Finally got the motor out of my car and onto a stand so I could start assessing the condition of this craigslist motor. Man it is really dirty. It does in fact look like it was indoors, but unfortunately inside a woodshed in an avacado grove. I discovered the primary drain plug is missing and the motor sat in mud so there's that. Luckily it looks like there is not a lot of dirt in the primary. Just around the drain plug hole but the trans will definitely need to come out and everything needs a good cleaning. It shifts fine and everything turns buttery smooth. The plugs look great and came right out. The exhaust ports were left open so the heads will need to be gone through which I was going to do anyway. I didn't see anything in the cylinders that caused me any alarm. I am curious what the cam chest looks like. I'll do that Monday. So far it looks like a good engine but will need some serious elbow grease. I took a brass wire brush to the case in a really dirty spot and it cleaned up looking new. Luckily its just dirty, not greasy so it should actually clean up quite well.

i got my pushrods today so tomorrow I will pop them in and fire up the bike and see what the outcome is.

 

So the last time I rode the bike it started running really bad about a mile from my house. Up till then it was making a lot of noise but still ran alright. I barely got it home and I was thinking it was from the colapsed lifter.

Well got it all back together today and took it for a ride. The good news is the lifters apears to be working fine. The bad news, I think the motor is toast. It has no power and severe knocking. When I start out in 1st gear it acts like I am starting out in 5th, literally. No power and the same knocking sound as severely lugging the motor. My understanding is thats the rod bearing. But possibly I blew a head gasket of bent a valve? Thoughts? I figure either the bearing was going and maybe thats where the debris was coming from that toasted the lifter, or the lifter cause the valves to both be shut and I blew a head gasket, or the valve smacked the piston and I bent a valve. I really have no idea at this point, but the new issue is very bad.

 

Sounds like a lower end problem for sure. Severe knocking is not good. What a bummer.

John

 

Ya. Whatever it it is it sounds very bad. At least everything but the bottom end is new on my current motor.

 

Had a chance to look a little closer as I had noticed after the last ride that there was oil on the pipes and engine case I couldn't account for. I think I see a spot on the head gasket that looks like it could be blown and I see oil around there as well. I'll do a leak down test tomorrow and see for sure. If that's the case likely the exhaust valve failed to open and blamo.

 

Did the leakdown test. 5psi in the front and actually the rear exhaust valve, which is where the lifter failed, is leaking a lot of air so I am assuming it is bent.

 

That is a bummer. Glad you got the spare, sucks about the valve though. Hopefully the head is okay.

 

Well. Back to square one. I'm getting pretty good at tearing this stupid motor apart.



Bottom end still feels alright to me but I am going to install the new one instead once I clean it up and paint it....and make sure it's not full of dirt. Then 1275 kit and either have Hammer do the 883 heads from the new engine or rebuild the 1200 heads that are now toast, which only have 3000 miles on them since being rebuilt, ported, and polished. I'll send them to Dan and see what he thinks.

 

How heavy is the bottom end, once you strip off the starter, transmission and primary assemblies? Just the case halves and crank assembly?

John

 

I've never lifted it without the transmission but with the transmission I would say it's under 100lbs. But not much. I can get it in and out of the frame by myself no problem so it can't be too heavy.