What's the French word for 'shoe'?

[3Phase]

The Rod bearings are good, amazingly good. Trbig is right, the Rods don't seem to wear as much as the Mains (unless there's something else wrong) but I'm double-checking everything while the case halves, covers, and gears take a long bath in #2 Diesel.

I know better than to trust something that looks good by eye so I'll mic' the crank and the shells and check the oil clearances with Plastigauge to make sure they really are good. Which reminds me, I have to go buy some Plastigauge or this is going nowhere.

While the engine is open I'm replacing the sanded Cam and Primary chains. Except for the custom-cut 2nd Gear Wheel and its shims, everything else is getting replaced with the low-mileage parts from my wrecked XJ engine and be done with it. I love parts bikes, especially parts bikes' engine parts that haven't been drenched with sand.

Frank's stein is filling up!

Along with the '80 XS850G Final Drive this will give Columbo a 1978-79-80-81-82 XS1100EFGLHJ engine. It's still the original '80G engine case and serial number to match the frame but it will have '78E pistons, a '79F cylinder head, the crankshaft and matching rods from a '81LH, and the primary shaft and the transmission from a '82J.


YouTube: Trigger's Broom... or was it Granville's?! 0:57


I suppose that while I have everything apart I should clean and paint the engine before I put it back together so it'll look like new again and clash with its owner and with everything else on the bike except for the new B&H seat cover.

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[TopCatGr58]

Hey Scott,

This FrankenMoto triggered my memory about the difference in the tranny between the early models and later ones. IIRC the countershaft securing bolt and washer is different with the later year models....because Yamaha also used a different bearing and a thicker retaining "C" clip for the crankcase to take up the space due to the narrower bearing?

SO...I just wanted to mention this for you to double check/research before putting the XJ parts in the 78 Case. Years ago the Yamaha fiche site had some tech bulletins in the 81 model about it, but I didn't copy them so I can't remember the exact details, and I don't think the bulletins are available anymore on the fiche site.

T.C.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Scott,

I went ahead and did the research.

Surprisingly the bearing is listed as the same #??

But the countershaft securing bolt is different, and there IS a washer/spacer in the case between the bearing and the case...it's just hard to see it in the TRANSMISSION diagram because it doesn't show WHERE the crankcase is in relation to the parts.

81 Internal casing washer: 29 90201-252A4-00 WASHER, PLATE

Bolt 90105-10085-00 BOLT, WASHER BASED
Collar: Washer under the bolt on the outside of the case 32 90387-443A8-00

Bearing #31 93304-20504-00

78E

Bearing: 93304-20504-00

Bolt/washer head: 90105-10085-00 BOLT, WASHER BASED | M10-25L

T.C.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Scott,
The lat few posts remind me of Johnny Cash song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18cW_yHo3PY

I hope your bike comes together for you.
Phil

[3Phase]

I knew it! Thanks for that, Phil!


T.C.,

I have the original 1980G engine case and it already has the skinny single-row bearing.

I think there is a spacer in the bore to hold the bearing outer race next to the retaining clip in the case bore. The retaining clip is the same as the one used in the original '78/'79 cases so they didn't have to redesign the transmission output shaft and the gear stack. There is also the special end bolt with the two-step face and another precision washer that goes between the bolt and the bearing inner race.

The skinny bearing is seated against its retaining clip in the bore so the transmissions are identical from '78 to '82 and The XJ's parts will drop right in the '80G case after I add my modded 2nd Gear Wheel.

Whew!

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[Prisoner6]

... Frank's stein is filling up!

Along with the '80 XS850G Final Drive this will give Columbo a 1978-79-80-81-82 XS1100EFGLHJ engine. It's still the original '80G engine case and serial number to match the frame but it will have '78E pistons, a '79F cylinder head, the crankshaft and matching rods from a '81LH, and the primary shaft and the transmission from a '82J.

CAREFUL there, Scott ...

You are fast approaching "H-D designation" territory!!

You just need one part from a regular Special ...

[3Phase]

CAREFUL there, Scott ...

You are fast approaching "H-D designation" territory!!

You just need one part from a regular Special ...

Marco, it's too late for me then, I gleeped the vacuum advance off of the 'SF a while back because the '80G advance kept making the engine ping! I'm doomed. Doomed!

I'll have to give up XS1100s and find something else to do, maybe find a nearby hole in the water and pour money in it?


Chris Janson - "Buy Me A Boat" (Official Video)


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[XJOK2PLAY]

Scott,
If you've gotten the hankering to throw good money in the big ole blackness of a lake, then a boat is definitely the way to go! LOL! (DAMHIKIJD...)

Man, sorry to hear you're having to go through so much crap to get it going again.

Just before you decided to abandon the sand motor, I was about to suggest a new / different engine transplant, or ask if that motor had ever had a big bore kit.

Hoping the rest goes smoother for you, and you get it running in time for the cooler fall season!

Bob

[3Phase]

Yeah, I need a boat and a hole in the water like I need a pot of double espresso and another stent in my heart -- but I really like the song!

I got the '78 advance parts today from Mack so I gave them a quick check:
Both wires are broken on the #1 and #4 pick-up.
The advance plate bearing is stuck solid so it's soaking in diesel #2 too.


It took a while to find where I buried and then dig up the XJ engine and transmission parts. I finally found them but not before discovering that I'd left the front footpegs and a few other rubber parts soaking in diesel all night and all day in 105-degree heat and now the pegs look like they should go on Roger Rabbit's bike....

I've cleaned three spare middle drives and their output bearing pairs with the giant oil seal, and taken apart four oil pumps to make one good pump so that's all done now too.

The oil filter did its job! Columbo's bearings are still good and there is absolutely no scoring but there is a coppery sheen starting to show through the surface of some of the main shells. I think this is how Tod wound up stuck in a loop where it seemed like he was replacing the main bearings before every oil change but I spent the rest of this afternoon cleaning and checking forty main bearing shells with a micrometer to find matching pairs.

I'm really starting to feel like a judge on one of those insipid TV No-Talent Survivor shows so tomorrow I'll let Plastigauge pick the winners for me and throw the thirty losers off the island.

It's finally starting to cool off again, I can get back to cleaning and prepping the parts for paint. Oh, Joy... painting again....

.

[3Phase]

Finally! I had to use a lot of Plastigauge check the bearing oil clearances with three different crankshafts -- '79SF, '81LH, '82J. The losers have been booted off the island.

Surprisingly enough, the low-mileage XJ1100 crank is the best fit with no measurable runout and 0.0015" to 0.0017" Main bearing oil clearances so this will be the THIRD crankshaft in this engine.

Today it's time for the oil clearance checks on the connecting rod big end bearings. I'll check the current '81LH rods first just for grins and giggles but I'm not entirely comfortable with the small end clearance on the wrist pins. The wrist pins in the '82J pistons are all dulled and now that I found the sand I know they're toast so the rods are toast too.

Fortunately I marked the '82J rods when I took them off the XJ11 crankshaft so I'll try them next. If by some simple twist of fate the XJ rods won't work with the wrist pins in the '78 pistons I got from Andreas, I have the '78 rods too.

I'm doing everything I can to hand-fit the parts and make them work together but I have a very bad feeling that I'm going to be changing bearings before the next oil change.

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[3Phase]

When I first tried to seat the rings, 'Roo was here so after ten or fifteen miles of loading and unloading the rings I changed the oil and the filter.

I didn't check the drain oil, I just trashed the filter and dumped the pan upside down over the oil bin, then jam-boogied off to Colorado. I think a lot of fine dirt and sand must have been picked up by the first filter and if I hadn't changed it with the oil then it would have totally clogged up and I wouldn't have made it out if Simi Valley that day. That would have actually been better.


The oil filter with metal and dunes of sand in the paper.



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[mack]

Yep

That was deliberate.

[3Phase]

I've had the walking pneumonia (yeah, yeah, and the boogie-woogie blues ) for the last week and haven't been able to do much with my bike; cough is so bad I almost pass out, forget about working with solvents and paint fumes.

It finally started to let up a little yesterday and I feel mostly human again today so I got the jugs painted with Rustoleum Aluminum paint. They're out baking on the grill to set the paint so I don't have to mess with heat cycling the engine after I get it running:-





Mmmm, tasty!

The cases and Middle Drive are next but they're getting sprayed with Duplicolor DE1650 Aluminum Casting rattlecan paint, then baked. I haven't decided what to do about the frame yet, after all this time and miles it's starting to look pretty grim.

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[motoman]

Wow is all I can say!........well. maybe some majic help goin on..........had to have been the cat.......still a bummer, but least we know these ole scoots run on whatever is thrown in tank and oil filter keeps the worst out................most of the time...............Again......WOW!

[3Phase]

Wow is all I can say!........well. maybe some majic help goin on..........had to have been the cat.......still a bummer, but least we know these ole scoots run on whatever is thrown in tank and oil filter keeps the worst out................most of the time...............Again......WOW!

Yeah, the cats are all in the doghouse for this one.

It's a heck of a way to test it but I am SERIOUSLY IMPRESSED! with the XS1100 oil filter and supply gallery design. The filter cup lets any heavy stuff that makes it through the pump settle out like it does in a gold pan. Apparently, when the filter goes into bypass the crud doesn't immediately get swirled up from the bottom of the cup, pumped around the filter and into the main oil gallery. Or at least it didn't happen this time. Yay!

I have to tip my hat to WIX/NAPA and send them a note for making one heck of a filter. The filter did its job so well that I could have just bolted the engine back together and run it.

The filter was overwhelmed so it couldn't possibly keep out all of the dirt and grit that was dumped into it but it did manage to filter out the particles that were large enough to score a bearing or a journal. Looking closer I did find that the #1 and#2 Rod bearings had one or two light score lines but that's it, no scoring on the Mains.

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