FH - reassembly

 Having checked the pistons, looked at the big ends, camshaft and followers I was ready to put the barrel back in place.

First step is to Wellseal the barrel flange and stick a new gasket in place. I decided it will be easier to have the gasket on the barrel with well seal both sides before introducing the barrel to the crankcase.

Attempting to refit the barrel over the pistons revealed something interesting and that I had not spotted before - there is no lead-in chamfer on the bottom of these barrels making it very difficult to get the rings into the barrels. I used a half round file to make a chamfer of maybe 1 mm, much smaller than is commonly found on cylinders but it made all the difference.

The cylinder head went back on with Wellseal on both sides of the head gasket. I put the bolts in with Copperease and tightened them down as tightly as I could with a 12 in ratchet drive.

I've fitted and removed the rocker box several times now, and I know the optimum way to do it. Fit the gaskets to the head and apply your chosen sealant to both sides, then fit the rocker box from the front right direction remembering to trap the two exhaust push rods either side of the web in the middle of the inlet side.

I hope no one sees this as an act of wanton vandalism but I have removed one of the vestigial fins from below the rocker box, because they are an absolute pain. When they are in position, you have to put these two nuts on before the rockerbox sits down on its gaskets, because the shape of the casting means that you can't get the half nut on with rocker box fully down. One of these things was missing when I got the bike and I have just removed the other one.

I must remember to clean up that area next time the head is off.

With a bit more spannering, the head steadies are in place and the oil lines are connected. We will end this blog post here as this concludes the work on the replacement of the cylinder head.