TOPIC:

Do you remember those moments when you did a minor mistake, over and over, that really frustrated the living daylights out of you? If not, then try to do your timing without putting your engine at TDC first! It turns out that I was lining up on the wrong "T"! Grrrrr!!! On the good side, I have gotten pretty good at taking the cams in and out, and lining everything up again. I think I might have been doing it in a dream last night too.... Anyways, thanks to my buddy, we caught that problem and went on to measure the valve clearances.
Did the first round of measuring and then switched out the shims. Put everything back together where they will "I hope" be in the right place. Torqued everything down again to measure and another problem came up. As I rotate the crank, there is a "ting" like popping sound coming from the engine. So I'm going back today to try to sus it out. But 4 hours goes by SOOOO quick!

I'll write more later as to where I get.

Went back to work on my engine today and started off by taking the cams out. With the cams out, I removed the buckets and inspected all I could see, and could find nothing wrong. So I measured the shims I had, wrote down the values and locations and went to work playing the shuffle game to see if I could make my shims work. So far, I have 7 of 8 valves within spec. The one not playing nice is just too tight. I don't know how 1 of them is off, but I didn't have enough time to try again, so it'll have to wait till Monday.
Hopefully if I can get this sorted, I can bolt the engine back together and get it back in the frame. From there, it's on to fabricating the brackets for the forward controls and getting the exhaust mocked up and welded together. I'm hoping I can get all that done in a day, and then I'll bring the bike home and work on the wiring here at the house.

I've been off a motorcycle WAY too long!!!

I never really tire of being an optimist, but sometimes it can be pretty discouraging. The good news-- My engine is all together!!! It turns over nice and smooth, and every valve is within spec. I'm stoked! After re-measuring all the shims again, I came to the conclusion that there was no way I could rearrange everything to fit, so I had to get a new shim. Thanks be to God, there was a motorcycle shop not to far away, so I cruised on over and got there 30 minutes before they opened. As grace would have it, there happened to be a mechanic outside smoking. We got to chatting and he asked me what I was there for. I showed him my shim and said I needed a smaller size. He went inside and came out with what I needed and told me, "Here ya go." Perfect.
Engine reassembly went well till I was bolting on the head cover and had the threads pull loose. Helicoil to the rescue! Round 2-- On the last bolt, it strips out the threads too... Another helicoil later... Round 3-- Everything goes together nicely and bada bing, engine's done!!!

I only got to re-grease the back wheel though. I didn't have time to reinstall the engine unfortunately. Oh well, to be continued.

Just for hypothetical purposes, say you had a shaft drive, and ACCIDENTALLY couldn't find the wee spring pin that goes in to lock the final drive output to the actual shaft drive... Would that be a big deal??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure what "spring" you are referring to but... yes, if it was there originally then it's needed!



If #6 then you HAVE to have that, just remember next time that zip-lock baggies are your friend!

It is #6 that I'm missing. The funny thing is that I thought I was so meticulous in putting things in baggies. WHOOPS!!! Guess I have to find a part.

When I took mine apart, I taped the pin to a piece of cardboard and then put it in a baggie. Maybe check your bags again, That sucker is so small, it can get lost in the bottom corner of a baggie!

Might I ask, was it a spring loaded pin, or just a wee roll pin? If anyone remembers, that would sure come in handy.

The good news is that #6 (part number 610A0406) is still an active part, so any dealer can provide it. Ronayers lists it at $1.78. Ed

It's a pin (as I remember it when I had it out 5 years ago).

I have an engine in my frame!!!

And man is that thing heavy! But now that it's safely bolted in place, I can start figuring out where I'm going to put the forward controls and exhaust. I still need to reassemble my carbs, (I'm SOOOOO not looking forward to doing this), and clean up my wiring harness. I'd love to do things as MFolks suggested, and use deoxit on everything, but they don't sell it where I work, hence, no discount for me, and that's why I'm not going to use it. The company I work for sells CRC stuff, so I believe I saw some terminal cleaner that I can get to use.

I'm going to try to do some more work on Friday, depending on how much work I have to do in the shop, and on Saturday. I figure if I do it this way, it'll give me Saturday evening and Sunday after church, to put my carbs together, so that Monday I can test everything out. This is just a "If EVERYTHING goes as plan" scenario, but it's nice being an optimist.

I also found out that I am not missing part number 4 in diagram. It's attached to the end of the shaft!!! Duhhhh!, but that pin (part 6) is totally gone. I can get a roll pin no problem, so that should be good.

I'm upset that I couldn't get things together for the relay ride, but I'm still going to do all I can to get it done asap.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advise about the connecting pin for my shaft drive. I did get one from the Kawasaki dealership, for like $2, but the spring wasn't even in the parts breakdown. So I found one that I thought would work, cut a couple of loops off, and bingo was his name-o! Thing fit like a charm. I got the rear all assembled and then went to work on the exhaust.
I had to fab my own to get it to be what I wanted, so I started off with an incomplete exhaust. The person who had it, lost one of the slip ons from the right side, so they were kind enough to part with it. I used the header pipes and made my own extensions:

I had to make the brackets to hold them in place, so I used some 1/4" stock and fit it around the pipes and welded them on.









Like the connecting sleeves? I "accidentally" ordered OD instead of ID for the pipes, so I had to use the bits I cut off for length to make sleeves, and then I just welded both sides together when I got the length and position right. I thought they were too bulky, so I decided to wrap them to even them out:



I can't wait to hear what they sound like! But I'm pretty sure my landlord can... I still need to finish up my carbs though. Can you guess how much I'm not looking forward to them? I COMPLETELY took them apart, and the mechanic that's "kinda" helping me put everything back together keeps asking me why I did that? My only response, "It seemed like a good idea at the time..."
Then onto wiring, reattaching all my cables, doing the breaks, and then it should be good to ride.
I have been so busy recently, that I haven't had time to breathe, much less do any work on it. But I NEED to ride before summer is over. Having it almost done, but not ridable is killing me.

woot woot!!!!!!!!!
lets hear it for chaotic finally getting some pics of this bad boy up .

looks like she is about ready to ride.

leon