I know things have been quiet. March 1 i took the bike out on a nice long ride from through a couple of little towns. I was almost to my destination when the bike suddenly lost power. I pulled over, let it cool for a bit, then got back on the road. It was better–for maybe a mile, then it really lost power and started making this metallic clank/ping sound. I called Wahoo who went to get my truck and come get me.
I took the clutch cover and the stator cover off looking for problems–didn’t find any, didn’t solve anything.
There is a Reddit sub for these bikes (r/Trail70), so I hit them up for ideas what it might be, so I hit them up for ideas. The guys there gave me several suggestions, so started tearing the engine down, and found that one of the guys on Reddit was correct: the piston had fused, and there was piston slap. The cylinder was also scored pretty bad.
I ordered a replacment piston, rings, and gaskets from DRATV / Beatrice Cycle and also had to order an 18mm spark plug socket. The local O’Reilly had them in stock, but I didn’t want to pay $9 for a non-Craftsman socket. Turns out you can’t just order an 18mm Craftsman spark plug socket from Sears–you have to order a three socket set for $23 and up. Finally I went to eBay–$7 and free shipping and I had the socket within a week.
After tearing the engine down I had to tediously scrape all the old gaskets off, and I took the opportunity to scrape off all the dirt and gunk from the engine using a barbeque scourer and a little brass wire brush attachment for the drill.
I had to take the cylinder to a machine shop for honing, and I knew the local Echelmeier Machine & Electric by reputation. The piston I ordered was the same size as the one I had (50mm)–turns out it was too small even before honing, so I had to re-order a slightly larger one (50.75mm).
I bought a new spark plug and disassembled the air cleaner to check its condition–it was OK.
Once the cylinder was finished, I started back to work reassembling an engine I had disassembled 3 weeks previous. Everything went fairly smooth–I just followed the instructions in the Clymer manual. By the time my brother arrived to check my work I was already past the hairiest parts.
The rest of the reassembly went fine and I took the bike back outside to try to start it. It wouldn’t catch, and fuel just poured from the overflow valve.
30 frustrated minutes later I went inside for the night.
Did some more googling, then removed the bowl from the carb–there was a bunch of junk in the bottom. Cleaned it out, reassembled the carb, and after a few kicks it was back up and running.
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