Show us your tools

[thirdstone]

One of the great joys I have in messing with bikes is using cool tools , even better if I make custom jobs. I’d like to see whet you have , of course I want to copy.

I’ll start the ball rolling.

I’ve done several tools for clutch assembly but today I came up with something ridiculously simple and it makes clutch assembly so simple.

Just using what I had in my shed

A bolt , some washers and a spacers and a wing nut.

[thirdstone]

One more

Clutch holder

[mac]

Pretty cool ideas,I really like the clutch tool. This could be a pretty useful thread and a good title for a Resonator article.

[hodakamax]

Basic stuff, original Hodaka shop tools from 1964. Clutch, flywheel, primary drive gear holder. Countershaft shifter clip put er oner. Flywheel puller. These are all of the day plus countershaft bushing puller.

[givergas]

piece of car top carrier tubing 1 foot long with 3/8 bolts cut to 1 inch, 2 inch on center

[Dale]

Shifter Control Shaft holding tool. Locks the shaft in to allow shifter spring replacement.
A simple scrap piece of 1" x 2" wood and two 50mm case screws. Drill two holes in the wood to align with existing magneto cover mounting points.

[Dale]

Split the cases tool
8mm x 100mm threaded rod and two nuts. Used in the otherwise non-used motor mounting points at the bottom of the cases. This simple tool will crack apart the cases when they are stuck together with either years of gunk or after the cases have been assembled with a quality case sealant. It works every time...

[Dale]

Case support stand for bearing and bushing installation.

Carefully selected pieces of scrap wood glued and screwed together to create the perfect support stand for the installation of bearings and bushings without breaking out the back side of the bosses.

[thirdstone]

Great thread

Another one . A clutch puller with a generic tool with the claws ground to fit. I do the Locktite in the splines thing and I can’t be bothered with a heat gun.

Off in 60 seconds.

Keep them coming no matter how obvious you tink it is.

[bobwhitman]

Ok, you are all winners! Every one of the tools are worthy of Resonator coverage. A special Tech Tip section on creative tools.

If each of you will email me a short explanation of your tool(s), what they are used for/how they work & how you made them along with s few digital pix, we’ll do a nifty section.

Bring it on!

[email protected]
541-954-0101

[Scribbler]

Counter shaft compressor made from scrap. Counter shaft fits between plates into 1/4" holes. When compressed, snap ring protrudes and can be easily removed or replaced when changing O-ring seal.

[Scribbler]

Not a homebrew tool, but an inexpensive adjustable holding tool for clutch, flywheel, counter shaft sprocket, etc. Assembled my Wombat engine with it, worked great. Currently only $12.60 on Amazon. Item B01N1LJDZH.

[thrownchain]

I see a couple of tools I'm gonna make, and one i'll use right away. I always think of pulling the cases apart, didn't occur to me to push them apart......doh!!

[matt glascock]

Great thread, Third! This is going to make a real sweet Resonator, well, Department. Dale, I couldn't enlarge the picture of the case splitting hardware. Are there flat washers between the nuts and the case engine mounting bosses? If not, have you had any issues with the nuts gouging and machining the cases?

[thirdstone]

I forgot this little gem. I don’t use it much but when I do it’s gold.
When shimming the shifter case adjuster arm you have to remove the pin , it’s difficult without this tool. With all the shift case internals removed including the shift lever shaft , you remove the grease nipple and push this threaded rod in all the way to the shifter shaft hole.when it’s through the bushing fit the 1/4 inch nut to the tool and simply pull the pin out.

I’m really liking the ideas you guys are showing , thanks

[Dale]

Dale, I couldn't enlarge the picture of the case splitting hardware. Are there flat washers between the nuts and the case engine mounting bosses? If not, have you had any issues with the nuts gouging and machining the cases?

Matt, I have used washers but found them not to be necessary. The standard 8mm nuts that I get from my True Value hardware store are not sharp on the edges and work just fine without leaving any marks.
Dale

P.S. It took some work, but I finally was able to fix the pictures so that you can now open them...

[matt glascock]

Excellent Dale. Great information and the images are much more effective now that I can open them. It looks as though there is an ever so slightly rounded shoulder on the nut. I really like this idea. More straight forward than the device I'm currently using copied from the "Breaking the Cases Wide Open" Hot Tip. Thanks again!!

[Hosk1956]

Not a unique tool story but perhaps a unique story about a tool:-
When I was a lad back in 76, I had to change my Wombat points, a mate used his flywheel puller and did the job for me, I thought that a cool tool and as I worked in a railway workshop I got a toolmaker friend to machine one up for me (I borrowed my mates as a sample). I didn't use it for quite a while but when I did it wouldn't screw in, I cussed my mate for screwing it up and luckily I tossed it back in the toolbox! Some years later I discovered that the flywheel pullers had a left hand thread! DOH
I'm still using that puller 40+ years later now that I know how to, I felt like a right tool when I found out, I obviously didn't watch my mate close enough all those years before.
Re tools, I have made lots of special tools for various Honda, Suzuki and lately Yamaha bikes over the years, I have put everyone of them into a tool box. Some have been used on my 250ED rebuild.

Wayne from Oz

[thirdstone]

Here is a file picture of a timing aid tool I’ve just bought . Really easy to use. Screw it in the plug hole and find TDC and note the reading. Now rotate the engine to move the piston down and then using the micrometer set your timing EG 2mm BTDC . Now bring the piston back up so it stops at 2mm BTDC. Now set the rotor.

[Scribbler]

In contrast to the beautiful Ballards micrometer timer, this is a simple TDC indicator built by my late brother in high school shop in the mid '60s. That's an Ace 90 NGK B-7 plug base!

I would ride my Ace 90 to school during the week then strip it down for the Sunday scrambles outside of town. The tracks were real basic by today's standards.

[thrownchain]

Assembly jig. 3/4" plywood, 14"x 11". I laid a case half on it, marked the locations of the shafts and drilled 1" holes with a hole saw. Assemble the motor in the right case half and screw it together. Flip the bottom end over and insert into the right holes and you can assemble the primary drive/ clutch with no issues.

[TheBevman]

In contrast to the beautiful Ballards micrometer timer, this is a simple TDC indicator built by my late brother in high school shop in the mid '60s. That's an Ace 90 NGK B-7 plug base!

I would ride my Ace 90 to school during the week then strip it down for the Sunday scrambles outside of town. The tracks were real basic by today's standards.
Hodaka TDC Tool 004.jpg

Scribbler, I just made me one this weekend to time my wife's '78 YZ 400E after replacing the mag seal, someone put it in there backwards . I used a B7ES and some 5/16" rod I had lying around, it doesn't look neat as your brother's but it did the job.

I love these kinda threads, "necessity is the mother of invention," indeed.
Bev

[hodakamax]

I forgot about his one for knocking out fork head bearing races. Mighty handy! Resonator article somewhere.

[gearyoliver]

Here is a shock spring compressor. Made from exhaust tubing a little plate and all thread. Place the shock inside run the top bolt between two coils. Put a bolt in the bottom shock eye and equally tighten the two nuts at the bottom. Pretty simple and much safer than a couple tire irons and straps.

[Larry S]

I also made a shock spring compressor, but I took a different approach. I patterned mine after a Mac Pherson strut spring compressor.

2" of 2x 2 x 1/8 angle iron, black iron pipe, and 16" of allthread.

Yes. The angle iron is welded to the pipe at a 5 degree angle - that makes it much easier to place it between the spring coils.

Larry S