Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2007
- Messages
- 2,071
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Antelope Valley CA
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Brown
Well another Suzuki part on my Bandit bit the dust this weekend, after I made up a new crank shaft cover to replace the stock cover, which I never really cared for, and I new it was way wider than it needed to be, and wanted to slim up the look of the right side of the engine a little.
It was pretty easy to make, and I started out by drilling and tapping a 6mm thread into a ¼” thick piece of aluminum plate. I then sprayed it with layout blue and bolted the stock cover to it using the one bolt. I then carefully drilled through the holes in the stock cover using a ¼” drill bit to drill the other 4 holes into the plate, which fit perfectly through holes in the stock cover, and then I scribed around the outside of the stock cover.
Then I unbolted the cover and drilled out the taped hole, and then I used my band saw to cut along the scribed line to get the basic shape of the cover. From there it was easy to use my small 1” belt sander to finish the outside shape, and for the bottom screw hole that has 3 radiuses around it, that was easily brought into shape using on of my solid carbide burrs in the spindle of my mill, as I laid the plate on the top of the mill table and worked up to the scribe lines.
As I was sanding the outside of the plate to shape, I used two ¼” dowel pins fitted into two of the hole in the plate, and then I could quickly slip the stock cover over and see where I needed to remove a little more material, until I had a the plate exactly the same shape as the stock cover.
The next thing I had to do was mill out clearance on the back side of the plate for the bolt on the end of the crankshaft, so I sprayed layout bluing on the backside of the plate and attached it to the engine case using two screws. I then snugged the screws down until they were lightly pressing the plate up against the head of the crankshaft bolt, and then I put the bike in gear and rolled it back and forth a couple of time to mark the location of the bolt head.
Since the bolt on the end of the crankshaft only sticks past the mounting surface on the crankcase about 1/16” of an inch, once I had its location marked, I clamped the plate to my mill table and used a 1” end mill to machine a 1/8” deep clearance hole for the bolt.
I wanted to keep some of the same design of the stock cover, so I turned a round piece of aluminum on my lathe along the same shape as the round section on the stock cover, and drilled and tapped a 6mm thread on the back side. Then I drilled a through hole in the plate and counter sunk the back side of the hole for a flat head screw. I also machined away some material on the back side of the plate, as well as drilling holes in a circular pattern on the back side of the round piece, so the cover weighs next to nothing, and is lighter that the stock cover
Making the round piece bolt on was a lot easier than machining the cover out of one piece of material, and you really can’t tell that it’s bolted on. After smoothing the plate out with sand paper, I polished up both of the pieces on my buffer. I also shortened the stock mounted bolts so that they would match the bolts on the clutch cover. I am quite pleased with how it turned out for about 1 1/2 hrs work, and I like the looks of it much better than the stock cover, and it really changed the look of the engine.
It was pretty easy to make, and I started out by drilling and tapping a 6mm thread into a ¼” thick piece of aluminum plate. I then sprayed it with layout blue and bolted the stock cover to it using the one bolt. I then carefully drilled through the holes in the stock cover using a ¼” drill bit to drill the other 4 holes into the plate, which fit perfectly through holes in the stock cover, and then I scribed around the outside of the stock cover.
Then I unbolted the cover and drilled out the taped hole, and then I used my band saw to cut along the scribed line to get the basic shape of the cover. From there it was easy to use my small 1” belt sander to finish the outside shape, and for the bottom screw hole that has 3 radiuses around it, that was easily brought into shape using on of my solid carbide burrs in the spindle of my mill, as I laid the plate on the top of the mill table and worked up to the scribe lines.
As I was sanding the outside of the plate to shape, I used two ¼” dowel pins fitted into two of the hole in the plate, and then I could quickly slip the stock cover over and see where I needed to remove a little more material, until I had a the plate exactly the same shape as the stock cover.
The next thing I had to do was mill out clearance on the back side of the plate for the bolt on the end of the crankshaft, so I sprayed layout bluing on the backside of the plate and attached it to the engine case using two screws. I then snugged the screws down until they were lightly pressing the plate up against the head of the crankshaft bolt, and then I put the bike in gear and rolled it back and forth a couple of time to mark the location of the bolt head.
Since the bolt on the end of the crankshaft only sticks past the mounting surface on the crankcase about 1/16” of an inch, once I had its location marked, I clamped the plate to my mill table and used a 1” end mill to machine a 1/8” deep clearance hole for the bolt.
I wanted to keep some of the same design of the stock cover, so I turned a round piece of aluminum on my lathe along the same shape as the round section on the stock cover, and drilled and tapped a 6mm thread on the back side. Then I drilled a through hole in the plate and counter sunk the back side of the hole for a flat head screw. I also machined away some material on the back side of the plate, as well as drilling holes in a circular pattern on the back side of the round piece, so the cover weighs next to nothing, and is lighter that the stock cover
Making the round piece bolt on was a lot easier than machining the cover out of one piece of material, and you really can’t tell that it’s bolted on. After smoothing the plate out with sand paper, I polished up both of the pieces on my buffer. I also shortened the stock mounted bolts so that they would match the bolts on the clutch cover. I am quite pleased with how it turned out for about 1 1/2 hrs work, and I like the looks of it much better than the stock cover, and it really changed the look of the engine.
