Fast Taker Secaha - a blog

We're getting along nicely in the garage, and engine assembly is imminent. While assembling the engine, however, I came across this on the gears:



You can see the notches on the 3rd gear, and a veeeeery slight marking on the 4th gear.
I'd like some opinions on how these can have occurred. I did replace a 3 part primary chain guide. Any other guesses?

Also in the assembly process, I'm stumped to find that I no longer remember where this assy belongs. I do remember something about the oil cooler joint (between engine and oil filter), but no more than that...

 

Solved the oil distribution block assy problem with a thread from February this year...

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=35818/highlight=oil+cooler.html

Also got another picture of the pittings on the gears:



And here is the mock assembly of the bike so far:

 

theres beer in that glass. needs to be fixed

love the paint choice on the tank

 

Sorry dude, had to change the picture with a hires one :lol:
Rest assured that the beer went to a better place...



I'm facing a conundrum here... The part you see in red was in the same ziplock bag as parts for the clutch, but I can't seem to place it anywhere in the clutch assy. I did check both factory and Haynes books, as well as fiches for the XJ750RK...
Also, the part circled in blue is a bit of a mystery, as I'm sure it came out with the shifter cover. Same here, I can't seem to find it in my fiche...

 

The red ringed spacer collar has probably found its place.
I suspect I forgot to put it in the right bin during teardown, and believe it belongs on the rear shifter arm.
Also, the blue ringed part goes into the clutch cover.
That's what you get for posting before looking at the fiches again

However, here are my woes about the wiring:

- Too many wires that could have been simplified
- Wires from the handlebars go way back under the tank?!!!
- Wires from the speedo could have been made a little shorter, thus saving a lot of space in the headlight bucket
- Some splices could have been done in much more space saving ways
- The connectors, don't get me started on those...

 

Some more work done. Third take on molding a front fender in fibre glass worked! In true sci-fi style, some may say it looks like the head from Alien...







There are some clearance issues. Seems like the filler material made the fibre glass bend a little on the tail, causing it to crawl ever so slightly to the right of the front wheel. I suspect some washers on the right side might just move it back. You can even see the anti-dive block-off plates. They're temporary, I just need to see if they can handle the pressure.

The engine is coming along nicely. I thought I was dead when I lost two of the piston rod springs into the engine, but luckily they came out when we turned it upside down.
The handlebars I ordered a month ago are still in transit, stuck at F****** Hamburg.
I also ordered a full set of wires, and will try to make another harness when time permits.
+ somewhere along the line, I want to put in hazard lights to ease riding on the strip in rush hour.

 

Coming along nicely! Guard is definately of alien origin! I like it!

 

Since last post, I've gotten the engine pretty much assembled. However, the timing chain is giving me headache. It's brand new, and thus very tight.
I agree with Len, in that it's probably not a good idea to attempt to stretch the chain before insertion.

But I think I may have come up with a solution.

I already have a valve shim tool, but I've ordered another to hold down two valves at a time, where normally the lobes would have touched. I'm hoping this will give me lobe room to rotate the cam sprockets one at a time while they're off the cams...

Stay tuned...

 

I like it, you've done a good job. I also like the paint on the tank.

 

Thanks alot! Still haven't gotten around to taking a hidef picture of the tank after varnishing. The previously dulled Red is now bright and shiny...

 

Take a look at the tank now...

 

Nice!

 

Thanks!

I've been away on vacation for some time, and when I came back I simply didn't have the motivation to pick things up.
That's all changed now. I've taken the engine apart for the second time, and already gotten most of the gears into the upper crank case.

However, I'm still struggling with a problem I encountered last time - namely that one or two of the rods are sticking to the crank when I torque them up (as low as 7,2). There's just no way I can get to the specified amount of 18,1...

 

It's been a week of dismantling and reassembling the engine.

I did manage to solve the sticky rods. It turns out that the small lip on the connecting rod plane bearings have to face each other upon assembly. Only then would they allow full torque.

From then on, sealing the engine casings was a breeze. On with the covers etc. All the way to the cams. And that's where the problems started to develop...

You see, the timing chain is brand new and really tight. However, it was easy enough getting both cams on. BUT, once both cams are on, chain guides in, chain auto tensioner in, and everything is torqued in place - suddenly, you can't turn the engine over using tools. Not on the crank, and not on the cams.

If you try to turn the engine over using a wrench on the cams, it puts an unnatural strain on the chain because that's not the proper way to transfer power. And if you try to turn over the engine on the crank pick-up rotor, it puts such a strain onto the rotor itself that you rick damaging the rotor.

The only solution I can think about right now, is to run the starter motor to engage the engine (also in the correct direction of rotation). But I thought I might put the idea up for slaughter here first...

Thanks for reading, this has been a report from a long overdue project.

 

It was a while ago that I did this, but I do remember having a lot of difficulty setting the timing - it took a lot of force on the chain to get the timing marks on the sprockets to align, and then the motor didn't want to budge. Eventually by slackening the sprockets and tensioner, turning the engine over repeatedly, and then retightening, I guess I managed to work the chain into a position that both aligned correctly and turned smoothly.

Of course, I was reusing the old chain, the situation might be different with a new chain. Hope this makes sense, the bike runs pretty good now... if anyone knows better please chime in!

 

Thanks for the word.
I want to get the head off again, to check if the valves are sticking. They should not, but they might...

 

Finally got sime time to spend on the bike yesterday. Took off the chain auto-tensioner, the cams, and valve head, in the hope that the reason I couldn't get the cams to turn may have been caused by misalignment of the timing mark.
Tried to set the 1-4 pistons to TDC and put everything back together. When time allows, I'll bolt the cams up and try turning over the engine some more...

I set the marks pointing perpendicular to the cams, but are they supposed to point up in another way?

 

After tinkering with the engine some more, I seem to have come to another dead end, at least from the looks of it.
I got the cam spots to align with the cam cap marker, but the the timing wheel won't end up in a spot near the timing mark.
Any winged words from the congregation on this?
Also checked the valve shims, and only need to replace one 260mm...


These look good...


The T-mark does not align...

 

Had some spare time on the bike yesterday, and finally got the marks all aligned. Even did a new TDC check, and moved the timing wheel down by about 10 degrees.
This is a major breakthrough. I felt really down during the time I was struggling to get the timing right. But now I'm full of energy again, and will continue to put her together the coming weeks. Might even get a ride before the snow falls

 

I give thee a photograph of the complete (almost) engine. I also had some help in getting it into the engine. I assumed it would be much easier to get it in if the swing arm was removed, and I was right. Total time spent was 10-15 minutes...