Crankcase welded

Collected my crankcase from the neighbours. Let's say a strong weld (but not that pretty). Still, Yves also provided the main output bearing, which spent the night in the freezer and was quickly drifted in.

I spent the rest of Saturday morning ordering the other bearings some from Suzuki and a couple from simply bearings in the UK. Surprisingly standard sizes except one end of the primary shaft which is specific and goes for 80 euros! (The  roller bearing).

I spent some time cleaning up the crankcase halves.

I also removed the gold valves from the 350 forks and loosened off the damping adjuster leaving about 5 threads showing. This I am hoping will bring back some of suppleness it had.

Sunday I made up a wheel spacer to replace the speedo drive just coz I can :-) the dimension are ID 20 length 34mms, I made it with a shoulder to give the bearing a bit of weather protection. My biggest drill bit for the lathe is 18mms, so for the first time I used my boring tool, which needed to be mounted really high to fit in the 18mm hole. Worked OK but it left quite a rough surface.

Primary shaft out

Removing the 2 allen head bolts holding the primary shaft bearing in place, then you need to remove the circlip on the outside (rotor side), the shaft then slides out (rotor side) enough so that you can twist out the shock absorbing assembley and then remove the shaft altogether. Just left to contemplate removing the big gearbox bearings or not. I will ask the welder as I don't reckon it will heat excessively.

Water pump and sump off

A couple a taps with a piece of wood and the sump is off with the water impeller and drive still attached. It's actually quite stiff given that it is driven by a nylon gear, maybe worthwhile changing the bearing and oil seal.
Had to creat a tool to hold the primary shaft in place in order to release the primary drive cog. Two bolts in along bit of steel, worked a treat!

Next job is to remove the shaft all together.

Engine on the bench

I made the most of Oliver being at home to pift the engine out. Not heavy at all, but a bit fiddly on my own. So job done. I now need to remove what's left inside,  water pump, primary shaft and sundries. There are a couple of oil seals that I will need to remove and hence change. I should probably remove the bearings in the gear casing as well and probably change, anyway a shopping list needs creating!

In the mean time racing calenders are available from ProClassic and VMA, but I will wait my medical tests next month to see if I can race this year. As compensation I have booked tickets for the classic TT in August at the Isle of Man, so will travelling over by bike and staying between the 22 & 28 th Aug.

Progress

Gearbox out, cranks out. All that is left is the pilot shaft and this can be removed with the engine on the bench.

Stripping it down

Gearbox out this morning. Trying to make sure everything has a place,  and I don't lose anything!  There is a really small o ring on the gearbox output shaft that I nearly missed!

aaaarghhh engine cracked!

And there I was just sitting next to the bike contemplating my next move, when my eye was drawn to a mark on the rear engine mounting.... rub, rub..... no that's a crack - F#$K!

Yup the engine casing is cracked at the rear engine mounting point.

I am pretty sure that wasn't there before so this is probably down to my last accident, although I am not quite sure how this could happen. There were no visible signs of damage to the frame, so the only way this could have happened is if the pressure on the footrest hanger was enough to flex the frame inwards thus putting pressure on this part of the engine.

Still it's done, what do I do next? The engine is held with a big lump of casing as you can see from the photo, and the bolt goes all the way through, so I am not sure if this is really serious. The sensible thing to do however is to strip it down again, and get this welded up. Which is a right pain!