[Eddiej82770]

I thought is was the same as Kawasaki..as they have three different color doted bearing sets, all with different clearances to a new stock crank. Never thought CFM would have two different crankcases for the same year...and if so why wouldn't they be identical..even if from different lines. Odd. Yeah I'm sure China will flex a bit and try to teach us a lesson. We just have to be tougher..and get through it..together..as we have always done.

Not different crankcases per year model or production line. The halves of the crankcase itself. Left and right so to say. They are marked A and B on the inside of the halves with laser printing. Easy to miss unless you are actually looking for it. I received the red bearing last Friday and will be installing it this week, so I'll take a pic of the crankcase markings and post it for future reference if anyone else needs this info.

[NMKawierider]

Great! Good info.

[Eddiej82770]

Ok, so I got the crank bearings and crankshaft installed. Included in the pics are the markings for the case halves. they are marked A and B. The A side takes the red crank bearings, and the B side takes the blue crank bearings. Make sure when you press the bearings in the crankcase halves that the oil holes in the bearings are aligned with the oil passage holes in the crankcases. This is very important. If not aligned, you could have reduced or no oil pressure to the main bearings on the crankshaft. After that, I made sure that the transmission gears are correct installed the crankshaft in the B side crankcase on the table, installed the gasket and slid the A side crankcase over the crankshaft and transmission shaft. Installed the transmission shaft seal, crankcase bolts, and torqued them to the specs and in the order noted in the manual. There are 22 of them if I remember correctly. Most on one side, but there are a few on the other and they all must be torqued in sequence. I got to the point of installing the front output shaft and I made a decision to order a new bearing retainer. The one I have was chewed up pretty bad from the last person inside the motor. Tomorow I will be honing the cylinders and specking the clearance on the rings so that I can install the cylinders and pistons. It's getting there.

[NMKawierider]

Yeah good progress. Nice work.

[Eddiej82770]

Sorry for the pause guys. Been busy lately. So, from where we left off.

I decided to replace the boogered up main shaft bearing retainer and it took 2 weeks to come in. When I finally got it, I installed it, the oil pressure valve, and the oil pump assembly.

Then I installed the pistons and new rings. I got the #2 cylinder installed ok, but while installing the #1 cylinder, I bound up the #2 ring between the cylinder and the case somehow. When I pressed down to start the #2 ring in the cylinder while trying to keep it compressed, I broke it. It was a heartbreaking snap as I knew it meant another week's delay. Live and learn to be more careful. Ordered another set of rings for that cylinder and made sure to carefully install them that time. I set the head gaskets and heads on at this point and just snugged the bolts to retain the cylinders. The stationary chain guide locks in between the head and the cylinder so don't forget to install it BEFORE you install the heads, ask me how I know, lol.

Install the pivoting chain guides and pins by the crankshaft now at this stage

Now you have to install the cam chains. Don't forget the plastic retainers that go below the crankshaft. I just hung the chains over the side of the engine with some scrap wire tied thru them to keep them from falling back in because everyone online I saw does it that way. I found an easier way of dealing with the cam chains before timing the motor. Go ahead and put them on the gear and just start the bolt for the gear in the cams. Leave the gear slot on the outside of the cam pin. In other words don't push it forward to lock the gear to the cam. This will allow you to turn the motor to time it without turning the cam and possibly binding the valves to the pistons. Much easier and tidy way of dealing with the timing chains at this point in the rebuild.

Installed the gear train, then installed the one-way bearing, the woodruff key, and magneto rotor. Installed the new stator in the case cover. Installed the water pump assembly in the case cover and new oil seal. Installed the starter gears and mounted and torqued the case side cover. It can be a little tricky mounting the cover because the magneto wants to stick to the stator, but I found that if you start the case on, let it stick, because it's going to anyway, line up and press/start the lower dowel in the case. Then you can kind of rotate the case with the leverage of the lower dowel to pull the magneto away enough to start the upper dowel and press straight in to seat. I hope that made sense. It took me a couple of tries to do that before I figured it out, so I hope it helps someone.

Swapped around to the other side and installed the wet clutch and one-way bearing on the cvt side, installed the new clutch drum in the cvt case cover and installed the cover.

All this may sound a little intimidating, but it's really all pretty straight forward and simple, just follow the directions in the manual. I wished I had gotten more detailed pictures at this stage of the rebuild.

Got the heads torqued to specs and timed the motor.

Don't let timing the motor intimidate you. It's not that complicated, you just have to follow a procedure. On the magneto side case make sure the crank position sensor is removed if it isn't already. You can look down this hole and see the magneto spin when you turn the crank. Turn the crank counterclockwise with the 18mm crankshaft bolt on the magneto side. Look into the hole and turn the crank until you see a #2 with a line. Center that in the hole. This is top dead center on cylinder #2. You can check this by putting a screwdriver through the sparkplug hole and you should immediately touch the piston.  Align the cam gear of the #2 cylinder with the timing chain on, with the lines printed on the gear itself sitting parallel with the head. The manual goes into detail about this with pics if you're having a hard time visualizing it. After that's set, turn the crankshaft 1 full turn counterclockwise and start looking for the #1 mark and line. Align this mark into the center of the hole and repeat the setting of the chain and cam gear that you just did on cylinder #2. It's really pretty simple. Just take your time and follow the procedure. One thing to note is when you are setting the parallel lines on the cam gear with the head, stick your finger in the cam tensioner hole, press and take up the slack on the chain. You may have to adjust a tooth or so to make sure the marks are still parallel with tension on the chain.

Got the crossover tube between the heads installed and installed the intake and throttle body assembly.

So, where I'm at now is waiting on an oil seal for the clutch drum shaft, a new bearing and oil seal for the cvt cover (the one that goes on the crankshaft) it was rusted beyond usability. then all that's left is to install the primary and secondary clutches, belt and cover and the motor is back together. Then it will be the installation and hooking back up the hoses and wires.

I do wish I had gotten more pictures but here are a few of the progress.