Balancing a roller bearing crankshaft

[Guest]

I'm contemplating rebuilding the 1166 motor in my 1100E this fall after the riding season is over. In an effort to make it as smooth and vibration free as possible I wanted to have the balance of the rotating assembly verified. I'm not sure how that works with a welded roller bearing crankshaft that you can't (conveniently anyway) disassemble and remove the connecting rods from. So my question is (Ray, Terry) what is the procedure for having a welded roller bearing crank with connecting rods balanced? Or is it even possible? All my experience is with V-8 auto engines where you would balance the crank and rods separately.

[blowerbike]

you can balance the rods and that's about it.
just the crank being trued correctly should keep the bad frequencies under control.
call pearson..he'll give you the low down.
937-839-9723

[ozman]

the simple reply is....leave it alone, the chances of improving the balance comes at great expense to dismantle the crank, balance the rods then reassemble, reweld crank... the rods are usually pretty good in my experience
just check the crank is running true and bearing are ok

ozman

[Homie]

No, I don't want to disassemble the rods from the crank - that is for sure! I just didn't know if there was some kind of special machine/fixture/procedure for checking the rotating assembly balance with the rods still on the crank. Thanks!

[chef1366]

Are your carbs balanced?

[gs11ezrydr]

Falicon does what they call blueprint and dynamic balancing of the crankshafts. Not really sure what is all involved with that procedure though. A bit pricey also at 630 bucks http://www.faliconcranks.com/pt_price.html

[stetracer]

Send the crank and rods to APE and they will take care of it. Then place the pistons with the rings and wrist pins on a triple beam and make all the pistons weight the same as the lightest one. I make all my pistons weight within a tenth of a gram. Well worth the cost IMO.
I would steer clear of Falcon

[Homie]

Send the crank and rods to APE and they will take care of it. Then place the pistons with the rings and wrist pins on a triple beam and make all the pistons weight the same as the lightest one. I make all my pistons weight within a tenth of a gram. Well worth the cost IMO.
I would steer clear of Falcon

Thanks for the word. Curious on the piston balancing - where would you remove material to equalize the weight - the pin boss??

[Nessism]

Big waste of time. Yes on making sure your crank is in good condition, but minor balancing tweaking will do nothing.

The reason modern big bore I4 engines are vibration free is because they use a balance shaft. No amount of balancing will make your engine as smooth as a balance shaft engine.

[fast eddie 52]

minimizing vibes...

I've been wanting some info on lessening the vibes on my '83 GS1100e, the hands really tingle in the 4-4.5k range, a pain on a longer run that spoils an otherwise great bike...any good tricks/tweaks to lessen the vibes???

[posplayr]

I've been wanting some info on lessening the vibes on my '83 GS1100e, the hands really tingle in the 4-4.5k range, a pain on a longer run that spoils an otherwise great bike...any good tricks/tweaks to lessen the vibes???

After my head was ported and all flow rates matched the buzz was reduced

[bellucci]

I have an old unknown mileage 1100 in my street bike. It hums at the same 4 to 4500 revs... I just go faster... if not an option you can always change gearing to
cruise higher or lower...
Curt

[blowerbike]

After my head was ported and all flow rates matched the buzz was reduced

a reduced buzz is not a good thing IMO

[mustangflyr]

I've been wanting some info on lessening the vibes on my '83 GS1100e, the hands really tingle in the 4-4.5k range, a pain on a longer run that spoils an otherwise great bike...any good tricks/tweaks to lessen the vibes???

There was an article out at one time dealing with vibration on motorcycles. the idea was to loosen the engine mount bolts a bit and try to wiggle the engine on it's mounts. Then examine the mounts for gaps between the engine and the mounts for space between them. Use washers to fill the gapd and torque the fasteners. Mine's smooth after that. Also chain adjustment can make for more vibration.

[Big Jay]

Send the crank and rods to APE and they will take care of it. Then place the pistons with the rings and wrist pins on a triple beam and make all the pistons weight the same as the lightest one. I make all my pistons weight within a tenth of a gram. Well worth the cost IMO.
I would steer clear of Falcon

We do not balance the assembled roller bearing cranks.

A number of years ago, I spoke with one of the real geniuses in the racing biz who said he balanced them. He told me exactly how he did it. ( what he did with the rods). I had a customers crank in the shop, so we put it into the balancer just like this guy said he did. Spun it up and one end was out considerably.

However, not being 100% sure I was getting an accurate reading doing this, I chose not to remove anything from the guys crank.