Ordered parts

Ordered all the parts-well I thought so…

I think I have found a machinist who can work on something this small and sounds like he knows what he is talking about.  He can dynamically balance the crank if I have all the parts.  So after confirming the piston is going to work I ordered all the other parts from Yamaha.  All good until they tell me they can not supply a connecting rod kit.  This is an integral part of the rebuild and if the crank is coming apart then there is no sense putting it back together with only a new bearing.

More hunting around on the internet and I have found a Prox connecting rod kit that is going to work.  They were great to deal with.  I wanted to confirm that the kit would fit so they sent me all the dimensions.  I measured what I could with the crank still together and it all looks good.  They may even have a full gasket set as well.  I have been able to get most of the gaskets from Yamaha except for the outer cover gasket.

So I just need to sit and wait for my parts to arrive now.  I have penciled in a slot with the machinist so that it can all be machined before Xmas.  He can not start until I have all the components as we need the weights to be able to do the balancing.

In the mean time I have been making some progress on my data logger.  I can log the Lon, Lat, Date, Time and speed in MPH to a SD card.  I also added an LCD display so I could see MPH in real time.  I have been able to upload the data file to Google and see it displayed on a map.  I am currently waiting on some thermocouples  to measure the temperature and a hall sensor.  I am not sure if I am going to log the RPM with a hall sensor or an inductive pickup.

The steering damper and clamp are order.

Just a waiting game now.  Really want to get the engine together so I can do some testing.

Its apart

So the flywheel puller turned up yesterday so I thought getting the crankcase apart was going to be easy. Well I was wrong.  The puller fitted through  flywheel but the component that pushes on the crank was not long enough. I guess that is built for a larger engine.  I improvised at it came apart quite easily. 

I thought Its on the home run. How wrong was I. 

I was able to get the cases apart but I couldn’t get one of the screws out. I tried the impact driver and promptly wrecked the screw. After getting it loose a little I had to resort to drilling head off.   So now I have some thread still to get out but it is all apart.  

Nothing else seems damaged so I can order parts next week. There is a two week delivery time from Japan. Hopefully the NOS piston I have coming arrives before then. 

Found a Piston

I have been struggling to fine a piston that would allow me to rebore the barrel. I found. A DT piston on eBay that looks very similar and it is the first oversize. They didn’t have the rings but they are available ex Japan.

The flywheelpuller has arrived so I should be able to get the rest of the engine apart now. This will let me see if there are any other damaged parts. Then I can place my order for the parts I need to rebuild it.

Less than 4 Months to go

The journey has begun.  I was weighing up various different options to make my first run on the salt.  The criteria I had in the back of my was 6 speed and water cooled.  I did find a motocross bike that with some heavy modifications I could have got it low enough to run.

Then I found a little TZR that did need some work as the piston had a failed.  With a lot of time on the internet and some helpful people on Facebook I was able to workout there were three different engine types.   This one is a 4EU.  The next challenge was to try to find some parts.  I was able to find the Yamaha Japans Parts website that had all the parts diagrams and part numbers.  I took these part numbers to a friendly parts man at Caboolture Yamaha and when the keyed the parts numbers they came up as being available ex Japan.

So now I knew I could get parts it was getting inside to see what needs replacing.  My intent to replace the bearings and seals.

I got the engine out of the frame and gave it a good degrease before opening it up.  I slowly started to open the engine up.  Having not opening the crankcase of an engine before so I called on my friend Tim from Retromecania to give me a hand.  Things were going well until we tried to remove the flywheel.  Tim had lots of flywheel pullers but none of them would fit.  A quite trip down to Nerang to see if any of his contacts down there had one.  They all looked through their toolboxes but none of them had a 24 x 1mm internal puller.  A quick search on the internet revealed that Bike Service had just the tool.  So I its ordered  the tool and should turn up this week that will allow me to get the flywheel off.

Trying to find some of the engine tolerances were impossible to find.  More searching and asking questions on the internet I came across a gentleman in Japan with the same engine in his bike.  He had a manual and kind enough to email me the photos of the pages out of the manual.

There is less that four months to go and there is still so much to do.  Again on the internet hunting for some different sprockets.  Searching for sprockets is not easy.  I thought you would be able to go to a website put in 420 chain and all the different sprockets would come up.  They dont.  Looks like I have been able to find a 14 & 15 tooth front sprocket.  No rear sprockets with the correct bore site, with the correct PDC for the mounting holes.  I have been able to find someone who can make some from blanks.

In the Beginning

I am told that motor racing started the day the second motorcycle was built.

Thoughout Motorsport there are some iconic events thought out the various forms that any true petrol head should attend.  A Formula 1 event to see the hype, to see the speed and to hear the noise.  A World Rally event do seeing drivers pushing cars to beyond there limits on gravel roads they are driving based on some shorthand notes their co driver is reading.  Bathurst where something that resembles a family car is driven up and over a small mountain for 1000km wih two drivers over half a day.

For me Speedweek is another one of these events.  There are a couple of Speedweeks each year.  Bonnivile in the States and Lake Gardin in South Australia.

These events are where the bullshit stops about how fast your vehicle goes. This event is all about top speed and not at the end of a quarter mile but sustained over a mile speed trap.

Its a strange kind of an event attended by some teams and a lot of individuals who speed all year working on there machine to go to one event. They don’t have the opportunity to test other than on a dyno because there is nowhere other than the salt that is long enough or flat enough to run their vehicles.