New seals and gaskets. Right side closed. Dirt model stator right, being replaced with the left street model stator. If you are following the manual you will notice that I am not supposed to put the magneto cover on yet. Too late!
Jesse provides everything you need. DRZ400 piston, sleeve and rings. DR350 piston has an arrow on it that is supposed to point toward the exhaust. The DRZ400 piston just has an indented dot. I had to download the DRZ400 manual for that and how the rings go in. I was expecting those circlips to be a PITA, but they weren't that bad. The cylinder from Jesse has an aluminum sleeve and weights 3lbs as apposed to the stock steel 5lb model. Saved 2lbs, w00t! Compressing the rings was a little tricky, but also not to bad. Bigger valves! It's looking motor'esq!
Megacycle reground rockers. Megacycle cam, R/D springs, titanium tops, RedLine lube, Suzuki molly paste and red silicone gasket maker! Put on the cam chain tensioner and oil pipe, wait til tomorrow to torque the rocker cover bolts.
Puzzled over how to get the bearings out for quite a while, then started whacking them with the hammer and socket extensions. Thought it was going to work until needle bearings shot across the room but most of the sleeve was still in place. Better plan was to run to Harbor Freight and get a blind hole bearing puller for $32. One. Two. Three! If only the rest were that easy. There was grease in that one. Others were more... dry. Behold! The Battle Royale! or it's aftermath anyway. I got all the bearings out using a variety of methods. No swingarms were harmed in the making of this picture. Moose swingarm rebuild kit. It's not Mezo clean, but it's functional. Couple things I learned. You cannot hammer new bearing back in. I mushroomed one and the single replacement bearing is $21, ouch! A big C clamp works OK as a bearing press. The Moose swingarm rebuild kit does not include the bearings that the swingarm actually pivots on!
Stick the bearings in the freezer over night and they go in more easily:) If you have spare time you might want to box in the swingarm to reduce flex. The engine pictures look great. The DRZ400 piston is very different from the stocker it looks - much shorter skirt. Any idea what sort of compression ratio you'll end up with? Do the DRZ valve pockets happen to line up with the valves in the DR head? Its hard to tell in the pic with the orange gasket maker, but take care not to spread it on so thick that it gooshes out - just a little bit of stray dried silicone can clog an oil passageway.
Thanks BP. I thought I'd posted the ratio, but I can't find it. I think Jesse told me it was just over 12:1. I just eyeballed it, but it looked like they do match up. Jesse's done a few of these 455's so I'm trusting I won't have problems. The picture makes the silicone look thicker than it is, but still I hope I didn't gum up any oil paths.
Yes I'm a noob but I recently went through the bearing in the swingarm thang on my son's YZ125. Your picture above with the sledge hammer closely shows my experience in removing the old bearings. For installation, I tried the freezer/vise/c-clamp/torch tricks for about an hour. I couldn't get a good grip on the swingarm while trying to push a bearing in before it got warm again. Finally I broke down and called a friend with a press. Pardon the pun, but presto, the bearings were in without any real drama. He seemed to have fun in helping so I didn't feel too bad. Bottom line is I'm sold on using a press for the swingarm bearings.
Cool thanks It ought to really run strong with 12:1. If you get bored cc top end to see what it is exactly.
Jeff, Mezo, BP and scallener, I submit to your will. The additional swingarm bearings showed up yesterday. So I popped em in the freezer last night. Here they are this morning, ready to be cold pressed. Was a bit worried if this was going to work, but no problem! The big C didn't have any problems (even when they were warm). New bearings, new grease, new rubber deal, chain guide beat back into an approximation of its former self. Ready to go!
Put the engine back in the frame, the key is that little chunk of 2x4. It allows you to plop the engine in and then spin it into place. Once you spin it though, you have to remove it to get any engine mounts to line up. A little bit of wraslin, but not to bad. Swingarm and shock in place. I don't know what shape the shock or forks are in, but I want this thing together before summer is gone! If I have to redo the suspension then so be it. There is the KTM triple with the DR stem pressed in and the Keintech sleeve. I just set that junk on there to see what it looks like.
Very nice. Love the black frame and the powdercoated engine. I forgot all about the WP forks. Thanks for sharing the great work.
Way,way, waayyy too much silicone! It should be spread on barely paper thin. Save yourself a bunch of heartache later on by taking the cam cover back off and cleaning out all the beads of sealer that squished out inside the motor.
+1. You really don't want that stuff to work loose and clog up an oil passage. :eek1 In fact I would recommend that you throw out the red RTV and buy some Loctite 518 instead. It's an anaerobic sealant that will stay liquid except between surfaces so it will not clog anything.
BikePilot mentioned the silicone might be too thick earlier, but I'm hard headed. OK, three respected opinions. I'm not that hard headed. Lukas, I looked for a Permatex anaerobic sealant (Loctite brand is hard to find in Seattle, Permatex is everywhere here). There is a Permatex anaerobic sealant but the instructions said to prep one surface with Permatex surface prep activator. Of course the auto parts store didn't have the surface prep activator. So I stuck with the Red RTV. Took the rocker cover off. Removed all the wiggly bits. Cleaned the cover and the head with a gasket scraper, razor blade and brake cleaner. Applied a tiny half bead and then smoothed it out with an old business card. Paper thin! Better?
Thanks. I still need to work out a rear wheel, wiring, lights and cockpit. Probably have to switch over to the 93 DR350 while stuff is ordered for the 455. Thanks. The black frame looks pretty good, I almost went with white frames!
