the engine :)