Project: Garage Find

[jcsnook]

Interesting... How do I do that?

There are "Do it Yourself" kits to zinc plate, but most people just send all their hardware to a plating shop and have it all redone.  Looks like you have "replaced" much of your hardware already...

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-s-tin-zinc-electroplating-system.html

[stevewr250]

Hi .There are many company's in the uk that replate all types of metal the process is called electroplating it is relatively cheap to have done.i got all my bolts and brackets/shock/ and spindles every thing on my bike done for about £80.it is very important that you prepare you're parts ie clean and degrease.i bead blasted and then wire brushed all parts it's a long job but you get a much better finish.it's also very easy if you have all your parts ready at the same time ie when your bike is totaly dismantled this is were you have a problem.you also need a company with a good reputation as i had one batch done and result was great then had another done by different company because they could do some othere work i needed at the same time but they cocked all my part up so had to start again with beadblaster .Here is some results after plating they were a mess befor  hope this is a help for you. Steve

[squirrel_hunter]

This zinc plating looks really interesting and I've given it a lot of thought so thanks for the suggestion. However I don't think I will be doing it this time. I really want to get on and get the bike complete and this would involve taking a lot of bits apart again. I do have a plan to revisit it in a year after completion and I might do something then, I will keep this in mind for the next project though...

[stevewr250]

Hi squirrel how's the project coming along? Hope you have been busy on it 

[squirrel_hunter]

Umm...

Yeah so not really done much to the bike recently. The front brake nipple is leaking, I think its from the nipple to the thread but cant be sure exactly. So I'm going to replace the caliper, was worth a shot at repairing it though. I have the rebuilt crank back so really have no excuses as to why the engine isn't done. Must get on and do something.

[motoholic71]

replace just the bleeder bolt,its not the threads that hold the fluid ,is the cone shaped end that has probably water damage surface

[squirrel_hunter]

Its about time I actually do something isn't it? So Stretchie turned up to give me a hand...

We began the evening with a lower crankcase half that had a gearbox drum bearing that had been through the powdercoating process and I was concerned that there might be some blast media or loss of grease from the process. So that needed to be changed. Being careful not to damage the drum housing the old bearing was removed with my bearing puller, the case cleaned up and then the new bearing installed.



So starting with a clean lower case the gear forks were slid in. Note the order and orientation of the selector forks.



Next the drum and its retaining stopper plate is installed.



And then the input and the output shafts are placed in the case. There are stopper clips on the shaft bearings that need to go in first and the output shaft requires a new oil seal provided by Yambits.



Its hard to describe the way the selector forks line up with the shafts and the box but it was fairly obvious where things went and once everything was in we could spin the shafts and rotate the box to select different gears up and down the box finally resting in neutral.



Next was to lube the freshly rebuilt crank with some of Castrols finest before adding new seals and then placing it into the case.



So far so good. Then I discovered the gasket kit didn't contain the 2 O-rings at the front of the engine, part of the cooling system. Luckily Halfords was still open and their O-ring box set contained a perfect match. Next it was time to decorate the lower case with instant gasket before installing the upper case.

And this is where the problems started. After torqueing up the upper and lower bolts and declaring the case whole it was time to rotate the crank. This was moving freely. The gearbox however was not.

It was exceedingly stiff to move. Something was wrong. So going back through the process we could see nothing wrong. All we could do is to take it apart and check again. So with the cases separated nothing appeared wrong until I noticed that the input shaft left hand bearing was not seated exactly right. It appeared that the bearing was a couple of mm out and the stopper plate had done nothing. Reset the shafts checked the gearbox selected and there was no damage visible. Cleaned the gasket off and reapplied before again putting the top case on an torqueing up following the Yamaha manual.



This time both gearbox and crank rotated cleanly and gears were selected.



So the engine currently looks like that. Needs a lot more work but its a good start...

[stevewr250]

it is a good start and it looks mint ;)i love to see an old grotty engine look like new great work

[Paul]

Very nice  you've set the standard for the rest of the work I see.

[squirrel_hunter]

The clutch cover got my attention today. The original was scuffed up so I bought a replacement that wasn't damaged by the road and had that powdercoated with the rest of the engine. So I started out with an empty cover and a bag of bits.



And from the inside.



Installed the oil seals and oil sight glass from Yambits. Then put the clutch push rod in lubing this up with some oil and installing its retaining cover and oil seal. Oil strainer and oil pump were next, followed by the water pump impeller. I couldn't install the oil delivery pipe as two of the screws were damaged so need to wait on replacements. The problem is these screws are loctighted in and it would appear that I need some new impact driver bits. And as a further consequence the oil pump drive remains off.



The two stroke pump was swapped over from the old cover which was interesting as the cover I was using didn't have one on it so I needed to do a little more work there then I was expecting moving a bush over and installing the oil seal.



The only things remaining on the cover is to install the water pump cover and the oil pump cover. But the latter will have to wait for a bit.

And yes that is a chip by the kickstart seal. I had to shave off some powdercoat from it and the seal was being a little difficult, still not overly happy with it so might take another look at it at some point. But as I was driving it in the socket slipped and chipped. If only it was this easy to remove powdercoat where I don't want it... Anyway will tidy that up with a little black Hammerite before it will be installed on the bike.

[squirrel_hunter]

The latest gap in the project was due to a mistake on my part. A fairly big one. The next job on the list was more engine work and the neutral switch was to be installed. The switch sits on the left of the engine as is basically a bolt that goes through the lower case and connects with a lump on the gearbox drum. When that connects the light comes on. However this bolt is made of plastic.

Being weary of over tightening the plastic bolt I thought the best thing to do was to tighten it up to 10mn, the minimum torque setting I have as nothing was listed in the manual for it and lets face it I don't want a bolt like that coming out.



Unfortunately 10 was to much as the head of the bolt sheared off. This left the plastic shaft in the bolt hole. So it was time for a stud extractor. Trouble is it just kept spinning until finally it gripped. But then it was just spinning within the now hollow bolt. The was until I gave it one last turn. And cracked the lower crank case. 

Stripped the engine back down and got a little help to remove the stud extractor and the remainder of the neutral switch. The resulting crack went through the neutral switch thread, to the balance bolt mount thread on the bottom, through the gear box drum bearing recess, to the pan and then heading back to its start point.

I nearly cried.

Took the crank case around to be looked at and left it with Rolling Art Motorcycles for repair. Glenn first dipped the case to remove the powder coat. Then he clamped the crack shut and welded it up. The inner weld was smoothed back, the out was left as it. But you will only see it if you know its there. The threads were still good so nothing was done there but I'll use some thread seal on assembly. And the gear box drum bearing housing was left untouched but checked that the bearing still seated correctly.

When I got it back I decided to paint it with some VHT enamel. It looks good but the paint doesn't appear to have taken to the metal as well as I hoped. We shall see how it goes once the bike is ridden. 



Forgot to do photos of the real damage. Bad memories. But did do one of the internal repair with a new bearing installed. You have to look very closely to see the crack. Time to build an engine again...

[squirrel_hunter]

So back to engine assembly. We shall take the steps covered before as read and start the updates from an engine with crank and gearbox assembled with the crank cases united.



As points of interest, it took two attempts to get the cases together as the first time the output shaft became quite tight and the gearbox noisy in neutral. I have no explanation for this as all I then did was disassemble remove the gearbox and replace it and all was good. Could not see any issue with it but obviously something wasn't quite right the first time.

A tip when installing the gearbox drum put the retaining plate in place before pushing the drum all the way in as it makes it a lot easier. I've also not actually installed the replacement Yambits metal neutral switch as the thread seal hasn't turned up yet. But 10mn is what I'll be aiming for again.



So clutch bearing retaining plate was installed and then the shift cam and spring. A tip here is to set the cam on the bolt with the spring on the arm but not in the spring hole. Tighten the bolt and then position the cam arm on the drum. Tighten the bolt more while checking the arm movement until the bolt can be tightened no more. Now lever the spring into its hole. Tighten the bolt fully and check the cam position. Or at least that's how I did it.



Now the shift shaft was inserted and lined up. I've decided not to change the tab washer as the bend I put in it shouldn't have weakened it, it shouldn't interfere with anything, and best let it be.



Kick start mechanism slotted in nicely and once I had it all in I couldn't resist popping the lever on just to see how it worked, and to check it was all aligned.



And with the kick start gear on it was even more interesting to see how it all worked. I should also add that all parts were treated to an oil bath before assembly. 

So that's about as far as I am now. Just need to work out a way to lock the crank to get the primary drive nut tightened up. I know the easy answer is to use the same method I used to take it off, but I tried locking the crank as the manual suggest and some other method from what I remember before giving up an using the rattle gun. Suggestions please?

[Fotis]

bad luck it seems...
At least you sorted it out nicely.
I use the wooden end of a hammer stuck between the first webb of the crank and the engine case. The crank cant spin or loose timing like that

[41juergen]

I put a small piece of brass metal sheet between the 2 gears and than torque it down...

[squirrel_hunter]

So thanks to advice here I used a 2p to lock the crank. But first, the neutral switch.



Yambits supplied me with a new switch made of metal, and eBay found me some thread seal. So a good dab of that and 10mn had the switch installed.

With that in it was time for the stator and pick up to get back on board. I will tidy the wires up once its in the frame to get the rooting right and wire in the switch at the same time.



Rotor went on next over the woodruff key and torqued up using a 2p to lock the crank. To do this I needed to put the outer and inner clutch hubs on and the clutch nut to keep it from pushing the outer hub off of its shaft as the gears rotated to lock.



Then the primary drive was torqued up, again using the 2p. I checked that there was no damage to the teeth of the clutch and primary drive and save for a little bit of superficial copper none was found. Though I don't think I'd get that coin in a slot machine anytime soon.



Next was the clutch outer hub, thrust washer, inner hub, lock nut, and nut. All oiled and torqued up. But no plates as I forgot to introduce them to oil in advance, so they should go in tomorrow.



The lock washer and nut finished in an odd place, but that shouldn't be an issue. The cylinder head studs are. I need some new dowels so that will delay me a little but of the front 4 studs, 2 were easy, 1 was tough, and 1 is a couple of threads up as I don't feel like pushing it any more. The threads are clear but there is something arguing with them. The threads are correct and they are not damaged, and they loosen up a bit if I do the in and out with them. But this last one I don't want to risk trying to tighten it more. Will have to see what it looks like once the barrel is on.