Finding your bearings in a motor tear down is one of the most important things to do. Even the earliest explorers had a direction, a purpose, funding from the State that drove them to their current sextant setting.
Taking on someone elses puzzle brings the challenge of just understanding what you have bought. You were told it is all there. As we all know, it isn't. I just isn't. It just depends on where it lies, typically somewhere between 1-100%.
With a rolling frame on the lift and a purchased motor hung within the frame I had 4x boxes of parts plus bodywork. The frame had electrical plugs hanging out of places they shouldn't be and parts dangling from various "crap, I have to move this to get it out of the way for that". Some of these projects you find parts dangling that maybe shouldn't even be on the bike in question. It's hell in the triage room.
I was now at the moment of inventory, catalog, clean and separate. I luckily bought a bike with factory manuals showing exploded views and KTM part numbers. Do yourself a favor: beg, borrow, steal or purchase these type of manuals. At least print them off the internet so you can keep track of what you need (BikeBandit is a good resource for Japanese, BMW and KTM have parts views on their sites), what you bought and once you receive the parts, what has arrived and what is back ordered versus missing. Hundreds of little parts tend to bring 1 or 2 that get missed.
If it is a book / manual, make a copy of the drawings you need. This keeps your grubby mitts off of the original and allows you to write on, cross off, and later show the new owner the parts you purchased and installed in a little booklet you can give with the bike. It helps the new owner understand what you did and may even give them a bit of reassurance that you tried, in a thoughtful and complete manner, to fix the bike.
Get Your Bearings. What do you need to start:
- Exploded views with factoring part numbers.
- Indelible ink markers
- Index cards
- Zip lock bags - variety of sizes is a must
- Zip ties
- Bulk Velcro (used to cut into strips or small pieces as needed)
- Hole punch
- Boxes
- Time
Essential tools for tearing down and rebuilding motorcycles.
Once
the motor was hung I had nothing but time on my side. I began with
taking a full inventory of what I had purchased. Suddenly it became
apparent I was missing a saddle and a couple of smaller items. In my haste to receive the rolling chassis, we had failed to see the saddle. Luckily, I could go back and find it. Make sure you double back when buying boxes to look for what else could be missing. I purchased a motor that had been completely torn down due to catastrophic bearing failure. The failure was caused by a clutch that had been incorrectly installed as the diagnosis. The clutch started to grind the inner wall of the housing releasing metallic shavings into the blood stream of the living motor and contaminating the nooks and crannies that need oil, but not metal flake. Friction creates heat. Heat creates stress. Stress on a turning motor ultimately wears and stops that motor. As I looked over the steel parts of the motor, hits of blue were in the steel, a lot of heat had been generated.
Before organizing, take the time to degrease, wash and clean all of the parts in all of the bins. Don't worry about what is needed and what is not unless you are absolutely sure you won't use them. In this case, I pulled the rod, arms and pistons as they would never be used again. By cleaning everything now, this process will not be brought to a screeching halt every time you pick up a piece to install and find it needs cleaning. Do it now, even before inventory. This is the preparation for finding a successful build later on.
The boxes of parts had pieces that would not be used again in this build and some parts that could never be used again. I needed to separate into 3x boxes. Scrap, spare parts, need for this build. Using my exploded views, index cards and pen, this is what I came up with:
Use the exploded view as your map and inventory control
The card was labeled as "Engine" or "Chassis" for the book that the part is found in. It was given a page number "15" within that book. "8" was the item number, the factory part number and the description. The "+10, 11, 12..." are the items from this page found in this assembly. Be anal retentive at this time. Don't cut too many corners, it will only force yourself to research later.
While you are taking inventory, be on the look out for parts you now you need. This cataloging will help you find parts than may not have been found until installation was required...adding time and stopping progress. Start your list and do the same thing: Engine or Chassis, page, item number, part number, description and quantity. This will allow you to order from a complete list and it will give you an inventory to check off as parts come in.
Finally, as you are taking inventory, make sure you are not only looking at the boxes of part, but look over the bike as well. Start by labeling your wiring harness. I have been tearing the index card in half, putting a hole punch in and zip tying the labeled card to the connector. This will help during assembly but it makes you bike look like a poorly plucked chicken.
Suddenly you motorcycle beings to look a lot like a plucked chicken
Hint: Want to really make time during assembly? Take one additional step: place an index card with each part that has torque specs, Loctite needs or any extra information for that step already pulled from the manual. Pull, install, torque or adhere as needed.
Next: What does a rusty Subaru wagon sold for scrap 3 years ago have to do with motorcycle repair?
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