Ahhh, the topic that never ends....yet???
A number of years back, I bought a spare cylinder block and cylinder head. EBay had a few deals on so I capitalized on them. Last month for shits and giggles ('cause that's what we do here in Canada Eh??) I also bought a set of stock KZ750H pistons which are 66mm bore diameter. I've heard that it's possible to machine the cylinder block and install oversize wet sleeves, so I'm investigating the possibility. this bike is all about the possibility of being something of my creation and it's a long term project to see what I can do with my abilities.
I need to pull the cylinder sleeves to measure up the block and see just what is available in material for boring the crank case for larger sleeves and what material is in the block to machine out the block for the sleeves.
Wet sleeves are typically fitted with .003" interference fit and if I heat up the cylinder to around 300-350 deg. F, the cylinders should just tap out. Before I heat up the cylinder, I needed to remove the water pump drive shafts, the nylon sprocket and the mechanical seal. What a PITA removing that impeller. Penetrating oil soak for a day, then a couple of pairs of needle nose pliers on the impeller bladess and wiggle. More penetrating oil. Wiggle. Black effluent was coming out from around the shaft and impeller. wipe it off. Soak with penetrating oil. Wiggle, wiggle wiggle. leave it soak for another day, Then the impeller starts to wobble a bit. Hmmmm. Finally, it comes off.
What a friggin mess underneath. See pics.
Bottom side of the mechanical seal housing
Cylinder head cavity where the seal housing mounts. Note the excess silicone sealant around the edges. Somebody (butcher) did a seal previously. So much crud, you can't see the lip seal under the crud.
Back side the the stationary mechanical seal in the impeller. Note the crud buried in the impeller behind the ceramic seal.
Water pump drive shaft. Pretty fuggly
Before cleaning
After cleaning up the shaft and paying attention to the area that the lip seal rides on with 1500 wet/dry paper and penetrating oil, this is what's left. Measuring the surface at the area I think the lip seal rides on, it measures .003" less than there area that the shaft journal measures. Not good, but maybe f I can find a shallow fitting lip seal, I may be able to get the lip of the seal to ride on a fresh area of the journal and not have to replace the shaft. We'll see.
The other repair option would be to brush plate the damaged area with copper, then machine grind to diameter and then brush plate with chrome. We used to repair shafts in the nuclear plant with this process. Pretty neat and you're left with a chromium surface for the lip seal to ride on.
Youtube, repairing a shaft with brush plating 45 seconds
Caswell brush plating copper video 2:45 minutes