Bearcat #1 Teardown

[Super Sportster]

With the long weekend I decided to teardown the first Bearcat I bought. This one was stuck when I bought it, I freed it up and proceeded to start it up. Two cylinders had low compression, I was assuming the rings were stuck and running it I might get lucky enough to free them and bring up the compression. Finally getting it to start, the telltale was weak and after maybe 10hrs running time there was no difference in compression, it would have to come apart. It was full of surprises. Cracked block, and it looks like it may have lost a rod at some point in it's life. This probably explains why the "F" block had been replaced with an early Homelite block. With all the corrosion in the water jackets I can see why it did not leak water from the cracked block and why the telltale was weak. I had found a really nice "A" block to replace the cracked block. Teardown is complete and reassembly has begun. I've torn done a few lower units for repair, a nice simple unit, easy to work on and the powerhead also seems easy also to work on.

[Helmar]

Man, I sure know you have to drain mine anyway.
Makes me wonder if I need to pump her full of antifreeze now too.
Mine Is the F block.

[Super Sportster]

Winterizing

That's the second cracked block I've had, don't you also have one there? I'm thinking I'll pump antifreeze in all mine just for piece of mind. That drain is just a little higher than the bottom of the jacket and both of these blocks were broke in that area. My other "F" block that came from Lapine also had freeze damage, fortunately it only distorted the jacket cover and leaked at the gasket.

[Super Sportster]

Reassembled

Bottom end is done, moved to camshaft assembly. Valve adjustment on these sucks! A nice upgrade would be shim and bucket like my Yamaha XS850 had. Oh well, cam came off twice till clearances were correct. Now it's just the small stuff and this one will be ready to fire up. It doesn't look any different than when I started, still has a white block.

[Captain Jack]

Bearcat engine stands

Fill 'em if they're outside, with properly mixed antifreeze.
Prevents freeze damage, and corrosion is dramatically reduced when the damp block isn't exposed to air for long periods of time.

I'm just getting 4 engine stands ready to bring 4 of them into the shop for tlc.

Bill-

If you've got a good design for stands for the Bearcats I'd like to take a look at it. I need to build 4 or 5 and I just hate re-inventing the wheel.

The Cap'n

[Super Sportster]

Tower Gear Clearances

I was on the Crosley list and there was a discussion going on about rebuilding these engines. Seems the biggest mistake made is not getting the tower shaft gears set correctly. The Homelite or Bearcat manuals make no reference to backlash but on the list they mentioned .004" for the crank gears and the cam gears. I decided for my own peace of mind I had to check this knowing this is critical for lubrication and wear. I went back in thinking I had not set the clearance correctly for the tower gear. I reset this, then rechecked my clearances for the crank gear to the thrust bearing and to see if I had the proper shims for cam gear clearance. All looked good. I then set up the dial indicator to check backlash, it came out with .004" for both sets of gears. I'm now more confident that this should be fine. Kind of glad I didn't get it back together and fired up yet.

[Super Sportster]

Up and running

After sitting on this for nearly a year, I finally pulled it off the work bench and put it all together, this included changing out the lower unit gearcase because of a broken skeg. Fired right up, tuned it and it's a winner! It runs great. I now have 3 good 55 runners, the 85, one 55 yet to test and the shortshaft 55 that runs but it needs work. I also have one spare powerhead with a bad exhaust valve and I've got everything here to fix that.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrqv3PSM7iE"]YouTube - Bearcat #1 First startup[/nomedia]

[Elgindave2]

Yep. The valve adjusments are kinda tricky. After changing two cams. I hope this one lasts longer. All the valve clearances are good and so is the cam gear clearance I've had my share of that experience. So far so good.
Good luck with your Homelite projects. :BigHappy1:

[Super Sportster]

Sea Trials Friday

I've finished up replacing the stbd wood on the dashboard of the Sylvan, did the portside 20yrs ago, now they match again. I decided not to put the ignition switch and hot/oil light back into the dash as before. I recently won an ebay auction for an early control box and decided to replace the late controls with the early. The whole setup seems to work out better! The swivel seat misses the unit completely when turned 360 degrees. I'll finish the wiring today, still have the OEM tach to mount and wire, then light it off for the first time this year. If all goes well we'll be fishing Friday!

[Super Sportster]

Finished up the loose ends, everything seems to work. I did find my oil sending unit was no good as the oil/hot light would not light up with the key on. Changed it out and everything is good, tach is mounted and works fine. Fired off the engine Monday and it runs great, idles at 500 rpm. So it's hitched to the truck and ready for the morning.

[Helmar]

I remember those feelings when you start from a pile of parts and build up an engine. Then the first starting was always exciting.

Knowing you, this will run just fine :BigWink1:

If you ever decide to let one of those go, Lon is looking for one.