Parts Cleaning

I don't think I appreciated how much time I would spend cleaning parts when I started this project.  I suppose I should be encouraged that a bike this old would have so many parts that I could salvage with a bit of elbow grease, but spending an hour sitting in the garage with a wire brush and engine degreaser isn't nearly as fun as putting a motor together.

Here's a few tips that I learned along the way:

• Brake cleaner isn't just for brakes

Brake cleaner is wonderful stuff.  It breaks down nearly any time of grease and it evaporates completely.  It will save a TON of time in getting rid of stubborn dirt, grime, grease, oil, etc.  Do read the directions on the can cause the stuff is pretty potent.  I've used it alot on steel, aluminum both paint and bare metal with out many problems but always spot test just in case.

• Wire brushes are your friend

I especially like the small little toothbrush looking ones.  Great for getting into nook and crannies

• Sandpaper is cheaper than time

When you're prepping a surface to be painted, or getting rid of surface rust, sanding will be the method.  Don't get stingy on it.  Once the paper is clogged or starts to not work well, just switch it out.  You may save a couple pennies making that piece last another 20 minutes, but you could be done faster if you just used a fresh piece.

• Get ready to make a mess

Don't wear that new pair of jeans the wife got you for Christmas.  You'll ruin 'em.  I clean my parts on one of those cheap oil drain pans you get at Wal-mart for $20.  All the sludge drains away and I can dump it out safely.  Nevertheless, I still end up with crap everyone, it's just part of the process.

Since I had the motor out of the frame I spent alot of time cleaning it after the initial teardown.  Built a simple wood engine stand so I could work on it efficiently.  Of course the whole thing had to be broken down but XS motors are pretty simple so this wasn't too difficult.  I ended up cleaning the crank case by hand as I described above.  For the cylinders and head I took them to the local autoparts/machine shop and had them media blasted (try to avoid sand blasting as this can get to abrasive and wreck your parts).  This worked AWESOME and got things cleaner than I could have ever done on my own.

Cleaning pays off.  Here's the before and after pics of my motor.  I tried to pay alot of attention to detail, as it's the little things that make a bike really look sharp.

Motor Before:

Motor After:

In the next post I'll talk about the engine mods I did...