Trail Rider Magazine

38 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com The last challenge associated with tearing down this engine was the seized top end. I have never dealt with a more stubborn piston. It appears that over the years, moisture caused the rings to eff ec vely weld themselves to the sleeve. Before a emp ng to remove the piston from the cylinder, I let it sit for a full week with penetra ng oil hoping it would break down some of the rust, and while some rust dissolved, there was no way the piston would move, but the crank spun freely. Plan B for removal in- volved enlis ng help from my buddy, Gordon, heat from a torch, freeze spray and wailing on the piston with a wooden block and a big hammer while holding the engine off the fl oor by the cylinder. A er an hour or so of this, the piston did not budge. Okay, onto plan C! We created a "special tool" consis ng of 8 inches of 5/16" X 1" fl at bar with a couple of holes drilled though it. This bar was a ached to the cylinder studs and a steel spacer was placed under the bar on top of the piston, then two more spacers in place of the base gasket. Then a er cranking down on the cylinder nuts the piston fi nally dropped, only a 1/32" mind you, but it moved! A er another full hour of whacking the piston with a wooden block, it was free. Interes ng thing was that the piston was in good shape, rings were not broken and no skirt damage so I would say it seized just from si ng. The bad news is the sleeve had some splits in it at the base so the jug is not usable. As for the "special tool", it will get tagged and land in a drawer in my tool box that's full of one-off tools I have made over the years to tackle specifi c problems. If anyone besides me were to look in that drawer, they would see a bunch of crap, but it all has a purpose so I hang onto it. So, going into this project I was not even sure if there was enough salvageable on the two carcasses I bought to build a single solid runner. At this point in the game, I can safely say it is doable! The biggest challenge ahead of me is to try to stay as close to the budget of $899.00 as possible. There are some places where I can get crea ve and keep costs down and then others, specifi cally the engine, where I won't compromise as it makes zero sense to tear down an engine completely only to do a half-assed job rebuilding it. Last month I men oned I am rather, shall we say, reten ve about having a plan, so I am not se ng myself up for failure or ge ng reamed by my wife for spending too much. For this project I created a simple Excel workbook with a tab for every major sub-assembly that makes up the bike. In those sheets I keep track of what I need, how much it costs and where I can get it. I then feed the totals from each individual sheets into another where I can monitor the costs of the project as a whole. When a par cular component is complete, I highlight it and move onto the next. Below is where I stand at this point and the budget is ght! As you can see, the fi nancials aren't rocket science, just a basic plan to keep track of things. Sub-Assembly Donor Roach Es mated Total Costs Actual Spend To Date Engine #2 $270.07 $210.07 Frame Both $63.36 $0.00 Carb TBD ? $0.00 Forks #1 $22.68 $22.68 Shocks TBD ? $0.00 Wheels #1 $142.91 $0.00 Controls Both $90.23 $0.00 Body Both $90.38 $0.00 Exhaust #1 $41.47 $0.00 Electrics TBD ? $0.00 Running Total: $721.10 $232.75

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