'92 140,000Km rebuild.

[Dan Filetti]

Stop with the polishing bits!!   I've heard that if you polish too much you can't get a good photo out in the sunlight you'll go blind.   Is it any wonder Paddy wears glasses?

There.  I fixed it for ya.

Dan

[FJSpringy]

I polished my fork lowers and they do look great but they are a real pain in the arse to keep polished properly.

[craigo]

I just wax mine and it keeps them nice. Then all the debris just wipes off.

CraigO

[tmkaos]

So I sent off an email today to get a quote to get my headers coated, there's a couple of companies that do ceramic and other coatings locally. If it's not too much i'll get them done, look a lot better than any polish or paint job I could do. But honestly anything is going to look better than this..


Cleaned up my rear sets today, I'd actually bent the brake lever from trying to use that rear caliper while it was jammed, must have been putting a lot more force into than I realised..


After..


The kick plates have been clear coated and this is coming off making them look all speckled, don't know if I'll go down the road of stripping the clear and polishing or just leave them be..
Hopefully I'll be at the stage of trying to drop the motor either tonight or next week, away for this weekend so nothing will happen till next week..

[tmkaos]

Our little baby required all of our attention last night so the FJ was neglected.. Got an email back from ProCoat, they want $220 plus tax to coat the headers and pipe that goes with my loud muffler. Damn it would look good though, here's what it would come out like http://www.procoat.co.nz/cermakrome.htm
That's a little over what I was able to spend on that part of the rebuild so i guess it's back to rust removal and paint. Started cleaning them up today..

Rust is pretty thick but I guess they won't look too bad in black.

[tmkaos]

Managed to get back in the garage again last night for another hour, spent most of trying to remove the frozen capscrews in the rear of the lower frame rails. Damn, those babies are TIGHT. Ended up cutting a slot in them and trying an impact driver - no go, the bit just smears the head of the capscrew around. Went to use my Australian Spanner (angle grinder) and realised that I've somehow managed to lose the nut that captures the grinding disc onto the shaft. This is SO unlike me I'm usually anal about keeping stuff together. So that was a wasted hour. Just as I'd worked myself up to maximum self-flagellation mode, the baby moniter went nuts as my little daughter telepathically sensed my mood from inside the house (wife had taken the opportunity to do some grocery shopping) So Then I had to calm myself down, calm her down, and then I'd run out of time to work on the bike.
Thank god for Scotch, 2 fingers of a 15yr old Genfiddich in a tumbler and everything looked better. 

I'm so close to dropping the motor out now, those damn capscrews are the only thing holding me up. My Ezy-out set doesn't actually have one small enough to do the job, I forgot that it went missing a few years ago.. So I'll grind the heads off and the frame rails should stretch over the rest of the thread, and I can remove the thread from the tapped hole in the frame. If I can get the motor out soon, then it means hopefully I can find out whether it's just the head that needs work or whether I'm doing new pistons as well. I'm also aware that Xmas is creeping ever closer and it'd be good to get my order to Randy to avoid all the shipping delays that crop up at that time..

[tmkaos]

So we made some real progress tonight.. I realised that the lower frame rails didn't actually need to come out. With the bike on a 4x4 I could rotate them far enough down to get the motor out.


So I threw the jack under the motor and removed the the rear engine mount bolt - and my god that was seized too.. Nearly rounded the 14mm head of the bolt off.. but it did come out..
I reckoned with a bit of wiggling I could lower the motor clear of the frame and pull it out balanced on the jack.. Well that was the plan..

So I wiggled, and lowered and wiggled and lowered and wiggled, and then the motor dropped off the jack, I wasn't strong enough to hold it, and the bike fell over followed very shortly by the motor.

FARK. 

Looks like I got away with it. No damage to the bike, it fell on the seats I had stacked next to it. The motor dropped slowly enough to take out the shock of the concrete and I had lino down as well which helped.

DONE!


Greasy little beast...


So I had to get a mate to help me lift it onto the bench, I could pick it up but not high enough to get it on the bench. Now the pull down begins. Watch this space...

James

[Arnie]

Well, at least you know the rear frame rail bolts are not snapped. :-/
Now that the engine is out of the way, you might want to start soaking any and all chassis bolts that haven't been moved since the bike was built, in Acetone and ATF mix.
If you could have removed those frame rails, its fairly easy to lower the engine on a jack and then you and a helper can lift the rest of the bike up and away.
So many things you'll know next time :-)

Arnie

[tmkaos]

If you could have removed those frame rails, its fairly easy to lower the engine on a jack and then you and a helper can lift the rest of the bike up and away.
So many things you'll know next time :-)

Arnie

Yeah Arnie, I realise that my removal method was sub-optimal at best, but time and tide wait for no man, and I need to get this done. I'm more used to pulling out V8's with a block and tackle.
I should have waited til I could have had a mate around to help. Then it would have gone sweet as, but I was impatient.. 

I'm thinking if i can get another 140,000km out of the motor then next time won't be for a while! 

James

[oldktmdude]

   Partly stripping the engine, whilst still in the frame (removing head and cylinder block) makes the job a lot easier if you are doing it by yourself. I have re-installed one by myself but a second person makes it a whole lot easier. I probably should have suggested this earlier but you were too quick for me.  Pete.

[tmkaos]

   Partly stripping the engine, whilst still in the frame (removing head and cylinder block) makes the job a lot easier if you are doing it by yourself. I have re-installed one by myself but a second person makes it a whole lot easier. I probably should have suggested this earlier but you were too quick for me.  Pete.

I did consider this Pete, but as I've never been into these engines before, I thought I'm better off doing on the bench where I can get better access to it. Also I was worried about how tight all the bolts and studs would be after the trouble I've had with some of the frame ones, and I reckon i'll be able to attach the motor to my bench and get better purhase on my tools.
But next time for sure it's 100% an option once I know what I'm up for. 

Cheers,

James

[tmkaos]

So I think I may have found a "potential" cause for the issues that made me pull the motor..  Got the valve cover off tonight,


Everything in here looks great actually considering the km's, and there is about 1.5mm wear on the upper cam chain guide which I didn't think excessive


But, when I pulled the sparkplugs, I found lo-and-behold, a whole bunch of little gravel stones sitting in the sparkplug recess. I changed the plugs when I did the carbs about a month ago, and it was pretty bad light over the bike I didn't even try to look down there, I wound the old ones out and put the new ones in. There was actually a stone trapped under the #3 sparkplug, I'd obviously tightened up the sparkplug onto it. You can see it clearly here.


If it had a mate sitting there next to it, I bet when I pulled the sparkplug and put the next one in, at least one of those stones might have fallen in. The miss and oil leak started after I had pulled the carbs and I naturally initially thought I'd done something wrong in the carbs.

I wonder if when I get the head off I'll see damage from a stone bouncing around in there.

Only time will tell.  

[Arnie]

tmkaos,

While its certainly possible, hope that's not the case.  Its not the bouncing that causes most of the damage, but the scraping of the cylinder wall when the stone(s) get caught between the piston and the liner.  You could have some deep gouges.

Too late for you, but its a good idea to always blow all the crap out of the spark plug recess with compressed air before you pull the plugs.

Arnie

[tmkaos]

Yeah Arnie i think I'll have to do that from now on. Damn NZ roads, range from this


which is awesome if you are capable of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkZj3Ti-rHg

to normal tarmac.

Anyway, the only compressed air I have access to at home comes from either one of my orifices..   

James

[FJmonkey]

Then use a shop vacuum with a small nozzle to get down into the pocket. Get a stiff brush down in there first and knock all the stuff loose, then suck it all out...