Piston ring Replacement

[zombie2]

Nice and empty bike , amazing how light this thing is without an engine.
Picture with me mechanical mate holding the bike

[zombie2]

Now comes the serious bit.
Fist off I raided the missus store of sheets and put one on the lift so I could lay everything out nice and neat like.
I know what I'm going to have to get for the crimbo for the bedroom
Then turned the motor on it's side and took off the oil sump to have a gander at the crank and connecting rods.
Their are no barrells on the bike like a conventional motor, the upper crankcase and barrells are all one piece. Well bugger that anyhow
So according to the factory manual  we're supposed to split the crankcases to access the rings , well hang on spanky , maybe not.......stay tuned.

[zombie2]

Okay so
Had a good look at the underneath bit and Liamsey (that would be the mechanic and owner of an 05 silver tiger) reckoned we could get at all the con-rod bolts from underneath. Put the oil sump back on and turned the motor upright again.
Removed the valve cover and gasket. At this point we checked the valve clearances and wrote down the results.
We started to remove the bolts that hold the cam shafts in and found one the was starting to strip the torx socket , so we used a vice grips to get it started. Crappy design and they should have used allen bolts as the torx strip to easily in my opinion.
We released the tension on the cam chain and removed the housing
We wired the cam chain to the head to stop it falling into the motor
We put all the bolts and caps in labeled baggies so I know where they will go later

[zombie2]

Now We removed the cam shafts and put a cable tie on the rear one so We know where it goes later.

[zombie2]

Next we took out the  shim and bucket set ups making note of where they went.
I took the time to write down which were intake and which exhaust
I emptied a drawer in my tool box and laid a piece of paper down with the buckets laid out in the sequence they will go back into the bike and numbered accordingly

[zombie2]

So all thats left is to take off the head.
Their is an oil line that feeds into the head on the left underneath the throttle bodies that needs to come off.
Next we remove the two small torx bolts on the outside of the head on the left.
Then remove the head bolts and tap the head and remove.
Well would ya look at all that carbon on the top of the pistons

[zombie2]

So well pleased so far as the liners are really nice , the cross hatching is visible and no scoring on the liner walls....result.
So next thing is to turn the motor on it's side again and try and remove the connecting rods and pistons

[zombie2]

this bit was really tricky and  requires a steady hand and patience.
Vital to  keep track of the removal process so everything lines up correctly.
Take the end caps off and remove , then push the piston up thru the barrell using a wooden drift if possible and hey presto
We utilised a long  3/8 extension with a knuckle joint to get at the con-rod caps.
Took the first one out and the big end bearings look all spangly and shiny with no visible sign of wear.
After all the pistons were out we looked at the rings and tho it's hard to see in the pics the oil rings on all pistons were worn , as they should have a razor edge on them but these ones were worn.
So thats it until next week when we start re-assembly.
In the meantime I'm going to clean up the piston crowns and remove all the gunk and give them a bit of a polish.
So stay tuned for next week's thrilling installment as getting the big end caps back on will be a challenge but we feel it's doable with patience and cups of tea and biscuits

[zombie2]

And a random pic of me and liamsey on our tigers at the laconia  rally in New Hampshire heading up to Mount washington.
Hopefully all going well we'll be there next june on our bikes

[Sasquatch]

Your now missing a step.  The piston liners (cylinders) are just held into the crankase with Hylomar (sp?).  You have potentially disturbed them so they MUST be removed, cleaned, and re-glued back into place.

[zombie2]

Your now missing a step.  The piston liners (cylinders) are just held into the crankase with Hylomar (sp?).  You have potentially disturbed them so they MUST be removed, cleaned, and re-glued back into place.

We have been wondering about that too , and we're going to whip them out to clean them up
Anyone else out there with suggestions , let us know as we're all ears and this is a first for both of us doing this so useful comments are more than welcome

[Mustang]

you will need the hylomar or the liners WILL leak coolant  into the crankcase  :shock:

Bike bandit will be able to get it to you faster than the dealers usually

you can find it on bike bandits schematic for the cylinders and connecting rods on the 1998 tiger schematic .........it's pricey $35 a tube , but it works .

Bike bandits part # is 1399754
Triumphs part # is (5578228-001)

[zombie2]

Cheers boys
Ordered up the Hylomar and we are in the process of making our own liner extraction tool , Triumph want 200 bux for a friggin puller , nuts.
In the meantime we will be cleaning up the head and pistons.
We still think we can achieve all this without splitting the crankcases.
I'm in no rush to put it back together so it'll be done right as I really really like this bike and it's one of the very few motorcycles I've held onto and I've dealt in hundreds as I use to export the things.
I've yet to come across a bike that does everything I want as well as this one.

[zombie2]

So Tonight we cleaned up the pistons and the head.
Carefully we removed the carbon off the piston crown using the air compressor with a soft cleaning head attached to the air drill.
We spent some time with a dentist pic cleaning the recess where the valves sit into the piston top.
We then cleaned the cyclinder head and cleaned up the valves and around them.
Lastly we did a leakdown test on the head itself and everything is tickety-boo
and is all sealed nicely.
No I didn't put O'douls into the head for the leak down test as that would be a waste of my favorite beverage but I did use sili-kroil which is an aircraft type lubricant and penetrant.
Next is removing the liners , I'm hoping to get a liner extractor  saturday and then we can start the rebuild

[zombie2]

Just a quick update.
Still waiting for the oil sump gasket to arrive and the hylomar,
we also have fabricated our own liner removal tool.
I'm off for the xmas to Atlanta and will be back the 1st week of january
and then we will start putting it all back together
cheers