Few things happened today as the Mrs is back at work
Firstly the welder rocked up with my frame in the back of his van, its only taken him since august to weld the rear hoop on!
Looks like he's done a good job though just don't think ill be using him ever again.
Now all my engine internals are nice and clean I can check things for wear properly, the bikes only got 18.5k on the clock and everything so far has been good. I haven't taken the con rods off the crank shaft as I've heard told the con rod bolts can't be reused so was only going to look at the rod bearings if i had reason to look deeper (i.e. if i found significant wear elsewhere).
I got some plastiguage from eBay which I'm a bit dubious about, it came in a pack like this:
And even though its the right size for doing the crankshaft bearings (according to the pack) whenever I've seen pics/vids of people plastiguaging their crank bearings they seem to be using the green one.
Anyway i applied the stuff like so:
And torqued down the 10x 8mm lower crank case bolts to 17.5 lbs.ft in the correct pattern being careful not to turn the crankshaft then took the lower crank case back off giving me this:
Now i thought the plastiguage was supposed to stay in one piece and not stick so much to both surfaces? According to the measurements I've got from it they are all ok (max 0.08mm) but it just doesn't seem to have worked right. Maybe i bought some fake stuff I'm not sure but it was definitely a pain to clean off afterwards!
Apart from this i cleaned up some AC generator parts and seem to have lost one of the washers for one of the 3 bolts that hold the field coil to the cover. I didn't realise there even was washers here until they started flying off when i used the pressure washer on the cover
Hopefully ill find something the right size knocking about so i don't have to part with six billion pound for one with Mr Silvers.
I also found this thin metal tab although I'm not sure its part of anything could just be something that was already sitting on my workbench. Anyone recognise this?
So just waiting on a few bottom end seals to come and then i can start putting the old girl together again. For assembly of the engine I understand that a lot of the internals require submerging in oil as it can take a full minute of run time for oil to reach things like the main shaft.. is there a specific oil recommended for this? Ive got GTX Semi synthetic 10w40 and Triple QX semi synthetic 10w40 for diesel engines to hand, was thinking about using the GTX for assembly and first couple of hundred miles before switching the the Triple QX which has the turbo additive which I've seen recommended for these old bikes.
Finally when using the haynes manual and workshop manual for disassembly at no point was it mentioned to keep track of which primary chain went where and which direction it went in so i didn't. Hondamans book emphasises how important it is to do this as the chains wear unevenly. With 18.5k on my bike what sort of issues could arise from putting the primary chains back differently?
So in summary, todays questions are:
1. Do you think i have dodgy plastiguage
2. Does anyone recognise that little metal tab as part of the AC generator?
3. What oil should i use to soak my internals in before assembly?
4. Will the universe explode if i put my primary chains on backwards?
5. Is father christmas real?