18 October 2016

1971 Ambassador Cannibalization

Picked up a 1971 Ambassador super cheap. I needed some parts from this for the V700, every else is just icing on the cake, let's explore!


Heads off, aside from broken fins on the left one and some silty material, the heads were pretty rust free and in great shape. Cylinders are locked and very much shot.

Only very light surface rust in the timing chest


Carbs disassembled and were sold within hours


4-speed transmission innards. Crusty, but some parts are salvageable


Timing gears cleaned up nicely


Connecting rod bolts look pretty good too. Threads aren't stretched either


Oil pump hardware and assembly are in great shape





Lifters obviously need a resurfacing, cam doesn't look hopeless, we'll see how it cleans up





Crankshaft in decent shape. Some discoloration and pitting on the rod journal between where the bearings ride. I actually took this to my machinist to get it reground and polished and he said I'd be wasting my time. The surfaces that come into contact with the bearings all mic'd in spec, oddly enough.







Sludge trap plug removed, cleaning threads before cleaning sludge trap itself


There was supposed to be less than 20k miles on this bike, sludge trap was totally plugged up.


Rods don't look too bad


 Neither do the bearing shells


   

No damage or sludge build up inside the case


Sealing surface look good, the rest needs a serious cleaning





The small studs on both sides of the case are pretty rusty. I'm going to replace them all on both sides



So now that everything's apart. I really don't know what I'm going to do with the engine. It's a pretty decent base to make a nice engine. Really, once the crank is cleaned up a little better and I replace the bearing shells in the rods, slapping some Gilardoni cylinder/piston kits on this would give someone a nice engine. Then again, maybe I'll just slap the bottom end back together and sell it as a project. We'll see...

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