Starting The Piston Swap on my 220. Have Question.

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jafo
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Starting The Piston Swap on my 220. Have Question.

Post by jafo »

Well I finally figured I'd just do it. I pulled my bike down and have the original piston off. My question is concerning the nuts for the cylincer. How do you guys torque those nuts down? I could hardly get to two of them with my open end wrench.

What should I do to the new piston and rings and bearing for prep? Any tips there? Break in? yada, yada , yada? I really want this to go right.

OK, for the lighter side, what would be a good thing to do with my old piston???? :partyman: Skeet shooting? Pressure test in a press? Oh, I got it! I'll put it in a bag, bust it up real good with a hammer and take it to the Kaw dealership and raise hell and have some fun with'm! Yeh thats what I'll do!


Jon.
jafo
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Post by jafo »

By the way, the cylinder and piston looks great. There is almost no wear that I can see, just a couple very minoot scratches on the psiton. bearing rod and pin looks new also.

Jon.
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Indawoods
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Post by Indawoods »

Coat your piston, wrist pin and bearing with 2 stroke oil when assembling. When you put your circlips in... point the clips gap at 12 o'clock and make sure they snap in securely.

The base nuts can be torqued if you have the Pro-Motion adaptor. Personally, I just torque them by hand... never had a problem but that doesn't mean I won't. I am on a tool crusade so I will have one soon...

Break In Procedures

1) Start your engine and let idle occasionally blipping the throttle for four to five minutes. Allow the engine to cool completely. Repeat this "heat cycle" process four more times.

2) Warm up the engine again and ride the bike for five to seven minutes at a very easy pace, vary the rpm, don’t ride at one speed. Don’t ride at more than 1/3 throttle or more than 1/3 rpm. Let the engine cool down completely and repeat the initial break in ride. Let the engine cool down.

3) Check the base nuts and head nuts for proper torque, check the coolant level and add coolant as necessary.

4) Ride the bike for five to ten minutes at a moderate pace, vary the rpm, don’t ride at more than 3/4 throttle or more than 3/4 rpm. Let the engine cool completely and repeat this secondary break in twice more.

5) Replace the spark plug with a new one. Ride the bike for five to eight minutes at a moderate pace, vary the rpm and shift up and down the gears. Once the engine is up to operating temperature you can make a jetting pass. Start in second gear and ride at full throttle through fourth gear, fully revving out fourth gear. With the throttle wide open in fourth hold the kill button down, pull in the clutch and stop. This is called a "plug chop"

6) Read the spark plug. With a pocket flashlight and a magnifying glass look at the porcelain part of the plug only, as you view the plug from the center electrode look down the length of the porcelain to its base, at this point there should be a dark chocolate colored smoke ring. There was not sufficient time to thoroughly color the whole plug, so the nose of the insulator may still be white, as long as there is a visible dark ring at the base everything is OK. Remember we want break in jetting so the plug should read rich/dark. Richen the jetting as necessary. If your having a hard time reading the spark plug, after the jet pass put the plug in a vice and hacksaw around the plug at the washer. Break the threads off with vise-grips, and the porcelain will be easy to read.

7) Complete the break in by riding at an aggressive pace for fifteen minutes, vary the rpm and don’t cruise at part throttle, ride hard without revving the engine too high. At the end of this final break in session do another jetting pass/plug chop as described above. Check the spark plug for the correct dark/rich condition. Wiseco Piston equipped engines will require another one or two break in cycles, ride at a recreational pace not revving the engine hard, full throttle should only be used for very short periods, fifth and sixth gear should only be used to cruise, ride one tank of gas through the engine in this manner to complete the break in. I feel it take about two gallons of gas to break in a motor equipped with a cast piston and five gallons for a motor equipped with a Wiseco.

8) Replace the spark plug with a new one, ride the bike aggressively for eight minutes and do a jetting pass/ plug chop in fifth gear. If the porcelain color is still dark/rich, lean the main jet size one at a time until the smoke ring at the base of the porcelain is a light brown. If the porcelain base is white, don’t run the engine until you richen the main. If the plug color looks good, continue riding at a race pace for ten minutes. Stop and let the engine cool. Check the torque on the cylinder base and head nuts.
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Post by bradf »

Here's how I torqued the cylinder nuts. Use a short 15mm long bolt that has a 12mm flange head and thread a 12mm nut all the down on the bolt, put the bolt into the open end of a 12mm combo wrench with the nut facing up. The flange will keep the bolt from falling through. The box end of the wrench goes onto the cylinder nut. Torque wrench should be 90 degrees to the combo wrench. If the combo wrench is about 10" and the torque wrench is about 18" you will need to add about 8% to the torque amount. Set at 20 lbs for an 18lb torque. This was tested on the bench for accuracy. If the torque wrench is in line with the combo wrench you will have to do the math and subtract from the 18 lb as the extra length is a torque multiplier. Motion Pro sells a 12mm/14mm wrench combo with the square cut-out in the center for the torque wrench to fit into.
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Post by KDXer »

If you keep the wrench and adapter at 90 degrees to each other you can forget the maths and just wrench away.

I just welded a socket onto an old ring spanner. Worked great. I can post a pic if you need one.
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Post by MY KDX 220 R »

Post it - Post it!!!!!!!
KEEP IT REAL!!
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Indawoods
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Post by Indawoods »

Yeah... do it! :shock:
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Post by KDXGarage »

Good info guys. The Motion Pro tool is on my "need to get" list, but the nut trick may be just the thing until then.
Thank you for participating on kdxrider.net. :bravo:
To post pictures from a device: viewtopic.php?f=88&t=24128
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Post by KDXer »

Sorry for the delay...

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Indawoods
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Post by Indawoods »

I fixed it trev! :lol:

Better put some WD-40 on that puppy!
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"People ate cows a thousand years ago for the same reason we eat them now. Cause they are easy to catch.We're not savages,we're just lazy. A cheetah could taste like chocolate heroin. But will never know. Those bastards are fast!!! "
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Post by KDXer »

:lol: It was the only one I had that I was willing to decapitate for the experiment. I'm planning to make one from a (nice, new, shiny) 6-point ring spanner, so don't fret Inda that puppy's getting put down soon. :lol:
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Post by KDXGarage »

Cool. Thanks for posting that picture.
Thank you for participating on kdxrider.net. :bravo:
To post pictures from a device: viewtopic.php?f=88&t=24128
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Post by canyncarvr »

I've seen that pic afore.....;)

Yeah...just weld it! Simple!!

The only thing that Miller means to me is BEER (not good beer at that). Certainly nothing to do with electrodes and lot'sa amps.

Wow. Bradf's resolution is a wonder of convoluted thinking! Necessity being the mother of invention and all...kudos to a keenly thought out 'tool'! Is that the sort of thing that happens when you have a brain?

..well..that and welding of course! :wink:

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jafo
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Post by jafo »

Well it's done, Got it back together but not without some excitment. Those damn snap rings!!!! I got the first one in with some persuation and alittle cuss'n. After the piston was on the connecting rod, getting the wristpin in, holding the piston and rod upright, and finding the hole through the rod bearing was fun, but the best time came when I had to instal the other snap ring. I was working it into the hole and discovered it was'nt in the right position then getting it back out then back in and right before it was all the way in.... DING! That sucker flew off out of the piston and all I could go by was where I heard it hit the basement wall! Crap! Thats when the cussin really started! Luck would have it after crawling around on the floor and moving half the basement , I found that little sucker. Wow, what a morning, but it all worked out. I'm in the breakin stage rite now.

Jon.
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Post by Indawoods »

Well... at least you didn't get it all back together and torqued down and look on the table and have a circlip looking at you. :shock:

I hate those clips too... what a PITA!
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Post by jafo »

Oh yeh, I freaked out when I got the bike back together and looked down and seen two bolts laying in the tray of the bike stand. I got a knot in my stomach until I realised that they were for the exhaust pipe that I had'nt put back on yet. :lol: I tried to be slow and deliberate with doing this swap so that it would go alittle smoother and really it did. It's really very simple.

I know next time I do a Piston swap, I'm ordering extra circlips! That would be the best advice I could offer anyone else thats getting ready for a piston swap, definitley get extra circlips!

Jon.
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