It always starts with a 'good' idea

[stevecrout]

These things usually start with a good idea or as a result of too much Irish Whiskey but either way, the notion that I could have a nice bike to ride in the Philippines started this adventure. I wanted to ship over my '82 BMW R100 because it was also time to pull it down and see what kind of shape things were in internally. There's 113,000 Kms on the bike and nothing except valve guides has been done to it since new.

When I made the inquiries with Customs in the Philippines I was told "no problems" but when I spoke to a few of the shippers they suggested I should be ready to fork over a substantial amount of bribe money due to the fact the bike was a larger capacity that normally seen here and big cc's means big bucks for these guys.

I like a challenge so I set to thinking about how to get the silver beast over there without paying an arm and a leg.  I realized there is a thing called Balikbyan Boxing that allows you to send over what ever you want in a 1 sq meter box for about $100 per box. The sizes were perfect and I started stripping the bike down to the last nuts and bolts.  After filling 5 of the boxes everything was in except the bare frame and that was just right for the Air Canada bicycle  shipping program and I brought it with me in January as checked in baggage.  When they asked me what was in there I said "my bike" and since there was a sliver of truth to it I didn't feel too badly.

Now all the bits are in one place and the job of putting it back together begins.  I took lots of photos and have the manual and this should compensate for my failing memory (I hope).

The photos are starting off showing the current status of the bits in one of the rooms I commandeered here. I figured I should have a place with air conditioning and cleanups so I hope my wife doesn't mind losing one room for the greater good. I had the staff build me a stand for working on while I was gone for the 3 weeks and they did a fine job.  It might turn out to be a little too tall but I guess that's OK.

Let the games begin!

[stevecrout]

I should mention that when I stripped the engine I wasn't sure what to expect but I was amazed to find the barrels still had the crosshatching showing (thanks to the Nikasil coating) and almost no wear measurable on the pistons. the valves were still sealing well after a leak test and there was no measurable play in the connecting rods so besides the gasket and seal replacements there didn't seem to be too much to worry about.

[Donovan]

Well that is really cool way of shipping the bike.  I never would have thought of going that way.  How about insuring it there, will that be a problem for you and it?  Have fun putting it together and riding it.

[Hans]

Sounds kinda like Radar mailing a Jeep home to his mom in M*A*S*H.

[stevecrout]

Yes, Radar and I compared notes before I started with this little venture.  I've seen just about everything shipped in these boxes and they are set up for any country where the Overseas Workers are present.  I sent a bunch of stuff from my apartment in Palestine to the Philippines (door to door too!) and it was only $65 USD per box. To get a logistics company to ship the same size one cubic meter box from Afghanistan to Canada was over $800 and only to Vancouver.

Re-assembly has been a little slow this week due to an unexpected aging factor - mine. I thought I was well prepared with photos and a manual but it turns out the smaller bits need a bit more explanation and research so YouTube was employed for a few of the issues.

Keeping in mind our place is about 250 kms North of Manila (the sticks) I went to about 4 or 5 local motorcycle shops and asked for DOT 4 brake fluid, SAE 3 fork oil and hand cleaner - in all of them the response was "Use DOT 3 brake fluid, any mineral oil for forks and what the heck is hand cleaner?"  Went to the Mitsubishi dealer in Subic Bay and picked up everything.

Lots of cleaning still being done as I try to wedge out 30+ years of stuff that gets stuck in the nooks and crannies.

Engine assembly starts today.

[Dennis]

That's commitment.   Good luck with the process.

Peace and Palm Grease, Dennis

[stevecrout]

So we're over the hump I think.  I'm beginning to remember where some of the stuff goes and not having to take it all apart twice because I left something off too often.

Having to make do with available tools has its challenges and today was a good one.  I needed a piston ring compressor so I went to the local shop that makes side-cars and talked the guy out of a small piece of heavy gauge sheet metal and cleaned it up so there weren't any sharp edges then cut it just the right length and tried it out - it works!   The pistons and rings slid through the oil nice and easy and I didn't hear any "pink" that the rings usually make when they break so we're good to go.

Some of the quirks with the airheads took a couple of fit-ups before they were right - like the pivot pins on the rocker arms needing to have the punch marks facing out but I remembered the arrow on the piston needing to face the exhaust!

I needed to replenish the rubber hoses where they connect to the carb and tried some silicone grease.  It was a lot of fun going to the various shops asking for the stuff.  I was offered everything under the sun and the last of about 5 visits the gal said to me in perfect English "Sure thing mac, I have just what you need!"  Japanese silicone grease - I even threw some on the rubber on the Toyota windows. They dry out and then jam up when you try to power them down. This stuff loosened them right up.

Bloody manual was a waste of time. I should have sucked it up and brought the full size, 4 kilo  3" think guy.

So far I've managed with only the tools in the kit but I have to find a 15mm socket for the head bolts so I guess I won't be able to say I did it all with the owners toolkit.
 

[Shep]

Truly Impressive.
You must be a master jigsaw puzzle player as well.
I always wondered about the value of third party maintenance manuals other than their information on changing light bulbs and oil!
Shep

[stevecrout]

in this case the third party manual was scrubbed together by Haynes and it is a piece of junk. Most of the illustrations are not relevant and there is no real 'blow by blow' description of the assembly or otherwise.  I think Clymer makes a bit better product but they are both for very basic work.

Nothing beats the factory manuals for this sort of work but I didn't send it along with the parts because of the extra weight. Short term thinking!

My other note to self for next time will be to send along a small selection of nuts and bolts to supplement those that fell through the cracks in my shipping containers and now lay in the bowels of some tramp steamer traversing the Pacific Ocean. 

[fast1]

  Factory manuals actually are usually worse because they assume you are a trained mech. and know where a lot of things go already. My best friend has always been parts manuals--blowups of everything showing where every part goes and including those all important arrows, did you time your ring gaps properly?  Luck and CHEERS.

[stevecrout]

Right -  the rings were spaced and placed OK but when I buttoned it all up I went to find the almighty "Z" and I couldn't turn it over. I thought maybe the kickstart gear was being a dick again so I tried a couple of other things and yup, it was stuck.

Well I spent the better part of the night trying to think of what it was but no luck so I started taking it apart again in the reverse order.  As you can see from the photos, the clutch and flywheel are fine, I didn't leave any rags inside the crankcase so I had the transmission off, the heads and barrels off along with all the strap on stuff that goes with them and it was down to the alternator stator. I put in a new rotor due to poor charging so the stator had to come off as well.  When I looked at how the stator was siting on the engine case it looked a little off kilter to me so I loosened off the three screws that held it in place and bingo!   the engine was turning over freely again.  I'd been thinking the bearings were seizing up due to the salt air here and all kinds of other scenarios when I should have checked the simplest answer first. The clearance between the rotor and the stator is minimal and any deviation of the stator means contact with the coils and then she's locked up.

So the moral of this story is to look for simplest answer to the problems before delving into the heavy duty stuff.  Oh well, I'm getting better at putting the transmission in myself and I remembered where everything went this time so only a day lost.

[stevecrout]

So its been a few days since I worked on the R100 for a few reasons. My walking on the beach time had been seriously reduced previously so I thought I'd better make up for some of it. I was also missing a few bits like muffler clamp and kick stand frame clamp and the battery but these were smaller issues. The one that had me going was the left spark plug not threading all the way into the head before it got really tight (when I was turning it by hand).  Having a great deal of respect for aluminum heads and how easily one can strip the crap out of the threads I needed to step back and do a little review.
I realized the culprit was likely some sand from the blasting unit I used to clean the heads off and ho wit would mix up with a bit of grease or spooge and become like a cement in the threads.  I didn't have a thread cleaner or a tap I could run through it so I thought I'd just go out and find an appropriate spark plug and cut a line through the threads.

Well, it started with a fairly simple statement from me "I want a used 13/16th spark plug with a long reach so I can knock out the tip and cut a line through the threads."

This is the part where I curse myself for living a ways out in the Philippine sticks. English isn't always available as there aren't many opportunities to practice it so lots of hand signals and Taglish.  I got a "Huh" from a couple of vendors and a blank stare from another couple of guys so I thought maybe I should take another approach.

I tried the local wrecker and we went through his piles of junk until I found one that would work. It only took 2.5 hrs and 6 stops.

Anyways, the plug was OK and I brought it back, cut the line and ran it through a few times and each time it came back with the lines full of gunge.  When I ran the original plug in it sailed through right to the washer and all was right with the world.

Not to rant on about how convenient everything is in Canada but holy crap everything is sure MORE convenient there!

so now I have the muffler clamps to re-size as they're a bit too big, carb throttle return springs to replace because they're too stiff and a battery to locate.  The battery is proving to be a real challenge as nobody carries anything they won't sell in 30 days so the Yuasa 53030 battery isn't something they'd come across except maybe once in a 10 year span. I might end up strapping two half size units together in parallel just to get the job done.

I guess the moral of the story is when you think you might have a great idea that will beat the thieving crooks in customs maybe it's also a good idea to slam the door on your fingers a couple of times just to give yourself and wake-up call. Some of these ideas are conceived while sitting on the john and sometimes they're best left there.

[fast1]

   I once assembled a motorcycle in my basement over a winter without a single thought as to how I would get it out. 4 guys, 1 hour and a lot of colorful expletives ensued. Couple scuffs on the bike and more than a few on the drywall and door frames-good thing it was a rental  place. Good learning experience 'cause I never did it again. CHEERS

[stevecrout]

Ya -  my Dad built a boat in our basement and thought he'd work out the logistics of exit later. We ended up having to prop up one wall to remove the support beam. But he got his boat!

Details, details eh!

[Dennis]

   I once assembled a motorcycle in my basement over a winter without a single thought as to how I would get it out. 4 guys, 1 hour and a lot of colorful expletives ensued. Couple scuffs on the bike and more than a few on the drywall and door frames-good thing it was a rental  place. Good learning experience 'cause I never did it again. CHEERS

I used to have a rental house.  The only tenants that built stuff in the basement, and then scuffed up the walls were my nephews.