31st October 2012

Photo with 12 notes

Why am I posting screen captures of a microfiche?

A year or two ago, we bought a project bike that was “Nearly complete”. We thought we’d buy it, finish it and sell it and move onto other projects.

Not much needed to to be done but like always we kept finding things that could have been done better so spent more time than we planned doing it properly. One thing we didn’t need to touch (or so we thought) was the engine as it had been done.

To cut a long story short, once we finished the bike, we took it for a shakedown and made some adjustments to fueling etc. We got a about 100kms out of the bike before it just wouldn’t start.

After some stuffing around we work out the problem is a lack of oil getting to the head because during the previous engine rebuild, the $2.50 gasket (part #10) was forgotten and therefore the oil wasn’t under pressure and just swishing around the bottom of the engine.

The rocker arms were melted and the cam was destroyed. Best option was to replace the engine. Quotes from $400 to $800 for a second hand engine with no warrantees made this one VERY frustrating build.

It isn’t practical to tear down every single part of a bike when buying a “unfinished project”. Some problems won’t rear their ugly head until you’ve actually got the bike on the road.  

It’s just DAMN frustrating when a $2.50 part ends up costing you a grand in extra parts and months of extra time.

Let us know if you’ve had a similar experience?

Tagged: motorcyclecustombloody gasketSR250unfinished projectnearly completeproject bikeYamaha

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