Fine hand crafted Thai head gasket

[In the jungle]

In a rash moment I offered to fix up the FIL's forty year old Suzuki A100.

 

I pulled the cylinder head and discovered this remarkable item serving as a head gasket.

 

 

Diagnosing reportedly poor front brake performance was straightforward.  There are no front brake shoes.

 

Today's job was splitting the crankcases.  That involved removing around a dozen crosshead screws with wrecked heads that were done up to approximately 500 ft lbs of torque.  Having tried less brutal methods I ended up drilling the head off every screw except for one.  To my surprise I managed to do that without putting even one mark on the crankcases.

 

Doubtless more surprises await.

 

[AllanB]

They cease to become a surprise after a while, worse than my bike, but same principal. Yours is a few years older than mine (1983), luckily they left the engine-g/box alone, but everything else was like that.

 

More pictures please so I don't feel like a victim...

[In the jungle]

Probably a worse mechanical crime was that the footrests were kee nok welded onto the frame.  The footrests were not from an A100 and they hadn't even got them level.  To top that they had managed to weld the whole mess to one of the engine mounting bolts so I had to use an angle grinder to remove the engine.

 

I have already started the frame repair trying to emulate the way suzuki welded it in the first place.  A day's work in that so far.

 

I will take some photos of the wreckage tomorrow.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by In the jungle

[ktm jeff]

The foorests are OK , if one leg is shorter that the other .

 

[In the jungle]

Remnant of the footpegs after removal with an angle grinder.

 

Part of this mess is from an A100 but most is from, I guess, some Wave/Dream sort of thing.

 

[In the jungle]

The start of a repair to the frame.  Quite a lot more work to go into this.

 

The crankcases will be put back in the frame to get the engine mount holes accurate.

 

 

[VocalNeal]

In many industries throughout the world gaskets are hand made on a daily basis. The welder though does need a bit more training or at least a welding shield so he can see what he is doing. That being said he wasn't paid much. 

 

You do realise that whatever goes wrong next time will be your fault!

[thaiguzzi]

No offence, but why bother?

Can't be sentimental value.

I was offered a running, clean(ish), legal 2 stroke stepthru last week for 2k by my seat recover man.

5-7k gets you a really decent one.

10k gets you a tatty decent running 150 proper m/c, ie not a moped...

12-15k gets you a decent high mileage 4 stroke Wave.

[Neilly]

16 hours ago, In the jungle said:

I pulled the cylinder head and discovered this remarkable item serving as a head gasket.

If you can't get an original one try these guys...

 

http://gasketstogo.com/

[In the jungle]

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

No offence, but why bother?

Can't be sentimental value.

 

My wife's father took his last ever ride on this bike.  He was hit by a pickup truck and died from his injuries.

 

She asked me to rebuild it to remember him by.

[In the jungle]

3 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

In many industries throughout the world gaskets are hand made on a daily basis. 

 

You do realise that whatever goes wrong next time will be your fault!

I use hand made gaskets and also make them myself.

 

But the guy who made this one failed to grasp that the hole in the middle has to be circular.

 

And of course everything will be my fault.  

[thaiguzzi]

29 minutes ago, In the jungle said:

 

My wife's father took his last ever ride on this bike.  He was hit by a pickup truck and died from his injuries.

 

She asked me to rebuild it to remember him by.

Sentimental value then. Unnerstan.

You will be surprised how much stuff is still available for these old 2 strokes at a decent m/c shop. There are two in my local market town that continue to amaze me with their knowledge and parts stock.

Take the old barrel, head and piston in, even the c/cases, i'm sure someone will have gaskets, seals and even a piston kit available.

Crank/con rod rebuild will be no problem too.

[AllanB]

1 hour ago, In the jungle said:

I use hand made gaskets and also make them myself.

 

But the guy who made this one failed to grasp that the hole in the middle has to be circular.

 

And of course everything will be my fault.  

Water or fuel gaskets, yes out of corn flake packets using a small hammer, or a dirty finger, but not head gaskets surely? That said, years ago we took a Hillman Imp estate to the Alps with insufficient antifreeze, it dropped to -30c overnight and the ice lifted the head. We tried making a gasket out of annealed copper, didn't work.

 

Got a train back and fixed in on the next trip....then broke a donut, still got home.

 

 

[In the jungle]

Correct.  Essentially the same reason why I keep an old bike that used to belong to my late father.  It can never be legally registered here and arrived here by methods I am not going to detail.  I keep it in good working order but I probably have not ridden it in more than a year.

 

You are right also about most A100 parts being available.  The problem is that most of the readily available stuff is Thai copy.  In some cases that is fine but a fair proportion is either a poor fit or made from substandard materials.  

 

I am trying to use good used genuine parts for the important stuff but you really need to hunt the stuff down and get hands on with the part to judge condition.  A photo can deceive.  I have had some luck and good deals so far.

 

I am not much of a 2T fan and I am not trying to present the A100 as some kind of greatest ever classic.  Though even forty years on in pulling down the engine I am impressed by the quality.  Generally though I like my bikes four stroke and from the big H.  But I did think that there might be some cautionary value in showing some of the things Village Bike Shops can and may do to your bike if you give them the chance.  Looking at the state of this old Suzuki reminds me why I do all vehicle maintenance myself. 

 

It may also be of interest to anyone who happens to own one of these bikes.

 

5 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Sentimental value then. Unnerstan.ateriials

You will be surprised how much stuff is still available for these old 2 strokes at a decent m/c shop. There are two in my local market town that continue to amaze me with their knowledge and parts stock.

Take the old barrel, head and piston in, even the c/cases, i'm sure someone will have gaskets, seals and even a piston kit available.

Crank/con rod rebuild will be no problem too.

 

Edited July 13, 2017 by In the jungle

[In the jungle]

3 hours ago, AllanB said:

Water or fuel gaskets, yes out of corn flake packets using a small hammer, or a dirty finger, but not head gaskets surely? 

 

I would not try and make a head gasket but I know an excellent shop in Bangkok that can.  If I ever need one for some of the rarer stuff I have I would trust them to do the job.

 

For the A100 I am pretty sure a head gasket will be found locally and cheaply.  Which leaves me perplexed as to why anyone would try and make one. 

[AllanB]

I let a local guy put a new spark plug in my Honda Wave, he put this "Bang Gong Blow" plug in and it ran like shit, it was 1 baht cheaper than the NGK. I took it out and binned it, no point in arguing.

 

Who knows why they do these things?