topend fell off

Well I've managed my christmas oxley highway run, and on the way home the
bike broke down - the speedo started turning itself on and off then 3
minutes later the bike began backfiring with no power.

After door knocking on the nearest house with a ute, I managed to get home,
and decided rather than trying bon ami in the engine, its a sign from god to
pull down the topend.

To make sure I was fully prepared, I cracked open a brand new 40piece socket
set that cost seven bucks, sofar its got me down to this stage
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/

Thats the stage where the little convertor piece that changes the 3/8inch
drive ratchet to the 1/4 inch socket decided to snap attempting a head bolt.

Whilst Im contemplating an upgrade to the 10dollar socket set, I thought
maybe you guys might like a look at some pics, and any comments on what the
sparkplugs look like and that camshaft be appreciated.

Cheers and well wishes
Daniel

 

Trying to undo headbolts with a 1/4-drive socket?!!?
You get my "Optomist of the year" award.

 

The fun part will be putting it all back together, and discovering a bolt or two left over.

 

Go to hardware store and buy yourself the ~$100 Fuller 3/8" drive
socket set. It comes with a lifetime warranty, and mine hasn't broken
any bits after 18 years of abuse. While you're there, get a 3/8" drive
10mm socket, since this set comes with a 1/4" drive 10mm socket and
it's a pain in the arse to have to find the little adaptor every time
you want to use it (as well as being a weak point, as you've found).

If your budget can't stretch that far, the "SWG" brand metric sockets
that SupaCheap sell are of reasonable quality. They're the ones that
you buy mounted on a plastic rail, in a set of 10 from 8mm-19mm. You
can get away with using dodgy ratchets and extension bars if the
sockets themselves are good. A "strong bar" for undoing the really
tight bolts is a nice life-extender for your ratchet spanner, too.


BTH

 

Sounds like battery/charging/electrical probs... yes, you def. need a socket
set to fix that....

 

Yep my budgets tight so I might look getting a couple good quality sockets
individually for now. I cant believe theres 8 bolts stopping me from a
possible diagnosis (talk about frustrating)

Sofar it hasnt been as complicated as I thought it was going to be (thank
god) and I guess I've probably already saved a few hundred bucks labour if
worst comes to worst and I have to take it to somebody that has a clue.

I already know the toughest job (sofar) - is gunna be installing the damn
carbys, and that damn damn little damn allen bolt underneath em that they
give you 5mm clearance to undo/tighten at an 1/8th of a turn a hit.

Took me about 20minutes per carby just to get it off, gunna be a nightmare
just getting the bolts started again.... but I guess we havnt got to the
"timing stage"? (lining up the cams on that chain) yet, so I better save
some of my better swear words for then too.

When I finally get a good socket, I will post up pics of my bores for
anybody that wants to have a look / comment about whats going on. At least
at that stage I will know what parts I cant afford :-( and what to save for

Regards
Daniel
"Sockets? who needs sockets? I got a big hammer"

 

Speedo problem? Definitely time to split the cases...

And has it gone awfully quiet, or has Brisbane/Sydney pipenetworks
gone slow? Perish the thought that people have lives and other things
to do.

cheers,

Bill_h

 

Yeah mate its what i put it down to as well, just bad timing along with
everything else. Funny thing is the headlights are nice and bright, but when
you try and start it, its not turning nowhere near fast enough, and I get
that starter? clicking noise from not enough power.

It did start again once out there, but ran like a dog and I only got another
50metres with it misfiring, losing the speedo etc.

Thank god for good samaritans, it was the first house I knocked on (had a
ute with a bike sticker on it outside) and the bloke was fantastic, had tie
downs, rope and a ramp already

 

Lol thats what I thought too!
just kidding, refer this link to old newsgroup post about the problem
http://tinyurl.com/ujnp3

 

Super cheap are on 20% off for the next few days , they have a suitable
extended hardened black socket set for $17.00 with discount will be 14.50

 

Well i got the head off, and have taken a couple snaps of the piston tops,
exhaust outlet doovalackey (number 3 cyl seems a different colour??) and the
valves - cylinder 1 seems different
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/

guess I need to readup on how to remove the cylinders now, I hope my head
still fits my helmet after all this learnin I been doing lately.


Regards
Daniel
god my bike looks like a wrecker now

 

I saw the reference to the smoky engine, but the bait was just tooo
good

cheers,

Bill_h

 

Still...none of this explains the speedo wobble in combination with
misfiring....

I assume your speedo is electronic.

 

No one looks like you might find a broken or heavily damaged ring , will
be interesting to see if the piston cleans up , are you grinding the
valves your self or will you have a pro do it ? ( I suggest this)
running a finger nail up the cylinder wall does it catch much on the
lip at the top ?

 

An idle glance at those photos and it doesn't look too bad. Cyl 1 as you
have numbered it has something going on, either a bad ring seal of you've
got some leaking valve stem seals. Is it just me or can I still see the
original cross hatch pattern on the cyl walls? If that's still there, the
thing was probably never run in properly and you've got generally poor ring
seal anyway.

I don't think it's much to cry about, a quick strip down, clean, hone and
re-ring if that is indeed the problem would more than suffice. The
combustion chambers on all but cyl 1 look good, a nice brown colour. Also
something starting to look a little weird in cyl 3 - some carbon deposits
there.

 

Oh yeah, are you sure no.3 still hasn't got the gasket in the exhaust port?

 

Well spotted on the exhaust port gasket - I realized this after searching on
google for half an hour on what it might be - only to discover 3 other
gaskets laying on the ground under the bike! (bugga lol)

Sliding what fingernails I do have up the cylinders, it all seems nice and
smooth, no feel of a lip or anything in there. The crosshatching you can see
in the photo is on all the cylinders and I'm guessing the weekend warrior I
bought it from 2 years ago never bedded the rings.

With grinding the valves I guess I better look into that (I'm learning as I
go) I did have the valve clearances checked about 6months ago and they were
ok - do I still need a valve grind if $$ are a issue?

Reading up on removing the pistons, it involves pulling the clutch, dropping
the engine, spinning it upside down and then splitting the crankcase.
I think I may have come to the part where I concede defeat due mechanical
inaptitude and take it to a bike mechanics to finish it off. The bottom half
looks like a nightmare and I think I would prefer a mechanic setting the cam
timing up anyway. I guess I'll have to start saving my $$$ and maybe in the
meantime I will get enough courage to give it a go.

Alxr - Im assuming that the electrical problem is just the battery, Its had
the smoking problem for about 12months now, and I think the bike is still
running the original battery so Im assuming the 2 are unrelated. (god I hope
so anyway)

Happy New Year All - and I hope you all rememberd to lodge your "Official
wifes approval to get sloshed on New years" form, cause its too late now if
you forgot

Daniel
Organising tomorrows hangover

 

Looks that way , so they need a light deglaze and re-ring .

Grinding the valves involves a reseating process whereby the seal
between head and valve is assured , I expect it needs doing , I just had
repco do a 12 valve car head and it cost $70.00 , I wouldn't expect a
bike shop or mechanic to charge mush more but I would ask first ( or ask
repco if they will do it)

Are you sure apart from the advice offered in this group you need to
split the cases just to remove the barrely ( I am not familiar with this
particular motor) but most everything else I have rebuilt over the last
35 years had lift off barrels .
Still maybe living close by can assist ?

 

Unfortunatly as far as I can tell the barrels arnt removable (I cant see
anything there to undo) the manual does state to drop the engine from the
frame, rotate upside down and split the crank to pull the rods and pistons
out (which is where I began swearing and getting worried) but the manual is
also based @ stripping the bike down to nothing, so perhaps its going
overboard?

I have uploaded relavent manual snaps here anyway
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/pistonremoval1.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/pistonremoval2.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/crankcase1.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/crankcase2.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/crankcase3.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/crankcase4.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r261/donked/crankcase5.jpg

If theres a way to avoid splitting the crank to get the pistons out I'm all
ears! would mean Im happy to finish the job myself.

Just out of curiosity - Roughly how much do you guys reckon I would be up
for to finish off the job? (rings, hone, and valve grind at about $65p/h
labour)

Ive been real anal about tagging everything and even the bolts have seperate
zippo bags so I cant mix em up, so assuming a bike mechanic "stepping in
halfway" wouldnt have a problem.

Cheers
Daniel

 

MMM looks like it's a Bugatti build ( unitary cylinders and upper case )
You may well be in the shite.. what a silly idea.