ORIGINAL: krproton

Well guys,

here's the deal;

Switch, thanks for the info on setting the timing, but the crank and hub are keyed. That's the good news and the bad news. I got the nut off with a deep well socket, pressed off the hub with a puller, but then came the trouble. The key was frozen into the crankshaft. It's not one of those nice, hardened, rounded woodruff keys like you see on an O.S. engine that drop out and fall onto the floor when you take off the drive washer. No! The key was just some kind of rather soft metal that was absolutely positively frozen into the crank. I tried everything - heating, tapping, oil. Then I figured if I could use a dremel with a fiber reinforced cutoff wheel to grind away the key enough to extract the crankshaft from the case, I could then, with crank in hand, grind enough of the key remains to allow it to just fall out.

Wrong!

I ground off the key well enough, extracted the crank easily, then proceeded to grind away the rest of the key out of the slot. Not so easy. I can't tell what's key and what's crank. Hopefully, I quit before I ruined the crank, but I called Ralph Cunningham and he said he could probably use an end mill to grind out the rest of the key if I send him the assembly. So, it's getting boxed up and sent out first thing tomorrow.

Oh, and by the way, yes, the front bearing is trashed (apparently from the crash). I bet the case is good too, just the bearing.

Well, won't have any more info until Ralph receives the parts.

And if the crank can't be salvaged, I need Ralph's assistance anyway because the bottom end of the con rod is held to the crankshaft with some sort of rivit that's pressed on.

Thanks for the tip BTerry.

'Til next time!

Tim