| Author | Message | ||
     Falloutnl |
Alright, every last part, gasket, fancy bit is in. So the rebuilding has officially commenced. Apart from a piece of rubber that was caught in the spring, it was a relatively straightforward process. As always, the most difficult thing is finding some sort of stamp to help seat the new oil seal. Luckily, we had one from when we did the Showa forks on my X1 that are the exact same diameter. Anyway, before and after:   Back together again:  New Road 5's are already on:  | ||
| Mike_lee |
Damn near two months...good job. Ive the same tires. Hows the weather there? Break-in period can commence? | ||
| Falloutnl |
Sorry, I see I forgot to mention in there that step 1 was the front forks refurb. Engine is next weekend! After that a whole bunch of cleaning and putting it all back together, I think it's going to be five more days of work before she's done (spread out over a few weekends). | ||
| Falloutnl |
After a bit o' elbow grease:    | ||
| Mike_lee |
Shes gona be a happy lil machine. Very cool. I did the same thing while waitin for parts..polished, scrubbed,shined everything i could... betcha cant wait to get it out and take it easy for 500 miles  I know i cant. | ||
| Falloutnl |
For sure, absolutely itchin' for it, haha. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Alright, here's another update on the S1 restoration project. Bad case of the flu (and an otherwise busy schedule) kept us from it for a while, but we've been at it again. Two or three weekends ago, we cleaned the heads thoroughly. Here's a little before and after: (before)  (during)  (after)  new valve seals too:  And yesterday, we started rebuilding the top-end, using the shiny new Hammer Performance hardware. Also replaced the oil pump drive gear with a new and improved version.  Old gear:  And the new one:  Draining some of the last oil out:  Turned out to be quite a lot:  On to the top end and the shiny new bits:     Torquing all that stuff down:    Also got some of those fancy Hammer pushrodcover bases:  So that's the engine almost done, which means that, hopefully next week or something, we can get started on putting it back in the frame and back on its wheels. Still a lot of stuff left to do: - properly rebuild the carb - rebuild the front brake - de-rust and maybe paint the exhaust headers - paint a bunch of other brackets - remove the bubbling logo from the tank to apply new decals - and a thousand other things I'm forgetting, but we're slowly getting there. | ||
| Mike_lee |
Its a good feelin when you finally get to fire it up for 10 secs (no more,no less: ) and dont hear and strange noises. Gona have a near new bike when its all said and done. | ||
| Falloutnl |
For sure! How is your project coming along? Those 1275's broken in yet? | ||
| Mike_lee |
Its still winter here. Hopefully end of March the weather will begin to lighten up. But im not holding my breath. The bike is back together and idles very smooth for no more than 30-45 secs at a time. The wait..... | ||
| Akbuell |
One caution - On initial startup, the engine may sound really, really bad/noisy. Like something is bad wrong noisy. Have faith in you careful assembly, as the lifters will not have 'pumped up', resulting in excess valve clearance. Been there, done that when I put in the upgraded oil pump drive gear. A gentle, sub 2k RPM cruise around the block solved the issue. Perhaps there is a way to prerun the engine to force oil through the system? Anyone? Hope this helps, Dave | ||
| Falloutnl |
The wait..... Good things come to those who  One caution - On initial startup, the engine may sound really, really bad/noisy. Like something is bad wrong noise. Yeah thanks for the heads up, we've had the same thing when we rebuilt my first Buell (my X1). It did not sound good when those lifters were getting back up to pressure... We dropped some oil on the lifters before closing everything up this time, but we'll have to wait for actual on-pressure oil to start running through the system again. I'll make a video when it's that time. Oh, last pic from today. All buttoned up:  Is there a more glorious sight? (Message edited by falloutnl on March 10, 2019) | ||
| Pnw_ulys |
Wow - - great job! Appreciate you taking the time to document the work. | ||
| Mike_lee |
you got the big finned cylinders? is there a method to your madness here? Is there a more glorious sight? not until its all back together and toolin down the road | ||
| Falloutnl |
not until its all back together and toolin down the road True. Can't wait to see what she'll look like with all of the new stuff on it. you got the big finned cylinders? is there a method to your madness here? I admit that it looks a bit different (i.e. not as good as the small fins), but I really like the idea of added cooling capacity (however slight). Wow - - great job! Appreciate you taking the time to document the work. Np! It's fun to have you guys stopping by to check it out. | ||
| Court |
So cool . . . I am digging every step of this. | ||
| Falloutnl |
Cheers, Court! | ||
| Oopezoo |
So you are going with the Hammer 1250 kit and keeping the stock '97 non-thunderstorm S1 heads? Stock valves without porting the intake or exhaust? Just curious what your overall plan is and what your expectations are when you are done. I will be making the same decisions when it comes time for my '98 S1 (also non-thunderstorm heads). I was thinking a 1250 kit and sending out my stock heads for porting........but its a hefty bill for everything that is basically shoveling money out the window to pay for the grins in my helmet. | ||
| Court |
>>>> basically shoveling money out the window to pay for the grins in my helmet. You'll be joining a wonderful club. :-) | ||
| Falloutnl |
but its a hefty bill for everything that is basically shoveling money out the window to pay for the grins in my helmet. I know. I've spent over two thousand euro's on parts so far and the bike itself was 4,5 thousand last summer (thankfully most of the labor is our own). A stupid amount of money, but the upside is that - if I would ever have to sell this bike - it'd actually be worth what went in. S1's are sought after in Europe (I'm convinced the same will have to happen at one point in the States). Looking at the amount of work that this bike needed, I might have overpaid, but it's not too bad. So you are going with the Hammer 1250 kit and keeping the stock '97 non-thunderstorm S1 heads? Stock valves without porting the intake or exhaust? Just curious what your overall plan is and what your expectations are when you are done. Good questions. Ehm, while I do kinda know how all these parts go together (and my dad knows even more), I'm a bit less knowledgeable with regards to hot cams, compression ratio's, valve jobs and bigger this and that's and whatnot (and their effects). All I know is that the original pistons + cylinders were shot, and Hammer had a ridiculously good sale on the 1250 kit. My expectations/hopes are that we can get it to run right with what we've got. My X1 (that also has a 1250 kit) is stupid quick, but that does have the Thunderstorm heads, so I'm not sure what the difference will be here. It is my understanding that these flat top pistons are also kind of a compromise? If it turns out that it doesn't run well or not at all as strong as I had hoped, I will turn to Twin Motorcycles here for advice. (Sending out my stock heads all the way to Hammer felt like too much of a hassle / risky with me being all the way overseas). | ||
| Oopezoo |
Cool....well, I'm enjoying the process of watching someone else do it first. I'll be looking forward to the results and hearing your thoughts once you get it back on the road. It is a shame that the S1 is worth little more than scrap prices here in the USA. I traded another vehicle to get mine, but essentially paid about $2500 USD. I could easily spend 2x that number getting it running well and looking pretty. I don't think I would ever get a return on that money spent except that I love the bike and plan to never sell it. It would be money spent for my own pleasure, and for some reason, I never seem to do that. Maybe some day they will be appreciated here. | ||
| Steveford |
I'm guessing another 5-10 years and the old tube frame Buells will start to appreciate in value. They'll never be Vincent twin valuable but they'll go up a bit. Too sporty for the Harley faithful, too Harley for the sporty guys. Looks like this build is coming along nicely, I'm looking forward to the finished product. | ||
| Court |
The money isn’t entirely wasted… Too often we try to apply classical cost: benefit analysis and make the vehicle decisions practical. THEY are not. I love not only what you are doing but the quality workmanship. Tough to put a price on that. But, if you are going to have a great joy of having a bike that you know is exactly what you want. CONGRATULATIONS! (Message edited by court on March 11, 2019) | ||
| Falloutnl |
Too sporty for the Harley faithful, too Harley for the sporty guys. But just right for me :P I'll be looking forward to the results and hearing your thoughts once you get it back on the road. It'll be another month or so, but that's coming, for sure! Too often we try to apply classical cost: benefit analysis and make the vehicle decisions practical. THEY are not. The last one I could conceivably think of as practical was my Ulysses. But that went out the window when we had to split the cases last year to replace a faulty bearing on the output shaft... Myep, calling 'em practical would be kinduva stretch, but there isn't a bike in the world that is more fun to ride. Truly, there is not. (Message edited by falloutnl on March 12, 2019) | ||
| Falloutnl |
Small update: Just got word from the shop that the parts I sent off to have sandblasted/painted/coated (ceramic) are done. Hope I can pick them up tomorrow. Can't wait to see what they look like. In terms of a before shot, the headers looked like this:  (These are actually M2 headers. I have the original S1 headers, but one of the previous owners messed those up by drilling a hole in them to get their stupid clamp to fit and the rings at the top of the header were damaged. So these headers came along for 60 bucks and made for a nice replacement. In good nick, just needed some paint.) (Message edited by falloutnl on March 26, 2019) | ||
| Falloutnl |
The result with fancy ceramic coating:    And a bunch of other brackets (powder coated):  (Heat shield has same ceramic coating as the headers). | ||
| Mike_lee |
Sa-weet! | ||
| Falloutnl |
Thanks Mike! | ||
| Falloutnl |
Another S1 Lightning restoration update. We wanted to get the bike fully on its wheels last weekend, but there were a few setbacks. Mounting the new style isolators (with safety 'scoop') turned out to be a problem (the scoop interferes with the clearance you need to mount the footrests and controls, couldn't do that first because the brake pedal appeared to have a fracture in it). We ended up going with another set of (also new) isolators we already had. New motor mount was also difficult to get right. The bolt that went through the front isolator needed more clearance (in terms of length), but with the new mount and the flipped isolator, there were some issues there. Anyway, after a bunch of delays, this is how far we got: New swingarm:   New coat of paint for the isolator bolts:  New isolators (they look kinda rough, but they are new. Ended up going with another set due to the problems mentioned above):  Clean + grease the rear axle:  New belt on and cleaned rear wheel + new tire in:   Cleaning the headstock bearings:  New and improved front motor mount:  After 45 minutes of fiddling, the intake manifold back on:  That was Friday. After that, on Sunday, we spent the entire day on manoeuvring the frame back in place:   Still a lot of stuff left to do... Slowly, but surely however, we seem to be getting there. | ||
| Mike_lee |
Very cool indeed  |
