Do a google image search with the phrase "clutch basket tool" and you`ll get several different versions on both commercial products and ideas on how to DIY one. The easiest ways might be to either take two flatiron strips, fold them into L shape and bolt them together from the middle so they make an X



or if you`re replacing the clutch, you can bolt some of the old plates together:



OR you can do something like this:

 

Mattson, you are a genius!

 

How far down are you taking the engine? If you're pulling the pistons out, pull them out the top and not the bottom. There is a crevous or something down below the pistons on the cylinders that the rings will expand into, locking the pistons in place. Then they're stuck there forever.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I don't know how far I will go, this is like a Star Trek-thing to me. "To boldly go where no man has gone before..." I might pull the pistons but I'll be sure to do it upwards!

 

I hope I'm not boring you with my part-questions-part-story of my bike build/rebuild. Anyways, I spent yet another hour in the garage trying to loosen the clutch center nut. I've tried a million different ways to no avail and am now considering some desperate measures. In my Haynes, it states that if I lack their special tool, which I do since it's like 250-300 bucks, I can put it in top gear, put a spanner around the countershaft and then loosen the nut. Well, I can't figure out how to access the countershaft or what they actually are referring to in this case. I've tried with every protruding shaft and none locks the clutch center.

I would make some kind of tool like the ones you suggested, Mattson, but I lack both material, the right tools like a table drill to make them. Without removing the nut, I can't get the friction plates out of the basket so jamming something in a stable way seems to be out of the option. I am now down to either buying a EBC Clutch holding tool or just cutting the bolt open. Unfortunately for me, it seems like the previous owners have chipped away at the mainshaft (of the clutch) though it states in the manual to avoid doing this while locking the nut. It has some kind of system where you chisel it down to stick to the shaft so it has to be discarded anyways.

Another method that I'm looking at is to split the engine even further and separate the top from the bottom. That way I could see if there would be something in the gearshaft to use for locking. But Coalminer Frank, you scared me with the talk about pistons getting stuck in the head if I try to lift them out bottomless. If I separate the two half of the engine block and lift up the upper part, then the pistons, who are still connected to the shaft, would be pulled out through the bottom and I can't find a logical solution to that problem.

Another discovery is that even more engine bolts are not only rusty but they are getting white and porous. Fail. Good thing I'm doing this so I at least can replace those.

Any thoughts of my situation would be greatly appreciated. By the way, if you are a newbie and wonder how the APE manual CCT looks like, here's your chance. I'll take a pic of it when the cam chain is in place too, so you can see how it looks.

 

bit of a pickle there... You could also make a simple tool out of a piece of flatiron and your old chain to wind around your front sprocket to lock your trans with that.

The bottom end of your piston rods, the parts that goes around your crankshaft, splits with two bolts each making it possible to lift teh cylinder assy up with the pistons in the bores. Stupid thing that they`ve done a trap like that down there...



(pic for reference only, not F2 rod)

As far as I know if you take the the bottom halves off they have to go back where they were, the same way they were.

Dumb question. What is that weird little radiator type thingy in front of your cylinders? An oil cooler? Don`t got one, never seen one.

 

Oh, so I can access the piston rods if I lift the top half of the engine block a little bit? Then it would be no problem at all, I guess. Not really sure how else I would get access to the piston rods in the state the engine is now. And I figure I still have to do it since there is no way in hell my pistons and bores came pre-grimed that way and I have to clean them thoroughly.

No dumb question, that is apparently the oil cooler with the cover off.
Another pic to show it:

 

Ah so there's a cover, that explains things.

I'm probly not the best to give you advice as I've never taken the f2 engine apart but if you flip the motor upside down there should be an oil pan which you unbolt and from there gain access to the crankshaft and the rods.

 

Yup, a cover that in my case was so dirty that I couldn't even tell it was a cover but thought the whole unit was to come off at first. Without fairings, it takes a beating. So it's hard to miss actually.

Thanks anyways, Mattson. I'll figure something out. Somehow I will manage to do this and I'll post pics for anyone who will walk in the same irregular pattern as I've been so that you hopefully don't make the same mistakes.

 

You should flip the motor upside down. The crank, main shaft, and countershaft will all rest in the top case as you pull the bottom case up. But, before you do that, you need to read through the manual and make sure its possible. For example, on my 954, there was a "c" bracket behind my clutch basket that would have prevented splitting the case without removing the clutch first.

Use wood to rest the engine on as it won't damage your casing. And I'd throw the cover back on the oil cooler as well.