Another one, I dunno why it stuck two links into one in the last post, I cant even remove all of it in editing.
[img]i.imgur.com/U84jwLl.jpg[/img]

Hey that looks to have worked, I'll go back and edit my previous posts to add photos.

Whoops, I totally forgot to continue updating my progress on this. I never even finished cross posting stuff. I'll summarize everything in this last one, then I can return to real time updates.

March 3: Everything from the rightside crankcase bagged and tagged. I figured out why the crankshaft nut backed off: someone's been in here before and did not properly attached the retainer plate for it. Found the plate chewed up and in half further inside the engine. Banged my head against the wall with three different rotor removers, none of them had the right length bolt. Finally got one that was stupid oversized to get it out. Also considering painting the engine.

March 7: Looked closer at the damaged oil passage. This is the main passage from the pump to the head, likely caused an oiling failure with the engine at some point. I had considered welding this passage back together but this was a bad idea, and I have since bought a replacement clutch cover. Also removed the terrible bed-liner from the tank that came with the bike. It's definitely from a Honda XT or XL, but tanks are expensive so I'll rig this one up to fit.

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March 14: Got the tank all prepped and painted blue, but didn't like how it turned out. I've since re-stripped the paint and will be trying again. Also started stripping the black paint from the exhaust and engine components (it was already failing in several sections) and am planning on painting the engine and other accessories white, I think this will look pretty sweet. Removed the rotor, split the crankcases, and got everything stripped out of the engine. Rotor harness was damaged and will need repairs, but the transmission and related bits seem to be in pretty great shape. Planning on having the threads on the crankshaft re-cut by the machinist at work. Considering if I need to have the cylinder honed or rebored. Bore does not seem too bad and piston & rings seem in good shape.

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May 2: Continued stripping paint from engine components, long way to go. Aircraft Ultra stuff works pretty great but man does cleaning those cooling fins suck.

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From here it's mostly back to the present. I've got questions that my Honda friends won't know the answers to so I'm hoping for some help here

Alrighty, here's what I've gotten done in the last week or so. Finally got everything with the engine taped up then painted. I cured the paint in a cheap toaster oven, I felt a little guilty using this one as it was brand new, but oh well. Shop oven it becomes. It is by no means a perfect paint job (I used VHT engine enamel rattle cans), but it'll do for now. I might consider a clear coat but don't know which to buy.

I also got my crankshaft back from the machinist. Had to sacrifice a little bit since the threads were so buggered and the original nut is such a weird size. I went with an M14x2 thread with a class 4 thin nut. I'll need to modify the locking plate for this size and I 100% plan on using threadlocker for this nut. I will not have a repeat of what likely caused this engine to fail happen to me. Planning on using Loctite orange, but I'm open to other suggestions.

Lastly, I ordered a replacement clutch-side crankcase cover. It did not have the tach drive components, but I stole most of them from my damaged cover. I do not know how to remove the axle that the plastic gear sits on, though (last image in set) . I set my bench on fire trying to heat it (oops too much brake clean) but had no luck removing it. Any thoughts?

Images Link
 

If it's the shaft pressed into the case in the last pic, normally not something you'd remove.  What I do is drill and tap the shaft (yours looks hollow already) and use a slide hammer attached to a bolt I thread into end of shaft.  Usually only takes a couple hits to pull.  If the case is junk, another method is to drill the aluminum on the back side of the shaft to expose the shaft end and then tap it out with a punch.

Use extreme caution with heat/flame/welding around brake cleaner! Many brake cleaners contain chemicals that will emit DEADLY phosgene or other gasses when heated that can permanently disable or even kill you with just a small whiff.  

 

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More progress. Had my machinist mill out part of the damaged clutch cover to steal the pin for it. That part was too far gone anyways, so no harm done. Also got the paint stripped off the new cover as well.

In other news: started actually reassembling the engine with a buddy of mine. Started with the head to reinstall the valves. First valve? Took two and half hours, needed to modify a tool, and was a total headache. Took a break for the day and came back to do the next three. Took 15 minutes tops. Wow. All I can do for the head currently until I can get the rest assembled for the camshafts.



Also started reassembling the lower crankcase and had to make a crank..shaft puller? I had a crankcase splitter for this project and refused to pay so much for the puller when I didn't know how to use it. Still not totally sure, but I assume it's to pull the crankshaft further into the left crankcase so that the balancer shaft has enough clearance. The tool we put together only kinda works, more effort needed to actually use it correctly. I think that there needs to be a second nut under the flat stock to pull the shaft further.

Images link: LINK

Been making very steady progress with this. Reassembled the transmission and balancer shaft, installed and sealed up the crankcase halves. Used the exact gasket maker that the book specified, seems to have gone together well. Then continued assembling per the manual, installed shifter, drive and idler shafts, clutch, kickstart and the rest of the right hand crankcase components. Motor shifts through all gears cleanly but doesn't quite rotate all the way around, I think it just can't easily be rotated by hand. Ill try this more thoroughly once it has oil in it and the right hand cover is on and use the kickstart lever.

Things I noticed during assembly or did differently:

Torqued the absolute crap out of the main shaft nut. This is what failed on the engine previously, and I needed to cut new threads and use another nut. This seemed to turn out pretty well, but only time will tell. I tried using another locking plate, but it made a bit of a mess, so it probably isn't adding much. Also used red loctite, which may or may not hold up to engine temperatures. May need to replace with orange. 

The shaft key had a massive bite out of it, so it was replaced. Didn't realize how damaged it was at disassembly.

Front cam chain guide was severely damaged. There were significant nicks and the side channel was completely missing, due to the main shaft losing alignment at some point. I've ordered replacements. 

I also learned why white engines are uncommon... My stupid enamel cured too long in the oven and turned yellow >:( 

Finally, I'm confused about the head gasket I received in my kit. It looks like three parts, either the actual gasket between two carrier plates or just a weird segmented gasket. I have no idea if this is proper or not, the original gasket was a simple metal sheet. This one also does not fit the bore or piston, so I have my doubts. Any ideas on this?

I realize what it was with the gasket. Apparently it's an MLS gasket, and I was having a bit of a moment and forgot there are two similar shaped gaskets for bore-case and head-bore. The MLS one goes from head-bore. Got it all figured out and now to wait for my replacement cam chain guide before the rest of the top end can go together. Just a little bit more to finalize on the bottom end but getting closer.

Any tips before I dig into the carbs? They seem pretty difficult compared to the ones I've opened before.

So I got everything put together last night: top end all aligned and timed, rotor and stator reassembled, decompression lever and lifter installed, and it doesn't quite seem right. The kickstarter can turn the engine over for part of a full rotation, but ends up getting stuck around bottom dead center. The engine can be turned over by hand (roughly) using the rotor, but the kickstart cannot. I'm at quite a bit of a loss on this, and I'm really not looking forward to disassembling the main shaft components again. My current list of theories is as follows:

1: the crankshaft is bent, causing the top and rest of the rotation to be smooth but the bottom to be rough.

2: the main crank bearing is failing and sticking at BDC.

3: the primary driven gear is not meshing correctly with the rest of the gears. This seems somewhat likely due to an observation I saw during assembly. It looked like the final gear on the crankshaft was not spinning true, slightly lopsided. Could also point to theory 1, though...

Could really use some help on this...

Man you're not having a good run but as much as we'd all like to help I think the ball is realy in your court. I wouldn't like to start guessing but I'd say ya going to have to go in again. At least ya not giving up which is good to see.