Big Trev

Well, I’ve got all the parts now - that’s a story in itself, but I’ll have to tell it later.

Right at the moment, I’ve got it to the point where the heads are on, cams in etc, and ready to put the cam covers on.  But as I’ve already worked later than I was planning to, I’m going to bed.

One sticky thing I’ve found tonight is the cam chain tensioners.  I was aware that they had a tendency to be noisy (as these ones are) but I didn’t realise quite how stupidly they had to be done up!

 The manual (as it often is) was completely useless - "use Special Tool bleh to screw the tensioner in and lock it".  Luckily, I found this site:  http://www.sv650.org/camten/cam%20chain%20tenstioner.htm. This guy gives some good instructions on how to make the "special tool" if you want, and how the thing works.  I ended up just using a small screwdriver to screw the thing in, and hold the screwdriver taut while I did up the mounting bolts.  It almost required the use of a third hand, but I managed to do it.

I have some pics, but they’re in the camera.  Although putting it back together isn’t half as interesting as pulling it apart from a viewers’ perspective.  I can tell you I’m enjoying bolting it together more than pulling it apart though!

Once I’m done, I’m planning on running it in per this guy’s instructions:   http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm Need to get some crappy car oil for the first fill, and a couple more filters.

 

OK, now where was I?  Oh yeah, I’ve fucked the inspection plug (add that to the shopping list).

Next victim thing was to get the cam covers off, which given my recent history with fasteners, was mercifully painless:

The valves and camchains looked better than anything out of a motor with 100,000k’s has any right to.  Apparently there was a "top-end" rebuild done about 50,000k’s ago, but it’s a credit to the previous owner as to how well it was looked after.

With the head off, the valves:

 

 

 

And pistons:

 

 

Looking good so far?

Pulled the cylinders out next.  Still hadn’t found anything to describe it’s new-found smoking habit.

 

Until (open the full pics for the detail):

 

 

This is the manual page which apparently wasn’t read:

 

 

OK, my adventure continues.  In my last installment, I’d got the motor pretty much stripped down. 

Firstly, I took all the engine mount bolts out except the bottom/back one (down near the swingarm).  I tilted the motor forward, by jamming a wooden hammer handle in between the frame and block to lever it down past that (stupid) tensioner thing.  Then I got a jack underneath it to support it, and removed the rear bolt and eased it away in a similar matter.  Then the motor came out and I calmly placed it on the ground….

… nah, didn’t think you’d buy that.  What really happened is I got the motor half out, and realised that the weight of the motor was being supported by the generator wiring which I’d neglected to remove:

 

A call was made to my friendly assistant, who came out and supported the motor while I removed wire clips and ties to extract this cable and then remove the motor from the bike:

 

Up onto the bench we go, and start pulling it down:

 

 

 

 

 

One thing which excited me greatly was attempting to remove the inspection plug from the generator cover.  This is about a one-inch threaded alloy plug, screwed into an alloy cover, with a 10mm hex key which can allegedly be used to undo it.  In practice, the hex key just stripped out the socket, like so:

 

So out came Mr Drill, followed closely by Mr Screwdriver (aided and abetted by Mr Hammer):

 

 

I’m getting through this very slowly, so I’ll save this as Part 1.

 

 

First, a little background.  I bought this ‘99 SV650S off a mate.  It has about 99,000 k’s on it, so it’s done some work.  I was expecting in the not too distant future to have to look at giving the motor some work - the rest of the bike is pretty much OK (body is good, has had a rear shock conversion done and the front forks revalved).

This past week, when riding to work I gave it a bit of stick and looked in the rear-view mirror to see a James Bond-style smokescreen coming out the back.  I don’t think it’s a broken ring, more likely worn rings or valve seals.  Anyway, I’ve decided to pull the motor out and give it a freshen-up.

Friday night and Saturday:

Last night I got most of the "bits" off the motor (exhaust, carbies, airbox etc).  Today has consisted of getting the motor out.

Have had some issues with the "engine mounting thrust adjuster".  This of course requires a "special tool", because figuring out how to make a fastener for this that only required an "unspecial tool" was a bit too much for Suzuki.  What this thing does is put tension across the frame, and there is a threaded bolt thing with a lock nut.  Not having the "special tool" on hand, I have had a bash at it (literally), and then made an attempt at fashioning a tool using a socket and the judicious use of an angle grinder.

That still didn’t work, so I’m left with this.  The inside:

Looks OK, doesn’t it? 

Here’s what’s left of the "main bit":

 

Click to view the full horror.

So far, that’s the extent of broken stuff.  Which is good for me - one breakage in about 10 hours is well below my normal average.

Here’s some other pics:

 

This here is the little tray I’m using to put fasteners/small stuff into.  I’m even labelling where they came from.  Good huh?  Worked beautifully until I knocked the bluddy thing over and messed it all up.

 

 

Gettin’ nekkid.

 

Airbox off, carbies.

 

 

Really nekkid.  Not much left…

 

Now I’m going to clean up the disaster area, get the motor onto the bench and start poking around.