After much hesitation I decided to start to restore the CS2E bike I recently got......! It will be quite an adventure that I will share with you and it will take a long time.....!

I pulled the seat and tank off to make the first pictures. The wires from the ignitionswitch are cut between the wiring harness.

Yamaha CS2E wiring harness

The coils are in place and look okay, the horn is not original, that one we can throw away later.

Yamaha CS2E coils

The batterybox is not rusted through, just bad. The same goes for the aircleanerbox. I have taken the broken carburetors already off.

Yamaha CS2E battery box

So, we are halfway now, good to take a picture and have a look what to do next. I sprayed some W40 on the seized nut from the r.h. muffler. When the bolt breaks you have to do some welding on the exhaust, not so practical!

Yamaha CS2E l.h.

The chrome parts that I have taken off, are unbelievable good to my surprise. The mudguards have some pitting, but can be used after some polishing. There is a dent in the front one but maybe I can bash that out with some care.

Yamaha CS2E chrome parts

Luckily the mufflers are also okay. They are of course dirty, but with steelwool I "attacked" already one and it does not need re-chroming, just polishing and buffing.

Yamaha CS2E mufflers and electrics

I took the dismantled bike to the Yamaha workshop to steamclean it. Also cleaned-out the crankcases and crankcase-covers two days later in the same way.

Yamaha CS2E frame

Before removing the cylinders I took the dynamo/magneto off. It is fitted with two long 5 mm screws.

Yamaha CS2E dynamo/generator

Next I pulled the cylinders off the engine and as you can see...sh.......t !! One piston broken and everything rusted. But the cylinders still slid easily from the pistons.

Yamaha CS2E cylinders and heads

Now it is time to pull the rotor from the crankshaft. Originally Yamaha used a bolt for that with an extension, but these always failed. Later-on this was substituted with this shockpuller, simply a long bolt with a heavy weight on it. In my case it did not work as the bolt was too short. I went to Yamaha's workshop and with a longer bolt (around 40 cm) it came off smoothly without damage. So please, never try anything else guys!!!!

Yamaha CS2E rotorpuller

During all these operations it is very convenient to have a firm wooden base from plywood with some holes in it so that you can put the shafts through it. The side of the engine rests then firmly on the wood and you can "attack" it!

Yamaha CS2E enginebase

The clutch comes off easily, undo the five screws with the springs evenly and take out the clutch plates. Put them in a box in the same order as how you took them out.

Yamaha CS2E clutch

With the Yamaha clutchtool you can grip the clutch boss firmly and loosening the center nut is a piece of cake. If you do not have this tool, make one, or ask a friend to make it for you. Otherwise things go "bang"!

Yamaha CS2E clutchtool

So the clutch is loose now but do not take it off yet. Now it is time to loosen the primary gear nut. In this case I put an aluminium strip between the gears and loosened the nut easily. It is better to wedge a gear between the primary gear and the clutch to hold it, but this you can only do when you have straight cut gears and not helical like here. The aluminium strip pushes the the gears slightly apart of course. But is is a small engine and I accept that.

Yamaha CS2E primary gear

The work progresses. Now it is time to take out the gearshift shaft assembly. Remove the circlip from the other side first, lift the springed hook from the shifter cam and you can pull the shaft easily out of the crankcase.

Yamaha CS2E gearshifter

Now we start splitting the crankcase halves. Remember, with all Yamaha's with a vertical-split crankcase you always start from the ignitionside! Screw the two puller bolts into their respective holes, as far as possible and evenly.

Yamaha CS2E crankshaftpuller/pusher

Slowly now start pushing the crankshaft through the l.h. bearing. Hold the crankshaft on the other end with "Vise-grip" pliers as it should not rotate! Please observe that the connecting rods are respectively in their up and down position, so that they do not get wedged in the crankcase. Tap the sides with a plastic hammer.

Yamaha CS2E crankcasesplitting

A little further now and the crankcase halves come easily apart.

Yamaha CS2E crankcases separated

Now we have to use the crankpuller (or better pusher) on the rignition side (r.h.) of the engine to push the crankshaft out from this crankcase half.

Yamaha CS2E crankshaftpuller

You have to agree with me that the crankshaft does not look very good, actually very bad. It will be quite a long story before everything is back together!

Yamaha CS2E crankshaft

After the crankshaft is taken out it is easy to remove the gearbox cluster together with the gear shift drum. But first you have to remove the rubber cap on the left above the sprocket. Then remove the circlip which holds the shiftdrum by 2 half-round segments. Later-on, during building the engine, we fit the 2 gearboxshafts also together with the shift-drum as one unit.

Yamaha CS2E gearshiftdrum

All parts can be cleaned now and stored away for later.