1972 Daytona

With the Daytona completely torn down it’s time to start the rebuild. As previously stated in the teardown section, this is not going to be a road bike but rather the goal is to use it for vintage class road racing, we’ll see how that goes. The engine was missing a fair amount, as was the rest of the bike, so this rebuild will likely go fairly slow.  So far I’ve had the frame stripped and primered, the cylinders bored and new pistons purchased, the crank journals ground and new bearing picked up.  I also plan on replacing all the oil seals and gaskets.

So, with the crank waiting on the sludge trap plug I decided to see how the new rear suspension and handlebars that I picked up off E-Bay are gonna look.  Thanks to Bob in Vermont for letting me ship the bars to him in order to pick them up when I was down there and avoid an extra $20+ in shipping to Canada.  I’m going to have to do something about that tank, it doesn’t really scream Vintage TT.

January 6, 2006

I’ve been extremely remiss in keeping this page up to date, I’ve also neglected the bike quite a bit, but my New Years resolution is to get the bike back together and keep this page up to date.  The following section takes us back to sometime in September.

I wanted a way to make it easier to slide the crank into place, so I made a stand out of wood and drilled holes into it to allow the various studs and the crank to fit through, this way I could lay one side of the case on it’s side and set the crank down into it. The three images below show this.

Now that I had a solid stand for the engine case it was time to put the main bearing in place, this sits in the center hole shown in the middle picture above. The plan is to stick the hole thing in the oven, heat the case up, and drop the bearing into place.  I used a little assembly lube on the bearing so that it would drop in easier. MISTAKE. This worked great, the case spent about five minutes in the oven and when I took it out the bearing dropped right in.  I’ll point out my mistake here, which I didn’t realize until the cases were back together, which meant I had to split them again. Instead of using assembly lube to put the bearing in, I should have used a bearing retaining compound to prevent a spun bearing.  Anyway, I’ll move along with the proper timeline and get back to splitting the cases again further along.

Here’s my report from RMH on the above:

September 18, 2005

Well, right now the timing side of my engine case, at a nice 250F. Last week I tried installing the crank bearing with no luck, so this time I'm
heating the engine case up and hoping the aluminum will expand enough to drop the bearing in (as per the removal instructions).

This is were I actually took a moment to do the work.

Worked like a charm, unfortunately I've been trying to video tape the rebuild and I didn't have the camera going, so I start to pull the crank
back out and got halfway before the case cooled enough and the bearing heated up enough to stop it dead. Downstairs for the mallet, pop the crank out, the case back in the oven, wait 5 minutes, turn on camera and repeat.

Next it was time to get the other side of the case on and continue the rebuild until I hit a point that causes me to say uh oh, I need to replace that
part, or where the hell did I put that piece. With all stores being closed on Sunday in this God fearing town, I'm unlikely to be able to buy something if I need it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed

Fortunately the other half of the engine case went on without a problem. I just dropped a couple metal dowels in the freezer that are required for the top of the case where the cylinder mounts. The bike only had one of the two required when I pulled it apart, so I bought two, pulled the old one and am freezing the two new ones in order to pop them in, then I'll be able to get the cylinder on. Got the cams in, along with the timing gears but I need to get the head on before I can torque the nuts for those things down. On the down side, I knocked a beer over on the tool cart, fortunately there wasn't much on it at the time and the only casualty was the spilled beer, I'm currently in the process of replacing it.

The next step was to actually put the cylinder back on, it was now that I realized it would have been easier to put the tappet blocks and tappets in place BEFORE putting the cylinder on, so I had to fish the tappets through the smaller hole in the cylinder and then place the tappet block in place while trying to guide the tappets in from the bottom of the block. Pain in the ass.

I also noticed that one of the o-rings was too big and stuck out the side of the base of the tappet block and split during the installation. On Sunday I shrugged it off after realizing I used the wrong O-Ring, and in my typical bodger fashion I decided to leave it as is. Last night I decided to put the
head on but realized I still had to clean up the valves. At that point I figured if I'm going to all the trouble of replacing all the oil seals, gaskets and o-rings to make it oil tight, I should pull the cylinder off before getting anything else mounted on the engine. So I shoved some rags in the cylinders, screwed the head in place and used a socket wrench to turn the crank from the timing side. The cylinder was on there pretty solid but with a little effort I finally lifted the cylinder off the studs (yes, I removed the nuts first). I drove out the tappet block, replaced the o-ring with the proper one and this time I mounted the tappet block before putting the cylinder back on. I'm getting better at mounting the cylinders using pipe clamps, but I think I'll still invest in some decent piston ring compressors.

It was after typing that last paragraph as a report in RMH that I realized I had to pull the cases apart again (as mentioned earlier). In my infinite wisdom, I used assembly lube to help when putting the main bearing in the case. This is just the opposite of what I should have done, I should have used some sort of retaining compound (which I now have to go and find). So to prevent the bearing from spinning it's off to the auto parts store and back into the engine this weekend. On the plus side, I haven't torqued down the timing gear nuts nor applied locktite and lock washers to the engine case bolts yet, so disassembly *should* go smooth and quick. <knock on wood>

Took the cylinder head off, split the cases, got the case in the oven and heated it up in order to pull the crank and main bearing.  Crank and bearing are out and in the fridge, case is back in the oven, got my loctite 620, I'm all set. Just waiting for things to heat up/cool down and I’ll be back at it.

It was at about this time that I took a 3 month hiatus from the bike, finishing a room in the basement, cleaning all the drywall dust off my parts and tools after the construction, the holidays, work, etc. Just this week I’ve been able to get back to the bike, and at this point the case was still in two pieces.

January 6, 2006

I finally got back to the bike this week.  It had been left sitting since September too many excuses kept me from it until I got a reminder from a friend that I was supposed to be working on the bike this winter. :-)

I had left it with the main bearing and crank in place on one side of the engine, I also had the pistons on the connecting rods and I was ready to get the engine cases back together, again.  I had to, well, I’m not sure if I HAD to, but I cleaned the old Hylomar off the case halves, but some new stuff on and slid the remaining case half down over the crank and onto the other half.  I bolted it down, wiped of a little bit of excess Hylomar and stood the engine up so that I could get the cylinder on.

The cylinder went on without much trouble, the pipe clamps I’m still using in place of piston ring compressors worked fine and I tightened the cylinder bolts down. A few months ago I had used some grinding compound on the valve guides and had ordered replacement valve springs, so the head was all set to be assembled.  I used the valve spring compressor and got all the valves installed in their proper place with the new springs.  I installed the push rod tubes, copper head gasket and placed the cylinder head on. I haven’t torqued it down yet but I have the four bolts for the head in place and gently tightened down, they’ll get torqued properly when I have the remaining head bolts in place, which have to go through the rocker boxes once I get those in place.

The rocker boxes have not been cleaned since I pulled the engine apart quite some time ago, so they went through the sand blaster and parts washer.  I put one together but I think I’m going to replace all the thrust washers, which I’ve just ordered from BCS, as well as some oil feed bolts which weren’t on the engine when I got the bike.

A preliminary check seems to indicate that the gears are back in properly, at this point I’ll have to wait until I start it up and then listen for grinding. :-)

I replaced the oil seals and for the inner gearbox cover I decided to use both the paper gasket and a thin layer of Hylomar, we’ll see if I have an oil tight seal by the time I’m done. I’m pretty much up to date now, hopefully I’ll be able to keep the work moving ahead and the web page up to date.