anyone ever have a cracked cylinder sleeve?

[klrx7]

took my engine out to fix a left cylinder smoking/ oil consumption issue. Thought it was valve seals or rings. had good compression though. found no smoking gun until I Was about to put it back together and noticed a crack in the left cylinder sleeve. starts at the top and goes about half way toward the bottom. Is this very common? I assume it was like that when I got it. I've put 1500 miles on it like that. I'm thinking my best bet is to find a used jug and hone it and go from there. I have already bought new original size rings. another question is this. after looking for cylinders on ebay and such I noticed my sleeves have a radius in the top flange next to one of the bolts. (see pics) I don't see that in any others. Anyone know why? mine is a 76 by the way. I believe it is all original.

 

[CDNTX650]

Buy some sleeves from mikes, buy some new pistons and rings and get your shop tro bore the new sleeves to your new pistons. When i washed mine with super hot tap water during my rebuild the sleeves slid right out.

 

[klrx7]

my bores are still very true and have little sign of wear. same with pistons. any problem with just replacing the one sleeve and using stock pistons with new rings? bores measure 75.00 - 75.02 btw.

 

[CDNTX650]

You rebuilt it not long ago? You could just do one side then. Probably still bore the new resleeve though...mic it and piston will say forsure.

 

[angus67]

Why....yes I have had a cracked piston sleave.....

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But I doubt this is your cause.

 

[weekendrider]

krlx7 I think you have new sleeves from Mike's.
Looking at his engines parts the 650 sleeves are pictured from the bottom but the 750 sleeves show that notch. Which makes me wonder if that isn't the source of your leak.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

The notch in the cylinder sleeve top flange (if that's what you're talking about) is there to clear the hollow alignment dowel. There'll be one clearance notch per sleeve, and the sleeve must be installed with that notch in the correct location.

 

[weekendrider]

TwoMany looking at the pictures of jugs on e-bay I'm not seeing a notch (like the OP) in the OEM sleeves. This is a random picture stolen from e-bay.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

WER, I swear, I learn something new on this forum everyday. I always assumed that those notches would be there for all models. Manuals don't have clear enuff pics to see this. Here's a couple pics of the dowel holes in the '71 XS1B cylinder I just received from RichardTheMotorcycle.

Another mystery. Maybe this is a '256' thing?

 

[weekendrider]

I wondered what your new to you jugs would be(notched or not). I guess that is the reason Mikes are. To fit all applications?

 

[chizler62]

The reason it crack very well could be your clearances were way off and or the sleeve was install frozen and the person goofed it up.
Either way I'd get the other cylinder measured by someone with a dial bore gauge. If you were using a cheap set of calipers, as shown in photo, isn't worth a damn for specs. A cylinder should be measured in 6 spots X and Y and T, M, B.
With that said, Nobody who does quality work will resleeve your cylinder and bore it for a used piston.
In your shoes if money is a factor I'd just purchase a used cylinder bring it to your local shop that does boring. They'll measure it and tell you if you can clean it up or if you need to bore it and get a new set of pistons and rings etc

 

[jay760]

I was cleaning up a set of 750 barrels the other day and noticed a crack running around then up the bore, so you aren't the only one.

 

[klrx7]

Update. I bought a used jug from a local salvage yard. I don't know what year it is from but it is the other style (no radius in flange). One sleeve was bad one good. I decided to use the good one in mine. Once both were removed I found that the flange thickness is different as well as the outside diameter of the flange. My style is the larger in both respects. So they are not interchangeable. I will bring it back and get one that matches my style. Makes me wonder what you get with the new ones.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

... I found that the flange thickness is different as well as the outside diameter of the flange...

Well, THAT's a good heads-up. Something to watch out for...

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

This is the ONLY info I could find on cylinder sleeves. They don't appear in my parts manuals.