A forum for owners of Yamaha TTR250 trail and enduro bikes!

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Some people have all the (bad) luck!


Super Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 8557
Date:
Some people have all the (bad) luck!
Permalink  
 


TTR Steve has always been a bit less than enthusiastic about taking on mechanical jobs. His excuse being that something always seemed to go pear shaped on his projects.

I thought perhaps it was a bit of an excuse not to get oil under his finger nails nobiggrin

However, having worked with him for a few days building his 350 big-bore engine I now understand what he means!

These are just some examples of his bad luck that I can recall:

a) Fitting flywheel. No trace of original Woodruff key but, no problem, Steve had a brand new one in packet we could use. Strangely, it was damaged (photo below) and it was the only one he had in stock so we had to find another.

Woodruff key.jpg

This involved taking a flywheel off a spare engine. Once the flywheel was off, he found a sheared key and the taper on the flywheel had been damaged where it had been spinning on the broken key remains.

Sheared Woodruff key.jpeg

I can't recall why the original flywheel wasn't available (probably lurking under a box/shelf somewhere along with the missing key!) but we still needed a good key and flywheel. 

Fortunately another spare engine was available so the flywheel was removed from that. The key was usable but the flywheel looked as if someone had hammered it on with a block hammer! It wasn't usable so Steve had to resort to taking a good flywheel off the shelf from his shop. So two flywheels ready for the bin cry

b) Generator cover and stator. We were about to fit the cover when Steve noticed a blob of weld which, presumably, had been used to repair a small crack at the starter end of the cover. Wanting his new 350 to be as close to perfect as he could get it another cover was found but, unfortunately it didn't have a stator fitted so we stripped it out the other and were about to fit it in the newly cleaned up cover when a sheared Allen bolt showed up!  

Broken bolt in generator cover.jpeg

Now, those of you that may have followed a recent thread on here, will now know that these bolts are high tensile bolts and none of Steve's drill bits would make a dent in this little blighter. So, a trip to his local tool shop followed where a range of drill bits, an EasyOut kit and a Helicoil (fearing the worst!) kit were purchased.  Even the newly purchased cobalt bits made no impression so we tried the trick of arc welding a washer over the stud but, because of its proximity to the case, it wasn't possible to turn the welded-on washer without it breaking off cry However, another attempt at drilling saw the drill bit going in about 1mm but no further. At this stage we gave up and took it up the road to Rob, Steve's clever engineering mate. That was an expensive visit for me as I ended up buying a BSA C15 he had tucked away unused in the back of his workshop disbelief

Rob tried welding a washer using his MIG welder but had the same problem as we had. Steve tried one of Rob's drill bits and actually managed to drill right through this time. We figured that we had de-tempered the bolt with the heat from all the welding! Rob tapped a tight fitting Torx socket into the hole and wound out the offending stud with no damage to the threads biggrin

c) Clutch cover oil seal. Steve cleaned up the cover and spotted that the oil seal was damaged. This then involved him in finding another cover with a good seal to replace it with. You just wonder what happened to cause that damage confuse

Damaged clutch cover oil seal.jpg 

There were several other little occurrences but these were the ones that swallowed up so much time and demonstrated what Steve meant by his bad luck!

Sadly, I caught his unlucky bug and on my last visit managed to tear a special 350 base gasket meaning Steve had to take a standard one out of a new Cometic kit and modify it to fit. 

I mentioned to Steve that we were taking chances not putting rags in the crankcase holes and that, knowing his luck, he would drop something in so we duly stuffed them up. What we didn't notice was that the oil filler cap wasn't fitted and, within minutes, I managed to drop a socket in such a way it disappeared down the hole disbelief 

Socket fallen through oil filler hole.jpg

Steve's workshop magnet had gone walkabouts (of course!) so after a long search he gave up looking and we thought of how to improvise. As you can see from the photo, the socket hadn't gone far and was ready for removal if only we could figure out a way to do it without knocking it right in and then having to take the case off. This is what we came up with - a loop of string down a thin copper tube that acted as a noose to capture the socket biggrinbiggrin

Fishing out socket.jpeg

 

I hope that's the end of all the "issues" and that the build will be all plain and easy sailing from now on but, yes Steve, I now know exactly what you mean about your bad luck!

Brian

 



__________________

Exeter, Devon, UK

http://www.ttr250.com  - The one and only dedicated TTR250 FAQ! 
 

TIP: For easy viewing bookmark the "Recent Posts" view - http://ttr250.activeboard.com/p/recent/ 



Super Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 1378
Date:
Permalink  
 

Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my mama said!

When you drop a socket down a hole like that, all you can do is laugh really. Bet it didn't even touch the sides on the way in!

Mama also said bad luck comes in threes. Looks like Steve's on his second set!

For god's sake double check you've got oil in it before you fire up

Good luck!

__________________


Super Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 2644
Date:
Permalink  
 

oil !

Will do !



__________________

totallyttrs.com

 

pug


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 558
Date:
Permalink  
 

By God chaps and I think I have a bad day from time to time


Pug

__________________


Super Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 2644
Date:
Permalink  
 

I seem to have all the bad luck with bike mechanics, maybe as they spend so much time in wet and mud that all the bolts seem to break so easily? or I am unlucky that PO's have not been so careful on their engines and have broken bolts off and not confessed, making my work on them so much harder!

After the 350 has been run in, think the only work I will do will be on my own bike! I have learnt a lot about the bikes from doing my first full rebuild a couple of years ago, to building a new 350 engine, but as sods law is to involved in my bike mechanics, think I will stick to the shop stuffwinksmilebiggrin

A big thanks to Bri for keeping me motivated.



__________________

totallyttrs.com

 



Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 224
Date:
Permalink  
 


For how much experience!

__________________

Grandpa Tom

 



Super Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 8557
Date:
Permalink  
 

And so the bad luck continued this morning no

The 350 engine was in the frame, petrol tank on, starter wired up, etc.

Had a last look around and realised that the blanking bolts (where oil cooler pipes would fit if you had a cooler) were missing. If this cover previously have an oil cooler fitted then there would be a blanking bolt fitted inside the cover that would prevent oil circulating. Steve wasn't sure so we needed to get the cover off to check.

This required removing the footpeg bracket but, should have known it, the fixing bolts were rusted in solid cry 

Blanking bolts missing.jpg

 

Trying to get a bolt out to allow the bracket to swivel out the way resulted in snapping an Allen socket evileye

Broken Allen socket.jpg

 

Which then meant Steve having to weld a nut on to allow the bolt to be removed. He wasn't happy no

Steve unhappy.jpg

 

But he got it out and the clutch cover could be removed.

Footrest bolt out.jpg

 

Just as well as there was no blanking plug at all on the inside! Better to find out now though than when the sump was filled with oil and no oil pressure wink

Something missing.jpg

 

So, we were then ready to start the 350 for the first time but, where's the ignition key? Half an hour later the key was found and we were able to turn the engine over to successfully prime the oil pump. Unfortunately, Steve's charge and/or battery had gone bad and this completely flattened the battery no  Time to put the charger on again and go for a cuppa!

 



__________________

Exeter, Devon, UK

http://www.ttr250.com  - The one and only dedicated TTR250 FAQ! 
 

TIP: For easy viewing bookmark the "Recent Posts" view - http://ttr250.activeboard.com/p/recent/ 

Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.



Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard