7/9/2004: Reassembling the Generator
Today I reassembled the generator, which i’d taken apart and painted a while ago. This was straightforward except for one thing. I’m replacing the original front ball bearing bearing with a new sealed bearing (for reference, this is a standard # 6302 ball bearing, with a 15mm ID, 42mm OD, 13mm Wide). It’s an interference fit in the front housing of the generator, so it needed some persuasion to install it.
I chilled the bearing in my freezer, on the off chance it would make it shrink a bit (no idea if it made any difference). Then I used two sockets to tap it into place, as illustrated below.
Then the rest of it went together pretty easily. I replaced all the screws and nuts with new ones while I was in there.
Deciding what color to paint the body of the generator was kind of interesting. Looking at the illustrations in the original service manuals wasn’t that helpful:
|
|
It appears that the generator could be either black or some lighter color. I decided to go with an unpainted metal appearance, as I could find no traces of paint on any of the generators I looked at. I could also have painted it black. I’ve seen some done that way. It’s hard to be sure what’s “right” for this kind of thing. I think it will look fine either way, so I decided to go with the left-hand appearance, with the generator and starter being different colors.
Well anyway, that’s one more part done and on the shelf, waiting to go back on the engine down the road. Next comes the carburetor!