Strange noises

[AgentX]

I just don't know where these people got the idea to beat these things with a hammer.

Well, first they were just like:



And then they were like:

[ace.cafe]

Ha ha!

[GreenMachine]

Ace: Its India, only the extreme wealthy would have anyhing that resembles a oven..I guess they could stick it in the clay pot after they are done cooking tandoor chicken and Nan ......Beating with a hammer is a way of life over there...Dam if u can't make a square peg go into a round hole...Determination always win out but it comes with no guarantees.I'm amazed what can be done with just the basics

Agent x : I'm calling GSO and telling them u using your oven to cook your enfield case ... GM

[AgentX]

Agent x : I'm calling GSO and telling them u using your oven to cook your enfield case ... GM

Good luck getting anything bigger than a cylinder head into my oven...

[Arizoni]

I'm still trying to figure out why something as simple as a little hand held propane torch (no, not a flashlight) is impossible to get in India.

The propane torches in the US are a dime a dozen.  The compressed propane tanks are available everywhere and are used for camp stoves, gas camping lights, catalitic heaters as well as torches for soldering (and heating Royal Enfield engine cases) and when coupled with a torch, giving the finishing touch to my casseroles at dinner time.

I sometimes think that things like this are (quite literally) keeping India "in the dark".

 

[ace.cafe]

I have removed and installed main bearings by putting the case half on a pair of upright concrete blocks, and used a small propane camping heater underneath the case half to heat it up.
It takes a while, but if you can spit on it and it boils, you are getting close.
Take a wood drift and a mallet, and try to tap the bearing out. If it's real stubborn, keep it on the heat longer.
Once you tap it out, then you can use oven mitts to turn the case half up so the bearing seat is seen, and then drop the new bearing in quickly and accurately, and it will very quickly be held in place by the shrinking bearing seat in the cooling case half.
Then do the other case half.

I've done this a few times. Just clean out the case halves real well before doing it, and try to keep it clean.  You can do it in the workshop, and try not to get any dirt on it.

[LarsBloodbeard]

Thanks for the tip.  I don't have a torch right now, but I do have several camping stoves (most are alcohol burners I made out of soda cans).  Which leads me to think, why don't the Indian shops just make an alcohol stove and pour in some HEET or rubbing alcohol?

[Arizoni]

Probably because if asked, they would answer, "I have used only this block and hammer always to remove the bearings.  My father before me used this block and hammer and his father before him used this block and hammer.
Why change that which has been done so successfully for so many years?"   

[GreenMachine]

After u lived there awhile, you accept it and go with the flow..Sometimes this requires repairs being put to the side and fixed once you're back stateside..Be curious to see if agentx brings back that 350cc machine.

[AgentX]

There's probably an entire district of propane torch sellers somewhere.  But only those who have used propane torches in a particular obscure role for 4 generations know or care where it is or what a torch is.  Or maybe they're only unavailable in Hyderabad.

People rarely do anything by themselves here.  DIY is at once ubiquitous (and often tragic) for things you should definitely have a professional do, but beyond consideration for things people in the rest of the world do for themselves every day.

[LarsBloodbeard]

Interesting.  Sounds like a foreign land in every sense of the word.

[AgentX]

"I have used only this block and hammer always to remove the bearings.  My father before me used this block and hammer and his father before him used this block and hammer.
Why change that which has been done so successfully for so many years?"   

Or maybe, "The guy who puts the fuzes into our nuclear weapons does it this way, so why isn't it OK for a motorcycle?"

[jedaks]

When I put the new bearings in my cases, I used my barbeque! I just kept a moderate heat and it worked very well.

It sounds like a hillbilly solution but it is a solution.

[Arizoni]

That's only a hillbilly solution if you left the 'possum on the grill while you were heating the cases.

[LarsBloodbeard]

My engine has added a horrible knock/rattle to it's arsenal of noises.  I'm thinking this is probably the rod bearing.  What do you guys think?  The pinging is there briefly but it's barely audible over the engine and because it's higher pitch and this cell phone recording is all distorted sounding.