Scooterotica

Lamaddict

KE175 is the Kawasaki rod in question - same width as a standard lambretta # but no comment on shims !

Gaz

# Information given in the true spirit of an open forum but anyone is welcome to correct me

.5 mm shims on ke175 Conrod/ Indian gp200 webs. Well, that's what are fitted on mine. Think there mat be more than one version of the ke175 Conrod too.

ke175d

Thanks for that, Muppet. I never wrote that down at the time the crank was built, but I know it all fitted together with a total width of 40.5mm although the pin also needed machining down.

Ian Frankland put me onto the Kawasaki conrod. He did make the point though that the KE175 conrod is not as sturdy as one the Yamaha ones commonly used on this conversion.

I recently bought a SIL webbed 110mm rod crank via a guy that had bought it from one of the bigger dealers. The seller had intended to use it but then had changed to a different setup with standard 107 GP length rod so put the new 110 rodded crank up for sale at a decent price. Unlike me, I made a spur of the moment decision to take a punt on it and could have cried when I looked at it and found that it is narrow at the small end eye, meaning that you can't run shims here without the risk of the bearing needles running on the shims (note that the eye is narrower than the standard Innocenti spec' eye so standard shims would not work anyway), AND that there are no shims used at the big end either! Not an issue unless you have as much side float as this sloppy bugger has!!! Whilst there is no wear and the rod slides uniformly along the big end's rollers, the pressure of compression and combustion will soon start trying to push this over to one side and cause rapid wear and heat build up. I nearly wept into my mittens as I am a firm believer in shimming at the big end, especially with the sort of bronze/brass alloys that function as bearing faces and will stop steel on steel friction and heat build up.

Act in haste, repent at leisure

I've got to say that MB's comments 'ring true' in my ears when it comes to rod swaps and crank rebuilds.

Adam