New Guy From Mountains of N.C.

^^^ Thanks as well Barlyawake, I'll just keep running her as is then! I think what I'll do is pedal up to Haywood Rd here in town (few blocks away). Then fire her up and run back and forth, that road is about the flatest street closest to me.

Ha ha^^ Im sure Asheville pd would love to watch us do that! Sadly I have some bad news to relay. I'm afraid my HT with less than 5 miles under it's belt has gone south. At least the bottom end. I went for my ride yesterday, and I notice after the first block it started to run worse and worse, losing even MORE power.

It was then I heard what sounded like a metallic snap, or clink. Then a few seconds later it did it again. After that it just died. I pulled over thinking It may just be the chain bunching up, but no evidence that happened. So I thought oh well I'll try again. It was then I noticed that the effort to pedal had increased greatly, and she just didn't want to fire up again.

And then at that point the rear wheel locked up!! Even peddling to assist, the engine would not turn over at all. the tire would just skid when letting out the clutch. So got it home pulled the head, the top end looked in good shape with a good layer of oil/lubrication in there. I did manage to get it turning over again by hand, but there is still MUCH resistance in trying to turn it over, so much so that It started bending the spark plug tool trying to turn it over!!

So, guess I am back to square one, I am thinking it may be the bearings, maybe the crank or piston pin? My kit didn't include the clutch/crank puller in it, so Ill have to order this as well! Don't know if I should just order bearings at this point, or just a complete bottom end.
AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

p.s, sorry to hijack your thread.
Peace, James

Thanks mark, just an update. This is weird, I don't remember reading on this forum before about this but here goes. Both needle bearings for the piston pin and con rod pin appear to be in fine shape! The trouble still seems to be in the main crankshaft roller bearings on each end.

Even with the jug off the piston, the engine remains very hard to turn over, even using a wrench on the magneto shaft to turn it! Unless somehow the crank has warped out of round, I don't see any other reason it should be so difficult to turn over.

I know it's not in the clutch shaft, it still turns freely when the clutch is disengaged. Gotta be in the bottom end.

Oh well, it's all good. It won't hurt me to peddle a while longer anyway (need to lose a few #) But I am going to do a full post mortum, to see what's up. I have a clutch puller on the way, as well as a whole new engine. At the very least I hope to have at least ONE good engine from the two, well see!!