Re: Top End job on the 74 Suzuki RL250
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 7:42 am
It's all back together. Went together as easy as it came apart. Kinda hard to take pics while putting the jug on. I oiled the piston, wrist pin, wrist pin bearing and re-oiled the cylinder. sprayed the base gasket with the prep and let it sit up for 15 min till it gets sticky, then dropped it on the prepped surface. I used a razor to clean all around the base being careful to not drop or knock any thing into the cases while cleaning. I put the piston in the cylinder first (making sure arrow pointing forward), then took the cylinder to the bike and put the piston on the rod. Popped in the wrist pin and circlip and doubled checked them, then dropped the cylinder down on the base. Check for smooth piston operation and torque down!
Definite difference in compression now. Head gasket on this bike is a round copper gasket. Just sand the head to make sure the surface is flat with no warping. Torqued the head per spec (14.5ftlbs).After the motor was all assembled, put the pipe back on, seat and tank. Pretty easy job.
Started looking at the cases, they are pretty oxidized, so I got out some 400 wet paper and started to clean them up. My goal is not to make them mirror shiny, but just clean looking, but aged with some patina left on to show the age of the bike and match the frame condition. The frame and all look good, there are some scratches and age marks and it would look funny if the motor was real mirror shinny IMO. Gotta do the forks as well. They are pretty pitted, but are cleaning up nicely using a small fiber wheel on the dremel. Using the dremel to get the big stuff off and then 400 wet to smooth it out. I plan to use up to 1200 by the time I am done. Do it all with 400 to rough it out, then some 800 on to 1200 to finish. Makes the old aluminum look really nice.
Before I started:
After some 400 wet paper and clean up. about 20 min tops. Still have more work on this side but is cleaning up pretty easy.
Right side. Looks pretty good. Just need to buff it out now and get on to the 800 then 1200.
Definite difference in compression now. Head gasket on this bike is a round copper gasket. Just sand the head to make sure the surface is flat with no warping. Torqued the head per spec (14.5ftlbs).After the motor was all assembled, put the pipe back on, seat and tank. Pretty easy job.
Started looking at the cases, they are pretty oxidized, so I got out some 400 wet paper and started to clean them up. My goal is not to make them mirror shiny, but just clean looking, but aged with some patina left on to show the age of the bike and match the frame condition. The frame and all look good, there are some scratches and age marks and it would look funny if the motor was real mirror shinny IMO. Gotta do the forks as well. They are pretty pitted, but are cleaning up nicely using a small fiber wheel on the dremel. Using the dremel to get the big stuff off and then 400 wet to smooth it out. I plan to use up to 1200 by the time I am done. Do it all with 400 to rough it out, then some 800 on to 1200 to finish. Makes the old aluminum look really nice.
Before I started:
After some 400 wet paper and clean up. about 20 min tops. Still have more work on this side but is cleaning up pretty easy.
Right side. Looks pretty good. Just need to buff it out now and get on to the 800 then 1200.