Piston Head Help

[1978gs550E]

Hey guys, it's me again. I'm doing a complete rebuild of my bike. I've gotten the engine out and started to strip it down. The problem is I need to remove the piston heads but I can't figure out how. The manual I have doesn't tell me how to do so. It just says use the tool and it does all the work.

I don't have the tool, I am not going to buy it, and I need to know an alternative method. Please help.

[chef1366]

Are you referring to the head or the pistons?

[tkent02]

Hey guys, it's me again. I'm doing a complete rebuild of my bike. I've gotten the engine out and started to strip it down. The problem is I need to remove the piston heads but I can't figure out how. The manual I have doesn't tell me how to do so. It just says use the tool and it does all the work.

I don't have the tool, I am not going to buy it, and I need to know an alternative method. Please help.

You're going to take the heads off the pistons???

[1978gs550E]

You're going to take the heads off the pistons???

that's what my manual said to do. It stated that I should take the head off of the piston but I don't think that I'm going to be doing that.

[chef1366]

It's telling you to remove the head. If you're doing a rebuild I would suggest that you do.

[1978gs550E]

It's telling you to remove the head. If you're doing a rebuild I would suggest that you do.

so how do I go about doing this?

[psyguy]

what kind of service manual does NOT say how to remove a head

theres 12 nuts (in a particular order) and maybe 2-3 other smaller bolts to remove and then just lift the head up. and then lift the barrels up, too.

[Nessism]

so how do I go about doing this?

Sounds like you need to slow down and read some more - both in the archives here and in the service manual.

The factory service manual is available for free download from repairmanualclub.com. The Clymers manuals tend to dumb things down more than the factory manual so consider purchasing one.

You might also want to get yourself a digital camera and take photos of everything you are taking apart so you can have a reference for when you go put it back together.

Good luck.

[Steve]

As mentioned in previous posts, there appears to be some (a lot of ) confusion in terminology here.

The HEAD is the top of the engine that holds the cams and the spark plugs. This definitely needs to come off. ALL manuals have information on this, but you will need to remove the carbs and the cams to do this.

The CYLINDER BLOCK is directly under the head, it is in this area that the pistons live and do their work. It will also need to be removed, and after the head is removed, it will be very obvious how to do it.

The PISTONS will be left attached to the crankshaft by the connecting rods when the cylinder block is removed. You will have to use a special tool to remove the pistons from the connecting rods if you need to replace them. There might be alternatives to that special tool, but the tool is not that expensive. The principle of the tool is to pull the wrist pin out of the piston, after removing a retainer clip.

.

[1978gs550E]

Sounds like you need to slow down and read some more - both in the archives here and in the service manual.

The factory service manual is available for free download from repairmanualclub.com. The Clymers manuals tend to dumb things down more than the factory manual so consider purchasing one.

You might also want to get yourself a digital camera and take photos of everything you are taking apart so you can have a reference for when you go put it back together.

Good luck.

everytime I try to download it says I don't have permission from that site. Even after I registered it wouldn't let me download from repairmanualclub

[psyguy]

try downloading the manual from here:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/