The engine

 Sven's GT-350 (1970)  No Responses »
Jun 302013
 

The engine is the so called “ashtray head”. The cylinder and head are designed for the US market. It replaced the earlier, classic Aermacchi cylinder/head. Customers in Europe didn’t like that design much and so it was available in Europe just for a short time period from 1969 to 1970 before they changed back to the classic knucklehead with the 1971 models. In US they kept the ashtray design until the arrival of the 1973 model of the Harley-Davidson Sprint.

Engine crankcase: L988

gt350-engine-off gt350-engine-off-2
gt350-engine-off-3 gt-cylinder-head

 Posted by at 22:29

First oil change / First year repairs

 Sven's SS-350 (1974)  No Responses »
Jun 162013
 
  • 06/16/2013: First oil change at 120 miles (193 Km) – out HD 20W50 – in Castrol 20W50
  • 06/19/2013: Re-Tightened nuts and bolts. Impressive how many became lose after that short period.
  • 06/30/2013: The plan was to attend an oldtimer get together and market in Ansbach (mototechnia) which is about 35 miles from my home. I made 2/3 of the way, when suddenly the engine cut off (odometer: 160 miles). Luckily that was very close to Aermacchi parts distributor Rudolf Jungjohann. The error was found quickly: The circuit breaker screw came loose and was damaged, so I had no spark at all. We put a replacement screw in adjusted the timing and the bike did run again. Sadly there was no time left to attend the get together anymore on this day, but I did make it home on the bike without trouble (180 miles)
  • 07/07/2013: Believe it or not – the kickstand broke into two parts just out of nothing. (odometer: 213 miles / 342 kilometers) Luckily this happened while in my own driveway and still sitting on the bike. Imagine what could have happened, while the bike resting on the kickstand!
    kickstand-broke
  • 07/08/2013: As I can’t ride the bike at the moment because of the broken kickstand, I decided to disassemble the right engine cover again to replace the oil seal for the clutch hub. Reason: I am losing tiny amounts of oil through the dry clutch. This happens because of my own stupidity, I mounted the oil seal with the wrong side facing the oil. I realized that by looking at pictures I did during assembling the engine.
  • 07/08/2013: Replaced the tach drive because of a worn out oil seal. I had a NOS one at home already, because I expected that problem.

 

 

 Posted by at 23:06