the Generals latest visit 2017

[Jonesy :-)]

Good detailed write up steptoe, looking forward to the rest of the build , that rear upper bottom half wear you speak of is also direction of tension from the primary chain

[steptoe]

things have started moving on Dougs engine again,
my older brother came up last week and gave us { Errol and myself } a master class in reading worn engine components, what a day.
lesson 1 was where to look for wear marks, I thought considering where  the crank sits we were looking for wear top and bottom in the centre of the shell, nope wrong, because of all the force of the gearbox trying to move the bike, the force pulls the crank back and down at 45 {roughly} degree angle meaning most of the wear is on the bottom shell halfway up   
     From "reading" the bearings in the sunlight, copper could be faintly seen  through what was left of bearing surfaces along with small score marks and and tiny solid "deposit" marks {where something in oil had sat on the white metal surface when turned off and engine allowed to cool},
      then it was onto looking closely at the crank, it was very obvious to Ian that the engine had been neglected in the service interval dept because of the marks and grooves {that could be felt with a fingernail} in the journals, the end play was coming from the worn thrust bearing, {the sides were very worn and well into copper} .
    with all that information gathered it was time to re-assemble the crank and bearings, torque it up and check clearances to establish a base number  that we could work with,  factory numbers are .022mm--- .044mm between crank and bearings, we had mainly  .08mm  twice the factory specs
    we gleaned that info by using plastigauge between crank and bearings


there is 2 reasons for the amount of detail going into this motor,
                                                                                                                    1---- it is the first motor to be rebuilt as a "Barefoot garage" customer 
                                                                                                                    2---- it holds great value to Doug and I,ve been charged with rebuilding it, { no pressure aparrently}

As it turns out I have a set of 10 brand new blue bearings in the shed,  so they have been fitted in the cases and torqued down to specs and along with the crank have been dropped at the engineering works with the following instructions,
1,,  to micro measure  the id of all the bearings
2,, to micro measure  all the crank journals before polishing
what this does  is give a clearance measurement,
3,, then polish heavily or lightly each crank journal {as long as the metal is there to do it} to hopefully match the clearance measurement needed for the bearings, that apparently is called blueprinting,
---- the plus side to it is all bearings match, no 2 browns 1 green and a yellow for example
----- the only down side to it is, many moons down the track when/if it needs doing again, if clearances are out and new bearings won,t suffice, a new crank will need to be sourced. {by then they might be thin on the ground}

a set of Uk s/s engine studs have also been purchased for re-assembly, they are one size top to bottom and  don,t "step down" on the shaft between top and bottom threads, what's so good about these is they don,t twist when torquing down, once they're tight that's it

the other thing that has been done is the back cut gear video that is new in the library was made whilst going through and freshening up a few gear faces after a couple of phone calls to Jonesy after his RH rehab story about doing it
        conrod bearings and journals are fine, they will just need  the existing bearings replaced like for like

more to come as it developes

[Jonesy :-)]

I agree with Timbo thrust bearing looks to be in the right place

[steptoe]

Will double check Timbo,  I,d been told it goes in journal 3 from left in top half of cases, by the 1 of far greater knowledgde than myself

[Timbo]

That's looking good Steptoe. Just looking at your previous photos I your last post, main thrust bearing appears correct in my manual?
Have a exhaust valve in good nick if you need one.
Cheers......

[steptoe]

Got to spend a bit more time on this motor on my days off,
Have ordered a new  74mm wiseco kit, genuine
Completely dis-assembled, checked and washed the whole thing

Good news is I,ve found a home for all the small round section bits, one is out of the end of the selector shaft, it won,t tke much to rectify that, and the other is from the clutch actuator assembly, it holds the ball bearing ramp back plate to the the clutch cover.
It came out because Doug has a hydraulic clutch, and the po had taken the ball plate out leaving the back plate to move off the clutch cover when the clutch lever was pulled in.

I,m a lot happier now I know there is nothing else wrong inside, (the other metal bits must have been from a previous pull down)
There are no missing bearing cages, all the gears have been back cut previously, so it,s a matter of finishing cleaning, then respray and re-assemble when the new bits get here

[steptoe]

While waiting for bits for mine we spent some time pulling the Generals motor apart,
We started with the head first, all exhaust valves leaked, intakes weren,t to bad, all will come good with a lap


http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/XS1100Aus/media/20171017_110725.jpg.html?sort=4&o=17

Then came valve seals, hard as concrete, another area the smokeyness was coming from
Before it started pouring rain we were going to do a second gear washer swap vid, so the sump came off, thats where things got real, 2 small ulation tightplugs/rollers, a heap of twisted washers or metal and other crap


http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/XS1100Aus/media/20171017_114803_RichtoneHDR.jpg.html?sort=4&o=9

It later became apparent 1 of the plugs was the end plug of gear select shaft from the clutch end
Clutch was to come out next, after undoing the nut the first thing we saw was a very chewed up locking washer and later the starter cluch shaft nut lock washer, torn twisted and tangs missing


http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/XS1100Aus/media/20171017_145412_RichtoneHDR.jpg.html?sort=4&o=8

Wasn,t really doing anything to do with locking, both nuts were regulation tight though so no issue there
The barrels were next, showing up some very worn rings with burnt oil stains


http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/XS1100Aus/media/20171017_152624_RichtoneHDR.jpg.html?sort=4&o=5

Then we split the cases and found the po had also put the thrust washer in the wrong journal position resulting in the crank end float


http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/XS1100Aus/media/20171017_160413_RichtoneHDR.jpg.html?sort=4&o=4

[Jonesy :-)]

Ha ha thats what i was thinking with RH rehab, little componentry to replace,  but now ive got a primary chain, all bearings, gaskets and seals rebuild.
Will watch your rebuild with interest.

[steptoe]

Dougs bike has been a little smokey under power for a while now, and has an oil leak tracing from head gasket area,
and also is beginning to suffer from the dreaded 2nd gear slip
He'd tightend the head bolts previuosly commenting on how loose they were, confirming my thoughts,
it was planned that he'd visit home this weekend bringing the bike on a trailer and we'd pull the engine out, and he'd take the bike home to bling it up up a bit over our winter,
this is what we saw with initial dis-assembly
the top of the airbox smothered in oil and carbon deposits,
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h378/XS1100Aus/The%20General/20170630_205631.jpg

this is where most of the smoke is coming from I'd be thinking,
with the loose head gasket compression is blowing air past the gasket into the cam chain tunnel and pressurizing the crankcase blowing oil past the splitter up into the carbs, which have a nasty brown stain through them also
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h378/XS1100Aus/The%20General/20170630_190851.jpg

the marks on a couple of cam lobes I'm not sure about the severity of
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h378/XS1100Aus/The%20General/20170630_183343.jpg

so the pull down will continue, as it,s coming apart we'll do a full strip, check, clean up, back cut of gears, measure of ring gaps and asess  and re-assemble,
a fairly straight forward job with little componentry to replace,
will keep you all posted on progress