Heart of the Beast

Managed to get the main bearings with seals installed and the crank installed into the left case to prep for assembly soon.

First I had to get the old seals out which was made so much easier with the right tool, the $10 Lisle seal puller. This thing pops them right out with very little effort. Although it is available on Amazon I went to a local tool spot appropriately called Tool Mart which is family owned and gave it to me for a nice crispy $10 bill.

I will have to take a quick trip to another local spot, Bearing Agency, to pick up these other seals for the motor before putting everything together.

I have a brand new set of factory seals for the bike which can be seen here, however I will be using the sweet blue seals that came with the Polini Bearings. I will use that new O-Ring from the factory set.

Here is the case sans bearing and seal, ready for the new bits.

Here is the magic weapon I use to coax the bearings out and make way for the new ice cold ones....It's the Storm!

Here is the new bearing in place. Sign of the times, old bearings were made in France and these new ones Taiwan.

Before installing the new crank I was planning to match the cases, but The rose top end lines up so darn well I really think it would be a waste of time. See for yourself.a

Installing the crank into the left side case is made easier with this Aprilia factory tool. There was a steel washer with this at some point over the years, but as since run away and was substituted with some scrap aluminum I had laying around.