The Never Ending Motor Swap part 3

It's all back together ! Buttoned it all up last night after dinner and now I am going to put gas in the tank and fire her  today.It was a long drawn out job that seemed to drag on due to various problems I encountered along the way.The oil pump had issues . The original one had a hair line crack that I didn't notice until I tightened it down and the mounting tap broke off ! This led to a full day of fooling around with oil pumps.The replacement pump didn't want to bleed for some reason.I kept trying to bleed it but couldn't get oil into one of the feed lines so I had to pull it off and try another.The third pump worked alright but after I installed it I noticed the pulley where the cable attaches was different than the original so I had to remove it yet again and change out the pulley . Finally got it all sorted out , did the bleed ,saw it was pumping correctly and then set the adjustments . Once the pump was all set up things went smoothly as I put the carbs on and balanced them , hooked up all the wires ,set the timing,put on the exhaust system and the tank & seat. So today I ride her in the neighborhood as I test everything before taking her out on a good hundred mile ride and get her inspected.Once she's back in service I will tear into the original motor ,see what is broken in the kick start system and fix it..This could take some time. I have to completely take the engine and transmission apart to deal with this.But,on the positive side , the bike will be back to original again with a fully rebuilt motor and ready to be sold. I need to get this sold so I can ride out west this August. It costs a lot of money I don't have to go wandering  so this is how that gets bankrolled.

I just gassed it up and got it started. The motor sounds good but I still have some carb issues to deal with to get her running right. I'm in home stretch now !

Never Ending Engine Swap part 2

Here I am again back in the garage .After a day of pulling the bike apart and getting everything organized I took two days off from the project to ride. We had some really nice weather here in New York for the weekend with temps in the lower 50's F and abundant sunshine so on Sunday I went out on the BMW K100 for a nice 115 mile ride and yesterday on Monday I took the Moto Guzz 850-T out and rode all over the place for the whole day.I did do some prep work on the spare motor I'm putting in the bike at night keeping the project moving forward. Did lots of cleaning , pulled off the clutch , the armature , the pistons , and took the crankshaft oil seals out . Last night I put in the new oil seals ,gave the cleaned up pistons new piston rings ,installed the clutch and armature and ignition yoke. The project is moving along smoothly as you can see here.

Today I start to button it all up. I start off by checking to be sure all the nuts and bolts are tightened properly then I will put the top end together followed by the clutch side outer case cover and the oil pump.If all goes well it should be a running motorcycle by Wednesday .Been also selling auto parts while doing this job so I spend time boxing things and going to the post office to ship things .Today a floor shift unit for a 1965 Plymouth  Barracuda is going out to some guy in Texas.I'm selling off all sorts of vintage auto parts I no longer need and I'm building the down payment fund with the money. Everything I do is aimed at getting to Arizona now. This bike is part of that too and once she's a good runner again with the original motor all fixed she will get sold and this motor I'm putting in now will be fully road tested and put into its original frame as I build another motorcycle to also sell off. That one will not be a restored bike, just a rider built with the parts that are still good but not good enough to use on the restored one. It will have that patina that the younger crowd look for.I don't get it but they all seem to like rust and crappy original paint & chrome .Well, now it's off to mail the package and then out to the garage for another day of wrenching on this rainy day.

The Never Ending Motor Swap

So, back in the winter of 2018 I put the original motor back in this bike after storing it for the better part of 20 years . I was saving it for when I sell the bike.I wanted to have a good running numbers matching motor & framed bike in really nice condition to sell.That job fought me every step of the way but in the end came out real nice. I used the bike  riding it around locally with a 4 sale sign on it and also had it listed on Craiglist for sale but didn't get any real action.It seemed like the motor may have an air leak between the case halves or the float level in the carbs wasn't rich enough.I had given the motor new crank seals so I know they are good and decided to re set the carbs and ignition timing.Dove in the other day ,got everything just right and was going to take her in for an inspection to get her all legal on Wednesday . Took her up the street and she ran great.Did that a couple times and all was good so I parked her. Got all ready to head out for a day of riding and when I went to start her the kick start jammed ! Bad news , this killed any chance of riding this bike and meant that I have to pull the motor out and split the case to get at the transmission. Today this job begins.I put the other spare motor on the work bench and today I pull out the original motor AGAIN !

Now I find myself sitting here writing while I wait as the garage heats up on this very cold 22 degree F  day here in New York. If all goes well I will have the motor swap finished tomorrow  so I can take her in for inspection next week while I pull apart the original motor to see what I need to do to fix it.

Oh well,it is what it is. All I know is someone is going to get an all fixed up fine running 54 year old motorcycle when I finally do sell her.With a little luck this and the orange  1970 DS6C will get sold this Spring and I will be able use the proceeds to head west on my Moto Guzzi for a nice 2 month ride all over the place visiting old friends and making some new ones.

I'm finally getting down to the business of getting out of here and heading to Arizona for good .This  work is all part of that as is the trip out west this summer.I have managed to save my social security and  sell off enough old auto parts to get a good amount of money to invest in the stock market with the hope of growing it into the down payment on the house. It's been a long strange trip to get to where I am now. Been wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to fund this move and I think I'm finally pointed in the right direction. So now it's off to the cold garage to start my day .I'd rather be riding but to play you have to pay so today I pay and tomorrow I play



                                                            My Moto Guzzi Playing