More work on the bike

A little more progress was made on the weekend. I pulled the sump off and drained all of the old oil out. The bottom of the motor was so dirty and covered in old oil and road grime that both of the drain plugs are seized in place with dirt.

The only way I was able to get the old oil out was to use 2 cans of degreaser and a wire brush to clean up as much of the dirt from the 6 sump bolts and drop that instead.

Once I got the sump plate off, I used another 3 cans of degreaser trying to get more of the dirt off of the outside of the sump plate (including soaking it for 3 hours in the degreaser and then scrubbing). I can now see that the sump is in fact made of aluminium, but I still have a long way to go to get it very clean.

I may need to look into borrowing a friends air compressor and making my own temporary soda blaster to strip the sump plate and the bottom of the motor. I would also then soda blast the fins on the motor to clean them up a little. I know that soda blasting isn't overly abrasive, so it wont remove all of the pitting itself, but if I can get it very clean with the soda blasting I will then finish off the motor by hand with some sanding and metal polish to get it back to it's former glory.

Over this coming long weekend I am going to pull off the right side cover of the motor, check out the clutch, give it a good clean under the cover and then I will be ready to start putting the motor back together with new gaskets for the side covers, the new oil filter and sump filter and some new oil. Then I will need to check the timing and I will be able to kick it over and get it started.

Before getting it back together though, I need to order two gaskets that I missed ordering last time. I will also order a new clutch pushrod seal, as it is a none seal that will leak as soon as you start a motor, so I will go ahead and replace that before starting.