I got the crank back from Ed yesterday. He machined the pin ring on the crank shaft. It fixed it and now the piston moves freely. However, he said that had I driven the scooter much longer it would have seized in a big way. Because the piston was not free to move, it was building a lot of friction in the cylinder head. You could see minors scars from the aluminum sticking to the cylinder walls. We took the engine apart none to soon!


Here I am putting the crank back in. I put the crank into the freezer for several hours. Then I took a heat gun and heated the metal around where the bearings would sit. Of course, the heat expanded the bearing seat and the cold constricted the crank. This allowed the crank to slide right in. Then as the warm metal cooled and the cold metal warmed, the crank became firmly seated.

Now, I just have some screws and bolts to replace -- the guys who rebuilt it messed some of the heads up. Once I can get those parts, it will just be a matter of getting the stator lined up correctly and buttoning up. We are getting very close folks!