Blind Bearing Puller Tool

I recieved my Blind Bearing puller tool yesterday from Pitpose. I can tell you that this tool is worth it's money in gold. With the right plug and a few pulls with the hammerweight, the bearings came out very easily. The only problem I have is the one bearing inside the swing arm. It is held in there with a latch ring but I can tell you that there was no way that one was coming out by itself! It is really stuck in there. I sprayed it with silicone and I will let it sit overnight. That bad part is that I have to get this one out and replaced. It is in real bad shape with several bearing balls damaged. I have also decided to not do powdercoating. I have the availiblity of a (free) paint resource and it will save me a lot of money to skip the powdercoating. Heck, the original frame was painted too and it lasted 35 years :)

Fork and Triple Tree removal

Only one thing left on the 'old' frame before I can toss it and that is the removal of the fork, triple tree and the official frame tag.

I removed the bottom center fork nut (after I went to Sears and bought myself a set of sockets that had a 32mm socket in it :) and unscrewed the top left and right fork cylinder caps. You need to keep those on losely because these hold the damper oil in the fork. Without them on, you'll have a mess in no time.

I gave the top triple tree a couple of good taps with a rubber hammer and it came right off. I then tapped on the bottom triple tree and the forks dropped nicely a couple of millimeters. Enough for me to remove the rubber caps/seals that are in the top of the forks. Don't lose these!! They are hard to come by and mine seem to be in good shape. I then removed the forks collars and set them aside for powder coating later.

Before I removed the two forks I took a picture so I would remember which side goes where (yes, they are different). I then slid them out and set them aside. Restoring these will be a complete seperate project for later. To remove the lock rings on the steering column I still need a special tool called a Hook Wrench. Last time I used the dremel to cut them off but I can't use that 'technology' this time since I need to preserve them for later use. These Hook Wrenches are hard to get but I found a place online that acually sells these. (link here). The nuts are actually 38mm but they don't make that size so I bought the 40mm ones. They are $9 dollars each and you need two. Shipping is free.

Swing Arm bearing removal

It's been a while but I finally got to work on my Ambo again. I actually tinkered with it here and there a couple of evenings but nothing major. I sorted out the junk box I got with the bike and actually found the Oil Breather in pretty good shape (needs blasting and powercoating though).

Since I haven't bought the 32mm socket that I need to remove the fork of the old frame, I decided to finalize the stripping of the swing arm. I bought a clip removal tool and soon would find out that I need to invest in a blind bearing removal tool... When looking at the side of the swing arm, where the pivot is, I noticed that there was a seal with a ring on each side. The ring came out pretty easy but the seal was in there pretty tight. Since I am going to use sealed bearings as a replacement anyway, I could remove the seals with a screwdriver and not worry about damaging them. After I removed the seal, the bearing pretty much fell out... at least the cone part of the bearing. The bearing cup stayed firmly in the pivot and, like mentioned before, it looks like I need a blind bearing removal tool to get get it out. These run about $120 and can be found on ebay or I ordered mine at http://www.pitposse.com/poblbebrpuse.html for $139. I like this one because it also gives me a bridge which might come in handy later. Once I took a closer look at the removed bearing, I realized how badly damaged they are and I definitly need to replace them. The problem was that I want to replace them with sealed ones and I want a better quality bearing then stock. I found a nice replacement at http://www.vxb.com (5203ZZ). They are wider then the originals (17x40x17.5), metal sealed and double row. They cost me $9.95 a piece (need 2) and while I was on the site, I also ordered the new stearing column bearings (25x5216.25) at $9.95 a piece (need 2). To remove the cup out of the shaft I need to wait untill I recieve the blind bearing puller...

Last night I got to spend another couple of hours in the garage. The weather is actually nice right now in Orlando which makes being in the garage with the door closed doable. The task at hand was to remove the rear wheel and swing arm assembly of the 'old' frame. Following the instructions from the shop manual, the rear wheel came out actually pretty easy. This gave me a chance to inspect the teeth of the gears connecting the gearbox with the wheel. They seem in good shape. Just need some cleaning and re-greasing.

I kept the shocks in place during this process, so the swing arm wouldn't fall down and potentially damage the gears.

Next was the swing arm. The nuts holding the swing arm in place were pretty rusted and I destroyed one of them in the process of getting it removed. Add that to the cost of replacement. Once the nuts were removed, I removed the shocks and (while keeping the assembly braced) I unscrewed the gearbox from the driveshaft. The arm came out also pretty easy and again (besides some need cleaning and re-greasing) looked in good shape.

Upon further inspection of the shocks, I came to the conclusion that they were pretty much done and need to be replaced. I know they can be rebuild but I'll leave that up to the 'experts' and buy myself some new Progressive shocks. Last I loosened the oil gasket and removed the drive shaft. All parts will need to be cleaned, blasted and powder coated. In the process I also had to remove the rear brake assembly. Which is a crossbar with a lever on it. A side note on the joint that comes out of the shaft (connects the engine with the drive shaft): it actually has a front and a back to it. Make sure you note which side slides onto the engine. You have to put it back on the same way :)

All that is left now is the front fork and the removal of the engine. I will try to get at least the fork done before the weekend.

I took a PLD on Monday so I had some time to continue working on the lock rings on the steering tube of the 'new' frame. The night before I spread some WD40 on it and let it sit but I was still unable to remove it after trying for 30 minutes. I finally gave up and whipped out the dremmel with the cutting wheel again. After 30 seconds and two firm taps with a hammer and a screwdriver, the ring finally gave up. Unfrotunuatly I can't use this method on the fork that I am going to use from the 'old' frame. I have to find those darn hook wrenches online somewhere... The rest went smooth. The fork came out and even the bearings looked good. The next thing was to remove the old streering lock. Since I didn't have the key, I had to drill the lock and pry it out. The final thing was to remove the serial number plate from the steering column. This couldn't be done gently so, although I tried to save it, it got damaged. Did a final check of the straightness of the frame and agreed with myself that it was ready to be blasted and coated. I will this do at my neighbors job which I have to schedule in the next couple of weeks. I will use this time to gather as many parts that I want blasted and coated so I can do them all at once.

As mentioned before, I had some welding spot in the frame that I was going to smooth out. I used my angle grinder with 100 grid paper and sanded it pretty well down. There will be some marks but hopefully after the blasting and powdercoat it won't be as noticable.

I removed the two swing arm bolts and inspected the frame for straightness. It's in pretty good shape for 35 years old.

It's Sunday and both the kids are taking a nice afternoon nap. Time for me to start doing some work on the bike. My plan is to strip the extra frame totally bare and get it ready for sand blasting and powdercoating. The frame itself is already pretty bare but it still needs the front fork removed, the swing fork bolts removed and a weld grinded down (somebody welded something to the right front of the frame and I have no idea what). My first job was to remove the nut that holds the top linking plate down. Sounds like an easy task, but here is where I encountered my first challenge. The nut was stripped and not coming off. I grabed the dremmel and used a cutting blade to make two incisions in the nut. With a screwdriver in the nut slices and a couple of firm pounds on the screwdriver with a hammer and the nut broke in half. Not the preferred method but I have another one on the other frame that I can use. With the plate removed I was immidiatly faced with the next challenge. The steering tube lockring. These are actually two rings that are screwed in top of each other. After looking at them more closely I noticed that there was no way I could get these removed without a special tool. This means I will have to do some research and call some shops around Orlando to see if they can help me.

The Beginning of the End :)

So Thursday I made the big leap... I bought my first 'project' bike... A 1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado. I found it on Craigslist and after visiting the guy locally twice, I decided the spend the $700 and purchase it. As you can see from the pictures, it looks like a pile of junk. Don't feel bad, that was might first thought too. But on the second visit to view the bike, I brought Mike Asher with me. Mike is an expert when it comes to picking up and restoring old bikes. He gave it a close look and agreed with me that it is worth the money. All parts are there (mostly) and the guy even threw in a 2nd frame (which turns out I will have to use since the original is shot).

Bying an old bike and restoring it from the ground up has always been one of my dreams. I have been looking for a good Honda CB750, Beemer or Moto Guzzi for a long time and this one actually stood out enough for me to go with it. It will be a long project (due to time and money) but I am going to try to restore the bike as original as possible and post my progress and all my findings on this Blog. Hopefully it will help some fellow restoration geeks and I am open for any suggestions and input I might recieve.