kingston73 wrote:I forgot to sign in the first time, sorry. I'm in Rhode Island. Using my right finger, I can reach in far enough to feel the chain, and it feels very loose. I can't see what I'm looking at, but when I look at a diagram as I'm poking around with my finger, I can kinda make a mental picture of what I'm touching, and the tensioner is clearly disconnected at the top, I can move it back and forth with my finger. So after reading the shop manual and also Rob's site, I really don't feel like its a good idea to try this myself. If I had a garage to do it in, or anywhere indoors, I'd be more daring, but just looking at all the crap blowing around and laying on the driveway, I just don't see any way at all I can open the engine up and keep things clean. Since the engine seems to run fine other than this, should I bother replacing the water pump seal and stator? Or should I just assume these will break sooner rather than later and do the whole "triple bypass" thing now?
Anonymous wrote:So its looking more and more like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and try to do the fix myself. Rich above was nice enough to offer me a GL engine, but after reading the posts I think that's beyond what I'm capable of. The local shops will do the work for anywhere between 500 to 700, but only during winter. Ive read many posts concerning issues getting the alternator rotor off, is the difficulty mainly in locking the engine and having the correct bolt? Any other hidden issues in removing the rear case or the rotor?
kingston73 wrote:Thanks for the advice Shep. I found an engine that may or may not work, but at least the cam chain tensioner is in 1 piece. I'm going to take out the original engine and put in this new one, it has 1/2 as many miles and is 1 year newer (80 vs 79) I figure even if it doesn't work, I'll now at least have a source of extra parts. Whether it works or not, I'm still going to fix the original engine eventually. Maybe I can bribe my wife into letting me bring it into the house and work on it in the attic over the winter. I've read all the "engine replacement" posts I can find, basically it's disconnect everything, make sure everything is disconnected, and using a jack lower the engine and pull it out to the ?left? Do I need to take the brake and/or shift levers off for this? Any other bits of advice? I'll be gone for 2 weeks, so I won't have a chance to do any of this till mid-July, but I'm sure I'm going to have some more questions for y'all later. Thanks for all the help!
kingston73 wrote:I already have a question, and I haven't even started. My donor motor looks to be in decent shape, it's not frozen but it does have some rust on it, plus lots of dirt. Two questions for now: 1. Does it matter that the final drive shaft (not sure if thats the proper name, the shaft that plugs into the swingarm shaft) has rust on it? Do I need to sand it off, and when I put it into the frame does it get greased before sliding it in and putting the boot over it? 2. It looks like there are a few cobwebs that may have made it into the cyclinder heads. Before putting it into the frame, should I take off the heads, or will anything in there just get burnt out when I start it?
Daniel45mpg wrote:cam chain is in the rear of the engine oil pump chain is in the front it is the oly one you can possibly touch. I didn't have this straight till i opened up the front cover to get at the cam chain. after a mech seal change i now know,..ha ha. the bike teaches me. crazy.
kingston73 wrote:I found a source for gasket paper, but I have a choice between 0.4 and 0.7 mm thickness. Which is the better, more useful size? I'd tend toward the thicker one, but wanted to get some opinions first.
kingston73 wrote:The donor's all ready, took the radiator off along with the exhaust. Nothing ever ends up taking as long as I think it should with this bike, it seems like whatever my time estimate is I need to add 2 hours to it. It's probably the first time the exhaust has been off the bike since it was built, and I gave up trying to get the front pipes off the Hbox, so I took of the mufflers and then removed the Hbox/front pipes as 1 unit. I tried sanding off the rust from the Hbox but gave up and ended up putting some Rustoleum "Rust Converter" primer on it. I know its not the best solution but its better than leaving it as it was. I disconnected all the wires/leads/clutch cable from broken original, so tomorrow its finally Engine Out day. I'll be doing it on my own, so does anybody have any helpful suggestions for balancing the engines on the jack as I lower and raise them? I thought about maybe trying to use a milk crate to drop the motor onto, but I don't know if that will work.
Shep wrote:There's no wrong way to put the drive shaft on but they can be a PITA to get to fit back.I hope you matched up everything as you built the engine.There is one VERY important component that can be put on thw wrong way and ruin an engine.I know,I've done it!!It's the small driven gear that fits inside the engine final drive shaft.The teeth MUST be away from the engine before the shaft fits onto it.If you are 100% certain it's correct then OK.If not do not run the engine.
kingston73 wrote:That makes sense, and it makes me feel better knowing I didn't miss a step somewhere. You're right, this has gotten really long. If I have any issues with my donor engine tomorrow, I think I'll start a new post. Thanks again for all your help so far, don't know what I'd do without this site.