Post by colinjay on Apr 6, 2008 23:11:51 GMT -5
Robert Pirsig may have wrote about “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, but after the yesterday, I think I Robert Burns (1748 – 1796) summed up my Sunday perfectly with that famous line, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley”. (the popular version being: The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.)
First some background. In January, I assembled a 1976 XT500C rolling chassis from parts that I had collected over the past ten years or so, and used a XT500D engine that I had bought from a friend in October ’07. Chris had said that the engine had run Ok before it was removed from its original frame, so I did a basic service and gave it a run. It was a bit rattly and had a oil leak from the rocker cover but otherwise appeared Ok, so I registered the bike and have used it as my daily ride for the past 3 months. However, over the past couple of weeks, the oil leak had been getting worst, so I decided to pull out the engine, to fix the oil leak.
Well the engine came out of the frame easily, and lifting the rocker cover revealed that the cam and rocker arms were in good condition. The bad news was that the ends of both valves had started to pit where the tappet screw contact them. Since the plan has always been to do a full overhaul and restoration of the bike later in the year, I left the head on. As the cam chain was on the limits of the adjuster and I had a spare on hand, I decided to put in a new camchain. I removed the clutch cover and fitted the new cam chain without and real problems. After reassembling the engine, I thought that I should remove the sump plate just to check that all was Ok before I refitted the engine into the frame. Surprise, surprise, sitting in the sump plate was ½ of the kickstart ratchet plate. So off with the clutch cover again and remove the kickstart mechanism and the other ½ of the ratchet plate.
A check of 2 sets of spare crankcases, found no ratchet plates fitted. Right then, check the big box of bits! No spare ratchet plates, although I did find another ½ of one! With things starting to get desperate, I removed the clutch cover of one of my spare bottom ends, and you guessed it, another broken ratchet plate. Right then, pull the clutch cover off of the other spare bottom end and at last a serviceable ratchet plate.
So after a lot of dicking around, I finally got back to putting the engine back together and fitted into the frame. Everything went smoothly until I refitted the sump plug. There was one of those nasty noises as I tightened the plug, you know, a loud “crack” sound. Laying on the floor to look under the bike, I saw a 1 inch long crack in the sump plate, bugger, back to the box of bits for the spare that I notice while looking for a kickstart ratchet plate.
So after just over 5 hours to do what I thought would be and easy / simple job, I finally fire the engine up again, and yes it still rattles as much as it did before, but at least the oil is staying on the inside now.
If there is a moral to this, I think it would be there is no such thing a simple of easy job when it comes to working on a 32 year old motorcycles.
CJ
First some background. In January, I assembled a 1976 XT500C rolling chassis from parts that I had collected over the past ten years or so, and used a XT500D engine that I had bought from a friend in October ’07. Chris had said that the engine had run Ok before it was removed from its original frame, so I did a basic service and gave it a run. It was a bit rattly and had a oil leak from the rocker cover but otherwise appeared Ok, so I registered the bike and have used it as my daily ride for the past 3 months. However, over the past couple of weeks, the oil leak had been getting worst, so I decided to pull out the engine, to fix the oil leak.
Well the engine came out of the frame easily, and lifting the rocker cover revealed that the cam and rocker arms were in good condition. The bad news was that the ends of both valves had started to pit where the tappet screw contact them. Since the plan has always been to do a full overhaul and restoration of the bike later in the year, I left the head on. As the cam chain was on the limits of the adjuster and I had a spare on hand, I decided to put in a new camchain. I removed the clutch cover and fitted the new cam chain without and real problems. After reassembling the engine, I thought that I should remove the sump plate just to check that all was Ok before I refitted the engine into the frame. Surprise, surprise, sitting in the sump plate was ½ of the kickstart ratchet plate. So off with the clutch cover again and remove the kickstart mechanism and the other ½ of the ratchet plate.
A check of 2 sets of spare crankcases, found no ratchet plates fitted. Right then, check the big box of bits! No spare ratchet plates, although I did find another ½ of one! With things starting to get desperate, I removed the clutch cover of one of my spare bottom ends, and you guessed it, another broken ratchet plate. Right then, pull the clutch cover off of the other spare bottom end and at last a serviceable ratchet plate.
So after a lot of dicking around, I finally got back to putting the engine back together and fitted into the frame. Everything went smoothly until I refitted the sump plug. There was one of those nasty noises as I tightened the plug, you know, a loud “crack” sound. Laying on the floor to look under the bike, I saw a 1 inch long crack in the sump plate, bugger, back to the box of bits for the spare that I notice while looking for a kickstart ratchet plate.
So after just over 5 hours to do what I thought would be and easy / simple job, I finally fire the engine up again, and yes it still rattles as much as it did before, but at least the oil is staying on the inside now.
If there is a moral to this, I think it would be there is no such thing a simple of easy job when it comes to working on a 32 year old motorcycles.
CJ
...heh, heh...