Author Topic: FT500 Vintage racer (Read 125734 times)

murdo · « **Reply #50 on:** January 30, 2021, 06:09:52 pm »

I share your grief about the sparkplug helicoil. I have successfully repaired them using a solid insert (timesert, nutsert, etc) with good results.

FT500R · « **Reply #51 on:** January 31, 2021, 03:21:24 pm »

That's my plan to.
I'm looking into solid inserts that have small collar and thread in from the inside so it definitely won't come out when I remove the spark plug.

A bit more bad news today however. I don't know exactly what happened here but the piston is shot. The grooves in the cilinder wall are visible but I can't feel them. Hope to get them out after a hone and an one size over piston.
Starting to become a full engine overhaul $:-\$

FT500R · « **Reply #52 on:** February 05, 2021, 11:06:18 am »

Ordered a new piston.
I am also looking at buying a new second hand crank. Unfortunately the small end of mine is a bit pitted too.

Will do the valve stem seals this weekend, hope that I do not encounter too many other broken bits as this 'engine fresh-up' is starting to look like a complete rebuild pretty fast..

hellblom · « **Reply #53 on:** February 09, 2021, 03:42:00 pm »

Wow, how unfortunate! I hope you will overcome all your issues. I also ordered a new piston, a Wiseco 10,5:1, so a little more compression.

Olle

FT500R · « **Reply #54 on:** February 15, 2021, 04:30:56 am »

And the saga continues.
Cleaned up the inside of the head as much as possible and reground the valves.
The (inner) valve springs are out of spec so I have to start searching for new ones there. Any leads would be greatly appreciated.
I've used a copper wire wheel on some parts of the engine and it gets the paint of reasonably well. Decided that I will go for that look for the complete engine apart from the cilinder and head. I will not be able to get into the cooling fins so will paint those parts black.
I am also struggling with the rockercover shaft dowel. I got 1 out using the 'yahoo' method with tapping a thread on it and using that to pull itself out. The other one stripped the newly made threads unfortunately. I then tried the 'haynes' method by grinding a slot and trying to tap it out but as you can see that only bend the dowel.
Any thoughts or tips on this?
I also checked all the headcover bolt holes and it looks like I have to helicoil almost all of them (already anticipated that) strangely enough 1 bolt was M8, 1 was M7 and the rest appears to be M6 (although some stripped). The M8 and M7 do not correspond to the expected M7 bolts though.

murdo · « **Reply #55 on:** February 15, 2021, 03:38:47 pm »

When I have had trouble with the dowels I welded an extra piece of steel to the dowel so as to be able to get a better grip on it with a vice. Cut off and cleaned up the dowel before returning to valve cover.

FT500R · « **Reply #56 on:** February 18, 2021, 03:11:33 am »

Will try to weld a bolt or nut to the dowel.
I only have a 220v flux core mig welder so hope I can get enough heat in the dowel to make something stick to it.
I'll probably get a new dowel afterwards

FT500R · « **Reply #57 on:** February 24, 2021, 02:27:15 am »

Since the small end of my crank was damaged I bought a second hand one via Ebay.
Always a bit of a gamble but the one I received is in immaculate condition!
Very happy with that.
Continuing to strip the engine down to really get a proper overview of what I need to order.
I also got my new piston in (.5 oversize) so can send the cylinder out for a bore and a hone.

hellblom · « **Reply #58 on:** February 25, 2021, 02:11:30 pm »

Good job!

FT500R · « **Reply #59 on:** March 05, 2021, 03:50:58 am »

Got the whole engine apart and I am stripping the cases of the paint now.
Had to unfortunately also replace the oil pomp as the rotor was very pitted (although all clearances were still fine)
I finally got the last rockershaft dowel out. Ended up welding a small strip to the dowel, clamping the strip in a vice and gently tapping the headcover (with a piece of cardboard in between) this finally got the dowel out.
I've collected a decent amount of rockers now... some very good... some very bad..

FT500R · « **Reply #60 on:** March 24, 2021, 10:14:41 am »

Already building the engine up again.
Got the cylinder back with a fresh new bore and hone, immediately painted it with some heat resistant paint.
Properly seated the valves, got the new crank in, new seals, used red RTV to give it a bit of contrast to the oil and gunk in the engine. (had some issues identifying the excess RTV from the PO in the engine.
Gapped the pistonrings and installed the cylinder.
New camchain, camchaintensioner spring and swapped out the clutch center for a second hand I had lying around. The old one had too much wear on the inside for my liking.
Now waiting for the thread insert for my spark plug before I can reassemble the cylinder head.

murdo · « **Reply #61 on:** March 24, 2021, 05:24:38 pm »

Nice work.

FT500R · « **Reply #62 on:** April 06, 2021, 03:50:50 am »

Did some nice jobs over the Easter weekend.
First I prepped the starting system for needle bearings.
You have to grind the 2 steel bushings in half to get them out (or remove them in another way) and you have to grind away a 1 mm step in de bottom of the engine side casing.

Not a hard job but one you have to do very carefully. You do not want to overshoot and damage the surface area of the bore where the needle bearings will fit.

FT500R · « **Reply #63 on:** April 06, 2021, 03:57:40 am »

I also fitted a thread insert in the sparkplug hole which finally completed the complete overhaul of the cylinder head.

After that I reinstalled the head and set the cam on the correct timing. Having the camchain tensioner compressed and held in place with a small pin really helps a lot. This gives a lot more play on the chain. I had to readjust the timing a couple of times to get it right.

When gently threading the headcover bolts back in I noticed 2 threads stripped. I did check all the threads in the head and where necessary fitted helicoils but it seems that the 2 that I did not helicoil decided that they wanted to cause me trouble. I will have to remove the headcover again to fix this as it are the 2 next to the cam that put the proper preload on the cam bearing surface.
(number 2 and 4 in the tightening sequence).

I did get some paint from the clutch cover, will have to clean it up a bit more but I like the overall look.

J6G1Z · « **Reply #64 on:** April 06, 2021, 10:51:38 am »

Keep plugging along. Good work!

murdo · « **Reply #65 on:** April 06, 2021, 06:06:37 pm »

Nice work. I used a reamer to do the bearing holes.

ft500sd · « **Reply #66 on:** April 18, 2021, 09:43:39 am »

Excellent thread with good blow by blow details of work done. Thanks for bringing us along.

Gus

FT500R · « **Reply #67 on:** April 19, 2021, 08:57:37 am »

In the mean time I've reopened the cylinder head cover and installed helicoils in the holes for bolts 2 and 4. For these you need to really drill quite deep and place the helicoil rather deep. To make room for the tap you have to open up the hole a bit more on the top.
A bit of a nerve wrecking exercise but all in all it worked really well and the head cover is back on with all the bolts nicely torqued.

I've also stripped the paint from the left side engine cover now and installed the needle bearings for the pinion.
I only need to do the sump and then the engine is completely finished!

Will start to take the frame apart to get the rust of and paint it.

FT500R · « **Reply #68 on:** May 31, 2021, 05:07:38 am »

The engine is completely back together and I stripped the frame and rust proofed and painted it.
Now in the progress of building it up again

murdo · « **Reply #69 on:** May 31, 2021, 06:03:55 pm »

Looks good.

FT500R · « **Reply #70 on:** June 01, 2021, 02:41:08 am »

she is a bit of a 10 footer... I painted the frame with a paintbrush instead of spraypaint. It was a bit of an experiment but it left a lot of texture on the frame.
Its a race bike so not to big of a deal

J6G1Z · « **Reply #71 on:** June 02, 2021, 09:54:32 am »

Quote from: FT500R on June 01, 2021, 02:41:08 am

she is a bit of a 10 footer... I painted the frame with a paintbrush instead of spraypaint. It was a bit of an experiment but it left a lot of texture on the frame.
Its a race bike so not to big of a deal

Use a small roller next time. That way the texture will be more uniform.

FT500R · « **Reply #72 on:** June 03, 2021, 05:34:44 am »

Tried that but somehow that roller wouldn't rol and would remove more paint then it would apply...

J6G1Z · « **Reply #73 on:** June 03, 2021, 10:56:46 am »

Quote from: FT500R on June 03, 2021, 05:34:44 am

Tried that but somehow that roller wouldn't rol and would remove more paint then it would apply...

Ah... That's no good.

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Author Topic: FT500 Vintage racer (Read 125734 times)