Finally got the parts together for the Grizzly 660. Yamaha sent 2 sets of rings that didnt measure to spec. A guy at the shop called the head office. They said " Ohhh,, we run them like that all the time. We dont have any problems with them.".. The gap on the compression ring was well outside the Max Allowable, which was almost double the high end of what the book called for in the "Normal,desirable" gap range. SO
Owner of the shop told one of the parts guys to get me whatever I needed to finish this job. The found an aftermarket piston .5 mm over stock, still 9/1 compression, wrist pin, rings, all that stuff & got it in for me in 2 days.

So, yesterday I started in on it Got the crank at TDC & tied the pull starter "crown" on the crank to pull starter cover bolts so it couldnt turn, tied the rod up & put the piston on it, lubed it all up good & worked the jug down & torqued it. Harder to put one together in the frame than get it apart, Ill Tell YEW!
Got the head on it last nite, some of those bolts are about impossible to get on w/ a torque wrench,, used a ratchet to get close with, then finished off with the torque wrench,.
My heart is still in my throat..I dont like this kinda work, at ALL.

Put the cam in today. Itskinda tricky. Its got some kinda decomp gizmo built in, springs & weights & kinda tricky..
Had all the dots lined up, mark on the crank & case agreed,, just one cam gear bolt in,, thot,, "Lets turn this thing around & see how it acts when it gets back to TDC.. ",, WoooHOoo! I am SO glad I did that.

ONE tooth off, the cam was lagging by one tooth, so, I re-did it.

Got it all back together, both bolts in, spun it again, using my finger as the cam chain tightener & it lines up Everywhere now..
There is exactly no way to get a torque wrench on those bolts. Says 20#, so, I stuck a socket in a vise & felt of 20# on the torque wrench. Built up a socket/ratchet & cheater bar & tried to replicate it as near as possible, cleaned the threads up in & out & used a drop O Blue Locktite.

Heart/Throat

I do not Like this kind of work,,,

Ohh, wait, I already mentioned that, didnt I?

I think Ill put the head cover on before I do the cam chain tensioner,,

Of course, Ill inspect the cam again before I do anything.
I came in to calm down, let my pulse settle back to normal. So, I thot Id just tell about whats been getting my pulse UP.. & I mean that literally. I am( well,, I was) actually shaking. I dont like doing things that have serious repercussions is its not right. Its not MINE & I cant Afford to pay someone to fix it if I mess it up.. & Its just scary to me.. I wish I was an arrogant, self centered, "I am never wrong" kinda guy some days.,

wow, impressive

Gosh JOG, I'm still fretting over cracking open the Savage to check the cam chain . You da MAN!!!!!

Its not My Fo Wheeler. Its a Grizzly 660 a 78 Y/O man bought at a garage sale after some young fella rode the snot out of it for 350 hours. Air filter was disintegrated, motor had ingested dirt, valves had never been adjusted, I know that because of the marks on the adjusters, all of them had one line with dots at each end. I wont be riding it, Ill be sending it home. Poor dude thot he was buying a shiny new dime at a discount,,,& he was actually buying a total.,It was worth the cost of repair if he had taken it to the shop & had them resurrect it. But he paid about $2600.00 for it, THEN he ( well, I) discovered what was wrong with it,.

Ive got $928.00 spent on it just in parts & machine shop labor. He has paid $900.00, so, Im in it for 28,
Shop mgr at Yamaha told me that what Ive done so far would have cost about $2,500.00, maybe a bit more.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 01/03/13 at 23:33:01:


WOW, you're having some fun now !!  

Hey, where's that no-good nephew/son-in-law/young'n who is supposed to be helping you hold stuff in alignment?  His fingers broke or something?  Well at least you have some way of getting out of the weather.. no way am I getting out in this blustery muck to work on a bike.  Carport and tarps = no thank you.

So, JOG, I need someone to go thru another motor I got.....Interested

Welp,,, got her together enough to fire it up. Runs good at high RPM but requires some air inlet restriction to idle, so, I guess I gotta pull the air box & tank & get the carb on the bench & see whats in the way of fuel in the pilot circuit,, Blass TIT!
On the bright side, it RUNS!
Scared the poo outta me at first,, book calls for 2.1 quarts for an oil change, so, I did that, went a hair over & got it fired up, it coffed & sputtered a while & died. I checked the oil & it was a good bit low,, well, considering how long it ran, anyway..I thot it was ingesting oil somehow, but it wasnt smoking out the pipe like a mosquito fogger,,
Filled it up, ran it again, a bit low again,, so, added a smidge, ran it & let it sit a bit & Violas,, its all good. Sure didnt like the stuff I fo9und in the pan when I went thru the oil,, it had dirt in it & bits of metal the size of a fat grain O sand,., I wish I had the skill/knowledge/ability to have cracked the case & cleaned it out,but thats way past me,, They told me thats just an included step when they do a top end job at the shop, crack it open & clean it out & inspect stuff,,which makes sense, in that deep, sure would suck if in 200 hours some bearings "down in there" give up from the abuse that led to the need for the work Ive done,

Anyway, it Will idle, IF I gently lay my hand over the air intake & let the air fight its way between my loose fingers.,really its a very light restriction thats needed,,
Once I got to there I sealed off the intake & the big tube that feeds air into the belt & pulleys that make the transmission & fired up the pressure washer. Used the wimpiest nozzle & low engine speed & cleaned the mud out of the radiator core, went down a nozzle size & hosed the machine & belly pan parts & all the stuff thats off of it, cleaned out the mud from in the storage area, wiped it down, looks a Lot better than when it got here. REplaced a valve core on the rear. Cut a hunk of fishing line out that was wound around a rear axle.. just stuff that a decent, somewhat caring owner would do.. the kid that beat thing thing in the ground needs some teachin & his daddy needs a whoopin..