Posts Tagged twin
Honda CX650E Engine Removal
Posted by Randy in Motorcycle on October 21, 2009
Last time, we had just finished taking off the exhaust:
First thing we need to do is take out the battery. Nothing to this part. Just use a screwdriver to take the wires off the terminals then use a socket to open up the latch. After you’ve got the battery out, you’ll probably want to put the bolt back in the latch so that you don’t lose it.
Use a pair of box end wrenches to loosen the clutch cable adjustment lock nuts. Once they’re loose, you can pretty easily slide the adjustment assembly up and out of the way to separate the cable from the block.
Once that’s done, it’s a simple flick of the wrist to remove the cable end from the lower clutch lever.
Next, you want to make sure all of your electrical connections have been cleared so you don’t break any wires when you separate the engine from the frame.
Pull the boots off of the spark plugs and move them up out of the way.
Loosen the boot around the drive shaft joint. Be careful with the boot. It’s fragile and if you tear it road grit can get in and drastically reduce the life of the universal joint.
Leaving the boots on the carbs, disconnect the intakes from the cylinder heads. On my bike, someone had replaced a couple of the normal hex-head bolts with allen-heads, so I had to be creative.
Slide a trolley jack under the engine. Make sure you have something soft between the jack and the engine. Some people like to use a wood block. Personally, I like to use a stack of rags.
Bring the jack up just enough that it takes the weight of the engine without lifting the bike up at all. We don’t want the engine to shift up when the mounting bolts are removed any more than we want it to shift down.
Remove all of the mounting bolts. Be aware that two of the mounting bolts go all the way through the frame and have a nut on the other side.
Now, the fun begins. Gently rock the jack towards the front of the bike and the engine should come along with it. If the engine is caught up on anything, try rocking it back and forth. If it still won’t move, go back a few steps and make sure you disconnected everything. Assuming the engine moves, you’ll accomplish a few different things.
The cylinders will pull away from the the intake.
You’ll notice that some of the wires are still connected to the block next to the battery. Disconnect everything that moves.
The drive shaft will disconnect from the engine.
The starter will pull out from under the mounting tabs on the frame. Now that you can easily get to the bolt, disconnect the ground wire from the starter.
That’s everything there is to disconnect. From here, you can jiggle the engine forward and down and it will easily drop from the frame. If you’re fairly strong, you should be able to balance the engine on the jack by yourself as you work it out. It’s probably much safer if you work with a friend. I’m 6′5, 250lbs and it was a task for me to do it on my own.
That’s all there is to it. Next time, we’ll prep the new engine to go into the frame.
CX650E Exhaust Removal
Posted by Randy in Motorcycle on February 1, 2009
Once you take the engine guards off the next step when preparing to remove the engine is to take off the exhaust. This should go without saying, but please make sure the engine and exhaust are cold before attempting any of the work described on this page. Thanks.
The first thing you need to do is loosen the flanges that hold the exhaust into the port in the cylinder head. You’ll need a 10mm socket to get these off. Remember, these bolts heat up to 300+ deg and cool back down to air temperature every time you ride the bike. They also get all of the water and grime kicked up by your front tire. Basically, the nuts aren’t going to come off easily. I advise letting them soak in PB Blaster, WD-40, or Deep Creep (my personal favorite) overnight before going at them. If you break the studs, you’re in for a world of misery replacing them.
Next, remove the rear mounting bolt using a 14mm socket.
Next, you have to get under the bike and take out the through-bolts that hold the H-box to the bottom of the engine and frame. Sorry, but I don’t recall what size these are.
From here, I was hoping to be able to remove the exhaust as one complete unit, but it just wasn’t meant to be. So, next we take off the headers. Mine were attached to the H-box with a couple of (not very stock looking) 10mm hose clamps. YMMV.
This next shot makes it all look easy. Look, the header comes right off. In all actuality, I beat on it with a rubber mallet for a good 15 minutes before it finally gave in and loosened up. Be patient. Be consistent. Use a soft-faced mallet.
Some P.O. had made gratuitous use of exhaust tape (which disintegrates upon removal). I’m still finding this stuff all over my garage.
Same game on the other side…
More exhaust tape as well as proof that my E had a close encounter at some point in its life.
Once the headers are no longer an issue, you can jiggle the rear pipes and the H-box off as one unit. Again, this is not as easy as it sounds, but it is simply a matter of jerking it around until it falls off. Make sure the H-box is completely unbolted from the bottom of the bike or you could spend a half-hour or more jiggling and cursing while not accomplishing anything. Don’t ask me how I know.
And here she is with no exhaust…
And that’s all there is to it. Next time we’ll actually pull the engine out.
CX650E Engine Guard Removal
Posted by Randy in Motorcycle on January 25, 2009
Aquisition
In On February 22, 2008, I picked up a Honda CX650E from a very nice gentleman named Jim in Michigan. Since the Eurosport is quite rare in the U.S., I figured it was worth the trip around the pond. I still wonder if taking the ferry would have been easier and/or more cost effective. Anyway, here’s how she looked when I first picked her up:
Here you can see the faded paint, the lack of air horn, the extra running engine (as opposed to the bad one in the frame), and my buddy Chad who happened to be picking up an engine (which turned into 1.5 bikes) about 10 miles from where the E had been living.
Removing the Guards
Here she is sitting in my garage at home, waiting for me to tear her apart. The bike in the background is an ‘86 Suzuki Intruder that I bartered to my friend Steve.
My Eurosport happened to come with engine guards installed, so step one was getting those off. There’s one bolt attaching the guard to the frame near the rear of the engine:
There are two more connections at the front of the engine hanger, right by the radiator:
Once the engine guard is off, the engine looks something like this:
The other guard comes off just the same. One bolt in back:
And two in front:
By the way, getting these off makes use of three sockets: 17mm, 14mm, and 12mm.
The right side, cleared of guards looks like this:
Stay tuned. In my next post, I’ll go over removing the exhaust.