Return to dirt = CR125

[unstuck]

I was gonna weld up a broken footpeg on the xl a couple of years ago, then I saw that something else needed fixing too, before I knew it, the motor was on the bench in pieces and the frame was bare. Sometimes it is easy to get carried away in the moment. Keep the updates coming dude.

[tigertim20]

got into the shed again today. cleaned up a few things, and took to a bunch of the bolts ive removed with the wire wheel on the dremmel to clean them up a bit.
looks like a few of the lower engine mounting bolts are pretty fucked, someone has been a bit overzealous when tightening them up. Doubt I can find these at a hardware store. so hopefully I can find someone with them laying around somewhere spare from a wrecked bike.

I attacked some of the snapped off bolts that were left over, went at them with a gas torch, and some of them came right out.
others still refused, I guess theyre going to need to be drilled out and re tapped.

I gave the frame a degrease, then a wash with warm soapy water, then repeated before wire brushing and sanding. I started painting it, but I ran out of paint, will have to wait till tomorrow now to get some more.

The expansion chamber is also painted now too.
Its not going to look real pretty, but it doesnt need to be, hopefully I can make it start to look like a real bike again during the next week, if the parts arrive and the engine can go back together. .. .

[tigertim20]

played around again today.
the two lower engine mount bolts were a bit fucked, so when I went out to get paint I had a hunt for bolts and found some to replace the fucked ones. Also bought a drill since I need to drill and retap a few bits that have broken off - of course I dont have the right sized tap do I? I have the ones either side - but not the right one.

anyway I got a couple coats on the main frame, and some clear on the sub frame, then decided that while that was drying I should take a look at the swingarm.

When I dissasembled the bike, I removed the swingarm as one bit, with rear brake, wheel, dog bones etc etc still on it.
step one was remove the rear wheel. well the rear axle was fairly well seized and it took a fair bit of bashing, and spraying and whatnot to get the cunt out. with that done, I took a look at the dog bone thingies.
The bearings I knew were toast already, but wasnt prepared for how fucked it was.
The bearings seats look to have been taken to with a flathead and a hammer, the roll pins out of the roller bearings were in several pieces each, and the bolts in the various parts of the dog bone linkages were mostly rusted into place. fucking hell.
again the gas torch was bought out to remove the things I could get to, but after having looked at what was inside, Im not altogether sure the thing is really usable again- what a pain in the fucking ass. the bearing seats are smashed and scored almost beyond recognition.
I might look around for a swing arm, or at least dog bones and just replace them.

Its become quite clear to me that whoever the retarded cunt was that last turned spanners on most parts of this bike has absolutely NO place anywhere fucking near anything mechanical.

looks like the amount of work to get this thing into some kind of rideable shape is increasing everytime I look at something else on it. I think the biggest thing now will be the time it takes to locate various parts that are completely shagged and get them posted to me - which is a pain, Im not real patient when I have nothing else to work on in the meantime.

[Fast Eddie]

Its become quite clear to me that whoever the retarded cunt was that last turned spanners on most parts of this bike has absolutely NO place anywhere fucking near anything mechanical.

I feel exactly the same way about the aprilia.. makes you wonder as you dig deeper and find all this half assed work on it.

Keep on going! your making some progress - I pulled my 2 carbs apart today and one literally had sand in it, like beach sand..

the dog bones must be pretty easy to make up? I have a few here from the blade and my old ZXR750 which were used to swap ride heights: lower/raise the bikes.. they are pretty simple bits of metal?

good luck bro! keep going. if you ever get over it I'll take it off your hands

[tigertim20]

heh, nah sunk enough time and money that I will keep going. yeah the bones are pretty simple, but the damage is where the bushes and stuff seat in. I saw someone wrecking one of these not too long ago, so Ill see if I can contact them and ask if they have the stuff i want.

[tigertim20]

PISTON ARRIVED!!!

also got an m6 tap as well, so I can start getting onto the engine rebuild now

[tigertim20]

Well that was interesting.

The parts arrived and after blobbing on the couch for a while I decided I had best move on down to the shed and get some stuff done since the part Id be itching to get was here.

I did a few smaller jobs, and now that I had grease etc, thought I would lube the powervalves and replace the gaskets etc for them before getting onto the piston. - and thats when the trouble started.

Since I dont have a ring compressor, and Im an impatient rangi cunt, I managed to botch a few other things together to get the result i wanted. I lubricated the barrel to aid me, and after much pissing around trying to get my maori tool to do what I wanted (including several failed attempts) I eventually had the satisfaction of hearing the piston plop into the barrel, and gently slid it to the bottom.
I had of course already put the circlip in on one side, so holding the bottom end between my legs at an awkward angle, and the top end in my hands, with a torch held in my mouth (our garage is shitty when it comes to lights.) I managed to get it sorta lined up, switched to holding the top end with one hand, using two hyper-extended fingers to hold the piston from falling out the bottom, and had to lean a little while holding everything to try and grab the gudgeon pin, which was, of course, a few inches out of comfortable reach by now.
then it got interesting.

I managed, in my awkward position (Imagine a monk in Yogi position, and a contortionist with all their joints bent backwards, combine the two and you're roughly looking at how I was positioned) to jiggle it all just right, and slip the gudgeon pin into place. lovely!.
switching my grip again, I repositioned the torch in my mouth, and grabbed the second circlip, and got it mostly into position, using the only hand i had free. I had one of those tiny tiny flathead screwdrivers and I grabbed that and gently nudged the second half of the circlip into place. The circlip had other ideas.
It popped out, ricocheted off my hand holding the cylinder, bounced off the conrod, onto the rag I had stuffed around the conrod, and went through the fold where i had crossed the rag up to prevent any gaps, and somehow - perhaps guided by the hand of satan himself, fell through into the bottom end.

The sky darkened, and the neighborhood cats scarpered, inside, dogs whined, shuddering by their owner's sides, and far away America increased its terror threat level to 'imminent danger' as the beast roared.

Some time later after my fit of rage had subsided, and my fist had lost a brief disagreement with the concrete wall in the garage, I took a look.

Incredibly, I could still see the ittle fucker sitting down at the bottom of the crankshaft.
I managed to again botch together some bits and pieces, and with baited breath, steady hands, and alot of patience (of which I began with a short supply of) I managed to gently coax the little cunt out, and of course had to start all over again.

end result, new piston in, all the engine gaskets have been replace, and everything torqued to spec. I stuck the old plug in it and stuck my thumb in the sparkplug hole, and pushed the kickstart with my hand - its definitely got more compression than it did beforehand, so thats a bonus.

Still heaps more to do, but that will have to wait till another night, Im fucking hungry after all that!

[nzspokes]

LOL, I did exactly that when I built my XR motor. Thank god for the long magnet thing I got for a birthday decades ago.

Need more pics..........

[tigertim20]

Ill try to get some pics tomorrow after work when the light is still good. The lighting in the garage is fucking shithouse - Im looking into some standing floor lamps that I can adjust the position of - will be a HUGE help working on bikes with the early darkness of winter almost here

[eelracing]

Well that was interesting.

The parts arrived and after blobbing on the couch for a while I decided I had best move on down to the shed and get some stuff done since the part Id be itching to get was here.

I did a few smaller jobs, and now that I had grease etc, thought I would lube the powervalves and replace the gaskets etc for them before getting onto the piston. - and thats when the trouble started.

Since I dont have a ring compressor, and Im an impatient rangi cunt, I managed to botch a few other things together to get the result i wanted. I lubricated the barrel to aid me, and after much pissing around trying to get my maori tool to do what I wanted (including several failed attempts) I eventually had the satisfaction of hearing the piston plop into the barrel, and gently slid it to the bottom.
I had of course already put the circlip in on one side, so holding the bottom end between my legs at an awkward angle, and the top end in my hands, with a torch held in my mouth (our garage is shitty when it comes to lights.) I managed to get it sorta lined up, switched to holding the top end with one hand, using two hyper-extended fingers to hold the piston from falling out the bottom, and had to lean a little while holding everything to try and grab the gudgeon pin, which was, of course, a few inches out of comfortable reach by now.
then it got interesting.

I managed, in my awkward position (Imagine a monk in Yogi position, and a contortionist with all their joints bent backwards, combine the two and you're roughly looking at how I was positioned) to jiggle it all just right, and slip the gudgeon pin into place. lovely!.
switching my grip again, I repositioned the torch in my mouth, and grabbed the second circlip, and got it mostly into position, using the only hand i had free. I had one of those tiny tiny flathead screwdrivers and I grabbed that and gently nudged the second half of the circlip into place. The circlip had other ideas.
It popped out, ricocheted off my hand holding the cylinder, bounced off the conrod, onto the rag I had stuffed around the conrod, and went through the fold where i had crossed the rag up to prevent any gaps,

Tim my comprehension skills are not the sharpest but unless i'm missing something blatantly obvious all this reads like that TV add where the mechanic took off the sump to remove the crank,rods and pistons so he could get at the sparkplugs to give them a clean.Funny as fuck to read tho.

Little end bearing and piston goes on conrod first then gudgeon pin all liberally oiled pushed in by hand and then the clip.The beauty of this way is you can use both hands too.
Compress the ring(s) with one hands forefinger and thumb (no compression tools required for 2T rings)ensuring ring gaps are lined up with the pin in the ring grooves of the piston.
With your other hand holding the well oiled cylinder lower it down on top of the piston and with a bit of carefull jigerry-pokering around she will pop in no worries.

Patience and lubrication is the key and of course a workshop vice is a godsend.

[unstuck]

In regards to the lighting, do you know anyone who works for the power board? If you do, ask them if they can score you a couple of old but servicable street lights, they are awesome in garages, and free if you know the right people.

[Crasherfromwayback]

Tim my comprehension skills are not the sharpest but unless i'm missing something blatantly obvious all this reads like that TV add where the mechanic took off the sump to remove the crank,rods and pistons so he could get at the sparkplugs to give them a clean.Funny as fuck to read tho.

Little end bearing and piston goes on conrod first then gudgeon pin all liberally oiled pushed in by hand and then the clip.The beauty of this way is you can use both hands too.
Compress the ring(s) with one hands forefinger and thumb (no compression tools required for 2T rings)ensuring ring gaps are lined up with the pin in the ring grooves of the piston.
With your other hand holding the well oiled cylinder lower it down on top of the piston and with a bit of carefull jigerry-pokering around she will pop in no worries.

Patience and lubrication is the key and of course a workshop vice is a godsend.

Wot he says...cept I always lube only the pin and brg. Cyl and piston is put in dry in my engines.

[ktm84mxc]

I've always put the piston on the conrod before the barrel , it's easier to make sure the circlips are in correct etc. Even made up a board[looks like a big tuning fork] to sit the piston on when fitting the barrel one hand to compress the ring while the other gently lowers the barrel over the ring.
Have always oiled up the parts before hand, would like to know how the factories do there engine assembly is it wet or dry?

[tigertim20]

yeah I was going to do it from the bottom, but it looked like slipping the piston into the barrel would be easier going from the top than the bottom, as the surface was round and flat, the bottom of the cylinder isnt flat - doesnt matter, that part was okay anyway, it was losing the pin, which could have still happened even if Id done it the other way.

the fun of doing your own work huh?

[Crasherfromwayback]

, would like to know how the factories do there engine assembly is it wet or dry?

They may well use oil from new in case the bike sits around for a while to guard against ring corrosion etc.