Morini Kanguro Rebuild

Gear linkage removal

With the engine bolts loose and the exhaust nuts off only the gear change (shift) stopped the engine from being moved (ignoring the electrics and airbox etc).

The linkage of both bikes was pretty tight on the splined shaft. To avoid damaging the shaft or the oil seals I made a minature puller to get it off. Worked a treat.

Stuck nuts
The engine bolts on both bikes were undone readily with a pair of 13mm ring keys. I'm sure the penetrating oil helped.

The exhaust nuts and various pipes were removed easily from the X1 using a C-spanner. However the front exhaust nut on the X3 engine was seized solid. It would not move with application of oil, heat or force. I was worried about damaging the head. NLM have a big castellated spanner for this eventuality but I would have trouble getting the engine to them. As the header was rusty I decided, after much soul searching, to cut the header off and then remove the exhaust nut by cutting it into sections from inside using an electric multitool (ie nearly a Dremel) and emery cut-off discs.



This was a slow job and although succesful I wouldn't recommend it as an approach to anyone either impatient or with big hands. It took a week of evenings to cut the nut into little bits that could be removed with little force.

Stuck clutch
The clutch on the X3 engine was stuck together. This was rather annoying as I had hoped that as the 'runner' it wouldn't need much doing to make it usuable.

In theory all that needed to be done was to strip the clutch, clean the parts and on reassembly all would be well. The big problem was that the clutch screws were seized. The 'Blue Book' mentions making a tool by filing a slot in a 14mm screwdriver. Such bit screwdrivers are rare. My first tool was far too bendy and failed. Then I cut this out of a 14mm sump plug tool.



This worked great. Actually it worked so well that 1 of the studs was extracted as the nut was seized. With it in the vice that could be undone and the stud was undamaged.

Another stud would turn but not remove so obviously the thread was stripped. I extracted that by MIG welding a piece of 6mm studding to the nut & stud and than making a wooden frame against which a nut could be used to gradually unscrew the stub. Worked a treat! Luckily the stud was stripped and not the clutch inner, so that could be cleaned with a 7mm tap.

A 500 clutch stud was obtained and then turned down to give the right shoulder length. It seems that there are at least 3 lengths of these things, the X3 engine having them of intermediate length between 3.5 and 500 items.

After cleaning and reassembly with a few new screws from NLM it all worked fine.

Cleaning
Both the X1 and X3 have benefitted from scrubbing with GUNK and a good hose down. There's still a lot of muck on them but I had to start somewhere.

The previously-furry alloy engine cases of both bikes have cleaned up very well by using a stainless steel pan scrub.

I've started to put PLUSGAS on all the fastners I can see so that I have some chance of being able to undo them in the future.

Today I bought a couple of Moto Morini Kanguros with a view to a rebuild. The P.O. had described that they had been off the road for some time and that one of the engines 'had some trouble, maybe a pushrod'. My plan is to use parts from one to rebuild the other into a usable street/dirt bike. To do this an identical pair would have been ideal but they are a 1984 X1 and an early 1990s X3.