Anyway, it isn’t going to be that easy apparently….
Next order of business was to get the barrel off and see what damage was done to the barrel & piston – sent some emails to Wiseco (They had no idea about what to quote), some local suppliers and then located a piston in the UK at a reasonable price (Hand luggage for my nephew) – it was easy to remove, 2 bolts and it slid off the piston – so no seizing there….!
And once cleaned, it showed surprisingly little wear – it may have been replaced at some point as there is virtually no wear on the piston, with the exception of a small burnt area on the skirt and one scratch on the barrel – but more of a mark than a scratch. Anyway, dropped it off at Halfdaft and he took it to be measured and…….
Its all in tolerance!! Yay!!!
Now we know we don’t need a piston or a barrel, but as the motor has been exposed to the elements for a while (dust in particular) I decided to remove the motor and split the crank case to see what junk had accumulated in there, as well as do some tolerance measurements for bearings, check for wear and so on – so I ordered a new set of rings and the 4 engine gaskets. For good measure I ordered a new water pump kit, complete with bearings and drive gears…
Writing it down makes it sound so simple……
The main thing to realise is that the motor cannot come out without removing the rear swingarm support brackets – the swingarm needs to come off to remove an engine mounting bolt – perverse idea and a new form of mechanical torture had thus been invented….
First step then, is to remove the rear wheel – easy enough – and then the swingarm…. At this point the proverbial hit the proverbial…..
The right side has a large cap held on by 3 small cap screws – one of which sheared off making the removal of the cap impossible as it has to unscrew, past the sheared bolt
I decided that the removal of the screw was the immediate problem, and as everything damaged had to be fixed, decided that it was the priority. Fool. You didn’t know the half of it…. So I whipped out the welder and placed a small tack on the end of the damaged bolt – the idea being that it would firstly add heat and possibly release the stuck bolt, and also give me a larger purchase area for the vice grips. But to no avail – all it did was make it nasty and scratch the cover….
PLAN B – out with mini-grinder, grind the surface flat, out with the cordless drill, centre punch the bolt and drill a 1mm pilot hole. Snap the drill, drill a 1.5mm pilot hole, snap the drill, drill a 2mm pilot hole – sense of humour remains intact, just…..
Grab the easi-outs and….
HET HOM!!!
Then I realised that the cover was still not coming out, must have stripped the threads in the from – that would be a bugger…. Of to my friends at Google for some idea of what the fork is going on and discover that there is no thread…… BUT There is a bush on the other side, that slides into a one-sided bearing as the pivot for the swingarm – and that had corroded solid and seized on…. Time to call it quits for a little while and apply The Power od Sustained Thinking….
Here it be, from the inside…..
Topic: The Story Of The Resurrection of Blitsie…. (Read 9696 times)
