The new TR1 motor - overhauling an XV1100 crank (part 10)

With the engine cases being pretty well prepared, it was about time to build a decent crank for the new engine. To be fair, it went a lot smoother than anticipated. Probably mostly because it was dead cold that day.

As a start, I clamped the XV1100 crankshaft into the vice (but using soft jaws - some old ally strips).

Then I decided that I needed a tool to drive on the bearing onto the crank, which was a bit of 50mm stainless tube, beefed up with some off-cut to give it a bit more wall-thickness. 

On the other side, I welded on a big washer to give it a bit more rigidity.

Now while I was doing all of this, I've put a pot with a bit of fresh engine oil on a hotplate and heated it up until it started to bubble.

You won't believe the next step: Took the bearing out of the oil, held it with a rag and my thick welding gloves and simply pushed it onto the crank just with normal finger pressure. That's it, no fancy tools, nothing.

The oil-pump gear fought me all the way, for a some reason (stupidity, I guess), I washed it off with brake clean after heating it up in oil, which cooled it down too far (and the crank had heated up quite a bit with that big hot bearing sitting on there), which meant I had to build a second tool, following the same principle as above, but with 40mm inner diameter and then push it home using some spacers I had still lying around.

So that's the crank ready for installation. Conrods are next. 😏