Ah ha gotcha!

Running out of things to eliminate in the hunt for what, in the end, could only be an air leak, I performed a classic troubleshooting method, the good old leak down test, I took the exhaust off and plugged the stub, piston to tdc, air filter off and pour clean petrol into the carb throat until it reached the top, wherever the leak is will soon become evident as the fuel will leak out of it, noticeable unless its the clutch side seal. It ran from under the air box, still to check the gear oil to see if its fuel free though, 

I pulled the carb and air box off and saw something I hadn't given a second thought before, the lower of the two is the one supplied with the parts for the new engine, the upper is a Vietnamese special. The 200 one has been widened to within an inch of its useable life, in this case a mm, so I believe this is the culprit. I swapped it for the other and will put it all back together today. Hopefully that's the end of it.

Fingers crossed

After doing the rounds asking the big questions, the brains trust is banking on the fly side seal. I can pull the choke out and the idle doesn't change, dropped the gear oil, no fuel smell this time round after the clutch seal was replaced last time. I read today another way to check for an air leak was to tape up the clutch breather and see what happens. I just replaced the fly side seal, getting the other one out wasn't pretty. I whacked everything back together, filled the oil back up and decided to leave it until tomorrow. Bit of luck I can tune it in tomorrow and ride it to work on Friday, riding my push bike is fun and all, but...

Still not right

 

It will start and idle no problem, from cold it will even rev with throttle when I give it a blip. I rode it  about a km down the road, gears are tight and it pulled great. Once the engine warmed up and I stopped, it died and would only idle? see video, when I apply throttle you can hear the intake sucking and it's not revving, more like firing every second or third rev, smoing a bit and eventually burps, farts and dies. Lucky it was a nice day for a walk....
I've tried everything to get it revving when warm. Pulled down and cleaned carb and jets twice, I'm running a 55/160 idle, 160 air, BE3 diff., 116 main with a 118 on standby for the Sito +. Plug is B6ES, ends up black dry and sooty. Fuel is premix 2%. Timing checked three times and is 23btdc, cold compression is 135. While idling, I have tried every 1/8th position on the mix screw from 2.25 to 3.75 turns out, tried two needles, even swapped out the clutch side seal after I pulled it down after having the same issue on initial start up....

update

I had the same issues with the engine not revving, when I apply throttle it's sucking air quite clearly, but only firing every second or third rev? I decided to park it up and see if I can sort it out, re check the timing, stator, and start again, I tried riding it up the street and it just bunny hopped and was missing power strokes all over the place, I did get one good bap of revs on the stand, but couldn't get it to do it again.
B6ES plug, black and dry, mix screw didn't seem to make much difference but I need to just work through it slowly.
standard jets, timing set at 23 btdc, it idles nicely, gets a bit better as it warms up, starts first kick each time after the initial start up.
I was hoping to take it to the monthly club meet in Geelong this week, don't think I'll be making the 150km round trip this month.
Stay tuned.

Honey I'm home

Got it in, bit of a wrestle and some love taps but alls good. Clutch set, carb set, the gears are giving me a bit of grief, so I'm going to call it a day. A good day. Bundy calls, sorry P.

Out with the old....

Work has been particularly quiet the last few days, I opted to take some leave so I could switch engines and see how the 200 goes, today I'll get the 177 out , clean it up,  give the underbelly a good clean and check over, tomorrow I'll put the 200 in and take it for a spin. Can't wait!

Half way there, it really doesn't take that long to drop an engine, 6 cables, wiring and fuel, rear tyre, which I found to have a disturbing amount of play, way back in the beginning this happened, then it was the "restorers" had conveniently forgotten the spacer and had the split pin running across the top of the castellated nut, which of course loosened itself, this time I only checked it a week ago, I had noticed a change in the handling and braking, it was solid. I have a new one waiting for when I rebuild the Veloce engine transferring most of the parts into a matching set of cases I have sitting there gathering dust. So I took the split pin out and could undo the nut with my fingers.... 

Bit of a tidy up this morning and in with the newby.

ticking away

 

 

                                            

 

Apologies for the bad footage, but it's enough to get the point across, She burst into life on the third kick and idled away, I need to tweak the timing just a little but otherwise I'm happy with it, very little smoke this time, just the normal amount, plug wasn't oil fouling but had a bit of black soot on it. Still had the same response to the throttle, but I will just swap the engines over this weekend and give it a run, a tune and if it's going OK, leave it in for a while and begin to run it in.

I was stuffing about and decided to clean out the tool box, glad I did because there was a bit of water pooling at the rear from the recent rain, I just park it on the street outside work now, I have a piece of carpet upside down in the bottom to protect the bottom, this also collects all the dust and with the water, just turned it into a nasty sticky clay like substance, to my surprise I found a heap of change, $10.65 to be exact, score! I also had a champagne cork, zip tie, a nut and bolt and the plastic tag that had broken off my Armadillo jacket zipper. All things one should never be caught without on the road, you just never know.

Stage is set

Fully assembled, waiting on premix and a good stern kick or two. As for me, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to kick it over, today I have run out of time, motivation and sobriety. 

Almost there

A very productive afternoon, crank installed, cases together, top end on but only hand tight, stator in, alls left is the clutch assembly and some torquing down.

The cases went together easily, minimum of hammer love, not like before, the crank was happy moving freely after torquing the case nuts. I ran out of time and it was getting cold, should be able to kick it over tomorrow or Monday. Life's good.

A bit of prep

 

 

Ok some prep for the rebuild.

First up is a tool I just couldn't have gotten by without, my scribe. Thought it deserved a mention.

I made up a 1mm spacer for the inner sleeve of the fly side main bearing, I didn't have one before because I had read that the only reason the gap was there was so you could get the sleeve off with the factory puller, I have since been told that the gap also allows the seal to do its job better. The little selector arm is exactly the right size to snugly fit inbetween the crank webs for when I tap the sleeve onto the crankshaft, after heating it.

The third pic is the first crank I used and I was interested to see if it was out of true in the horizontal plain along the shaft. The marks represented where I measured with my micrometer. At 12 o'clock I compared the play in the conrod, the secondhand one was 3-4 times more play than the new one, that said it was still less than a mm at the big end bearing. The other measurements between the webs were the same for both cranks, so if the crank is out of true it can only be that the two webs have twisted somehow, I doubt it, but hey I'm no expert. Peace of mind that it's a new one going in.

Lastly, the wait for postage from the UK is about 3 weeks, which is what it was, I wonder though that it might have been quicker if they had of put the correct country on the address label? A testament to the postage systems world wide that it still found me here in country Victoria, Australia. I just hope that there isn't, by some freaky coincidence, a poor bloke in Elliminyt, USA is still waiting for his new crank....

Crank it up

The wife just sent me a picture of the new crank in a box sitting on the kitchen bench, waiting for me to get home. Looking forward to getting the hands dirty again, I'll fill everyone in as I go along. You wouldn't want to have this as a hobby and have a serious problem remaining patient, you'd go nuts.