My What Am I Getting Myself Into Combat Build Thread

The golden hue of all your engine internals tells me the bike has been running on the hot side, and with dirty oil... When they're run with dirty oil at normal temps, they just get black, but clean up to alloy color. The golden hue takes more work to get off.
 
Isn’t the alternator stator wire supposed to come out of the front, in order to keep it away from the chain?
 
Yep, it's backwards. Probably not the only part on wrong
 
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Minor progress. Got the primary chain sprockets off and back primary case. Removed the timing gearbox covers as well.

IMG_1556sm.jpg


IMG_1551sm.jpg


Now on the rear fork spindle. Good thing I've got a bunch of pullers :)
 
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That's a lot of combustion blowby into the oil, PROBABLY combined with infrequent oil & filter changes...
 
I don't see how your crankshaft journals/big end shells would survive so much crankcase contamination without being damaged. Also, while I'm never surprised at seeing engines run that have significant amounts of wear, if I opened up my engine and saw that much blackness in the crankcase, that engine would be coming apart now, instead of waiting for it to either explode at high rpm's or start knocking bad enough for me to know it's going to fail soon.

Granted, I have run lawnmowers that looked like that until a rod broke, then just swapped in a new engine... Probably not a good choice for a commando engine, because as a bike you will ride, the value of your commando is based on having good working internals, not original paint...


... And BTW, the title, "what am i getting myself into combat build" can be looked at as "What am I going to get out of it once it's finished!" The effort is equal to the reward...

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Looks like someone dumped a can of gator guard into your oil tank.
 
Patina… You have the right attitude for sure. My spark plugs have similar patina. Normally I wouldn't think the engine could run the way the plugs look, but it does. Crazy strong on the street, but I'm not using much of the motor on the street in the 35MPH zones.

I actually don't think what you have there in the larger image looks that bad, but you definitely got in there at the right time. Everything is there, and everything is replaceable. No holes in the pistons or pieces of skirt missing. No parts laying in the timing side cavity. It looks like a bad bore job that was ridden hard and put away wet. Warm up your credit card and let the fun begin.
 
Getting the rear fork spindle out, read you need to pull on the threaded side with a puller (pre-mk3). After doing that, found it much easier to just push out using a socket

My What Am I Getting Myself Into Combat Build Thread


Think I will be getting a Mk3 spindle...

My What Am I Getting Myself Into Combat Build Thread
 
Not sure i'm progressing in the correct order, but thought the engine should come out first.

Until I got to this bolt ????

My What Am I Getting Myself Into Combat Build Thread


Who designed this?

Ended up removing all the upper bolts, including the front iso and jacked a little to get enough clearance.

Engine out!

My What Am I Getting Myself Into Combat Build Thread
 
The rear iso spindle is becoming a major PITA. I banged the hell out of it with a sledge and a "soft drift" and it only budged an inch or so. Any ideas? I'm thinking on attaching a nut and dispensing with the soft drift (which in my case was a piece of 2x4)
 
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