i thought i was at the end of my engine build after gettin my shims through the post, well i did something ididnt want to do= drop the shim into the crankcase, as you could imagine lots of swearing followed and tools got slung about as im thinking its full engine strip again to get it out, any way i managed to tip the engine upside down and give it ashake (probly not the best thing to do) then tipped it on its side, itook the sump cover off and out came the shim then........................ a DOWL. where the fuck its come i dont know or ewnan how its come out, hopefully its only off the clutch cover or oil pump which aint to much of a prob to sort out apart from the cost of more gaskets

at least moto gp is on today to cheer me up

i say its lucky you dropped that shim, a dowl in the crackcase

Drunkn Munky wrote:i say its lucky you dropped that shim, a dowl in the crackcase

Saved you a whole heap more pain down the track!

Unless it becomes apparent (e.g. valve cover) then I would leave the dowel out. If one of the side cases or the sump starts leaking then you can assume it's off-centre and missing a dowel. Or you might be lucky and got it aligned right anyway and it won't leak. Not worth worrying about?

ISTBC, do dowels do anything more than align the side cases? Maybe some function to help resist worse crash-damage?

amorti wrote:Unless it becomes apparent (e.g. valve cover) then I would leave the dowel out. If one of the side cases or the sump starts leaking then you can assume it's off-centre and missing a dowel. Or you might be lucky and got it aligned right anyway and it won't leak. Not worth worrying about?

ISTBC, do dowels do anything more than align the side cases? Maybe some function to help resist worse crash-damage?

I see what sayin it crossed my mind to leave it but it will play on my mind thinking its from the crankcase, but then again i can't see how it would of came out when putting the cases back together

I lost a dowel when I had removed a side case - it allowed the starter motor splines to destroy themselves as it was not lined up properly..

Have you had the cam towers off or the head?

Be easier to find out where it is from now and prevent another strip down in the future.

SAying that, when I stripped mine last time, I found a shim in the sump! not from my changing as I had never dropped one..it was just there!

CMSMJ1 wrote:I lost a dowel when I had removed a side case - it allowed the starter motor splines to destroy themselves as it was not lined up properly..

Have you had the cam towers off or the head?

Be easier to find out where it is from now and prevent another strip down in the future.

SAying that, when I stripped mine last time, I found a shim in the sump! not from my changing as I had never dropped one..it was just there!

GPWM, I hadn't thought about their job of lining up e.g. alternator inside windings and pulse pickup, etc.

well it aint of the clutch cover, im gonna check the cams tommorow, after looking back through the haynes manual theres a good chance its come of there, also ithink that the ones between the head and crankcases and the two halfs of the crankcase were larger dowls.

Probably off the cam caps, they have locator dowels in them.

The one engine I stripped had a load of valve collets in the sump strainer but all were present in the head

The overheating VFR was the best, I found the remnants of the water-pump shaft in the strainer as the pump had siezed at some point and trying to start it must have snapped the shaft. Explained why my water pump wasn't turning anyhow

it was out the off the oil pump, imust of knocked it out when puttin it back, its a shame i didnt check that first because i checked the cams first and had to redo the timing, oh well