83 VT750 Teardown & Rebuild Project (For "Educational" Purposes!)

[keb709]

So for whatever reason, I thought that there wasn't any information about the engine in the manual. Obviously, I was wrong... It's been a long week. Thanks Matt for pointing this out, I will hopefully get some more work done in the next couple days.

Last night I took apart the front cylinder. Still have to disconnect the cam chain, hopefully that will be done today.



I also stopped by my local Honda dealer and they had the actual swingarm tool. Took the guy all of 30 seconds to get the locknut out. So now I have the frame completely disassembled and ready for sandblasting:



As it turns out, my uncle owns a sandblaster, so of course I'll be taking advantage of that. Here's some "before" pictures of what I plan on cleaning up first:









The water pipes appear to have quite a bit of dirt/corrosion inside them:





Is there a good way to get inside there and clean them? I'm thinking wire brush, unless anybody has past experience with this...

I will hopefully have "after" photos in the coming days, will keep you all updated...

Cheers,

K

[keb709]

Matt, I guess I'm talking about both the clutch and the flywheel. I guess I need to take both of them off to split the case anyway. I don't have the special tool referenced in the manual, did I read that you used a pipe to hold the gears in place?

[OHjim]

Originally Posted by keb709

The water pipes appear to have quite a bit of dirt/corrosion inside them:





Is there a good way to get inside there and clean them? I'm thinking wire brush, unless anybody has past experience with this...

If you look up Tube Brushes on McMaster Carr's website, McMaster-Carr , hopefully something you find there will work. Maybe you can source them locally too.

[keb709]

Well it's been over a month now since my last post, my apologies. Seems that there was always something keeping me from putting any solid work into my project. Anyway, I've been trying to get back at it.

I have been having all kinds of trouble with removing the flywheel bolt. I found a trick to lock the engine so that the flywheel wouldn't turn when I put pressure on the bolt. I stuffed a couple rags into the disassembled piston and then put it back onto the engine, that way on the compression stroke the piston was unable to move the entire stroke and locked the engine. Maybe there's some sort of reason to not do this, but I couldn't think of any and I was getting desperate. It worked really well to lock the engine... and then I literally broke my ratchet in half trying remove the bolt. The PO must have gotten trigger happy with an impact wrench because it's on there real good. I'm going to stop by a local shop and see if they can get it off with their wrench. Hopefully I'll have a happier update for you tomorrow.

I also got my hands on a sandblasting cabinet. I tried to do some work with it, but my air compressor just isn't big enough, so I have to get my hands on a better one before I can make any progress there. I've also started a thread with some questions regarding abrasive blasting on engine cases. If you have any experience, I'd really appreciate your comments:

Bead Blasting vs. Soda Blasting vs. Hot Tank for Engine Case

Cheers,

K

[OHjim]

Did you try soaking it with PB Blaster or Kroil?

[keb709]

Originally Posted by OHjim

Did you try soaking it with PB Blaster or Kroil?

Indeed. Coated it every couple of hours for a day, with no progress. I know it's torqued quite a bit, but I didn't foresee this much trouble!

[OHjim]

There's always heat and/or a bigger hammer (impact wrench with lots of torque). To keep the engine from spinning, you can put it in gear and put a 2x4 through the rear wheel across the swingarm - over or under depending on which way you're turning.

[luisr320]

He has already removed the engine from the frame, so no more wheel. I think the manual gives a hint on how to lock the engine by stuffing a screw driver tip between the gears. Hopefully Matteo will come along with some idea for you.
Check my post on your media blasting thread.

[keb709]

Originally Posted by OHjim

There's always heat and/or a bigger hammer (impact wrench with lots of torque). To keep the engine from spinning, you can put it in gear and put a 2x4 through the rear wheel across the swingarm - over or under depending on which way you're turning.

The engine is actually removed from the frame, but the rags in the combustion chamber have done a great job of locking the engine. I'm worried about applying heat, I have read that it can demagnetize the flywheel. I don't have an impact wrench but I'll be going to my local mechanic tomorrow to give his a try!

[OHjim]

I just saw this info on the MC Chassis e-mail list. Might be useful. Cannot verify it's accuracy.

"
Machinists Workshop Mag? recently published some
information on various penetrating oils that I
found very interesting. Some of you might appreciate this.

The magazine tested penetrates for break-out torque on rusted nuts.

They are below, as forwarded by a professional machinist.

They arranged a subjective test of all the
popular penetrates with the control being the
torque required to remove the nut from a scientifically rusted environment.


Penetrating oil .......... Average load

None ........................... 516 pounds
WD-40 ..................... ... 238 pounds
PB Blaster .................... 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ............... 127 pounds
Kano Kroil .................... 106 pounds
ATF*- Acetone mix...........53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a home brew mix of 50 -
50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone.

Note that home brew was better than any
commercial product in this one particular test.

Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we
all now use it with equally good results.

Note also that Liquid Wrench is almost as good as
Kroil for about 20% of the price.

Steve from Godwin-Singer says that ATF-Acetone
mix is the best and you can also use ATF- lacquer thinner 50 - 50 mix.

*ATF = Automatic Transmission Fluid"