|
Hi Clint, I am not the most knowledgeable guy in this manner, I am just now doing my first full rebuild and I've got a lot of help from this website especially from GarndPaulZ. I have however redone the top end on my half liter a few times and my experience may shed some light on it. I had a smoking left piston similar to yours. Basically it smoked when I tapped it. When I took it apart I found that I had a loose valve guide as well as a scored piston where the rings had broke done. I should also mention that I tested the compression prior to removing the head and it was good. So here you go, was it the valve guide or the piston rings or both? I guess my input would be that you are going to have to take the head off anyway, so if the valve guide is okay, or even if it is not, you may want to pull the barrel off and check the pistons and the rings. In my case, it was only then that I saw that the piston and rings had a problem. Like I said, up until that point the compression was good, the bike ran well, and my only indication of a problem was the smoke. Before I got into old British bikes I was always told that they take a lot of work, conversely I have learned that the engine will take a lot of abuse and still keep running. Such as was my case. I hope this helps. Hank
|
