Looking closer at the pickup wires, these look in very good shape, like new. Have these been modified already? (Don’t pay attention to the red arrows, these are specific things I mark for memory purpose).
The starter sprocket nut washer looks like crap… Is it supposed to look like this or is there a specific washer I should be looking for?
I'm now pretty sure the SSDs came with the same air boxes as the Darmahs, and I quote Ian Fallon "All 900 SSDs had the 900 SD black-painted air filter boxes and plastic intakes" Here's some pictures of where they are mounted on the frame. First the front box hangs off the two brackets I have used to hang the new ignition coils from. The rear box hangs from the two lower brackets on the sub frame support that I have now attached the new ignition unit to. I do still have both of these air boxes along with the rubber manifold intakes but I can't be arsed at the moment to go into a cold garage to take photos of them perhaps tomorrow sometime.
I'm no great expert on these and I understand in the engine (oil) heat cycles that do the damage especially to the little bit of wire immediately going into the pickup as seen in the bottom picture, and as you say these don;t look too bad. Anyone please feel free to correct me here.
Yes it does look like crap after someone has hammered the hell out of the lock washer and taken chunks of the lock nut with it. From memory all those part look to be correct, again I'll see if I can take photos tomorrow. Btw it's far easier to take the starter chain split link off, remove the chain & the small sprocket and it's circlip when removing the LHS cover.
Just look really close at the pickup wiring insulation. Try bending the wires a bit and see if any cracks appear.
Yes it does all look to be clean as a whistle and if I'm not mistaken that looks to be a much machined & lightened flywheel. Here's picture of what I would have expected to see.
Well... doesn't a lightened flywheel make the engine spin up faster and be more eager to rev, perhaps at the expense of the high torque tall geared, long legged, easy speed that the bevels are noted for. Would certainly put less strain on the starter mechanism because the OEM flywheel is a one big lump of heavy metal.
Here is my lightened flywheel. Clutch is drilled like a Swiss cheese. In my defence I was young and daft at the time and the bike was on the track. It gives better acceleration with the downside that there is a lot more engine braking. Doesn't idle well either. I did the same on my 996 but to a much greater extent, I wouldn't do it on a road bike. As its been fitted with a Mille crank that was much lightened and balanced as well.
Brilliant, thanks @ducv2 @Andy Bee Next, I will be facing the 4 infamous bastards, aka horizontal cylinder/head bolts. At the moment, they are getting their fair share of penetrating oil… Task: getting to the 2 centrifugal screws.
Those four nuts sit on studs and don't need to be torqued up real tight. So let's hope the previous owner did just that. Access to them does require a decent crows foot spanner/socket mind. Or perhaps a cut down spanner to get round the back of them. Btw, what are the centrifugal screws you mentioned?
« Centrifugal purifier », may be the literal translation from the French. Those two screws on the left crank weight that get the oil sludge and need to be cleaned every… 40.000 km? Edit: YES! Oil sludge traps. « Staked »? You means stopped by two punch hits? Most people over here get them out with crank in place, using a big screwdriver and protecting the internals with a rag when cleaning the sludge. And replace the OEM screw by an Allen one.
Interesting indeed. And very different from what one can read elsewhere. As there is no intent/reason to split it he cases at this point in time, you got me thinking now…
I am still wondering about this lightened flywheel… Would anyone reckognize it? Could it be from a performance shop down under, if, say, that bike was first sold there before being exported to Japan? Could that be the kind of things Ozzies would have favored in those days?
I went and checked the pickup wires this morning and they really look fresh. Insulation has no cracks and everything flexes nicely, like if it was new. That being said, while doing this close inspection, I realized the pickup plate was moving… And after further investigation, it is missing one of the pickup plate screws (part 34 on the parts diagram below). That’s the screw that goes in from the other side, using a captive nut. There was absolutely nothing in the case when I opened and I swear the Gods this engine was perfectly working as is, when I first went to check the bike at the shop selling it. Am I missing something ? Was it taken out on purpose or forgotten after some new pickups with better wires were installed ? How can the engine work if the pickups can move, with the plate possible rotating around the top screw?
