Off with its' head !!

Last Saturday (3rd July) was "workshop day". We all assembled at Paul's place and debated why we were going to take apart (what we thought was) a perfectly good FJ 1100 motor.

But this whole project was about getting to know a little bit more on motorcycle mechanics so really there was no debate; we would strip the whole motor down, identify what was worn, replace stuff that needed to be replaced, and then put it all back together again (bit like Humpty Dumpty).

Ian was in charge of "manual reading" whereas Peter and Paul were to be the head "stripper-downers".

At Paul's suggestion, we placed the motor on a table that allowed us to "attack" the thing from all sides. First it was off with all peripheral stuff like starter motors, and miscellaneous leads. This was where we discovered our first "issue". The metal lug where the starter motor was attached to the engine donk had broken off (see picture on left). We would need to get this welded back on at some stage.

In between Ian hitting his head on the (far too) low floor beams under the house, we also noticed that the starter assembly was fixed to the engine casing by only one bolt. Some "brilliant" mechanic from the past had screwed in a bolt too tightly and it had broken inside the casing. That would also need to be drilled out at some stage.

The cylinder head cover came off easy enough as did the cams and associated gaskets. The lobes on the cams looked straight and true but Paul knows someone "in the game" who he will ask and get a second opinion as to whether we need to replace anything in this neck of the woods.

On inspection, the end of the cam chain tensioner was damaged and it is the usual story; you can't just buy a replacement part, you need to buy a complete new assembly. Ian will try and pick a secondhand one up from a motorcycle wrecker sometime during the coming weeks after he sees someone about the damage done to his head from hitting the beams no less that five times.

Thankfully, it was at this point that lunch was served (love that Beck) and we all feasted on burgers and little homemade pies.

After lunch it was off with the head !!! and (to everyone's surprise) the cylinders looked clean with little scoring. See picture. We are all hoping that the scoring that can be seen is "normal" wear and tear.

Well into the afternoon Pete got the "rescue call" from Laura and excused himself and then disappeared for a while. It was getting late anyway and so Paul and Ian tidied up the mess (that's OK Pete ... you just go off ... we'll clean up) and adjourned upstairs to marvel at Paul's new kick-arse tellie in the recently renovated lounge-dining room. As we have come to expect, Beck was on hand with cake and tea for all.

When Pete did return we all decided that we would need to do "other jobs" in between the "workshop days" if we were ever going to bring this project to completion in a year or so. It was organised that people would be allocated the following "in-between" jobs.

Paul

Keep the engine RP7"d and covered

Remove the bolt that is broken in the engine casing

Peter

Break down the carbs and rebuild with new jets and filters and replace all worn parts e.g. diaphragms or floats

Ian

Continue to break down the rest of the bike

The next workshop day is on Saturday 7th August and that day will be spent finishing off the breakdown of the motor.