Sweet looking little thumper for $400, wouldn't you say? Almost seems too good to be true.
But you see, this bike comes with a story. And I love bikes with a story. It seems the PO was "staying with" with an individual who had an "ex" that was apparently not altogether enthralled with this new living arrangement. Moreover, the "ex" was the proud owner of a sledge hammer and by all accounts fancied himself quite adept in the use of his sledge hammer. As you might expect, in a chemically enhanced domonstration of artistic expression, and to reflect his displeasure with the new "living arrangement", he arrived late one night and commenced practicing "The Art of the Sledge Hammer". Didn't ya just know alcohol was gonna be involved?
Sadly, our little Savage became the artistic medium of the disenchanted sledge hammer sculptor who apparently took offense to the aesthetics of the tank, carb and clutch cover and promptly took it upon himself to do a bit of reshaping of those particular items as evidenced in the pic below.
Clearly, that tanks not gonna buff out and I'm now questioning whether JB Weld's gonna work for that clutch cover. None the less, replacement parts were secured for a mere $150 which would still make for a very reasonable little thumper.
However, when I removed the clutch cover and clutch I encountered damage that wasn't evident from the outside. It seems one of the sledge hammer blows smeared the heads of the 2 bolts on the case at the rear of the starter and the forces traveled downward into the well that encirles the lower portion of the starter resulting in the 3 cracks as seen in the pic below.
And finally to the question. Could I stop drill the cracks and tig them up in place? The cracks would not appear to be in a highly stressed region and thus should not jeopardize the integrity of the case. I really don't relish the thought of tearing this engine down to swap out cases.
Your thoughts, prayers and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And for the record, yes the head plug leaks and no its not yet been Versied. But wouldn't we all hope that one day our name too would be used as a verb.
This forum's the best. Thanks!
Ron