1 A tale of 5 bricks Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:07 am
AL-58
Life time member
Engine A – 1100 currently fitted to the sidecar.
Came from a written off ’99 LT with less than 90,000km, I thought it would be a good one but after purchase I found the wrecker/someone had been doing burnouts on the bike (badly flat spotted brand new tyre). I had to replace 13 of the 16 valve buckets to make the clearances correct, that plus me running it up to temp before refilling the oil(my mistake) and it’s continual overheating (in stop/start traffic at any ambient temp) gives me little confidence in the long term future health of this engine. Plus lots of vibes and it’s a generally noisy engine anyway.
(The previous engine (8V) used to cook too, I’ve now come to the conclusion that the cause is a blocked radiator(3 row) restricting water flow, there is nothing else left. I do have a good 1100 radiator to go in as well as a new fan)
Engine B1- 1100 from Jamie, 81,000kms. He badly over-revved it by changing down too many gears to overtake (never had a big bike before). The result was a knock at idle in the upper rear of the engine. I was given this after helping rebuild his bike with running gear from another bike. Thank you Jamie
Engine B2- Jamies replacement(NOT in my possession), when replacing the running gear in Jamies bike we found various damaged bits, mostly caused by a ham-fisted mechanic. The engine that came out(B1) supplied those bits: Timing cover stripped thread/pulled helicoil, Cam cover (gravel rash, ground through), one camshaft bearing cap (stripped thread).
Engine C- A spare 1100 from Floyd that he’d stripped down to get some parts from for a project. Condition is unknown,
Thank you Floyd.
Engine D- An 8v engine with noisy main bearings, good runner otherwise.
B1 is the engine I intend to reuse. I’ve checked the valve clearances and everything on this one is 100%. It should be a good one once everything is sorted.
To put together a good replacement I’ve now taken:
· Spring washer and starter gear from Engine D to Engine B1, a tab on the spring was broken, that was the cause of the knocking
· Timing cover, cam cover and cam bearing cap from Engine C
· Looks like D is going to supply some of the bits to locate the Hall Effect Sensor (missing from Jamies) and the water and oil pressure sensors at the water pump due to damaged wiring on engine.
Hopefully I’ll have it fitted and running in two weeks’ time, the sidecar needs to be on the road and reliable for a trip to Mungerannie for the 2nd weekend of August(the biennial Off Centre Run) and possibly returning via the Birdsville track. My leave was only approved a week and a bit ago, that's why the concerted effort to get it done. The outfit itself is also getting its fair share of attention, new sidecar swingarm bearings, new rear car tyre and new sidecar tyre, added 20l of fuel capacity, additions to the sidecar hood for the dogs comfort in case we strike bad weather. The list goes on.
Lots of planning.
Al
Came from a written off ’99 LT with less than 90,000km, I thought it would be a good one but after purchase I found the wrecker/someone had been doing burnouts on the bike (badly flat spotted brand new tyre). I had to replace 13 of the 16 valve buckets to make the clearances correct, that plus me running it up to temp before refilling the oil(my mistake) and it’s continual overheating (in stop/start traffic at any ambient temp) gives me little confidence in the long term future health of this engine. Plus lots of vibes and it’s a generally noisy engine anyway.
(The previous engine (8V) used to cook too, I’ve now come to the conclusion that the cause is a blocked radiator(3 row) restricting water flow, there is nothing else left. I do have a good 1100 radiator to go in as well as a new fan)
Engine B1- 1100 from Jamie, 81,000kms. He badly over-revved it by changing down too many gears to overtake (never had a big bike before). The result was a knock at idle in the upper rear of the engine. I was given this after helping rebuild his bike with running gear from another bike. Thank you Jamie
Engine B2- Jamies replacement(NOT in my possession), when replacing the running gear in Jamies bike we found various damaged bits, mostly caused by a ham-fisted mechanic. The engine that came out(B1) supplied those bits: Timing cover stripped thread/pulled helicoil, Cam cover (gravel rash, ground through), one camshaft bearing cap (stripped thread).
Engine C- A spare 1100 from Floyd that he’d stripped down to get some parts from for a project. Condition is unknown,
Thank you Floyd.
Engine D- An 8v engine with noisy main bearings, good runner otherwise.
B1 is the engine I intend to reuse. I’ve checked the valve clearances and everything on this one is 100%. It should be a good one once everything is sorted.
To put together a good replacement I’ve now taken:
· Spring washer and starter gear from Engine D to Engine B1, a tab on the spring was broken, that was the cause of the knocking
· Timing cover, cam cover and cam bearing cap from Engine C
· Looks like D is going to supply some of the bits to locate the Hall Effect Sensor (missing from Jamies) and the water and oil pressure sensors at the water pump due to damaged wiring on engine.
Hopefully I’ll have it fitted and running in two weeks’ time, the sidecar needs to be on the road and reliable for a trip to Mungerannie for the 2nd weekend of August(the biennial Off Centre Run) and possibly returning via the Birdsville track. My leave was only approved a week and a bit ago, that's why the concerted effort to get it done. The outfit itself is also getting its fair share of attention, new sidecar swingarm bearings, new rear car tyre and new sidecar tyre, added 20l of fuel capacity, additions to the sidecar hood for the dogs comfort in case we strike bad weather. The list goes on.
Lots of planning.
Al
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'93 K1100LT
'08 F650GS (798cc)
'19 R1250RS
+ another boxer engined motorcycle and sidecar
"When I'm too old and too foolish to handle a sidecar I'll buy a Sportsbike"