always good...

External Since: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 136

....when an engine that we split cases fires up and runs fine... Smile

was up yesterday until 3am, finising the job of puting together the
mighty honda XR350 that was in pieces in my garage - in two 20kg dog
food bags - for four months.

We had to split cases to replace shifter shaft and sprocket shaft.
Complete gearbox disassembly...
We've been working on this bike since last week. A piece at a time...
Yesterday we finished: a few seals and o-rings, valves adjust, clutch,
carburetor, new spark plug, new brake pads and shoes and put the chain
back into place... Having a bike that rarelly needs valve adjust (my
bike has shim and buckets), took me almost one hour to finally put the
valves under specification...

After a million kicks (and 3ml of gasoline injected directly through
the spark plug hole) the bike started, blowing some smoke from the oil
we used during assembly and then cleared, while producing that neat
four stroke thumper sound... Smile

I love all this. Everything worked
like it should!

Me and friend tried to have a shot of a so-called premium extra
cachaca I got as gift on a game called "secred friend" at work, but
the damn thing tastes like medicine. BRZ$20 for half a liter! I
expected it to be much better.

-- Tiago

External Since: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 136

On Dec 28, 3:17 pm, Volker Bartheld <dr_vers....TakeThisOut@freenet.de> wrote:
> Hi!
> > was up yesterday until 3am, finising the job of puting together the
> > mighty honda XR350 that was in pieces in my garage - in two 20kg dog
> > food bags - for four months.
>
> Ouch! No shop repair manual and no photographic documentation of the
> tear-apart job, I suppose? That's usually how it turns out for me. I always
> plan to have ample amount of pictures but then hesitate (oily fingers,
> hurry, broken down battery, etc., ...).

Oh, I got a copy of the service manual of about every dirt bike
produced in Brasil. I have the 350 manual in portuguese! I doubt I
could transform the two bags of parts into a bike without the manual.
At some point, my buddy wanted me to put the starter gear in the
gearbox and one of the sprockets on the gearbox in place of the
starter gear... Smile

They are much similar, difference is that the
gearbox gear has holes, while the starter is solid...

>
> > We had to split cases to replace shifter shaft and sprocket shaft.
> > Complete gearbox disassembly...
>
> Whee. That sure was fun. And no five reverse gears? That's my usual
> nightmare. Last time when I was into something big like this and took
> apart the CR250R I expected it to fire right up, rev to the moon and
> finally explode into microscopic pieces. That bitch also had a bearing
> that was sealed to one side and open to the other. Naturally not a peep in
> the documentation. I decided that the open side should be towards the gear
> oil. Oh well. At least it ran fine that way... Wink

When I see sealed on one side bearings, my first thought is "some
stupid had to replace the bearing and bought one with a sealed side.
This thing is immersed on oil, it does not need a seal" and I remove
the seal promptly. I've done that a few times, until I found out - by
reading the manual *after* assembly - that some bearings indeed have
the seal and it has a right side to fit...

>
> > Yesterday we finished: a few seals and o-rings, valves adjust, clutch,
> > carburetor, new spark plug, new brake pads and shoes and put the chain
> > back into place...
>
> What about re-joining the cases? Did you use the good old heating/cooling
> trick or does the 350 already have cylindric roller bearings (my big fat
> orange turd already has them) for the crank shaft? That would make joining
> stuff a lot easier. Was the BFEM involved?

Normal ball bearing. Friend is refrigeration technician and has
propane torch and plenty cooling equipment at his home... As I work
8am-5pm and sometimes I have MBA class at night, I could not help that
much during engine case rejoining... We took the dog food bags to his
small apartment and he assembled most of the engine over a small
(1mX1m) iron table. He said it was easy. Everyday since last week I
went directly to his house after work to give him a hand. It was the
first case split for him.. I only mounted the gearbox, putting the
gears in the right order and adjusting cam timing and valves.

>
> > Having a bike that rarelly needs valve adjust (my
> > bike has shim and buckets), took me almost one hour to finally put the
> > valves under specification...
>
> Hmmm. I always wonder why manufacturers don't ship a sheet with some shim
> numbers along with the bike. That way you could measure first (w/o having
> to jank out a bunch of camshafts, chain and ~tensioner), put the top back
> on, calc the differences and go shopping. Usually what I need is not in
> stock. And having a bike with open engine in the garage gives me the creeps
> - especially with the Deutsch-Drahthaar
> (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsch_Drahthaar) of my parents. That beast
> doesn't show mercy.

My bike has shims, but the old Honda 350 still has a nut and screw
adjust. That's a good thing. I had a bike with nut and screw, my first
bike... I became proficient into valve adjust, but it has been almost
three years...

I own a german shepherd. It is a mercyless dog as well. I guess that
it is because it is a female... Who can control females?

This past weekend, christmas weekend, I was with my family over at Rio
de Janeiro, and I met a guy from Stuttgart, but he lives in Munich. My
cousin's boyfriend. Nice guy, except that he is vegetarian. LOL!
Sorry, but we made he do things only foreigners do, like rolling on
the sand after getting out of the sea and turning himself on a
milanese/viennese beef (beef made by coating the raw meat with egg
+flour and then frying with a little bit of oil). Be warned, don't do
this if a brazilian tell you to, they will laugh a lot of you
afterwards... Smile

Also, I never heard someone speaking german for so
much time. Sounds like a fight everytime. I suspect that cousin and
boyfriend were making fun of us german-language ignorants, but that's
fine, because I could not laugh more of so much fun we made of him...

>
> > After a million kicks (and 3ml of gasoline injected directly through
> > the spark plug hole) the bike started, blowing some smoke from the oil
> > we used during assembly and then cleared, while producing that neat
> > four stroke thumper sound... Smile

I love all this. Everything worked
> > like it should!
>
> Cool! Congrats. For me, everything usually bursts into the worst pile of
> sh*t as soon as I cross the point of no return. Reminds me of the DIY
> braided-steel brake hose I installed on the YZF because the original one
> has rubbed away itself against the guide on the triple clamp. Holy cow!
> Imagine a guy sitting in a dark garage in the midst a pile of junk,
> bleeding (those stainless steel wires *DO* hurt a lot) cussing, then burns
> himself to blisters after grabbing a hot air gun at the wrong side because
> of not paying attention. After the job, the "olive" that has to go in the
> banjo nut was toast, the hose was kinked like a pretzel and after cutting
> it for the 5th time an starting anew, it was - well - still too short.
>
> I had a hell of a saturday when I originally wanted to drag the bike out
> for a spin, "only" finishing that little brake job before (so I told my
> friends in an expert-like voice). Did I mention that filling the thin inner
> tube of a braided steel hose with fluid is a mega-PITA? Lovely. And the
> Akebono-diaphragm of the front brake reservoir just sucks. You won't get it
> aligned properly. Not in a thousand years.

Good to know... I am planning on putting braided hose on my bike, just
for the bling effect, but you just scared me off the idea... Smile

>
> I've known it to happen that with ample amounts of internal lubricants
> (read: beer) those reconstructing jobs turn out a lot more relaxed. Also
> make sure to have your buddy around to keep you from doing stupid things
> and/or wreak havoc with delicate $$$ parts in a momentary outburst.
> Normally, I'm a real patient guy but after a prolonged series of failures,
> diabolous voices start talking to me... Wink

hehehehehehe

>
> > Me and friend tried to have a shot of a so-called premium extra cachaca I
> > got as gift on a game called "secred friend" at work, but the damn thing
> > tastes like medicine. BRZ$20 for half a liter! I expected it to be much
> > better.
>
> Hmmm. Lutz & me usually go to an all-you-can-eat bar/restaurant with
> generous happy hours if there's something to celebrate. Unfortunately,
> there was little reason to do so recently since we were doing botch jobs
> (away from the bikes) most of the time. Cars, for example, cars don't have
> a soul. They don't deserve the love and respect that a (dirt)bike is worth
> because of giving so much fun. Well, it's not the car's fault, true, but
> who cares...? Wink

>
> Happy new year to brazil!

Happy new year to germany as well!

-- Tiago