Let the rebuild begin

So like I mentioned in my last post the first order of business was to install the alternator shaft which required an interference bearing to be pressed into the clutch side of the upper crank case. This turned out to be a huge pain. Heating the case and cooling the bearing didn't work. I even tried to make a half-assed bearing press which not only failed to press the bearing into place but did more harm than good.

This reeks of fail

Pictured above is a simple bearing press like any other home made device. You have a threaded rod, the bearing is fitted against a socket as shown and on the other side we have a washer to serve as a solid surface.

Oh damn, the stench of fail is overwhelming the senses

But what could go wrong with such a simple contraption? Well when the designer is a fucking moron (yours truly) apparently a lot can go wrong. Long story short, I torque the end with the socket, the bearing starts to slide in a bit and the next minute I realize the washer pictured above had got bent and pulled through the hole it was sitting in. FUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuukkkk!!!!! At least that was my initial reaction. Upon closer inspection about half a mm of aluminum got taken out of the lip and no substantial damage was done.

See? No harm done here, moving along then....

How did the bearing finally get put in place? Well I brought it to a local shop and by gently tapping the bearing with a socket, the dude got the bearing to slide right in.... I was overcome with shame, awe and relief. I imagine this is what people feel when the suffer from premature ejaculation; something real men like me don't have to worry about har har har

This bearing is responsible for ruining my life

Yayy!!! All put together now :)

I turn my attention to the crank and bearings while the transmission is still out; makes mating the case halves much easier.

So much wasted plastic

Alright, LETS DO THIS!!!

Crankshaft, check...

Knockoff plastigauge, check ...

Engine bolts, check

Why, hello there Mr. Plastigauge ...

*crunch*

~0.040mm ... well, a tad on the loose side but well below the maximum

Anyways I move on to the transmission starting with *drum roll*

...the shift drum...

...and shift forks

Next I take a look at the main shaft and ...

... WTF HAPPENED HERE!??! Lucky for me I bought half a spare motor

Thats me peeing on the main shaft...

All the main shaft components in their glory

Now that I have a (small) parts washer and air compressor, I don't know how I ever lived without them

Cleaner than a shaved beaver. Note the ball bearings, I nearly lost them TWICE! Yes I'm that retarded.

The gears look to be in good shape...

...and the fork cavities look to be within spec

Now all we need to do is add some engine oil ...

... and we're off. Note the heavy(ier) duty snap ring pliers; the transmission shafts are a massive pain

Done.

Into the engine we go now.

Now for the output shaft

Doesn't that just look magical? New bearings, fresh gears, clean aluminum and... oops I just messed up my pants

Here's some more tranny porn for your fapping pleasure

Next I do a test fitting of the crank shaft, crank case, and transmission starting with some molly grease

With the crank shaft in and gears in neutral, I mate the two halves together

PRESTO!!!

Everything looks (and feels) about right

So my next step is to find a high quality and calibrated torque wrench to torque up the rod bolts as well as the case bolts. The shitty Canadian tire and Harbor Freight stuff just isn't giving me all the confidence in the world right now. Plus I'm curious as to how a better torque wrench will effect my oil clearance readings....

Until next time.

Picture Album 1
Picture Album 2

Where have I gone?!?!

Well I've been wrestling t-rexes, drop kicking space aliens, and most definitely NOT cowering from the bitter cold of my garage. However, between head-locking thunder lizards and double-legging Xenu, I have managed to order a bunch of parts and prep my crank cases for bottom-end assembly.

So far the most tedious part of this entire rebuild is prepping the mating surfaces of the two crank cases. This basically involves removing the silicon-based gasket material from the upper and lower crank case halves.

You can see the black gasket material in the holes. The funny texture is due to some liquid gasket remover I tried which was a waste of $15.00

My impression is that most people use a die grinder with some abrasive pads. Now, I have very little confidence in my ability to use power tools so I figured the next best thing is a razor to shave off the excess gasket material. This resulted in a decent scar on the mating surface... nothing serious but its definitely there. Lucky for me having (apparently) twitchy hands is well suited for scrubbing away with scotch brite pads and occasionally steel wool so thats exactly what I did... Except theres so many silicon filed holes that the pads can't easily get into which were a HUGE pain to clean out but in the end I think I did a pretty good job.

BAM! Cleaner than eating utensils

Cleaner than surgical instruments

The first thing I was about to do was to reinstall the alternator shaft bearing. However its a REAL tight fit and needs to go directly into the upper crank case. I decided to put the bearing in the freezer can do a little shop cleaning and the end result is:

Tada! Now I'm more organized

Crisp new pistons

Clean enough to eat off of

Tub o tranny parts (mostly)

and I cleaned up my bench too! New additions to the bench include the 4 inch vise and parts cleaner courtesy of Princess Auto :-)

OEM goodness! Notice the Tsubaki timing chain. I've got a APE manual tensioner too (not in pic)

For more pics from this post, go to my photobucket page here.

Measuring up?

Not much has been happening in the last few months. With a pretty cold winter and no heat source in the garage, I've pretty much chickened out and opted to do some work on the house instead of the bike. Lately I've been trying to measure the crankshaft without much luck.

I went down to Canadian tire and bought myself a mastercraft micrometer for $30 bucks. BIG MISTAKE. The tool is consistently inconsistent. I get results anywhere between 0.001" over or under the manual specs. Doesn't sound like much but a difference of 0.0003" determines which type of main bearings I should be ordering.

Piece of crap.

I'm starting to think it might make more sense to get the lower half of my crank case professionally rebuilt.... I figure 1-2 hours of labor should do it.

Been a while

I continue to disassemble my engine.

After removing the clutch and friction plates, removing this nut was a pain in the ass...

... I go all the way across town to borrow an air compressor from R1 buddy only to find that it doesn't have enough power to turn the impact wrench. BLAST!

So I end up taking the bloody hunk to my mechanic and he blast the nut off in 2 seconds flat. While I was there, he took the sprocket nut off too.

With the nut off, the clutch basket came out easily

A shot of whats behind the clutch basket

Next, I removed the oil pan and strainer ....

... where I discover fine dust which is all that is left of the broken cam chain guide when I first opened the cam cover

Heres a random shot of my cay hiding under my fairings

For more pictures refer to my photobucket albums here and here.