TX650 rebuild, RobinC tribute bike

totalfool

totalfool

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MaxPete said:
Well, at least something positive has come of RobinC leaving us.

Readers may recall that my friend John and I bought Robin’s bikes and we got the ‘78E running last weekend. It’s not roadworthy yet, but it’ll get there.

Today, Lakeview and I nipped up to London and worked with John (aka TotalFool) on the ‘73 TX650 - and made substantial progress on that one too.

I’ll let TotalFool tell that story.....
Click to expand...

Many thanks to you and Lakeview MaxPete, a great day of banter and the the odd insult, but mostly progress.
I was expecting the worst with the seized engine in the 73 and after we removed the head and applied a series of “love taps” to the left piston the cylinders came off. Now at this point I have to explain that my garage became a street curiosity, and at one point there were five of us with multiple opinions about everything. Nevertheless examination of the engine revealed original pistons and very little rust and wear in the bore. One neighbour quickly got out his cylinder hone and cleaned up both. The end result is that probably the only thing required for the engine will be new rings and lapping the valves. My smile got bigger as the day wore on! Thanks again.
 
Further to my reference to “progress”. The frame of the 73 is ready for blasting and either powder coating of painting. However, the swingarm shaft simply refuses to move. There is no play in the bushings and I have a couple of queries: any suggestions to get the shaft out, and could you blast the frame with the swingarm in place after properly covering the swingarm to frame joints?
 
Get that shaft out, it has to turn freely to operate as intended. Get the frame over on it's side, block the area around the shaft so it's solid to the floor, remove the grease zerks, find a suitable drift (chunk of iron rod or a big bolt and your biggest sledge hammer, this nearly always moves it, and I've done a bunch of them. Once it moves at ALL lube it again, pound back the other way, repeat till it comes out. Heat gun, not a torch won't hurt anything.
 
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OK - great info there from Gary - the Baron of Baraboo!

FWIW - we soaked it with PB Blaster and whaled on it with a 2 pounder - nuttin’. One other thing we did was hold the “nut” on the LH side (which thus held the through-bolt itself) and then three of us held the frame while Lakeview moved the swing arm up and down - and he did get maybe 10-15 deg. of movement - but the bolt wouldn’t budge toward the left so the thing is still stuck.

Oh well, totalfool is an engineer and a pretty inventive guy who has restored British sportscars so he is used to hitting things with hammers.
 
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John,
Welcome to the forum sir! I have been eagerly anticipating your joining our little worldwide clan. Team Canada has some of our finest members!
I was so happy to hear that Robins old TX was going to someone that had the ability to restore it. Robin and I used to talk a lot , and he had always wanted an early 650, he was so excited when he found that TX ( as crusty as it is ) I was in the early stages of restoring my XS2 at the time and since our bikes were so mechanically similar, we had opened up a running dialog to share information and parts we would find on EBay.
I read with great interest your findings about the cylinder and pistons. That engine was good and truly stuck when Robin got it, and he immediately started soaking it with Penetrating oil, he at least wanted to free up the motor and maybe even get it to fire, before he took on the restoration. He never did manage to free it up, so we had imagined the worst for what must be inside that motor. I’m happy to hear that you think it might actually be an easy save!

The things that he was most concerned about finding were some of the rather rare limited production early body parts, especially the chrome fenders and such. They were pretty eaten up.

Good luck on your restoration , I can’t wait to see this bike come together, kudos to you for taking this project on.
Another great old bike saved from the scrap heap! Btw photos man! We love photos! :)

-Bob
 
Oh by the way, regarding your swing arm shaft. I have read many horror stories like the one you describe about guys just having to BEAT those frozen shafts out. When I did my XS2, imagine my surprise when I simply grabbed it with my finger tips and slid it right out, looking as clean and lubed as the day it was installed at the factory! And this was after sitting idle for over three decades! We are very hot and DRY here in Arizona. :D
 
totalfool said:
Many thanks to you and Lakeview MaxPete, a great day of banter and the the odd insult, but mostly progress.
I was expecting the worst with the seized engine in the 73 and after we removed the head and applied a series of “love taps” to the left piston the cylinders came off. Now at this point I have to explain that my garage became a street curiosity, and at one point there were five of us with multiple opinions about everything. Nevertheless examination of the engine revealed original pistons and very little rust and wear in the bore. One neighbour quickly got out his cylinder hone and cleaned up both. The end result is that probably the only thing required for the engine will be new rings and lapping the valves. My smile got bigger as the day wore on! Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Hi 'fool and welcome,
alas, that swingarm pivot bolt just gotta go!
If the airhammer don't shift it, drill the ends off to get the swingarm out of the frame.
Now you can press the pivot bolt and the bearing sleeve it's seized into outa there
and throw them away.
 
My motorcycle pal,who is locally one of the best HD mechanics around here parts has a Dyna wide glide which he and the other mechanic heated and beat the swing arm bolt silly and couldn't get it to budge...he was telling me about it and I said "Dont you have an air chisel at the shop?" "no...not a tool of choice on a motorcycle" he said...."Here " I said ..."Take this...it will push it out"..As his shop mates looked on in astonishment...it took him 10 seconds to push it out...he later told me they were working for hours on it and couldn't budge it....
 
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