Will I get my 100 ready in time for Taupo?

[Bren_chch]

mmm yum... yeah get in to the wine so ur in practice for when u get down here!!!

[F5 Dave]

I'm always in practice, that's the problem.

[Bren_chch]

i like ur commitment!!

[F5 Dave]

Sheesh this has been hard work getting everything to line up. These frames are meant for RS125s & not much else.

Sully came around & tacked up the plates I made & we had drilled some holes, but I'm having to twist the engine on the rubber mounts to get it to line up. I'll measure the hole position to teh SW & rear wheel pivots. No slight on Craig's work, things are going to move when you weld them so far from the frame without a jig, But I made the holes anyway.

Put the transmission shaft back in so can do line up pretty soon. & make the spacers to suit. Will be nice to have a engine in the frame.

I've made a new manifold & will rebore the barrel & work out final amounts to take off top or bottom. 5 weeks to next Kaitoke meet which will be my only test before BOB. Will have to remain air cooled for that.

[koba]

Will have to remain air cooled for that.

Could be bloody snow cooled at this rate...

[F5 Dave]

Well we've made some decent progress. Engine in frame & steel head stay plates made (last drill hole once barrel skimmed to correct height. Have done some more Devconing cases & some more grinding to lessen the inlet restriction between the crank & lower gasket surface. Reedblock flowed & I'm quite happy with that.

Engine bored. I've devconed in a new rear wall of ally to replace where the crank extended the boost port straight down. The ally is curved a bit & just clears the bore so it won't pick up on the piston even with a tiny allowable bore.

Crank is the only sticking point. I need it to do final checks before skimming barrel top & bottom & reshaping head for new piston.

I'll try take a pic or two, but I'm a bit lazy with that sort of thing. I had hoped to get it for a shake down run on the 19th so I didn't go to the BOB as first run. That may not be possible. but it may just if the planets align. I may have to take a gamble & skim on calculations & adjust later.
Pipe needs last bit too.

Thanks Sully for welding. Its all come together quite nicely.

[F5 Dave]

Its running to the wire. Certainly no time to get it near a dyno & touch & go for this sunday. Sat taken up watching the kiddies (can't trust them in the garage, one is 3 & the other just walking). So its up to late nights to get it together.

Barrel is being checked for square base surface, I can't measure it properly or trust my lathe to skim it as there isn't much left to hold onto. Supposed to get that today. As the crank I am to get today if all goes well.

Craig has finished the header pipe which has been gusseted or strengthened or whatever you'd call it, but its an A1 job, the man's skills are increasing all the time. I'd given him some plated steel originally & apparently that makes it more crack prone, so next time I'll get some plain mild steel. Pity as I have heaps left.

So I have to put the engine together & see it agrees with my calculated port timings & adjust with gaskets & skim the head so it pokes in the barrel a bit. Just too scared to do it before I get all the bits for a final measure as putting metal on again is hard.


So will my bike be ready for Kaitoke?

[crazy man]

yes you will have it ready just a nights work you will have it together but that is a piss poor pic you have there

[F5 Dave]

yeah a lot of things have to fall in line, weakest link & all that could trip it up. If I don't get the crank tonight I'm stuffed. Pretty much I have tonight & tomorrow night & I can't start till 8. I have to hope everything drops into place.

I faced the spark plug hole last night so machining it should be less hit & miss using a s.plug mandrel.

Pic is pretty crap yeah, just blazed a few off & this one hid the messy welding & grinding of the down spars that was done for the 125 motor & adapted to the last motor. So she ain't a pretty bike. Lets hope it makes up for it with some speed.

[F5 Dave]

Well crank & barrel back in my possession.
So progress last night (after helping clearing up a child vomiting minutes after I put her in bed).

Engine all new bearings fitted.
G'box & crank loaded & engine screwed together

Degree'd engine & cut new gaskets to bring it to where I wanted, worked out well.
Skimmed head to adjust squish. Coming on midnight, can I be bothered measuring the Comm. I have skimmed a bit off & piston is more domed, supposed I'd better.

Measured compression. . . opps waay too high.
Cut, measure, hmm close enough.

Pull it apart & clean out the plasticine in the boost port (long story) & apply some more JB weld to the back of the repaired piece in the port.

ok its reached my self (ok wife) imposed 1am deadline. Off to bed.

The only really concerning part apart from all the little things that need to be adjusted on the way, was that the crank didn't slip into place freely. We'd polished the bearing surface, but clearly not enough so had to do up the cases to pull it together. But it wasn't rotating freely. Gave it a bit of a tap which is common practise if the bearing is tight & that helped, but its not fantastic. A bunch of power can be burned up there.

It could be the home made gasket (std no longer fits) might be encroaching a little & rubbing on the webs. If so that will self-correct once the bike fires up & all will be good. Its turning a lot better after several rotations, so it may have to be suck it & see. Hopefully I haven't knocked it out of alignment winding the cases up. I'll know when I start it (or that I've got the balance factor wrong).

Pretty much tonight to put it back together, do a leakdown test, fit the clutch side & ign, fit it to the bike,, connect all the ancillaries, pipe etc, fit bodywork & ready to fire up.

[speedpro]

I know the pressure is on Dave but stop and take a breath and think about the fit of the crank.

Are you happy with it, really?

I've sometimes had a motor that didn't go together just right but after running a hot air gun over the cases and getting them good and hot it must have let something ease into place and everything freed up, could be worth a shot. I always warm the cases prior to assembly which lets the bearings slide right on in.

After attenpting to tru up a crank myself and seeing how easy it is to move them around I'm a big fan of having it all slip together easily.

[F5 Dave]

Thanks Mike I'll try that. I had warmed the cases & put the bearings in with the press so all was going well. The RH side was polished enough so it slipped in, but the left I'm surprised about, maybe the donor fit bearing was looser through wear. I'll give the cases a good dose of heat.

Several times last night I considered slinking off to my bed. Admit defeat, too hard, not enough time. Things that needed a tickle to fit properly. Did I really need to do a leak down test? can't be bothered. . . .oh all right. Sss Nothing. Oh yeah, forgot the exp plug. Try again. Sssssssss gone. Hmm, oh here's a welding hole & there's a hairline crack at the back of the barrel where the rod had smacked it & opened up a weak area around the old reedblock. Bit of Devcon & that should all be ok. Two more leaks at the reedvalve. Red RTV & that should be sorted.

Slowly the bike made its way together. More things like throttle cable & fuel line are a bit short as carb lower down/ further back. Bit of a reroute & should be ok at least for Kaitoke.

1 o'clock rolled around & there's just the headstay plates (taken off 5 times to drill the holes & trim top which was hitting tank) to go back on. It sparks, needs some gas & I'll prop the heater under the cases where the crank area is quite exposed & give it some heat for a while. + the head bearing race that I need to pick up at lunchtime.

Glad I pressed on as wife is sick so I'll have no time till sunday. Bit tired now though.

[Kendog]

Impressive efforts I must say.

[F5 Dave]

Well its been a few late nights, but I left the heater going under it for 1/2 hr till it was toasty & turned the gas on & pushed it up the drive. Let clutch out Bawa, Reached for the choke cable & it started right up. Sounds good. Tomorrow will tell.

So it was ready for Kaitoke. Van loaded, taking my 50 in case & 'cause I like riding it.

[crazy man]

Well its been a few late nights, but I left the heater going under it for 1/2 hr till it was toasty & turned the gas on & pushed it up the drive. Let clutch out Bawa, Reached for the choke cable & it started right up. Sounds good. Tomorrow will tell.

So it was ready for Kaitoke. Van loaded, taking my 50 in case & 'cause I like riding it.

well done old chap