It went from bad to worse.

For the past year, I had a goal of riding Blue to the Vermont Rally this year. Through the “real job” related delays and project challenges, this felt like a real possiblity even until the week before the trip. I had a plan, a punch list, and took time off to work through the rest of the project. Until, I didn’t.

I put a lot of time Into the project over the past 6-weeks and focused on progress over documentation. This has extended my unintentional hiatus from YouTube, but the bike was coming along nicely.

Every project gets to a point that you can do nothing else but fire it up and see what happens. It’s a moment where you learn if you got it terribly wrong, sort of wrong, mostly right, or something else. With Blue, that moment was not particularly remarkable. A rough first start as a hibernating motor coughs itself back to life. It was rough, but both cylinders firing. It put a light on a few minor electrical gremlins to address including some faulty components in the charging system. I also needed to do a better preliminary tune on the carbs.

After a couple hours, It would fire up and run smoothly. Up until this point, I had not let it go for long. Just enough for quick adjustments and confirmation. I decided to let it run and warm up fully before taking it off the stand and sending it out for a road test. 15 minutes later, everything changed.

The small drip pan under the oil drain was no longer dry. It had a thin layer of oil that had dripped off the rear of the motor. Not gearbox oil, but motor oil. I quickly ruled out the drain plug and oil pan gasket, so no easy remedy was on the menu. Super.

I would need to get a look at the back of the motor to determine if it was the rear main seal or the oil pump cover. Even at this point, I could still make the trip as I had time to get the gearbox out and change what needed to be changed. I opted to speed-run the removal of the gearbox and flywheel. It was clear that the oil had not come from the rear main seal and was coming from the oil pump. After removing the cover, it was immediately obvious where the oil was getting out.

The o-ring on the cover had shifted and become pinched. A lot work for a cheap part. I checked the pump and the motor housing for anything else and everything looked good around the oil pump. That’s when the bigger problem started to peek out at me.

Looking closely at the rear main seal, I noticed it was slightly raised in one spot. I don’t recall any issues when I installed this seal and it was not leaking. Not currently. I considered simply reseating the seal with the install tool but decided to replace it out of an excess of caution. Ha. “excess of caution”. That idiom was going to bite me in the rear very soon.

I pulled the old seal and everything looked fine from a superficial inspection. I did notice the outside thrust washer had slipped off the locating pins while removing the seal. Not the one inside the motor that we all worry about so diligently, but the one that rides outside the motor. I put it back onto the pins and installed a new seal. Making sure to get it seated flush with the seal bore in regular, even tightening of the bolts. Once I was happy with the install, I removed the tool and inspected it. All appeared to be in order. Next, I removed the crankshaft bracing to test for free rotation.

There wasn’t any free rotation any longer. Damn.

This is a moment that I will remember. A moment when my mind raced to comprehend what went wrong. I was absolutely certain the crankshaft was immobilized. No way it moved. If anything, I over-braced it, so what happened. The crank would rotate with greater than normal force. I moved it a few degrees. Just enough to hear the scraping sound from inside the motor. That’s when I remembered the outer thrust washer falling off the locating pin. Looking closely I could see that it had fallen off again before the seal had been installed.

That meant that when I carefully installed the seal, I was actually using the outer thrust washer to press the locating pin deeper into the motor. Enough to contact the rear of the crankshaft. Game Over. This bike is not going to Vermont. I survived a lingering moment where all I wanted to do was to shove the bike off the stand and walk away.

I spent some time reflecting on the volumes of Airhead wisdom that makes it impossible to do anything on the back of the motor without knowing the importance of immobilizing the crankshaft. All to prevent the internal thrust washer from being dislodged. I can honestly say that I don’t recall anybody sharing any caution about the external thrust washer. Not to mention, the fact that the seal install tools seem to block any ability to note if the external thrust washer has moved. I will have to search for an option that provides something to solve for this or perhaps I will design my own. No matter for now.

After a few days, I made peace with my predicament. I get to completely tear down the motor again. More this time, since the crankshaft will need to come out. I’ve ordered the parts I think I will need and will be taking a couple weeks off from the project. When I get back at it, we’ll be resetting the project quite a bit.

Live and learn.

On the upside, this is a great opportunity to revise some of the work I have done on the project. Particularly, I have decided to change my wiring strategy. Once I realized I did not like the current wiring, I was far enough into the project to be willing to live with it. I suppose a bit more rework is not the end of the world at this point, so we’ll be making it a bit cleaner now that we get to take it all back apart. Joy.