4 Hour Miracle

So I’m out last Thursday night hangin with the Motorcycle Cult. Just as I’m maybe a mile away, the bike starts making some evil noises when I close the throttle. Turns out I seriously dodged an engine destroying bullet! My damn exhaust valve in my rear cylinder dropped the seat. Somehow by luck or chance, the dropped seat was actually perfectly caught by the valve as it tried to close. Even better, the pushrod just hung there. Didnt pinch or bend or snap or anything. That was Thursday. Saturday morning I got up at 6Am and did 600 miles int Wisconsin with Drunkle Evan! Here’s my 4 hour miracle on Friday afternoon.

3PM: Bike on lift. Took off pipe. Valve clearly stuck. Called Gator.

3:30PM: Cylinder removed and I am clearly fuct but piston and cylinder are 100%!

4PM: Realized “Shit! I have a donor motor sitting on the bench!” Yanked the head off and texted a pic to Gator for his blessing before proceeding.

5PM: Drank coffee. Made piece with wife. Found an unused top end gasket set and reassembled rocker on new head. She’s looking pretty.

7PM: Head and top end reassembled. Pipe remounted. Readjusted pushrods. Everything torqued properly (thanks again Gator). Dropped it off the lift and after a couple primer kicks – she was up an running once more. Road around maybe 20 miles that night and called it a done deal! By 11Am the next morning I was 200 miles from home and still running strong.

Save A Buck ~ Fix it

The sh*t I’ll do to save some scratch is pretty low. My XS timing chain snapped on me while bombing back into the Twin Cities last September. After I pulled the top end off, I could see that the teeth on the cam were perfect. The crank sprocket on the other hand… DESTROYED. Not a single tooth left. Unfortunately, this crank sprocket is an obsolete part meaning I’m up sh*t creek. My options are wait it out for  an old xs motor on Craigs list for around $100 beans or just swap the crank and buy a gasket set on eBay.

I went with the replacement crank and a gasket set. The crank ran me $1.99 and the gasket set… $60. Other than an hour of open heart surgery, at least I know I’m running a clean motor with new timing chain and gaskets. The top end was still well within tolerances so I’m gonna let sleeping dogs lie with that one.