Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Fitting the crank. Part 2

With crank in the freezer and engine case/bearing in the boiler cupboard - I am at risk of getting in to trouble with the wife if i dont get this job done quickly.






tube and washers to pull crank against the bearing
As suggested by the chap on the scooter help link in the previous post - I made up a 'puller' consisting of a short length of tube and a bunch of washers to help pull the clutch end shaft against the bearing, and thus not stressing the engine case counter-weight flanges by belting the crankshaft home.

Eventually you have to do something - so with the engine case / bearing already up to boiler cupboard temperature, I played a calor flame directly on the bearing until too hot to touch (but not so hot that it would damage the oil seal)
A gob of grease on the mating surfaces, and a quick text from TVOR to remind me that ive got to do this quickly before the parts return to ambient temperature.  I'm feeling under pressure.
I dashed into the house to get the crank from the freezer, and before I can blink im trying to shove it into the bearing.
The scooter help chap says that with a cold crank and a hot bearing you should be able to hand press the crank home.  Bollocks.  And so i was glad that id made up his suggested puller, which seemed to do the trick - but there was a hell of a lot of pressure required - I am so glad that i didnt have to resort to hammering - i am sure the pressure needed would have damaged something.
I reckon it only took about 5 minutes to do, but it was a stressful 5 minutes and i seem to have bruised my arm in the process, but lord knows how!
Finally I made sure to slosh lots of oil around the frosty crank to save it from rusting

With crank now in place, I could pop in the christmas tree (input shaft) and the drive (output) shaft - again needing a fair degree of hammering to get home.
And that was that.  I hope.
Have I forgotten anything? i will be well fed up if i find a loose washer somewhere later.
I decided not to do anymore for the evening and be satisfied with finally getting this far...... but i did go to bed that night wondering "how do I know everything has gone home properly?" - it will be a bugger to shove the crank a little bit more now that its all cooled-down/warmed-up

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