Day 5 - Engine Removal

First things first, lets remove the Carbs and drain as much fuel from those things as possible. The carbs were a bit of a struggle to remove mainly trying to get those 4 rubbery connectors off the inlet ports. Disconnect the choke and throttle cables and set that aside for another day - I'll spent a separate amount of time on the carbs themselves and clean them up properly and give them a proper service according to the service manual.


I must admit I was slightly nervous about doing this as this is the largest engine I've removed from a bike thus far. The manual says to just support the bottom of the engine with a trolly jack, but parts of me were thinking is that going to be quite enough? So anyway I go ahead and remove the engine mounting bolts, remove the cables and yet more problems I'm finding. The stator cables have been selotaped together! That has to be sorted.


Finally got it out! It wasn't that difficult overall and when lowering the trolley jack just got to make sure you support the engine with your hand so it doesn't topple over. I can just about lift the engine too but I wouldn't want to stand up with it - interesting to know how heavy it is.


Looks like a serious bare shell now. One thing I did do was number the spark plug coils as it looks like the coil on the left side goes to spark 1 and 4, and the right side goes to 2 and 3 - must remember that. At a later time I will clean up the frame and address the rust on the parts of the frame and repaint.


Couldn't resist but had to take the engine inside the house. I had an old piece of worktop board so got some wheels from Homebase and screwed them onto the bottom - makes it much easier to lug the engine around.


It also turns out the engine weighs 64.2 KG. Who knew - for some reason I thought it would be heavier but maybe not. Although thats without any coolant, and no carbs - although the engine oil is still in there. So the plan is now is to clean the engine as much as possible and get it looking nice from the outside before I start taking it apart and overhauling it from the inside.