NEED YOUR HELP !!!!

[Brett]

I won't tell you why (yet!!) but I need to replace the crank cases on my WR. In the UK they are frighteningly expensive.

Any of you guys in the USA recommend a good, reliable and and well-priced Yamaha dealer in the States. I have contacts in the States who will handle shipment. I need to communicate with these dealers on e-mail.

Hope someone has some recommendations.

Cheers

[Alain]

Tough luck!!!

I`ve checked with a few dealers in Canada and they go for about 600$CAN. I`ve also checked in the states also and at www.hlsm1.com and it goes for 250$ which translates to about 395$ CAN so I think that your best bet would be through hlsm1.com.

By the way.... how did it happen?...

[Hick]

I’ve had good luck with HLSM, NCY and Montclair Yamaha. I bought a set of case halves from NCY about three months ago for under $240. Don’t forget all the bearings you will need to replace, I think there are ten (4 for two gear shafts, 2 mains, 2 counterbalancer, 1 shift drum, 1 clutch arm) and all save the last need to be pressed in (I don’t think reusing any of the bearings is a good idea). You may want to remove the old inserts where the swingarm bolt passes through the cases now, they were VERY difficult to get out of my old cases and I almost ruined one.

NCY: 800-225-1929

Montclair Yamaha: 800-743-3926

(both above are somewhere in CA)

Sorry, if they have email I don’t know what it is. For stuff I need I’d rather order over the phone so I know when the part is available and can decide how to ship it. I guess you can’t call toll free from the UK? (I’ve never been across the ocean so bear w/ me…)

[Brett]

Thanks for your help guys. I’ll give these dealers a try.

If anybody has the right side case cover off, or is working on the clutch, its worth checking what caused my problem. The kick starter shaft runs in a bearing in the crankcase, and the ratchet sits on a flat or a ‘ledge’ which is part of the casting. There is a guide to stop the ratchet jumping off this ledge, and this is held in with 2 x M6 bolts. On my bike, the right hand bolt must have worked loose, and by continually kicking the bike over the ratchet had slipped off this ledge and was working against the guide. Ultimately, the bolt sheared, the guide partially came away and the ratchet slid down the face of this ledge (taking aluminium with it).

OK, no problem, fetch the old bolt out, but some bits and away you go !? Not that easy, the tapped hole for this bolt has at best 2mm of material to its underside so if you’re thinking of drilling it oversize and helicoiling a new thread then think again. In my extreme case, this 2mm of material had actually broken away and I guess its floating around in the left hand case somewhere.

Don’t underestimate the forces going on internally at this area. If one of these bolts works loose the action of kicking the bike over will soon do some damage. As far as I know, there is no threadlock recommended here as Yamaha put a nice little lock-washer in. When I rebuild, I’ll put a whole tube of threadlock in!!!!

Hick, interesting info about the bearings, I hadn’t thought of that. Did you do the job yourself and was it a major difficult one, or OK for me to attempt? Any more tips and tricks greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

[Hick]

Brett,

Replacing the cases wasn’t hard, I’ve got an old Harbor Freight bearing press and I used PVC bushings and caps of various sizes to press the bearings in. I’ve heard that thick, flat sheets of poly also work well, or you can splurge for a press kit (try the above link and do a search). Heating the cases with a torch and keeping the bearings in the freezer helps a little.

Doing the R&R on the crank is what worried me the most, it is installed into the left main bearing first, then the right case half goes on. I was worried that using a press on the crankshaft would compromise rod end play (or bend the crank) so I “pulled” the crank in (after I “pushed” it out of the old cases) from the left side (or from outside the case half) as per the manual’s recommendation.

The problem is the tool used in the manual is over $200 (that is what NCY quoted me, anyway). To make my own tool I just got a short piece of angle iron (but a ¼” strap would work), drilled three holes in it, and bought some 8mm all-thread with nuts. There are two threaded 8mm holes, one on either side of the crank hole, behind the stator in the left case half (their only purpose, as far as I can tell, is to install crank). Measure the distance between the two and drill corresponding holes in the angle iron with a 10mm hole (I think) in the middle (for the crank). If you don’t have a drill press you may consider going 1 mm larger on the holes to make alignment less critical (just buy some good flat washers to use under/over the nuts).

Thread the rods into the case, thread flywheel nut all the way onto crank, insert angle iron over rods and crank, secure against flywheel nut with two 8mm nuts on the rods. Either unthread the flywheel nut or tighten the two other nuts (or comination of both) and the crank will soon fall out of the case. Just reverse the position of the three nuts to install (8mm nuts first, then iron and then flywheel nut, tighten the latter) until the crank bottoms in the left bearing.

Does that make any sense at all?

For me, the right case half installed onto the crank easily, no pressing or hammering (thank God). Installing the tranny took a few tries. I think the best way is to install the shift drum, all three forks and the two shafts (with all gears save 1st countershaft gear installed) simultaneously. A bit tricky but possible. Once you get this far the rest is a piece of cake. I recommend following each section in the manual to determine what order to install/remove everything, it is pretty fail-safe.

If you have any other questions I’d be glad to help, I suppose I could even scan a picture of my crank tool and how to use it since my description probably leaves a lot to be desired.

Hope this helps!

[Brett]

Hick

Currently I'm just an information sponge, so this help is much appreciated.

I'm just doing the sums at the moment to see what its all going to cost and where I buy all the bits from (UK vs USA).

If you don't mind, i'll keep checking in with you depending on how much difficulty I'm having. My e-mail is attached to this post.

Thanks again for your help so far.

Brett

[robin_des_bois]

Alain,

Are you the one I know, on the south shore of Montréal? Remenber the St-Anne's run?