No fault found

Well, not in the gearbox anyway. After carefully disassembling the gearbox, labelling all the bits and pieces to ensure a proper reassembly, I couldn’t find anything wrong with the box. Gears all slid smoothly up and down the shafts; no broken teeth or unusual wear patterns; no excessively worn bearings. In short, everything seemed just fine.

However I did find a bottom end full of powdered aluminum. The last person who had the engine apart had reassembled it with the forward cam chain slipper installed incorrectly. As a result the cam chain wore away a large part of the inside of the case, generating a huge amount of aluminum powder that was being carried around by the oil. So my thinking is that perhaps (hopefully!) this was all just a bit of aluminum grit that caused one of the gears to bind on the shaft, and now that it’s cleaned out no more problems.

That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

So now it’s time to reassemble the motor and put the whole plot back together. Fortunately the gaskets all came off the cases without undue damage, so they are being re-used. I expect it may leak a bit, but there’s really no option as gasket kits for 34 year old motorcycles are not that easy to come by. And I have a coffee tin of metric bolts somewhere (just need to find it – not necessarily an easy task) that I can use to replace all the stripped Phillips-head bolts originally used to hold the cases together. Even with an impact driver, they are getting tough to remove and replace, so I’ll do what the factory should have done in the first place and use ‘advanced technology’ fasteners.

Aside from the aggravation of having to tear it all down and put it back together, this little exercise did give me a chance to check out the engine’s innards, and they are in very good shape indeed. The barrel is clean with no scratches or serious wear marks; the piston and rings are fine; there is very little carbon build-up on the head and valves; bearing play is minimal; and generally everything looks good. So, aside from the cam chain slipper problem, it looks like the engine has been well taken care of and not abused. That can’t be said of the rest of the bike as it shows a healthy dose of ‘good honest wear and tear’, but I’m now at least confident that the engine isn’t the weak link.

And, truth be known, taking stuff apart and getting it all back together in working order (without any shop manual I might add) is kind of fun!

OK. Now what?

We have the technology....

Actually it's "we have the tool", and all for the princely sum of $1.68 (which is actually quite a lot for a small piece of threaded steel - even if it is that sexy black colour).

Now back to tearing apart the TL125 engine.

Have a trailer, but no bag.

I have to get my truck and my Low Rider about 500 km down the road next week, and wasn’t keen on trying to get 650 pounds of motorcycle up about 3’ into the short box, with ½ the weight bearing on an open tailgate. So trailering was the obvious answer, except I didn’t have a “real” motorcycle trailer. But I did have a flatbed landscape trailer that is load rated high enough to take the weight. Practically brand new, I got it for $200, but only after confirming that it didn’t just fall off the back of a delivery truck somewhere.

So with a few modifications including a front wheel chock, the addition of a couple more tie-down points, slab sides, and a spare wheel and tire, I now have a motorcycle trailer. I think it’s solid. It looks solid. And I’ve even tested it on a few short runs. But in spite of all that, I am still somewhat nervous trusting a $15,000 pay-load to a $200 trailer. Or at least I was, until I saw this.

Now I am not suggesting that a trailer that comes in a canvas bag is in any way deficient. It looks to be an innovative product that is well engineered and owner testimonials are all very positive. But one must admit it does look a bit, shall we say, minimalist, especially to someone like me who is from the school of if-a-2X6-is-good-let’s-use-a-2X10-to-be-sure where mass is a virtue. However, since so many happy customers have put their trust in (and expensive toys on) this product, I now feel a whole lot better about my trailer with all her excess poundage. May she not let me down.

Trials bike a trial

Fired up the TL125 yesterday to run out to the end of the road for the paper and – seized transmission.

Crap!

At $300 a couple of years ago, it’s not like I have a lot of money invested in this 1974 Honda trials bike, but I don’t want it to become a garden ornament either (although there are a few of those out here in our neck of the woods). So in the probably vain hope that it’s something relatively minor and easily repairable without having to double my investment, I pulled the engine out, only to hit my first roadblock – getting the flywheel off. (This is the part where I realize how dumb it was of me to give away my spare parts and toss the shop manual from the first TL 125 I had.)

Thankfully there’s always the internet where I discovered that the right way to do this - as compared to the pry-bars and hammer approach I was considering - was to use a 14mm X 1.5 bolt and gently turn the flywheel off the crankshaft. Aha! But six 5-pound coffee cans of assorted nuts and bolts later I discovered I do not have a 14mm X 1.5 bolt in my possession. So there'll be a short delay until I can get into the city and get the requisite bolt.

This project may take a while.