998 Bayliss - Engine Repair

**safetyfish** · 09 May 08, 03:20 PM

Some of you may have seen the damage the poor bike suffered at my hand. I have now gathered enough courage, tools and help from mates to at least disassemble the engine and check what the extent of the damage is.

First course of action was to get all the required tools together, including an engine stand. That did not quite work out. Instead we made do with what we had around the house.

Got wife used to the idea that a bike engine will be stripped, essentially in her living room. (It is 40 plus and dusty outside, no way I am doing it out there)

Engine came out easy enough. You need at least two strong mates to help you out, then you have no worries man handling that engine. (Not a scratch on it either. Piece of wood underneath, drop the two rear mounting bolts, use a 2 x2 piece of wood to hold it up and one guy up front to guide it out the frame. Much easier than what I thought it would be. The prepping to get to that point takes the most time though.)

Word of advice at this point. Sandwich bags, permanent marker and disposable plastic food trays (slightly larger than A4 size) is a must if you want to keep track of what came out where. And a digital camera off course.

Tools that is an absolute must - fly wheel holder, alternator cover puller and clutch basket holding tool. Dont even think doing this without at least these three pieces of equipment.
You need thin walled tube sockets for certain hard to get to bolts in the frame. Normal stumpy sockets just wont do.
You need allen key sockets for getting into certain bolts holding the case together. (And for torqueing the thing back together again one day.)
You need a thin walled 15mm socket wrench for getting the cylinder head nuts off if you dont have the aftermarket tool.
paper towels, lots of them
plastic or rubber mallet

In the pictures
- engine on the makeshift engine stand (observed oil catcher underneath, worked rather well I must say and wife did not complain about any oil on the floor at all)
- lots of these kind of pictures showing where things came out from before they go into plastic sandwich bags and gets labelled.
- All this was to get the crank out. Both the crank and the remaining good head to be shipped off to England for fitment of new conrods and to be rebalanced. While it is there it may as well get the heads gas flowed.....
- Me and my mug figuring out how this whole desmo setup works......

Having handled the crank and the flywheel, the budget will need to be looked at. I may, just may HAVE to put in a new Nichols flywheel
The gearbox will need a herd of charging rhinos to cause damage to that thing.
That flywheel retaining nut came off a lot easier than what I am comfortable with

Nobody touch anything or move anything...... please

regards

SF

**safetyfish** · 09 May 08, 03:25 PM

Finally, what the poor bike looks like at the moment. The limited edition Bayliss cover is going back over her again.......

**998gsb** · 09 May 08, 03:37 PM

This has the makings of being a fascinating technical thread safety fish - keep up the good work on the repairs, and please post lots more pictures and running commentary on the rebuild process......

**stevel** · 09 May 08, 04:35 PM

+1, good informative post, gonna make interesting reading. Thanks for taking the time to record it, and best wishes for a happy result......glad you're able to raise a smile in amongst the mechanical mayhem

**hughdg** · 09 May 08, 05:13 PM

Brave man Fish.Good to see your still smiling, take it slow and easy on each stage and I'm sure you'll be O.K. One last thing though, when it's all back together turn it over very gently by hand a few times just to make sure nothing's touching where it shouldn't. Best of luck with it and keep the updates coming.

**safetyfish** · 09 May 08, 07:03 PM

The basic plan at the moment is
- Strip engine and check for damage. (Done)
- Remove crank (Done)
- Clean everything out using kerosene. Remember that the one barrel ruptured and dumped the full content of the cooling system into the gearbox, plus a few other minor issues like having an exhaust valve buried in the one piston etc. (On the cards for the next week or so)

The one good head with valves and cams is being shipped off to be gasflowed.(As soon as I can escape from work to get to the couriers)
A replacement head and barrel is already with the shop in the UK waiting for this stuff to arrive.
The crank will be fitted with replacement conrods, new shell bearings and then be re-balanced
I am seriously thinking about begging the minister of war and finance for more funds to put on a Nichols flywheel. Having physically felt the weight of this thing I can see why people do that mod.
Valves will be shimmed in the UK while the heads are off.
As I take things apart I am making notes on what needs replacing and needs to be ordered. (Gaskets, nuts, bolts, stickers, etc)
I am seriously thinking about stripping the bike right down and do a major cleanup and regreasing job on everything.
I have access now to things like swingarm bearings and may as well service them now while I can.

After having drained all the oil out of the bike beforehand, I would say there is at least about half a liter that came out of it after the cases were split. (remeber the green bucket in the first picture)

One one side is two engine cases, on the other is a box filled with labelled bags containg oil pump, gear drives, nuts, bolts, bushes and other weird things that just look cool. The end result is the engine back in the frame and no parts left in any of the labelled bags.... if there are parts left then I will see if they fit on the other bike before binning them. I mean, who would have known that this piece of metal floats around inside of your engine and is responsible for gear selection? (Notice the engine coolent)

Thanks for the words of encouragement, I will update as and when I can

Regards

SF

**moto748** · 09 May 08, 07:34 PM

I've heard of Jake The Peg, but tht's ridiculous!

**safetyfish** · 17 May 08, 02:35 PM

Short update, of sorts

Parts have been sent of to the UK for repair, gasflow etc. A three day session with UK Customs who wanted 500 big ones before allowing the parts into the UK ensued. Long story, but sanity prevailed in the end. (To those who helped getting it through, a big thank you gents.)

In the coming week the heads should be gas flowed and the crank fitted with replacement conrods and then be balanced before sending it off back here.

I have now finished cleaning up engine cases. I found the easiest way to get rid of the old threebond is using one of those hard plastic pot scourer pads. Not a nice job but essential that you get it right if you dont want a leaking engine case afterwards. Dont even think about using a metal scraper or steel wool. The metal is extremely soft and marks very easily.
I have thoroughly cleaned all running internals like gearbox, oil pump and all bearings. Good old engine degreaser which is rinsed out under pressure with kerosene. This step is repeated 4 times for each side of a casing or a component. Everythings gets a blast with compressed air after every session. Afterwards I checked all bearings and only one will need replacing. (I went in with the mindset that all bearings are toast and will have to be replaced. I was quite surprised when I could find no stiction or hesitation on any of the bearings bar one.)

Ordered a long list of gaskets, seals and screws from the dealers. Included with that was a new set of timing belts. (Felt wrong doing that when the old ones hardly did any work)
Then I am reading up on workshop manuals on how every part is supposed to be put back together. It is really straightforward and logical, as long as you are aware of the logic that was used in the design of the engine.

In the coming week I will be cleaning up the frame and get that job out of the way. That is about it at the moment.

SF

**safetyfish** · 20 May 08, 03:31 AM

Heads are currently being rebuilt and gas flowed
Crank will be balanced early next week
Waiting for spares to arrive from Italy that I have ordered through the local dealer

and the cleanup continues. Every night after work for three hours all I do is take the bike further apart and clean her up.Everything that should be greased gets done at the same time. Your blood turns to ice when you take a thing off and you hear something drop on the opposite end. When you eventually find the part, you have no idea where it originally came from......

This bike must have been driven through a sand dune in its previous life. The amount of sand I find encrusted everywhere is just unbelievable. Every little thing has to come off and be hand cleaned. Rusted nuts and bolts go into a bucket and at some point I have to go to the local nut and bolts supplier and just give him the bucket and say "like that, but stainless and new please." I have doscovered the first major stumbling block also. The ride height adjuster end pieces are corroded to the point that it will not budge. No amount of penetrating oil or force wants that thing to move.
The rear shock must have seen acid or something at one point due to the corrosion on parts of it. It is serviceble, it just doesnt look bling any more....

Here are some pictures of the air runners and air box before the whole disassemble began. This should give you an idea what the rest of the bike looks like.

A before and after of the rear brake

What the frame looks like at the moment.

And the front end is waiting for me to start cleaning that up

SF

**998gsb** · 20 May 08, 07:04 AM

Crikey that looks like it has been one neglected bike! Well done on bringing her back to life.....

Out of interest did it have the stock air filters in it as there seems to be a lot of fine dust in the air box - did you find any sand in the engine cases ?

I guess fine dust must be a bit of an issue out there ?

**monster_998** · 20 May 08, 08:54 PM

Nice work so far - I like the before-and-after of the rear caliper and swing it's like night and day.

**safetyfish** · 25 May 08, 03:39 AM

They say a picture speaks a thousand words......

**stretta** · 25 May 08, 12:36 PM

Nice. Is that the work of CJS?

**safetyfish** · 26 May 08, 03:33 AM

Yes, it is CJS. Ported, gas flowed, skimmed and shimmed (I am like a kid staring in through the window of a candy store at the moment....)

Any suggestions on how to improve the look of these components.
It would seem that the axle got water onto it at some point and was/ has never seen grease in its existence.. The shock absorber externals would appear to be very corrosive road crud that caused that. The external coatings appear to be electroplating, so that means it is not just a matter of painting it again.(?)
Then the stickers that started to peel/fallen off have to be replaced, but I dont want to start that until I have the replacements in my hands.

My forecast is that everything that is currently on order or off for repair is going to arrive back all at once and not spread over two to three weeks. One ray of light though, payday is tomorrow

SF

**998gsb** · 11 Jun 08, 10:35 PM

Think they all do that...my axle stub looks exactly the same....and the outer shock casing is plated - only thing you could do is send it Ohlins centre to strip and send the case off to be replated.

Titanium axle nut will transform the look of the horrid monkey metal zinc plated one that comes as standard - you can get them from tastynuts in the UK but expect a long wait.....mine took 9 months!