In true Stella form, we had to do a bit of backtracking today. After realizing that all of the cylinder studs never got torqued fully down and that we also forgot to put some liquid gasket sealant on the pucks, the cam chain and cam towers had to come back off. Got all the top & second row studs torqued into the case....and realized the stud installation tool would fit on the 4 small studs up front that are recessed into the holes. But there wasn't enough room to turn the tool. So, the head comes gently off, torque those 4 studs down and the head goes back on. In a span of about thirty minutes, it went from this:
to this
Oops, Stella is trying to get naked. Stella! Put your top back on! Well, that had to wait for a while actually because a trip to Bill Benton's House of Hondaland Fun was planned. Logan had to stay home and do a lab report write-up for his AP Anatomy class, so I took the front forks over to Bill's house. After about 10 minutes, Bill showed me that having the proper tools and the right knowledge and experience are invaluable. The stripped allen bolt I'd been trying to remove in about a gazillion different ways over a period of 2 or more hours was already out in those 10 minutes. And a good portion of that time was Bill coming over to instruct me on the proper way to heat the fork lowers with the heat gun to get them ready to remove the fork seals (he wanted me to point out to Cal that he was instructing me PRIOR to me doing it wrong this time
).
Before I left, Bill also swapped me a nice, shiny points cover for the dented, not-quite-as-shiny one that I had. After I thanked Bill for all his help and got back in the Jeep, I was half-way home when Bill called to tell me that I'd left one of the fork uppers on the workbench. Since I was too far away to turn around and still needing to get home to fix a late dinner (after 9 pm by this time) for Logan, I told him I'd just get it on the next visit.
Then, it's back home....only to find Logan still working on the homework for 30 more minutes. A quick dinner at around 9:30 and Logan is just now finishing up the lab report. At which point he looked at me and said, "I'm realizing that taking AP Anatomy may just be one of the biggest mistakes of my life so far!". I didn't say, "I told you so" to him but I think my smile gave away my thoughts in that direction.
He helped me get the cam towers and cam shaft back on and aligned, tested it and everything works as it should. By this time, it was after 11 and I sent Logan to bed and told him that I'd go ahead and put the valve cover back on. I don't usually just work on parts of the bike without him, but we had decided that, come hell or high water, that engine is going back in the frame tomorrow. We wanted to get that done and checked off the Finished list. Since he & I will be out of town from Friday through Sunday as we travel around Georgia visiting some of the colleges that made his final cut, we're trying to get as much done as possible by the end of Thursday night.
I only needed to set the valve lashing and I'd be able to put some of the covers on the engine. So, after spending several minutes looking like a donkey with 3 arms and 4 fingers, I finally got the hang of setting the valve lash on each one. A bit of gasket sealant on the gasket, a dab of anti-seize on each new stainless steel bolt, and voila the valve cover and breather covers are back on the engine.
I like it a lot like this, but I'm seriously entertaining Bill's idea of painting the tappet covers the titanium silver blue color to match the engine colors and make them stand out a bit.
But seeing the way that looked, I couldn't resist sitting the alternator cover on and the starter cover on the engine just to take a peak at how the finished product might look.
And...so, now we are ready to install the alternator cover, the clutch and clutch cover, the oil pump and then this baby goes back into the frame and the real assembly starts to make it look like a motorcycle.
Tomorrow should be fun (yeah right) as we attempt to put the engine in the frame. If Stella holds true to form, we'll put it in, only to discover that we put it in backwards and upside down. But after we take it out and put it back in 2 or 3 times, it's gonna be a beaut!