Sunday, April 29, 2012

A 998S motor showing it's bits

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I had a 998S motor in bits recently and the owner asked me to take some photos of the process.  I found the photo taking process quite intrusive to my flow initially, but must have settled into it in the end.  I thought I'd post a few of them showing what happens along the way.

As it arrived, on the pallet of its sturdy box.


Crank and gearbox in to check shimming (without LH case on).


Measuring crank end float to set preload.  The original main bearings were retained and I reduced the shimming by 0.20mm to give 0.20mm preload.  I was surprised how noticeable the extra 0.05mm was over the 0.15mm preload that I usually use (998 spec is 0.20mm) in terms of turning the crank by hand.  And at 0.40mm, as it would have been, you can hardly turn the crank by hand when grabbing it by the LH snout you can see below.  I'm often amazed how much preload I take out of these late thick shim motors.  At a training course at the factory in 2002 I was told there was a spec in the manuals for checking the runout on the RH (primary drive) end of the crank to tell if it is over preloaded - ie, how much the webs being forced together by the preload is bending the big end of the crank, but i've not found it in any that I've looked in.


I laid some white paper down on the floor, and with the doors shut and me up a ladder took some shots of most of the bits required for a 998 motor.  The heads came complete from Biggelaar in the Netherlands, and the crank and gearbox had been reshimmed and the rods refitted to the crank prior to this photo being taken.  This was 10:18 Friday morning.


Crank, fitted with the std Pankl Ti rods and balanced.  It had weight welded in during balancing.


Clockwise from top - primary drive, starter drive, timing and starter intermediate gears, supplied lightened by owner.


Crankcases joined and left hand side components assembled, ready for alternator cover to go on.  You can see the red painted hollow screw that feeds oil from the RH to LH cases for piston squirting.


Moved from laying RH case down on the bench to a stand through the engine mount holes at the back of the cases.  Primary drive gears and oil pump in, reading for primary drive cover to go on.


Vertical head on.  This was where I finished Friday afternoon.  I am required to be home by 6pm, which is not a bad thing either.


When I'm overrun with work (most of the time) I come back after the little man is in bed and work from 10pm to 1am-ish to catch up.  So Friday night the horizontal cylinder, head and ancilliaries went on.  Saturday night I got into the cam timing, set to the usual 105/109 with belts at running tension.  I know this is more advanced than many people run the inlets, but it doesn't seem to hurt them at all power wise and certainly fills out the middle nicely.


And, 12:20am on Sunday morning, it's ready to go back in its box Monday morning for a truck ride across the country.


Back in the bike it made 146hp on a dyno in Perth. Prior to the work it had made 131hp on the same dyno.  This bike was the one featured in the 998S report when owned by the original owner in Melbourne, when it had made 133hp on the old Dynobike dyno.



Saturday, April 28, 2012

Speaking of stands: Moto Guzzi Daytona, Sport, V11

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Another stand Chris at Anderson Stands made me is this one for the Guzzi Spine frames from Daytona RS/Centauro/Sport 1100i (might work on the original Daytona, dunno) to V11.  It picks up on the nuts of the lower gearbox mount, a somewhat natural place for a stand.  On the V11 it can foul the brake pedal and gear lever, but it's a great way to sit them up and work on them.  I really like this stand.

Workshop stand for Aprilia, Ducati and MV Agusta - through the swingarm pivot

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Chris at Anderson Stands made me one of his swingarm pivot stands some time ago that I thought I'd post a picture of.  Compared to his usual swingarm pivot stand mine has a foot on both sides, making it extra stable.  It's a great stand for Aprilia V990 models - RSV, RSVR, Tuono, Falco - as there's no other way to get the front up in the air on them easily.  You can't jack under the sump and you can't grab the frame easily.  With the bike on this stand you can pull the rear wheel down to the workbench and they sit there happily.

It's also a great stand for Ducati and MV models.  For (most of) the single sided swingarm Ducatis and the MV you unscrew the 20mm hex headed cap in the RH end of the swingarm pivot and poke the rod through.  This makes it very easy to play with the rear end, nice for the MVs when you have to pull the rear axle to check the swingarm pivot bearings.

You can also poke the sliding sleeves (it'll make sense if you have one) into the front or rear engine mount bosses on the frame to lift up the front or rear respectively easily too I've found.  Good for the SxR Monster models with the footrest hangers that screw into the ends of the swingarm pivot.

Photo below shows it in use on an MV Brutale.  Is very good.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Danmoto Jisu mufflers on Minnie the 600M

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I bought some Danmoto Jisu (tri-oval?) mufflers to try on Minnie and finally had a go at fitting them a week ago. They're perhaps a bit big due to the shape? Dunno. They need to be mounted as high as possible otherwise they'd look a bit odd. So I had them right up under the passenger footrest with the strap acting as a buffer between muffler and footrest, and the supplied mount link running almost horizontally between strap and mount hole. Here's some photos for the benefit of the thread on the Monster forum.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Phones and school holidays

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For anyone that's had trouble contacting me over the last few days, my phones and internet were out until yesterday afternoon. Which coincided nicely with my mobile being offline as it was moved from one network to another and then I had to learn the basics of an iPhone. Which inexplicably died yesterday afternoon only to be somewhat happy again this morning.

I'm also out of the factory until next Tuesday due to school holidays.

If you want to contact me best to email: brad@bikeboy.org
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