950 LC8 Engine R&R

By:Pyndon

I then proceeded to tear it down, namely giving it a motorectomy.

Only the best garage equipment…..Touratech Zega Engine Stand $319

The next day I started to tear into the motor to give it a good old refresh. The bike was a 2004 California bike with 41,000miles on it, totally bone stock in every way and there was no record of any TSB’s or service work been done on it. This is the list of things I wanted to do.

Canisterectomy
SAS removal
Strip both top ends and ‘fettle’ cylinder heads including de-carbon everything.
Valve clearances (obviously after the above)
Check piston ring gaps and piston tolerances etc.
Check entire valve train for wear
Replace older cylinder studs with newer grade 12 studs
Carry out TSB with new cylinder stud nuts and washers
TSB on flywheel (bike is a very early model)
TSB on stator bolts
Replace complete water pump
Replace stock fuel pump with Facet 40105 (and check valve)
Jet carbs according to Pyndon bike #1
Fit aftermarket silencers (Remus revolution)
Then generally just build the bike up cleaning and greasing everything as I go.

Here’s just a few photo’s from the motor work, I really did not have time to go into detail on everything I did, I was preparing for a Baja 1000 race at the time also, hence the late and not so detailed report.

Valves, before and after………

The finished motor, all timed up adjusted up and torqued up:

With the engine finished, I loaded it back into the bike and began to build everything up around it such as electrics, carbs (after fully rebuilding/cleaning them), fuel pump (aftermarket), radiator, oil tank etc. and checked / greased the rear shock and swingarm assembly while I was at it.

I then set to on the exhaust system, junked the old cans, along with all this emissions junk!

Fitted some Remus pipes

Stripped all the steering assembly, inspected it and greased it all up on assembly.

Stripped the forks gave then a good service for now. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them in the long run, if I keep the bike I’ll probably sell them and hunt some factory 320mm stroke suspension from somewhere…..OK I don’t want to give too plans away just yet! Maybe I need those for my orange bike………………..

Finally, today it started to look more like a bike.

I burped the cooling system, filled her up with oil and proceeded with start-up procedure. I had a battle with a fuel leak from the inlets on the carbs and a fuse that refused to alive, but I eventually got the motor started, just a few hours later than originally expected.

Fitted some new handle bars and foam grips. Set up all the controls and replaced all the brake fluids.

With the tanks finally on, almost there.

And tonight, I present…..Pyndon bike #2.

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