Prince George Vintage Motorcycle Club

Technical Section => Engine => Topic started by: Dennis on January 23, 2012, 11:29:19 PM

Title: Totally seized
Post by: Dennis on January 23, 2012, 11:29:19 PM
My nephew Emery (who some of you have met) is restoring a Cl350 Honda.  He has the head off but cannot pull the cylinders off the pistons because they are totally seized.  He says he has done all the usual tricks like soaking them in oil and trying to free them.  Most recently he was hammering on the pistons and only put dents in them.

I have offered to give him the barrels and pistons from my old CB350 so I think he should just drill/cut/chisel or what ever it takes to get them off.  However, before he goes that far I thought I'd see what my learned brethren may know.

Dennis.
Title: Re: Totally seized
Post by: Rusty Bucket on January 24, 2012, 02:31:56 AM
When Fritz wanted to remove the pistons from his stubble-field CB450 - they were rusted in pretty seriously, the rings had disintegrated and expanded into oxide, jamming into the cylinders and more-or-less becoming one with the liners - we used my hydraulic press.  Because the crank would rotate, the cylinders would move up and down by some portion of the stroke,  running up and down the studs extending from the cases.  We braced the bottom of the cylinders with steel between the barrels and cases, and a length of wood (which blew up a couple of times, and a chunk of which nearly inserted itself into Fritz) shifted the stuck piston.  It wouln't have worked if the pistons had been at TDC or BDC, or if it had been a 4, but it worked ok.  No amount of beating would have done it, not until the pistons had been reduced to shards and the tension released. 

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Title: Re: Totally seized
Post by: Fritz on January 24, 2012, 10:42:08 AM
Yup...How can one live without a press.... :D