Spit Across the Middle

Time to get the crank case split. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. There 23 bolts holding it together yet.

23 bolts later, I was able to crack it open at a pry point. I was worried that this would be hard to split, but these two pieces used a liquid gasket so it was pretty easy.

I'm not in the clear yet. That damn stuck piston is a thorn in my side. The upper case was blocked because the pin was sticking out. So on goes the DIY pin puller, but now I'm packing some heat this time around.

It worked. I got the pin out just enough to remove the piston. Here's a picture of the piston with the pin still partially in it. What's the brown scarring?

Gears!

Pan Down

I'm still mostly following the shop manual (if I get stuck on something I skip ahead), and next up is the oil pan. I'm excited about this one because the inner guts of the engine will finally get exposed (from underneath anyway).

The 17 bolts came off easy, but the pan was stuck. I tapped with a hammer and prodded with a screw driver, but it wasn't going to come off that easy. The ever resourceful forums suggested (among other things) a 4 pound "dead blow hammer". This is essentially a heavy duty rubber mallet as I found out later when I purchased one. I'm trying to be a bit more careful and get the right tool when I can.

After several strong swings and whacks all around the oil pan, she just suddenly flopped straight down. 

It wasn't too bad in there. The oil was thick and black. There were also some small bits of metal and whatnot in there. I know its not a good sign to have a lot of metal bits in the oil pan, but isn't it normal to have at least some? This may have been the first time the pan came off too so maybe its just from breaking the engine in.

You can see them below. They look much bigger covered in oil than they really are after washing them off. Not all of them are metal. Some of it is just grime falling from above through the cylinders.

And cleaned up a bit. Man, I can't wait to get the rest of the engine squeaky clean! I'm getting tired of grime everywhere.

The oil pump.

Here's a shot of what's under the breather cover. I believe both the out gassing vent and the intake breather are both in here. Some bikes have them located at different spots on the engine.

Getting really close to splitting the rest of the case wide open and pulling out the gears and stuff. I can't wait!

Piston Pin Problems

A few weeks back, the left piston slipped right out with a few taps of a hammer. Not so for its sister, (or should I say evil twin). The right one didn't budge. I smacked it good with a hammer a few times. Nothing. And yes I have the circlips out.

So now I've made a piston puller and tried that. Yes! The pin is sliding out (with lots of torque applied).

But after an inch or so, she didn't want to cooperate anymore. I really cranked on the puller and she just won't move. Is this normal?

And once again, I chipped off some aluminum. This stuff is more brittle than a rose dipped in liquid nitrogen. The large socket dug into the piston just above the pin as seen in the picture above. At that point, I didn't really care. I just wanted the piston pin out. I can always get a new piston.

So now what?

I know some mechanics and bike enthusiasts out there are cringing. I look at at this as a learning experience. I'm not afraid to make mistakes, just as long as I learn from them. Besides, even if I turn this into a parts bike, I'll consider it the best small engine repair course that $300 can buy.

I'm going to make a running list of all the stuff I break (for fun and for motivation to be more careful).

1. Chipped piece off engine case (cosmetic)
2. Chipped piece off clutch hub (may need replacement)
3. Chipped piece off right piston (will need replacement)
4. ?

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

OK, ready to get back to work with my new tools in hand.

I used the chain wrench to hold the flywheel and was able to get the nut off. I did scratch the fly wheel a tiny bit with the chain wrench. Next time I'll put a rag or something under it.

The Harbor Freight bolt puller set worked perfect to get the fly wheel off. The two pieces I used are in the picture below. Snap the pointed tip on the bolt puller thing, screw the bolt into the fly wheel and off it came. Finally some things are working in my favor!

Here's the bolt puller in action. Fly wheel popped right off with no effort. I read a lot of people have problems with these too.

And the fly wheel off. The sprocket is for the starter motor chain. I plan on deleting the starter and go kick start only. Can I delete the starter clutch and this sprocket too? I'll cross that bridge later.

Stater motor off.

Now finally back to the engine sprocket. I tried to dremel the stuck nut awhile ago but stopped that foolishness. I got the old chain back out and wrapped it all over the sprocket to jam it up. I used the impact wrench at first, but it didn't work. Maybe I wasn't patient enough. I never used one before and it was just spinning and making a loud "clack, clack, clack" noise. Next came out the cheater pipe. I bounced my full weight on it and the nut at last came loose.

Sh*t. The way I had the chain jammed in there put too much pressure on the aluminum case and a small piece broke off. Fortunately it shouldn't effect anything.

On the other side, I got the clutch plate off.

What's not shown is my first lame attempt to get the clutch hub off. This spins freely and it needs to be held in place. So I took just 3 of the bolts used to hold the clutch plate on and screwed them into the hub. Then I wrapped the chain wrench around the 3 bolts and went to work on the nut. Big mistake. The 3 little bolts didn't handle the torque very well and one snapped out chipping off a small piece of aluminum from the hub in the process. I may need to buy another one.

I left it at that for a few days and went back to it after my head was clear. I was going to fashion a clutch holder tool with some steel, but then I thought I could just jam the flat steel strips in there. I know, sounds like a reckless move on my part again. I made sure everything was snug and secure, and it was. I then used the impact wrench on it. Nothing at first- just that loud "clanking" sound. Kept at it a few seconds more and the nut came off with no damage to anything else. Success!

New Toys

Next up after building the engine stand was getting some better tools for the job. I went to Harbor Freight to buy some cheap China stuff with the names like "Pittsburgh" and "Chicago" branded on them. WTF? Are they really trying to fool people? I'm a bit disappointed at myself for buying China (and for our screwed up corporate cronyist economy in general), but I can't afford a $250 impact wrench. I got all the stuff below for under $90. I'm a hypocrite, I know. At least I'm aware of it so that's got to be worth something.

Feelers I know I'll need eventually.

Chain clamp for keeping moving parts from moving.

Bolt puller set. Not sure exactly how this will work, but I'm hoping it will pull out that stuck piston pin.

 Electric impact wrench for stuck nuts & bolts.

Some impact sockets.

An impact screwdriver. I used this last night to get 3 screws off the right engine cover. Worked great.

Off the Ground

Clearly I need an engine stand of some sort. I've gotten as far as I could without one. I took some measurments of the engine and drew up a design in Sketchup.

Its got 2x4's and casters for the base. Angle iron and 3/8" threaded rods for supports. I don't have many power tools so most of this was done the old fashion way as you'll see.

Making 2x4 cuts with my little table saw (one of the few power tools I've got).

Using deck mate screws. I love these things. They zip right in there and hold tight.

This would make for a nice furniture roller, wouldn't it?

Hand sawing angle iron. I tried the dremmel but that was too slow. I thought about getting a power saw or an angle grinder, but for a small job like this I figured it wasn't really worth it.

This is a regular hand drill, not a drill press. I was worried about this part. I had some drill bits but had no clue if they would bite into metal. It actually worked ok. I used the old engine oil for lubrication too. I'm gald I didn't dump it yet.

Assembly...

Finished product. Looks a lot like the sketchup model. Nice.

And mounted. I'll still have to sit on a stool to work on parts of the motor, but its 100x times better than having it (and my butt) sit on the floor.

Yeah, the angle iron drilling and cutting sucked. I love the end result though. It turned out almost better than expected.

Timing Advancer & Dynamo

To get to the timing advancer, the "contact breaker cover" (just part of the engine cover) was pulled off,  then the "contact breaker mounting plate" was pulled by removing 3 screws and finally the advacer mounting bolt was removed (which was not stuck!).

Here's what's left after all that:



The timing advancer is the thing with the small springs on it. Its supposed to just pull off, but its stuck. I sprayed it with some lubricant and I'll go back to it later.

On the other side of the engine, I'm trying to get the armature off of the inside part of the engine cover. These allen screws are a bitch to unscrew. From start to end, they didn't want to turn. Thread lock maybe? I didn't see anything on them. I needed a little extra leverage.



Here's the engine cover after I got the armature out.

Now I need to remove the large bolt in the center of the flywheel. Once again, another stuck bolt. This is a reverse threaded one too (which luckily I read that part of the manual before trying to crank on it).



I see an impact wrench in my immediate future. All these frozen nuts, screws and bolts are becoming a real pain.

Also in my immediate future is an engine stand. My lower back is getting awfully tight. I'll probably make one out of angle iron.

Pinned

Next up was to remove the pistons. I got the two clips removed that hold the pin in place (pin circled in red). One pin punched out easy. A few taps with a hammer was all it took. Not so with the other one. I gave it a few good smacks but was afraid to go any harder. Yeah, I know there is a special tool for this, but I ain't got one.

Thank goodness I have the internet and all the good people out there posting their tips and tricks. A c-clamp can be used to get this pin out. Now off to the store I go to get one...

Coming Apart at the Seams

Where to now? So much to do. I thought about taking the carbs apart, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with all those tiny parts. I went for the motor instead.

The camshafts were easy to remove. They were held on by caps bolted on top of them. Again, they seem to be in good shape (from the untrained eye anyway).

Next up according to the manual was removing 4 "blind caps". They must be called "blind" because I can't see what's under there and have know idea why I must take them off. Its the round thing with the bolt sticking out of it. Normally the bolt isn't there. You use that to pry it out.

Aaaahh! These little buggers won't budge! The manual has a picture of a guy gently pulling these out with two fingers. Right. I sprayed some lubricant on them and then tried this...

Bingo! Free Packer rally towels to the rescue once again.

It definitely need that lube. They were dry as bone. It turns out that the bottom of these caps are exposed to the elements even though they appear to be sealed inside the engine. More on this later. Underneath the blind caps are long bolts that hold the cylinder together. Here we are removing the nuts off of them...

With all those removed, I pulled the cylinder head off and took a look underneath. Lots of carbon build up and why are the intake valves tan and not black like everything else?

What the hell are these things? They must have fell out when I turned over the cylinder head. Manual says they are "valve lifters" with shims seated at the top. It also says to keep track of which valve they came off of. Great. I've got a 50/50 chance. At least I know they are both from the exhaust side.

Some spark plugs. The left one looks pretty good, but what the hell do I know.

The pistons are at TDC by chance. I don't remember putting them that way. More carbon, but that's common on an old bike from what I'm reading on kz750 forums. Man, I can't wait to clean all this filth off. She's gonna shine up real good.

Next up was the cylinder block. Manual says to gently pry with a screw driver. Well, that didn't work. I shot some lubricant all around the seam and let it sit for awhile. Still no luck. Then I had the brilliant idea that perhaps the pistons were stuck to the sleeves. Sprayed those down with some lube and turned the crankshaft. I got the pistons freely moving which is a good sign. Here they are at bottom.

But still can't get the cylinder block to break free. I read that some lubricant down those long bolts can do the trick. Why? As mentioned above, these things are actually exposed to the elements. Dirt, sand, gunk, oil & water can pack in down there especially with the vibration of the engine. So I spayed a bunch in there to loosen it up. It worked. Look at all that crap. No wonder it was frozen together.

My parts baggies are piling up :)

At this point, I'm pleasantly amazed that I'm actually doing all this. Its going well so far. I know I'll hit some roadblocks at some point, but I have my garage buddies for support.