XS1100 Rescue Mission in Progress

[essjay]

I need a sleeve

Yep have devoured all the tech tips section. Briefly before dying, she was hard to get down to first gear and even harder to find nuetral, so some undercutting of gears may be in order. I am certain the clutch was not adjusted properly however, so we shall see. Most of the fixes for these common issues are not new to me, just new to fixing on this particular bike. I do like how easy everything is to fix though!

I have found that the cylinder liners are a serviceable type, so if i can locate a new (or used) liner for her i will pull out the broken one and replace. Lets see how helpful the yamaha shop is tomorrow... fun.

Will keep yours in mind for a backup plan, i will weigh mine tomorrow and see what postage would be like. Probably wouldnt cost too much for just the liner i need, but then your left with a not very useful spare engine.

I will get her in good shape again, dont worry about that. Yep, dont think that PO would know what a torque wrench was if i beat him upside the head with it, and when she runs again i may ride out there and do just that.

[DGXSER]

Yeah, I am really not interesting in pulling the sleeve on mine. The hard to find gears like this is not typical of the dremmel repair issue. That sounds more like clutch adjustment, idle to high, or possibly a shift drum issue. From what you have explained so far, they probably had no clue how to align the shift pawls and that could be the poblem.

Not sure I would risk ruining a perfectly good torque wrench on the bloke. Sounds like he is thick skulled enough a good crow bar might be in order though!

[essjay]

Well i doubt anything the PO told me now, but if it really does have a brand new 2nd gear in it, then yeah i will check... all that stuff you just said :P first.

When she runs again.

Yeah thats ok, i dont blame you, i wouldnt want to either, not ruin a good block for one liner. Worst case is a buy a whole one and pay postage, seen a few on ebay. Heck maybe i will wind up with some shims to post to the library, would be the least i could contribute for the wealth of information this site and forums provide.

[DGXSER]

Simplest thing to check is pull the shift fork cover on the left side and look at how the shift pawls are lined up. They have dots on each and at rest those two dots should be lined up. Since this dufus just threw stuff together and buttoned it up, he may not have bothered with lining those up which would easily cause shifting problems like your having.

[essjay]

check..... clutch plate...... alignment.

thats me adding it to the ever expanding to do list on a bike that was meant to be cheap reliable transport... *sigh* yeah, cam timing wasnt even right when i got the rocker cover off. luckily close enough that the pistons and valves are all OK. dont think he would know to turn it over fully twice (720 degrees) by hand before trying to start, seems like the type to just go for the starter first.


Post photos, thats next on my to-do list i think, yes, so you can marvel at the PO of this bike and his lack of mechanical aptitude.

[essjay]

feast your eyes on all the glory that is my xs1100 when i picked her up... Killer paint job no? Sleep easy, mostly back to black now, painting as i go while engine bits have me held up

[DGXSER]

Well, at least he tipped you off that he was "insane"!! I've seen worse, much worse. Even picked one up that was much worse and almost got it back to health.

[essjay]

Spoke to e few places today, i can buy new original liners for $169 aussie EACH, or a local engineering shop will take a look at my sample when i take it out, thinks it should be about $150 for the first one, and then around $30 for each one after that. Oh, and three weeks wait for the original ones, i think they are being made new anyhow. Anyone in Perth, Western Australia want some new liners for their bike?! would be a bargain of a group buy if only i didnt live in the middle of nowhere...

[Ken Talbot]

B-B-B-B-BREAKTHROUGH.
I will speak to my local machine shop in the morning (yes its night here) and see about machining it out and pressing in a liner, ..

One of the guys posted a while back about putting a bank of cylinders in an over (for powdercoating, I believe), and the oven heat was enough to make the sleeves fall right out. No need to machine them out and press in new.

[essjay]

Thanks for that ken, i read something similar today. I will tell wife to go shopping and pull the racks out of out oven see if i cant get the offending sleeve out. otherwise i will run a bead of weld around the inside and try tapping it out then, works on bearing shells, should work for sleeves

[b.walker5]

Thanks for that ken, i read something similar today. I will tell wife to go shopping and pull the racks out of out oven see if i cant get the offending sleeve out. otherwise i will run a bead of weld around the inside and try tapping it out then, works on bearing shells, should work for sleeves

Whaat... Tell her to harden up man. John Britten just about built an entire engine in his wifes oven and did she complain ???? Well.... she probably did but no one would have listened. Some things are just more important eh.

[essjay]

Ok, no we have covered two of the greatest motorcycle legends - Burt Munro and John Britten!

Helping a lady change a fuse in her car yesterday must have bumped my karma because two people got back to me today regarding my liner issues - one fella who can machine a kawasaki liner to fit in, and a wrecker with a complete set of jugs, with pistons, lower kms than mine is anyhow, both same price $200 one way $200 the other way. I am going to get the 2nd hand items for now, and keep my busted one as plan b (plan b consists of finding some liners to fit in that will let me use some larger pistons )
will get her running sweet for now, fix any tranny issues and then pursue increased capacity a little later on, for now im just craving a ride that ends with me switching the bike off, not the bike switching off on me!

One step at a time however, i still need to pull the crank out to be able to re-fit the new bearings, big end cap and rod. Its all just nuts, bolts, time and money...

[b.walker5]

Keep us posted on the liner and larger piston thing, wont you. Thats something i would consider doing if they were a common enough piston, with readily available rings. The Wiseco stuff is ridiculously expensive over here and OEM might as well be made of unobtainium. I do have a set of first over pistons on the shelf but no rings. Myself and others did some research a while back and found compatible rings from Hastings mfg in the states, and some cross references to small Ford and Mazda engines but the oil ring is a little wider (.5mm) IIRC and no one seems keen to widen the groove on their pistons in case it's a stuff up.

[essjay]

Yes no problem, i have a rough list from my references of alternative sleeves, and will still be chatting with a few engineers about fitting them. Ideally we want the correct OD and just a thinner wall (stronger material)
Some of the early 90's Kawasaki stuff seems to suit, i am not giving up on it. Have found a few so far that will be a drop in replacement for the pistons, with maybe some light machine work to get the lip right on the sleeve. I am keeping the specs for all tolerances etc, and if i get some sleeves and have them machined will get a technical drawing made up and post it here so others can have it copied at local machine shops. So far it looks like we can use some ninja sleeves with all the off the shelf pistons and rings, gudgeon pin sizes match up on some models, and maybe end up in the region of 1300cc. There is plenty of room on the heads to go larger at any rate, not as much at the crankcase end, but if I went that big then it would not be an off the shelf setup, and not really worth doing. It is still an option for me to have some new liners made up from steel, which could go as thin as 1mm on the sleeve, most likely need to use chrome rings with that. There is some debate on steel liners. I will now have some spare jugs to play with here so my eyes and ears are open. Will hash it out with the engineers for viability.

I know what you are saying, the 1179 kit over here is $900 for parts, gaskets not included. I didn't pay $900 for my whole bike! If i can put something together from off the shelf parts (though most likely it will be from whatever i can find to play with from the junkyard first) then i will certainly let you know, but if it seems feasible i will start a new thread about it.

Tracking down some copper sheet for head gasket is my next drama, may just go with aluminium instead, easily available. Much prefer copper though.

[essjay]

Oh, and OEM are available in Australia, to the effect that Yamaha will contact their own preferred machine shop, have them knock out a new one, and it is available to me for $169.95, though im sure after i give a deposit and confirm the order he will point to the fine print and tell me plus gst, plus postage, plus its a raw finish and needs boring.... grumble grumble grumble.

They can be had, but at a price. NZ has some excellent engineers, amazing things coming out of NZ all the time, im sure if you take one out and ask around someone could fab you up a set of them to any specs you like. Yamaha did a great job on these engines, but we do have some better materials around these days, and it isn't rocket science.