Getting it back together

The next hurdle was to get the journals onto the crankshaft. Once again it transpired that I knew a man who knew a man and JC came up trumps, so here is the completed item. Now and lest you wonder why are there two bearings on the right side? Well this is the side that houses the centrifugal clutch and thus is subject to the most stresses.

Of course getting the bearings into the crankcase halves was a pain as they are also an interference fit, still I was able to get them close with the help of a rubber mallet and then use the bolts to clamp the halves together.

I decided to mount the piston to the connection rod next and I was going to use the term gudgeon pin but I just knew that you colonials wouldn't understand so I looked it up and apparently you call it a wrist pin. Anyhoo the gudgeon pin is held in with two spring clips and it was patently obvious that if the clip pinged off the end of the needle nose pliers I would be in a world of misery. The first one snapped on beautifully so now being full of je ne sais quoi I decided that rather than turn the engine around I would do the second one left handed. Can you guess what happened? In a word "ping". Still once again I received confirmation that God is an Englishman as by some miracle I found the little bugger and this time using my dominant hand I got him on. (Many hours after I had cleaned up I realised that I should have inserted the piston into the cylinder before attaching it to the con rod so tonight it is coming off again, can you say ping?).

On a different subject I wanted to take the brushes off the starter motor / generator. There are 4 brushes, 2 for the generator and 2 for the starter. The first came out nicely but the screws on the other three were just rusted in. The good news is that there was plenty of meat on the one I got out so I settled for blowing some compressed air and lubricant in and replacing the brush.

Tonight I hope to get the carburetter, fuel pump, flywheel and cover back on. Watch this space.