You can take them apart I believe but you need a tool to compress the spring... dont take it off without the tool because theyre under pressure and you could get hurt pretty badly.

 

Hurt badly? Sounds right up my alley. Thanks, I think I have a spring compressor around here somewhere, but it is truck sized so I may just have to make one.

 

I just read what you posted in the big thread, for the eye glass.
OEM Parts

Part number 2

 

I appreciate you looking, but I believe that is the oil level window from the engine case. I need the view window from the front master cylinder.

 

Oh I missed that part, they have a crystal watch repair method, but I just used a dime and jb weld. They dont sell the eyepiece, only the whole master cylinder.

 

Down to just the swingarm left to remove. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow so I can drop the parts off on Friday. I had one of those "how in the hell am I going to get this back together" moments tonight, but it past quickly. The same feeling I had staring at my buddies Sportster when we took that apart.

 

These are the best bikes in the world. I love mine. It was worth every cent I spend on my rebuild. Best of luck. Enjoy the process, I sure did.

 

They are great machines, mine provided years of enjoyment. Hopefully it will be providing me many more years after I am done with this rebuild.

I was able to bust the axle nuts loose during my lunch. I tried to bust them loose this morning the only thing I had that would fit was a pipe wrench and that was not going to cut it. I went out and bought a large crescent wrench and while I was gone I soaked both nuts with PB Blaster. Unfortunately, I had already taken the tires off, but I had not removed the hub. The only way I could keep the axle from spinning was to reinstall a tire and hold it with my legs while trying to turn the nut with the crescent wrench. My legs are a little torn up from holding the tire, but I will live. I guess it was not so bad for a 27 year old machine that has never had the nuts removed before.

 

I dropped the frame, swingarm and a couple of other small items off to be stripped and powder coated this morning. I forgot to remove the needle bearings in the swingarm and the coater said he needed them out before he did his work. So, I sat down with a hammer and long screw driver and took to beating them out. Good freaking god was that a pain. The ends of the swingarm tube seemed to have taken a beating over the years and they were pinched down over the lip of the bearings outer ring. That probably was the most difficult part of the entire disassemble process.

Coating should be done in a week. I cannot start the motor work until next week so there will be a little delay before I get any further with the rebuild.

I decided to get the motor, frame and swingarm restored as they should be, but I may reassemble the rest before I get all the parts painted/rebuilt. The rest should not be a problem to do one at a time and I am inching to get the bike back in the dirt.

 

Now that I have the frame and swingarm safely at the coater I got back to tearing the motor down. Here are some pictures, I think I figured out what is wrong

The Cam looks OK to me, normal wear.



Yep, here's your problem:



I should note that is not all water sitting on top of the piston. When I found out the motor was locked up I sprayed in fogging oil and a bunch of PB Blaster. Not to free it up to start it or anything, but just to make taking it apart a little easier. Getting the cylinder free was still a pain in the rear.







I had already planned to have it bored over .020 and I did not see anything in the cylinder that would lead me to believe that won't work. Obviously, I need a valve job, the only question is whether I do the grinding etc myself or whether I let the machine shop do it. We will see how much they want to charge.

The clutch is out, the piston removed etc. I will get back to it later tonight or tomorrow. The crank spins freely, no issue there. But I am still going to replace the crank bearings and have the crank work done. No way in heck I am tearing the motor down this far and rebuilding it without having that done. I learned that lesson the hard way.