Category Archives: Motorbikes

Crankcase washout

The SX175 rustoration continues. We’ve got the transmission shifting. We got all the water out of it and then filled it to the top with a mix of diesel, turps and petrol (our parts washer brew). Worked it free, seems ok.
Today we worked on getting the water out of the crankcase. Getting the cylinder off was a challenge, there was a lot of packed in dirt around the cylinder retaining nuts. Genuine Queensland red dirt that had set like cement.
After we got the cylinder off we put our small parts washer under the bike and piped the fluid into the crankcase to flush out the mayonnaise.
Piston ring gap is 1.6mm 😂 but the cylinder looks have little wear and came up good enough after a light hone. Piston will do, it’s not terrible.
We’re definitely going to need some new piston rings.

 

 

New Project Harley Davidson SX 175

Winter is our slowest period for service work so my boss Richard has brought his Harley Davison SX 175 in for some work. We’re going to keep the patina, going for a rustoration. I’ve already cleaned upthe clutch side components. It doesn’t want to shift gears (unsurprising as the transmission only had water in it instead of oil) so next steps will be to fill the transmission with diesel and try and free it up. The crankshaft and cylinder and piston seem ok 😀


 

 

Re-assembled with correct engine

I put this lovely old think back together over the last couple of days. Fortunately I had all the bits that were missing in my parts hoard including a freshly rebuilt engine. Runs great. Really needs a complete strip down and frame paint and new wheels, mudguards and muffler but I can’t be arsed to do another one so I’ve offered it for sale as is.

 

Electric Starter Fixed

I bought a rebuild kit for the starter motor. Glad I did. The end cap bush was oval. I found the reason it stopped working. Someone had over tightened the terminal post and torn the main internal connector off at it rotated. Replaced bothe bushes, brushes, lubed bearing and soldered the internal conductor back to the terminal post. Took we 4 attempts to reassemble, adjusting end float, until it spun freely with a bench test. Re-installed it and the bike fired right up, instantly ?