Install Cylinder

Carefully slide the cylinder down over the piston. The ring compressor must not be so tight on the piston that it prevents the cylinder from sliding over the piston.

PROGRESS REPORTS

Reassembly (1)

At last, I am finally putting things back together instead of taking them apart and working on them. The weather here in West Michigan is getting warmer and I keep seeing more and more bikes on the road and I still have a long ways to go.

> Next Page(added 6-15-04)

Bare Frame

Caption for Image Number 1

Pretty much like the last picture in the disassembly report except the neck angle has been de-raked and it's been cleaned up and powder coated. Ready to hang some components on it.

Install Pistons on Rods

The new pistons have the internal snap-ring retainer for the wrist pins rather than the old spiral ring - much easer to install. But don't forget to stuff the openings in the case with clean rags - you don't want one of those snap rings to fall into the engine.

Also, be aware that it does make a difference which way the snap-ring is installed, both with respect to which side of the snap ring faces out and which direction the opening faces. If you carefully examine the snap-ring you will notice that one face has slightly rounded edges and the other face has sharp edges. The sharp edge faces out.

Also, the folks at Custom MC Services said to install the snap-rings with the opening at 3, 6 or 9 o'clock.

Compress the Rings

Use a ring compressor to compress the rings so that the cylinder can slide down over the piston. (Don't forget to install the cylinder base gasket first.)

Remove Ring Compressor

Once the cylinder is down far enough so that the rings are inside the cylinder the ring compressor can be removed and the cylinder can be lowered down onto the base studs.

Engine In Frame

This shows the engine mounted in the frame. Actually, I installed the engine crankcase in the frame before assembling the pistons, cylinders and heads. I first mounted the engine case in the frame and tightened the rear motor mounts so I could check the front mounts to see if any shims were required. I could not get a .0025 feeler between the front motor mount and frame so no shims are required.

This also made it much easier to put together by myself because putting a fully assembled engine in the frame alone without gouging my new powder coat, dropping the motor, or ruining my back seemed somewhat questionable.

Tighten the Sprocket Nut

The SuperNut that I installed when I replaced the transmission main seal still needed to be torqued. Once the trans. was mounted in the frame I installed the rear brake/sprocket on the frame and installed the chain. Then I wedged a block of wood in between the chain and rear sprocket so I could tighten the SuperNut.

The sprocket nut is 1-7/8" so I bought a cheap 3/4" drive socket at a surplus tool outlet store for $5. You can see here that the 3/4" square hole just fits over the transmission shaft with a little bit of room to engage the drive on the torque wrench.

It's almost impossible to find any torque specs for these old bikes, so I gave it 50 ft-lb and then bent up the tabs on the lock washer. (Remember - it's counter clockwise to tighten)

Transmission in Frame

As you can see, I have also got the foreward control mounted on the frame and the shifter linkage hooked up.

This page last updated on December 18, 2006