WHO SAYS SPANISH CASINGS ARE STRONGER?
On about start a job with a list to do, then see other things which appear and then appear again some where else.
Now what fools keeps posting Spanish casings are the strongest you can get?
Well they are not, in my opinion they are the weakest, apart from a dodgy SIL casing which turns up now and then.
This Spanish casing came with a list of work to be done for a custom bike. Grind and fill the neutral hole, fill in the brake inspection holes, remove the left over of the bump stop, repair where the rear brake adjuster has dug into the casing. Tune to suit the new RT kit but it’s going to be a 240, weld and clean up a few dints. Weld and repair the cylinder stud hole, weld up a mag housing hole.
Then as I’m working away, I see a hidden crack in the mag to transfer joint the favourite ‘crack zone’ of a Spanish casing and just when I think I’m finally done, I see what I think is a crack near the engine number into the gear box area another weak spot of the casing. So I start to clean it up and I’m still not sure, I do my tricks to see the crack and I’m still not sure, I grind out and really I’m still not sure, so I then heat the casing and nothing appears until I start to MIG weld and I was right it was a crack, one only an expert can say is a crack verses a casting mark.
As it turns out there was two hidden holes in the casting no wonder there was a crack. Finally around 6 hours later the casing is cleaned, welded, ground out, ground down, cleaned and polished ready for bead basting and powder coating.
Again all in a days work, as for cost you could buy nearly two SIL casings for the time it took to repair this one.
This is very common on Spanish casings
Crank welded both sides
Mag gasket area always need milling flat due to distortion, we have fatter head gaskets to make up this machining
Inspection holes welded up
And from the other side
Neutral hole ground out and welded up
Another crank repaired
Engine bump stop removed and cleaned up, mag area cleaned to make the mag fit
Another crank welded and cleaned up
Damage welded and repaired
Now is that a crank? Oh yes
And welded up
And cleaned back
There’s even damage from the rear brake adjuster which has been welded and repaired
Mark Broadhurst if you have any questions email mark@mbscooters.co.uk
