Shadow Maintenance Blog 1

I am reassembling my 2003 Honda Shadow ACE engine, after I ran it out of oil and destroyed the crankshaft bearings. This has been years in the making, and I feel finally confident enough to fully reassemble it. I had a machine shop professionally clean and resurface everything, and had the shop reassemble the bottom half, with the crankshaft and connecting rods, the transmission, and the oil pump. I have learned, the 90% of the time I will be spending on reassembling the engine will be dedicated to finding parts that I have lost, as when I initially disassembled the engine, I lost parts, and placed them in a big heap all together. All in all this is going to be a slow process that will not be finished for months. Ideally I’m hoping to be completed within the next 6 months, as that is my goal. I figured if I can dedicate about 20 minutes on average a night working on the engine, I can have it completed within that timeframe.

  1. Attempted to reassemble internal gearshift assembly. I learned that there is a dowel pin that keeps the components aligned, and that dowel pin is missing. I ordered a new dowel pin. It is expected to be here within a week.