Hey everyone I own a 2002 954 with 44k miles on it, it runs great and has all the power you could ask for but 2nd gear is gone. I bought a 6,700 mile 2003 954 motor with the cracked cylinder case on exhaust side between 1 & 2. My plans are to, this winter, take the motor out of my bike and split the cases and use my cylinder case on the 2003 motor. My question is how involved is this being i'm not trying to go into the transmission or anything? And can I just have my cylinders replated to standard bore and use the pistons from the 03 motor, or am i going to have to have it bored and use aftermarket pistons?

 

imo, you are making it WAY too complicated. because different companies made the motor parts, you'd probably have to order all new crank bearings (you have to match a number from the case, then the crank, that gives you the color code for which bearings you need). even if the bearings matched (which they won't), you're not saving any work.


you might as well just pull the tranny out of the '03 motor and put it into your '02 motor.

 

Even with just removing the tranmission i'll need to split the cases though correct? Ill probably just swap the trans to my motor and then send the head from the other motor off for shaving and porting.

 

yup, you'll have to split the case... and since the crank bottom bearings sit in the lower case and top bearings sit in the upper case, you'll have to swap all those out for new ones (i.e. you're gettin into a whole lot more work than you need to). but swapping trannies is no big deal if your mechanically inclined. you'll see. it's pretty easy, especially if you have a tranny thats already set up. and you will have to get new crank bolts.... they're stretch bolts. you can get them cheap from ronayers or ebay


use the '03 motor as a donor motor and hook your bike up. where you sending your head?

 

No idea yet on where to send the head, still thinking the whole trans swap through. I don't think ill have a problem with it, and ill have plenty of time over the winter to get it done. Then ill just run it as is with the new trans until next winter and get it bored and the headwork done. Or do you think I should just sell the bike and get something else? haha

 

depends...

i'm the kind of biker that loves working on my bike almost as much as riding it. couple that with the fact i love the 954 and i don't have the desire to work on or ride on anything else. if you're like me, then i'd keep it and do what you say.

if you're the type of rider that just wants the best, newest, fastest ride - then i'd probably just sell it and get something else. newer rides have better everything (except probably comfort).

if you start pumping money into the bike, you're going to get an awesome ride, but you're pumping money into an older bike. and if you think you might sell the bike in the not too distant future, then you'll be losing that money, you won't get it back by the time you sell it.