Forum

[grunda 12]

hi mike ..hylomar not welcome in your garage,never buy a rolls royce then ,imho good joints should only require grease and a gasket,but the japanese used a type of jointing compound on all there engines,i use wellseal ,clear silicone,grease and hylomar when i can afford it,i have also pioneered a rubber gasket in my primary case,no leaks here now mike !!!

[Symon]

thanks for the posts. The end float question did cross my mind Yorkie but the fact that the manual mentions a gasket and then Full Electra (500) gasket set from Mr.H includes one I thought as you say Alan, somebody had been at it. The faces are pretty dam perfect to be honest so i'm moving towards just either painting on a thin coat of something or very thin bead of grey silicon. I've measured the lengths of the shafts on both cranks and the total distance across the web's and its all the same so for the end float reason I'm thinking of leaving it out

[Norm]

Be very carefull with silicone, the oil pickup hole from the oil tank is small with no screen and so are the oilways and if a small blob of silicone breaks loose it will get sucked into the oilways and you know the rest

[Jack]

Dunno about the Electra but the Bullet motor design doesn't have end float,so fitting gasket
may only pull the crank shaft off center if no gasket was fitted from new.Mind you
only a fraction.Personally if it didn't have one from new i wouldn't fit one.
Jack.

[Robin]

Hi Symon. I just completed my Electra rebuild a week and a half ago. Just like yours, there was no gasket between the crankcase halves, only this grey sealing compound you mention. By the sound of it, you are vastly more experienced at rebuilding engines than I am, and you should find it a fairly straightforward job. The only real problem I encountered was that the crankcase shafts were of differing diameter!, and one of the main bearing inner races was far too loose, and the other far too tight. I hope you don't have the same issue, but if you do, proceed with care, and maybe grind down the tight one and use Locktite 648 on the loose one, as recommended by Les H. I'm not too happy with my rebuild, and maybe having problems with the oil flow. I am still investigating. Wish you to be more successful!

[Symon]

Thanks for that Robin...and yes, come to think of it one of the inner races was a b*****d to get off, had to lever it up, bit by bit, using a filed down brass rod in the slot in the crank under the thrust washer.Cant remember which side. Before I realised the bearings had a lot of play in them I slipped the timing side race on to the new crank; it wasn't loose - needed a few tap's with a piece of copper pipe and then offered up the crank to the crankcase. Thats when I fould there was loads of play when I tried to rotate it and when I took it out one of the rollers in the cage came out so that was a def. sign to replace the bearings. I'll mike up both sides tonight and see what I get. With your rebuld did you replace the thrust washers, cant see them on the parts books on here and the manual says to replace them; I'd pressed them back into shape after levering up the inner races in case I had to re use them. Its on my list of final things to phone Mr.H and ask if they do infact sell them.

[Robin]

Hi Symon. One of the old inner races on my crank just slid of without applying any force, and the other wouldn't budge. I tried like you to lever it off using the small gap behind the thrust washer, but wasn't successful, and in the end my employer, who has a motorcycle workshop helped me out by applying two spots of weld to the inner race so a puller tool he had could get some grip and finally yank it off. I reused my old crank and had it carefully rebalanced. I bought two new thrust washers from our hosts. They do not feature in the parts manual, and I had to phone them. Apparently they have access to a slightly more comprehensive version, which also covers the parts not listed in the regular manual. I've just checked my receipt, and they are part number 140799.
One of the new main bearing inner races was too loose, as it could swivel around on the shaft. As previously mentioned, Locktite 648 sorts this problem. The other was too tight a fit, and Norm advised me to heat it up before sliding it on. I heated it up with a heat gun, but it cooled down again really fast and got stuck half way down the shaft. I improvised a rig to hold the crank upright, sanded a block of wood down to fit between the flywheels and by repeatedly reheating the inner race and knocking it down by placing slightly larger inner races of old bearings on top and using a block of wood and a hard rubber mallet, I finally got it into place. I'm not happy I had to bodge this inner race on my newly rebalanced crank in this manner, and would do it differently if I got a second chance! I might even be tempted to sand the shaft down with sand paper, using the wrap-around method. Hope yours are a better fit.
Sorry if I've repeated myself, but I wouldn't like you to face the same problem!
Good luck.

[Jack]

The scary part is that guy could still be in the machine shop!! Sad story.

[Norm]

50% are like that, nothing new with this problem

[Symon]

thanks for the part number Robin, sounds like you had some real problems. The old inner race I'd slid onto the new crank came off ok with a couple of brass bars filed down flat at the ends to use as levers. Mike'd up both the old and new crank, both 24.98mm on the timing side and 25mm dead on the drive side, so will have to see...I have 8 inch industrial hot plate from work that i'm going to sit the cases on to heat them up to knock out the mains (hopefully) so I can always sit the inner race on that to heat it up, failing that heat gun also at the ready.