Engine rebuild bearing journals

Mr van der Ham

XS650 New Member
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Location
Holland
Hello

I am Niekele van der Ham from Holland. I just made a account on this is website. Had to do this a long time ago. A little about my XS650 history. I bought one from a guy with the story that he replaced all the gaskets en engine was all fine. Little that I knew about engines at the time. I rode it for a year en then the troubles started. I pay a visits at Heiden tuning en he was saying that er was to much clearance on the crank. And the totaal engine rebuild will cost about 2500 euros, same price as the bike. I wanne do the full rebuild myself (wanne be that guy that tells his kid I made it myself, kinda like a bucketlist thing. I need your guys help in a major way because my experience is like zero to nothing. I was looking at my engine cases and i was looking at my bearing journals and I want your opinion is I can still use them or not. All bearing gonna be replaced.
 

Attachments

  • 34F505DB-AC3D-430C-B75D-64BFBDE729AE.jpeg
    34F505DB-AC3D-430C-B75D-64BFBDE729AE.jpeg
    155 KB · Views: 157
  • FC964618-0EE8-432C-B262-8AE7FDB0A3D4.jpeg
    FC964618-0EE8-432C-B262-8AE7FDB0A3D4.jpeg
    146.6 KB · Views: 158
  • 951CD5FA-39E1-4040-B2B3-1545D711AE92.jpeg
    951CD5FA-39E1-4040-B2B3-1545D711AE92.jpeg
    120.8 KB · Views: 130
  • 1D8A2F29-7E70-4AD4-879F-F433C7C27893.jpeg
    1D8A2F29-7E70-4AD4-879F-F433C7C27893.jpeg
    140 KB · Views: 142
  • 6CA35E8F-49C3-4287-8E71-9A3E5C5E6626.jpeg
    6CA35E8F-49C3-4287-8E71-9A3E5C5E6626.jpeg
    130.1 KB · Views: 170
  • D7E71BA6-C464-4431-AEC7-11CA6A3B3C97.jpeg
    D7E71BA6-C464-4431-AEC7-11CA6A3B3C97.jpeg
    118.3 KB · Views: 152
Welcome Mr van der Ham!
I was thinking you are good, but this worries me.
case bearing.jpeg

I suspect your crankshaft is twisted?
Even in the Nederlands finding a set of cases or engine in better shape might be a better base to build from.
Seems like there is an active Dutch XS650 club?
 
Welcome Mr van der Ham!
I was thinking you are good, but this worries me.

I suspect your crankshaft is twisted?

Seems like there is an active Dutch XS650 club?

I guess line boring would be very expensive but what really concerns me is, can a proper bearing be found to fit it after it is line bored?
 
PS. I am very much a proponent of being that guy that tells his kid I made it myself and teaching my kid how to do it too. When my son was growing up I bought him a basketcase Harley Panhead for the two of us to work on together.

Good luck with your XS.
 
Gary, I think all you're seeing there is a shadow similar, but not as big as what's showing on the other side. The top corners of the bearing bores are just beveled off. The bores aren't worn off-center as a quick glance at the pic may lead you to believe. The factory probably bevels off those top corners to ease fitting onto the bearing.
 
What I would want a better answer to is what was meant by:" I pay a visits at Heiden tuning en he was saying that er was to much clearance on the crank."

Was this "too much clearance" referring to the main bearings to the cases, too much clearance in the main bearings themselves, or too much clearance between the connection rods and the crank pins?

One can get into all kinds of problems trying to diagnose a problem or recommend a repair strategy going by a second hand statement such as this.

Don't take it wrong not finding fault with anyone! It's just too many times over the 45 years I spent working on heavy equipment got sent down a rabbit hole trying to find a problem when the original story had some minor error in terminology.

And the saying that "A picture is worth a thousand words!" may be true.
But by the same token a quick wipe with fingertips or nails is worth ten times that much in my book!

And one more thing that may not set well with some of the perfectionists here but knowing how long this engine is expected to run can make a difference in how fussy one gets during a repair.

I mean if a bike is only going to be used on trips to the local meeting place for lunch with one's buddies' and maybe see 1,000 km's a year running. Then it would not need to be assembled with the same level of perfection as one that was going to be used on a solo ride from Casablanca, Morocco to Beijing, China.
 
What I would want a better answer to is what was meant by:" I pay a visits at Heiden tuning en he was saying that er was to much clearance on the crank."

Was this "too much clearance" referring to the main bearings to the cases, too much clearance in the main bearings themselves, or too much clearance between the connection rods and the crank pins?

One can get into all kinds of problems trying to diagnose a problem or recommend a repair strategy going by a second hand statement such as this.

Don't take it wrong not finding fault with anyone! It's just too many times over the 45 years I spent working on heavy equipment got sent down a rabbit hole trying to find a problem when the original story had some minor error in terminology.

And the saying that "A picture is worth a thousand words!" may be true.
But by the same token a quick wipe with fingertips or nails is worth ten times that much in my book!

And one more thing that may not set well with some of the perfectionists here but knowing how long this engine is expected to run can make a difference in how fussy one gets during a repair.

I mean if a bike is only going to be used on trips to the local meeting place for lunch with one's buddies' and maybe see 1,000 km's a year running. Then it would not need to be assembled with the same level of perfection as one that was going to be used on a solo ride from Casablanca, Morocco to Beijing, China.

first of all I wanne thanks everybody that replied, much appreciated. I payed a visit to Heiden because the engine was burning oil. After his report he told me that to much side play left en right and up and down. My goal is to build a engine that can take me to France and back. I’m getting a new crank and let it get welded, 750 kit, new cam and rockers. My biggest concern is if I can reuse the cases. I would like a noise free engine and I don’t know if this effect it or can do harm to new bearings. And again thanks for replying.
 
I know there are many on this forum who could answer your questions and concerns if they had the chance to see and touch the cases. But I would have trouble from just a couple pictures feel good about any advice I could offer.

Is Heiden close to your location and would it be possible to have him/them take a in person look at the cases? I don't see anything in those pictures that would have me saying the cases are not reusable, but like I said seeing and touching them can let one know much that a couple pictures can.

It might even be an idea to clean the two case halves real good and then assemble them with no parts inside torquing fasteners to the specified torque then use inside micrometers to check the bores for the bearings to see if they are still good.

Not sure if there are specifications for the bores but at least you could compare the bores in cases to the outside diameters of the bearings. Maybe someone here could offer an opinion on what they should be. Just thinking off the top of my head I would think they should be extremely close in measurements.
 
Heiden is probably the top xs650 mechanic in the world at this point.
Go with his opinion as he knows more than this entire membership here.
 
I am going to Heiden :). I got a friend living close by. I will give you guys update after the inspection of proffessor Heiden. I got some other parts that need to looked at like the shifter forks. After that the parts gonna be wetblasted. Can’t wait. Thanks for the advice guys. Like to do it right way from the start. By any chance do guys got experience fitting a MX360 tank on a XS650 frame.
 
Back
Top