Dre-XT-Stück - again, but better

Hey, do you like riding your XT600? Don't know, it's broken at the moment. This has been a sort of running joke between me and several people and quite frankly it has gotten a bit old. Given the existence of this post, you can probably guess: it's not really getting better. 

But let me explain, the the last time I overhauled the engine, which was only roughly 3 months ago, I used a very inexpensive, cast piston. Long story short that cheap piston had developed a nasty habit of expanding rather erratically and semi-seized in the bore a few times, which stopped the rings from moving freely in their grooves, which meant no power and massive amounts of blowby through the engine breather. To top things off, I went with a rather close tolerance, because I wanted to get some longevity out of this case piston. The result was a mechanically quiet and completely gutless engine, which started spewing oil out of the breather after less than 200kms. 

After quite a bit of thinking, I decided to rebuild the engine and I put on my thinking cap trying to remember what worked and what didn't. To be fair, the old Wössner +1.00mm (501D100) oversize worked an absolute treat after the Wiseco had failed previously . 

So I went ahead and bought it's bigger brother 96.50mm +1.50mm (501D150). I am not absolutely sure just how much the coated piston skirt actually helps, but it is a piston finished to a very high standard and unlike the JE-piston with its 11.x:1 compression ratio, this one sports a more modest 10.8:1, which should leave some breathing room for poor quality fuel or a bit of carbon buildup on the piston crown.

Initially I played around with the thought of swapping the liners between my reinforced 97mm cylinder and the older 96mm one, but as this would have meant skimming the cylinder, I ultimately decided against it. (All the threads felt good enough, so let's hope this isn't going to bite me at some point.) With a gas-powered BBQ it's a ten minute job really. All you need is a couple of fire-proof spacers.

Flipped it over and once it came up to temp, you could hear when the liner fell out.

Then drop the cold liner into the hot cylinder.

A left over liner.

It has to be said that I gambled a bit, as up to this point, I hadn't taken the engine apart. Bore didn't look too bad.

Conrod small-end showed no signs of damage and the conrod itself felt normal as well.

But the piston had weird seize-marks on all four corners, indicating both a rather tight bore (I knew that beforehand) and a somewhat erratic expansion. Both compression rings were stuck in their grooves.

You know things are good, when some of the most important calculations of the whole engine build are scribbled onto the packaging of the piston. 

Now all I had to do was to file/sand the rings to size. I used 400 grit paper around a file as the top ring with its hard-chrome layer was way too hard to file. (The second ring appears to be made from cast steel and is an absolute beauty to get into dimension.)

By the way, a stone on a dremel works really lovely to re-size the ring gap... not. The rings will overheat and once hot literally vanish. Oh well, now I have set of oil-scraper rings, should I need fresh ones down the line. 

Assembly was fairly straight forward, but have I mentioned that the gudgeon pin (piston wrist pin for you 'Muricans) is machined conically on the inside? Thing of art. 

The following pictures are mostly for me so I can look at them every time I feel like the engine is lacking power and to prevent me from having to take the engine apart "just to be sure that the timing is correct" or the like.

  Cam neither advanced nor retarded.

Correctly timed on "T".

At this point the question was still open: why did the JE-piston fail on the Autobahn. Please pay special attention to the head pipe in the following two pictures. (A fresh piston and rings will always create excessive heat...)

If you follow the header pipes to the actual muffler at one point exactly this bluing will stop. To be fair I bought the muffler as "rebuilt" and whilst not entirely sure how the did it, I have the nagging suspicion that it's not supposed to look like that. 

Judging by the wool, it was definitely repacked.

Oh well, I still have a stock muffler. (Might be better for the "Pickerl"/Austrian MOT anyway.) By now I have bought some perforated tube and will rebuild the internals. So what else to do than to take the old girl for a quick spin and as the odd "up and down the road" didn't reveal any real nastyness, why not turn it up one notch and take it home?

I do have a talent to break down at some scenic locations and the lighting wasn't bad either.

Turns out it leaked some air past the left carb and thus got a bit tight and whilst I caught it just in time, it was still a bit too tight to kick over or in other words, I broke the kickstart lever. (Thanks to my dad at this point, who took off the one from his XT and came along with some tools.)

After realizing that the lower joint on the kickstart must be made from pure gold or the like (120 Euros), I decided to give it a shot and TIG-weld it together with some ER70S wire. Also no fancy cool-down procedures as for one I am sure that the thermal mass of this bit is just too small to make a difference (unless you chill it in water or oil) and also I am pretty sure this is just plain old cast steel. Closer inspection revealed that it had been welded before, which I thought was rather confidence inspiring. 

This worked rather nicely and meant that all I had to do was tackle another elephant in the room: Whilst not an immediate MOT-failure, having no Neutral light was a tad annoying. Whilst I had visions of unwrapping the whole loom it turned out that the old neutral switch had failed and that was the only source for the catastrophic short. 

To finish this post with a slightly sarcastic note: How do I make an XT600 engine last an extra two weeks? I don't ride the bike. 😐 Not entirely sure how things will progress in the long run, short term, I have a new downpipe and I will rebuild that muffler, because I have all the bits I need. I suppose, if someone threatened me with a handful of cash, I probably wouldn't say no. (Even though frankly I haven't got the slightest clue what to get instead.) On the other hand and that's the big dilemma, aside from the "reliability issues", I have pretty much molded it into the kind of 2-wheeled-walking-boot that I think is what truly the nature of this XT600 should be...

Update & Outlook - a project overview

If the lack of posts on the blog indicates to you that I have stopped working on bikes and/or cars, I can assure you, quite the contrary is the case. As a matter of fact a metric sh*t ton of stuff is happening at the moment.

1) Comrade Car

Well Comrade car is very close to being ready for registration. The main show-stoppers are that the workshop that has to do the inspection is currently enjoying their Summer break and the exhaust has to be wrangled in place a bit better. Other than that, he still needs a basic alignment, some electrical work and a new hose from the radiator to the expansion vessel. Oh yes and I'd better bolt that front bumper down and a testride that is more than a couple hundred meters in one direction might be a mighty smart move, before tackling the enormous distance of around 5 or 6 kilometres to the garage that will do the inspection.

2) Everyday TR1

About a month ago, I had to attend a business meeting in Salzburg and due to the heat the old girl's TCI (ignition box) decided to call it a day and most of the time only ran on one cylinder, so I limped it back home from all the way from Salzburg a couple hours later. I am now running a copy of the later twin-pickup plastic ignition box. Unfortunately this now sports a very different ignition curve and means I should dial in my carbs as it's running way too rich and that makes starting a real pain. 

3) Dre-XT-Stück

Guess what, the old girl killed another engine. The cylinder I bored must have been a) a bit too tight (well it was planned to be on the tight side for longevity), b) it was a cheap piston, which expanded rather and unevenly and c) I found the reason, why the previous engine overheated and which certainly didn't help during the last iteration. Words escape me to describe the level of butchering that the previous owner commenced in order to "repack it". Perforated tube in multiple sizes has arrived already and a few other "bodges" will be remedied shortly.

As the engine has died and I only had some good luck with exactly one type of piston so far, I decided to go with a forged 96.50mm Wössner with a moderate increase in compression (10.8:1) and had it bored at a local shop, which not only asked all the right questions, but also wasn't upset (after hearing the pre-text) that I wanted to check all the measurements myself. 

4) Little Miss Rat-a-Tat (SR500 Sidecar)

Yup, I have a smaller pilot and a slightly bigger main jet kicking about, which should help with fuel consumption and hot starting. Other than that I should really modify that sprocket carrier to work XT600 style as I am running on the only good rear wheel I have at the moment.

The SR500 Sidecar - shortening a sidecar strut

I admit it, I have a (basic) engineering degree. Most of the time in my life this does not adversely affect me too much. But every now and then the little engineer in me wants to come out and play. On those days, when he does come out, he can be the most overcomplicating and obsessive person you can imagine. Here's an example.

For quite a while the front sidecar strut was too long, which in this case meant that there was next to no room for adjustments to alter the lean of the bike. It was pretty spot on, but as the little engineer in me demanded adjustments, I decided to give in. (Also the strut had to be repainted as the paint flaked off in one spot over the Winter months.)

So the strut was put in the lathe (unfortunately it is exactly as thick as the spindle throat so no chance of a quick job) and clocked in on the steady rest.

Parted the clevis off, which is only held on by a bit of weld and a press fit section that goes into the tube.

Touched up the slightly recessed weld in the middle of the tube where I shortened it the first time, not very elegant, I know, but I was young and pressed for time. 

Finally TIG-welded the clevis back on, which looked quite a bit neater than the original MIG weld that used to be on there. Probably quite a bit stronger as well.

And that's it - applied a fair amount of paint and hung it up to dry. Real world effect of all of this? 20mm more thread for adjustment of the lean angle, which quite frankly I'll probably never use and a well painted strut, which makes the rest of the bike look a bit more shabby. I'd call it a win.

Everyday TR1 - Fork oil change

 ... together with a bit of theory. To kick said theory off: My TR1 doesn't run a pair of stock forks, but an old XS1100 set, because I wanted to use the bigger 298mm disks. They are almost a straight swap, you'd only need a different XS1100S front wheel or special wheel bearings for the thicker axle.

That aside, the XS1100 forks have a few other things going for them: first they are intended for a substantially heavier bike. Which means, the fork springs are perfectly adequate for a TR1 and if one were so inclined he or she could run some much lighter weight oil than is common on bikes of this era and thus improve the overall riding comfort A LOT.

Also, unlike the stock forks, these specific ones aren't bent, which resulted in a bit of a surprise after I loosened the pinch bolts and both fork-legs still attached to the front mudguard just started to slide out.

With the caps off, I tend to rinse them with diesel until no more damping can be felt and the diesel, that comes out is (mostly) clear again.

Bit of patience and turning them up-side down gets rid of whatever it was that was in there before.

And in the case of XS1100 forks, which should be filled with 212ml of 10W30 oil, I went with 230ml of 10W fully synthetic fork oil.

And no the mix of old oil with diesel didn't smell very pleasant. I think "pretty rotten" would be a rather appropriate term to be honest.

The surprising bit: This isn't the original 1978-vintage oil, but only two or three years old, yet still it smelled terribly. Regardless of which, the whole episode was totally worth it as the suspension quality is in a league of its own compared to before. Might try a slightly lighter weight oil next year, just to see if it improves the overall finesse of the forks (I doubt it), but they are very responsive even on light bumps and don't bottom out on hard braking anymore. I guess I have to call this a massive success.