That is a sweet looking machine you have there! What rear sets are you using? I need to come up with something in that regard soon myself.
As for getting the engine in and out, I am using a generic free standing cherry picker. I put a strap over the motor, hooking it into the two tabs on the front and back of the motor that I assume are there for lifting the motor in and out (they look like a tab with a bolt hole, right at the parting line of the top and bottom engine halves). Adjust the strap such that it gives a couple of inches of clearance over the motor, and hook it with the hoist chain. I then lift it up, and push it into the frame. Make sure you remove the engine mount tabs from the frame, otherwise the top of the valve cover won't fit in there. I usually have to tilt it a bit to get the top of the valve cover to go into the frame, so... angle in the bottom of the engine first into the frame, lower the engine a bit, push it in and concentrate on getting the top under the frame. Then I sometimes need to lift it a bit more and push the bottom end until i get it roughly in position, let it down a little and get the motor mounts lined up. Usually I get the back end lined up first, and shove a bolt in, and then get the front one in and shove the bolt in. Verify that the other mounts are lining up and nothing is getting crushed that shouldn't be, get the last through bolt mount in the back with the spacer, and take the hoist away. Then I can add in the bottom front mount (although I have mounted up this mount first in the past, that works as well), and... done! I haven't tried to hard to avoid messing up the frame paint as that is something I will probably do for the winter anyway, but... have not hurt it either.
A cherry picker is almost required equipment to be able to easily work on a bike by yourself. I really want to get a bike jack and/or a lift table, but that's not in the budget for a while
Does that make sense? Oh, look, I did take photos of me installing it, here we go:
Put on the strap and get it in the air:
About to go into the frame. Note that the engine had rotated on me, I moved it around by hand to be in roughly in the right orientation before I tucked it into the frame
It's sat in there now. Note that the horns and coils are not on the frame, and it doesn't matter if the valve cover is in or not, you should have enough room with the lower frame mount tabs gone and the coils and horns gone.
Ick, soft focus in this photo, but, now it's bolted down and I've started re-connecting it.
All from
this album
I've probably had the engine out 3 times so far, but that first time was quite the challenge! It can be hard to move the hoist around, I just have a small one car garage and too much crap in it
