Marking Parts

Be sure to mark one 4-foot storage shelf for the "Front" cylinder and another shelf for the "Rear" cylinder. Gaskets, rocker-bases and covers, heads, cylinders, and all other parts for each of the two cylinders go there.

As you remove them from the engine, mark the front and rear cylinders: "F" (or "2") and "R" (or "1"). The heads do not need marking, as they can only be assembled one way.

Many other parts will need marking and organizing, as well. See Complete Engine Tear Down, Orientation article in this series for links to the other disassembling articles. Instructions for which parts to mark are given in the document sections for each part’s disassembly.

Bolts can be organized any way you like, as long as you can easily put each bolt back in the same hole it was removed from. Here are two of the more popular ways:

• By inserting them into a cardboard image of their cover, case, or part. To do this method, make a rough outline drawing of each cover and case on cardboard. Mark the location of bolt-holes by puncturing slits in the cardboard with a knife. Then, as you remove bolts from the engine, press them into the corresponding cardboard slit.
• By charting bolt sizes, and then referencing where each size goes. To do this method, make a rough outline drawing of each cover and case on paper or cardboard. Then, as you remove bolts from the bike, mark your drawing with a number at the corresponding, drawn, bolt hole. The number you write should correspond to a size chart (a legend) you create as you go. Add to the legend as new bolt sizes are removed. See photo below. Then place each bolt removed in an appropriate sandwich bag--numbered to match the size legend.

I used the organization by bolt size method. Since I was replacing most of the bolts with polished stainless steel, and some of my stock bolts had some shank corrosion, this method allowed me to reassemble the bike with only the best bolts of each size. See photo below.