Bajaj In A Basket

To make a long story short Embarassed

Last year as the Evil Drain Plug Fiasco came to a successful conclusion, I started the scoot. Immediate KNOCKING was heard. Instant KNOCKING, even before any loose chips from the drain tap exercise had a chance to infect the innards of the scooter. Big Bummer. That meant the Bajaj had to go into a basket for a rebuild. Knowing that I had other "Yard Monuments" with motors and wheels in the same or similar condition, I needed a plan. No, I needed to execute a plan - let's be honest. Execution as in ACTION needed to take place.

Plans were made, execution initiated, results began to slowly accumulate. Scoottaashack began to appear. Yay, stuff that was to be kept, repaired, etc. would have a place were later actions would happen. On the 7th day, I rested and got drunk. I have continued to work. By the end of that year (2008) I enclosed most of the porch of the shop. Only thing left was something other than mud for the main floor.

On Jan 1, 2009 work began in earnest.

The Beemer, my angel, was moved inside to safety with the scoot. Weeks of disassembly, polish on the grinding wheel, electrical repair and refurbish of components plus purchase of carb parts from a nice German dude in Florida, the BMW runs like the charm she is. She goes on the road legally in short order.

Other shizz has taken place pertinent to other yard monuments, major and minor goals achieved and the Bajaj now hits center stage. It requires a complete tear down but the shop is small and still has mud floors mostly. Concrete is poured, 25 bags of 80 lb. Quickrete later I have an adequate and level floor. Now I just need something to hold a disassembled scooter - a basket as it's commonly called that will facilitate the work. Wheels are indicated .... hmmm. While on a jaunt down the road "testing" the BMW I stop in and say hi to neighbor Kevin. He works on motor boats & motors. He shows me a stack of pallet bases, made in China, to ship cheap shit to Walmart in America. "If ya want one of these then take one, I got no use for'em". They got wheels. I succumb to karmic forces and this is what happened the next day:

I crank up the woodworking tools and some scrap, and a mobile engine cart appears in the shack, complete with tool&parts tray on the side. Way cool. The lid-top-engine support you see, can and will be changed as required. I am in gear. You are looking at the flywheel side of a Bajaj engine. Very Naked. Here is a close-up shot:

Here is the clutch-tranny side, the shiny spot is some test cleaning I've done:

A shot looking at the piston. It and the cam chain are covered for protection:

And while I was shooting, just a composite shot of all this in inaction. The carb inlet tubes are off and covered with tape as I had the BMW outside for a quick bath today:

So, I got a mostly and soon to be completely Bajaj scooter on the teardown. I got lights, and camera, and action going. With no budget and tons on time, don't get in a frickin' hurry for me to complete. You are warned, but I will get her running.

In the meantime, I have access to provide in-depth photos and explanations of the inner workings of all aspects of our scoots. Carbs, starters and their solenoids, you name it, I can stage it.

Later this weekend I'll provide some details of the 'jug' and the scoring, carbon deposits in the combustion chamber ... things pertinent to my particular issue. Then I gotta figure out how to split the cases. Never done that before. This is gonna be fun. Rolling Eyes

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

	Quote:
	To make a long story short

...or to make a short story long (my personal tendencies)... Wink

Sounds like you've got a nice little plan happening there. We are all looking forward to your tutorials. I think a lot of us might also be looking forward to some more pics of you beemer...

Good luck with your project(s)! We'd all love to see you back on the road with your chetak!

Peace out,
Bailey

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2005 Chetak

Thanks Rufus.

I really look forward to seeing exactly what the hell is going on in there. I have that vespa motor totally torn apart in my garage right now. Been soaking new clutch plates in oil since yesterday, rebuilding the clutch and putting new points,condensor, and wires on the stator today. When I finish this little two stroker I may have the bravery to tackle that chetak engine sitting in my garage with a little courage from this thread!

Good luck-

Rob

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It was just an innocent gas pump fight...who would know it could be dangerous?

I popped my clutch cover off this morning and gave it a little cleaning. My engine is dirtier than most. Scrubbed with some solvent and some welders brushes. You can buy these brushes cheaply any place that sells welding stuff like Home Depot. Like big tooth brushes, one is brass and one steel. I put the nuts and bolts on the bench grinder where I have a 6" brass wheel on one side.

Here is what's under the clutch cover. In the center is the clutch basket. The rear axle is down on the right, and the gear up top drives the valve chain.

Semi-clean cover reinstalled. When I do the rest of the cases it might look like a motor, rather than a oily cow-patty Confused

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

I dragged the motor down the road to Kevin's and we tackled pulling the flywheel. Took some wrangling and we got to use a hammer (yay!) but it did come off. I gotta help fiberglass his bass boat in exchange for the free wrinchin'. Then back to the Scoottaashack to remove the stator side cover.

Of note in this pic is the two power coils. At about 10 o'clock is a small black rectange with a white label on top. This is the pulser pickup coil that fires your CDI.

The stator cover does not just fall off. In fact it became ornery. I got a 2nd beer. Ornery continued. Hmmm..... This will take some thinkin'. Then I lossen the coil assembly a bit so I can get my little puller under it, and vavoom. With the puller acting as a 3rd hand in the center I got it to come loose. Naked innards exposed ....

Just grab the crank and it lifts right out. Easy as pie. The gear on the top is where the kick start engages. The little gear just below runs the valve chain. Then the rod bearing assembly where you can see the burning just above the rod due to the rod bearing failure. The bearing on the bottom doesn't feel perfect like the one on the top side.

I call this success. I have the bad part isolated which is the crank/piston assembly. This I will not fix myself as a major part of wrinchin' is not skill, but proper tools. I ain't gonna by $500 worth of tools to do a $200 fix. However, I have disassembled and diagnosed the issue. I can ship this assembly to anywhere in the US and get it returned, quite cheaply. I can clean everything up while I wait, then it's just reassemble and I be ridin'.

Next post will be detail close-ups of the piston, rings, inside the jugs and the valve head.

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

It ain't all knuckle-bustin' and grime in the shop, as on occasion you gotta do good, ya know Wink

'Specially with the invasion of the roadrunners from Tejas way .. some additional enviro pressure is put upon small creatures. My personal roadrunner family is doin' real good, but they is as hard on snakes and leezards as hawks is to chickens. So when I saw a little leezard doin' the sauna thing in a wash tub I stopped to say hi! He had an adverse reaction to being photo'd and I realized the little booger was trapped Shocked

He was kind enough to pose for just a second before scampering away.

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

Bought the scoot used with 4K miles on it. Picked it up in Witchita, how it got there from Portland I don't know. Did the normal stuff when I got it home, change oil, new plug, tune up. Road and ran good except for the NearlyDeath tires. Put on Pirelli's, HRA pipe, and rejet the carb per Monza's thread. Ran a bit better, sounded and handled MUCH BETTER. Still, from day 1, the scoot had used oil, too much in fact for I had no leaks. Yuk, that means it is attempting to be consumed in combustion chamber. Come on, the stuff just don't disappear Confused

So, I gotta have a bad set of rings or valves are leaking, and since I have to compression gauge I can't tell which. No matter, as one fix is about the same as the other. After Kevin pulls the flywheel I return to the shack and finish the dismantle and inspect things closely:

1. Lots of coke buildup inside, expected when you are attempting to burn oily gas
2. Valves look good
3. Rings look good, and this is confusing. Something should look bad Confused

4. Tons of scoring on the piston, all of it below the rings
5. Tons of scoring on cylinder walls
6. I have gotten some knarly hunks of shiny stuff with the last few oil changes
7. Rod bearing is shot as in decomposing, and bearing to the outside has that 'gotta pop your knuckle feeling'

I take the assembly below to Kevin for a non-biased opinion. I agree with his assessment, this motor was put together "dirty" at the plant in India or a prior owner let it run outta oil and fried the rod bearing. We think it came outta the India plant in defective state.

Whatever, it will get fixed, and then it will be good as new so I look forward to lots of riding next year. Right now, I'm de-coking the combustion chamber then I will begin cleaning up the outer cases.

Coke

Piston/Cylinder Scoring

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

That aint coking...or apparently you have never owned a Land Rover 2.25l. A de-coking method I continue to use on most older cars I have is water injection with a spray bottle, basically you steam clean the heand and piston with just a few squirts of water.

The first time I did it on the Chetak I thought I might have destroyed a a valve, after the first spray I got a weird rattle that relaxed at the motor continued to run. I was a little scared so I let the motor cool down and pulled the exhaust, and inspected, after banging out the exhaust against the ground I found some nice chunks of carbon.

I started the Chetak up again warmed it up and sprayed again, this time I could see carbon coming out the head. After about three more spray the engine was clean.

When I recently pulled my engine apart I found the head and piston top pretty damn clean.

Jared

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"The Communists (Our enemies) will defeat us, not by virtue of their strength, but because of our weakness. They will win by default." Ngô Ðình Diệm

Nope, never owned a Land Rover Surprised

But that ugly stuff is there and will be seen, so I gotta comment. Since I can't use "ye olde spray water" technique I'm cleaning by hand and will post up pics later today. Some folks over on ADVrider happen to be discussing this at the moment if anyone wants to hear some opinions. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=500410

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

looking at the scoring on the cylinder I would strongly suggest honing it smooth and see if you need to go up one size on your rings, that much vertical score could be your oil leak, especially if the engine were never broken in properly to begin with.

I hope you can see the two big ones that resemble the Grand Canyon instead of mere scratches. I'll have to get it honed clean before I order the rings. Supposedly there's a good machining shop on the other side of the lake that does small engines, so I'll look at having the head shaved .0040 at the same time. I need the bore specs for stock rings and next size up, so I go in search of that right now. Also need rocker end play.

Got the piston and chamber cleaned, and the jug and head cleaned on the outside so I won't be embarrassed to present to a shop.

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

Brain hurts. Don't know nothin' bout birthin' no babies. Rabble, rabble.....

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It's better to be silent and let people think you're a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. -- Mark Twain

Rufus, careful with shaving the head .0040.

A guy at Extreme Toy Store in St. Louis (Bill - used to post here as 1cyl) strongly advised against it. That shop sponsored a guy named Seth (I think he may have posted here or at the Yahoo boards once upon a time) who raced his Chetak in the ESRA. They dyno tested his Chetak before and after shaving the head and found that shaving the head actually reduced top end speed while giving a small increase to mid range power.

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The "X" stands for ex-Chetak owner.

While you're boring.... I just seem to be drawn to Roythebad and his 190cc bajaj . That may be extreme but 175cc seems like a doable bore if you can find a piston to fit it...

Just a random though bouncing through the ol noggin'....

	matty_x wrote:
	and found that shaving the head actually reduced top end speed while giving a small increase to mid range power.

That's a bummer, that's strong evidence that it would be money wasted. It can be hard sometimes to out-engineer the original engineers. It would also be neat to have a version of roythebad's scoot, to make one that is more than what a stock scoot really is.

To be honest though, I love it the way it is. More torque than other scoots even if it might lose out a bit on top speed. The damned things have heart and style. I'll be happy to have it run at tip top shape which it has not quite ever done.

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"I see a big market for designer tin foil head gear..."

"Grow up and stop posting like a 14th Century Vatican Flat Earth Zealot."

rufusswan,

who is doing your crank rebuild? maybe if we send two we can get a price break. I pm'ed you.

Jared

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"The Communists (Our enemies) will defeat us, not by virtue of their strength, but because of our weakness. They will win by default." Ngô Ðình Diệm