Put the Huffle in the Shuffle

post number 141

2010-09-10T23:55:00.002-07:00

well folks,
it has been a while since I did an update. I am writing this post at three in the morning after the first official day of the cannonball. I broke down with carb problems earlier and it was a real bummer. I have been tinkering on my sears non stop since I left. It is the hardest thing that I have ever worked on or done. I love the challenge and am making a ton of new friends and working on neat bikes. I am helping a friend re build his 1911 hd motor in the parking lot. we should be done in three or four hours!
I got a speeding ticket on my sears yesterday going 47 in a 35

I hitched a ride over a bridge by grabbbing onto a friends truck going 65 mph

When I broke down, somebody stopped by and gave me an apple and a little thing of peanut butter like the ones that are handed out at restaurants. I didn't have any silver ware, so I ate it with a rock lol.

I am having an amazing time working on my bike and all sorts of other off brands that I never thought I would get to work on! I love my life. Hope all is well in yours

post number

2010-09-10T23:55:00.001-07:00

post number 140( apparently it takes 140 steps to re create a 1914 sears motorcycle)

2010-09-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we did it! My dad, tim, ray, Jesse and I got my sears back together with an og bottom end and it runs! I rode it for the first time today and it was amazing. what a bunch of fun. It starts super easy is smooth, and just all around a ton of fun! Here is a link of me riding the bike for the first time. it was kind of scetchy getting going, but I will get the hang of it. I hope to have five hundred miles on it in the next nine days. I am off to davenport, I hope to see some of you there. have a nice day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXVaD4X56k

post number 139

2010-08-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

three and a half days later after snapping my sprocket shaft my dad and I got my motor back together and my oil tank finished with the help of some friends. What an insane couple of days! I am going to sleep for a few hours, then go put the motor in my frame and go for a ride. wish me luck and have a nice day

post number 138

2010-08-28T01:17:00.000-07:00

My oil tank is almost done, and my bottom end stuff is all weighed up. I am going to go make adapters to balance my flywheels and keep moving ahead. I still feel good about how things are going and should be running tomorrow night or monday

post number 137

2010-08-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

OH SHIT! I fired up the sears around three oclock today and it ran so great. I blipped the throttle and my oil pump drive belt flun off. I retarded the spark and killed it as quickly as I could andshut it down. Ray noticed that my primary chain didn't line up with my clutch. I put the bike on the lift pulled the chain and pulled my sprocket out like this! Man oh man this is unfortunate. Apparantly we picked the wrong metal for the sprocket shaft and pulled the threads. Luckily my cases are not damaged and I have a couple spare motors. I am going to convert it back to a stock set up and run it with total loss oiling for the run. between designing prototyping and brain storming our team probably have 12oo hours invested into converting the spacke motor to pressurized oiling. I am not giving up on a recirculating oil system but rather just putting it on hold till this winter

here is the keyway for the sprocket shaft. I think that I am going to try having some one piece flywheels made up this winter to avoid any problems like this. it is very unfortunate and the timing couldnt be much worse, I am just thankful that I have the spare parts to get it running again. This motor sounded unbelievably good before it let loose. I wish I would have recorded it so you could hear it too! I cant wait to have the stroker motor set up again.

here is the bottom end coming apart

pinion flywheel off, check out the sprocket hole lol.

there is the nut and some metal shavings in the bottom end. eak. It would be pretty easy to get discouraged or upset by this, but there are a lot of positives, 1. This happened at the shop 2, I have a week to put it back together and ride it 3. It didn't happen on national television 4. My cases are not damaged. 5. it happened on a thursday and I was able to find pistons and rings in time to get them overnighted to our shop and not have to wait until monday for motor parts. Etc etc

I am sure there are more, but they escape me right now. It will all work out and I will have my cannonballer bike. Wish me luck I need it more than ever.

post number 136

2010-08-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

After some closer inspection I found out that my intake valve cages were leaking and causing a vacuum leak in the rear cylinder, which was probably the culprit in my heat difference. you can seethe gasket discoloration in this pic. I had one of my friends in North Dakota laser out some different

This is the intake valve pocket, the black area is where gasses were blowing out. I did not have a good enough seal between this piece and the cylinder. I spent about an hour per head lapping them into the counter bore that they sit in on the cylinder. They fit well now, and will seal up with the new gaskets that my friend Neil Lasered out for me!

Here is a pic of the lapped in intake pocket. I think that the "90 percent done, 80 percent left to go" phrase applies to this situation

I also faced the hold down nuts on the surface plate. I punched the cylinder clearance out to .008, I think that this in conjunction with the improvements on my intake seals will help me out with a smoother and cooler running engine. I am still learning a ton of good info about spacke motors every day! I should have everything back together tomorrow afternoon, I will post some videos of the bike with the timing reset and hopefully being ridden.

post number 135

2010-08-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

I just got done tearing my top end off for inspection. My rear cylinder was running fifty percent cooler than the front. This seems like a big difference.My daddy and I thought that something must have been wrong with a clearance. We pulled the top end and nothing was binding or ready to break

HEre is the front. I took this pic to show that there isn't any scores on the thrust surface. The moly is starting to rub off of the skirts, which is typical. It just helps for break in.

The main thing to look for on this is the depth of the scratches, if you can catch your fingernail on them, you have problems. These are super light and look bad because of the coating. They are no big deal. The pistons are set up at .005 clearance, we will open them up to .007 or .008 in the morning.

Rear wrist pin bushing looks great,

I found some brass in the oil that i drained out of the motor, which is typical for break in. I had more oil than I would have liked going into the engine. This means that we have to either pull more out or push less in. Putting less into the motor is the easiest, I will put a jet in the feed line tomorrow and see how it goes. Have a nice night, it is two in the morning here ugh. It is going to be crazy in south dakota for the next two weeks!

Post number 134

2010-08-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well I re adjusted some things and fired the sears up again. It runs pretty good, but there is some room for improvement. I am a little concerned about the difference in temperature between the two cylinders and am going to pull the motor and top end for inspection. I am also going to take my friend Dale's advice and punch the cylinders out to run .o1o clearance on the pistons. Anyways, here is a short clip of my motor running. The belt coming off of the sprocket shaft drives a early knucklehead oil pump. PRetty neat deal. I hope you enjoy. If all goes as planned I should have it back together tomorrow! have a great night!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbpNRko-k5E&feature=player_embedded

post number 133

2010-08-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

I fired up the sears for the first time yesterday. the timing was too far advanced, I am retarding it six degrees and will fire it up again this afternoon. I did a few dry runs yesterday without spark plugs installed to check the oiling system and everything worked the way it should. I dropped the oil and found a little bit of brass, and one little sliver of aluminum in my pre filter, I am not really concerned about it, but will definately keep an eye on it in the coming miles. I should have some more start up videos and riding footage later on tonight. Have a great day everybody, mine is phenominal so far!
HEre is a link to the dry run footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B9juWpID4Y

post number 132

2010-08-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

post number 131

2010-08-05T04:59:00.000-07:00

post number 130

2010-08-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

post number 129

2010-08-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

post number 128

2010-08-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYdeyPcZcJM
I can't believe how much my dads laugh sounds like mine lol

2010-08-02T02:58:00.000-07:00

post number 126

2010-07-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

post number 125

2010-07-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

here is young ryan and the giveaway bike. I have to have this bike finished by sturgis as well as my sears!

centerstand bolts

welded frame and fitted fender

My sheet metal is at the painters right now, I will be picking it up next friday morning and driving to wisconsit to get everything pinstriped. go go go go I have not slept for more than five hours in a row for the last two weeks!

post number 124

2010-07-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

the last of the gussets that I have to make for the sears. The angle one is a fender bracket

This is what the fender brace will screw to.

Fender mounted and ready for paint. I spent all day yesterday working on a set of fender mounts and finally decided that they were lame, so I made up a new design which is stronger and looks a lot better. They are pictured here, and will end up being bright nickle plated.

This project has taught me a lot about doing crazy set ups. This is what my daddy and I did to get the oilpump mounting plate square and parallel to the motor/motor sprocket. This was just to tack everything in place, I will finish weld it when the motor is out of the frame.

Here are most of the lines, the bypass runs to the rear cylinder dripper, the oil pressure switch runs to the skirt oilers, and the other lines are pretty self explanatory. I still have to set up the belt drive for the oil pump. This is pretty chaotic, but it should work pretty well. and If it doesn't, I can convert it back to stock in a day. I still have to make the feed line and oil filter mount. things are getting crazy!

post number 123

2010-07-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

Check out the muffler, toolbox and gas tank. I only have three weeks to finish this bike and on top of that Ryan Mackey is coming to the shop next week to finish the AMCA Youth Program Contest bike. Both bikes have to be in sturgis! My life is going to be insane for the next month, please don't call me until the middle of august unless it is important. Thanks

I got my tanks from my painter. The body work is roughed in, it took a bit of filler since these were the first tanks that I had ever made. I wanted to check to make sure they fit in the frame before I painted everything. I had to file one of the sheet metal arrows on the bottom frame tube down in order to squeeze my gas tank in, but I got it to fit!

I got my muffler castings back from the polisher. They are so shiny. OG sears castings were cast iron and painted black, I had a set made up in aluminum and polished them so that everybody knew.

Vent and return line are roughed in in this pic. I still have to hook them up to the pump, silver solder them and plate them, but this is just as clean of a job as I had imagined it. I can't wait to see everything plated and painted.

Everything is pretty busy and hectic under here. I am going to make a gas line tomorrow and hopefully figure out the throttle linkage.

post number 122

2010-07-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

HEre is one of the eclipse clutches that my friend Delmar made up for me. They are beautiful. He did most of the machine work, there were some other parts that were made by my other friends, and I made some stuff as well. It was a huge group effort to get it done and I feel great that my team of friends and I pulled it off. There are over 100 parts in this set up and they all have to work with each other!

bits and pieces! I had four sets of plates kevlar coated for the cannonball race. My friend Bill Nugent and I are running them in our sears. Let me know if you need a set!

clutch drum is made out of 8620 and case hardened!

installed! I still have to make my pedal arm bolts, but couldn't resist a quick mock up to see the pedals on my bike!!!!! Things are getting exciting! I got a bunch of plating in the mail today, will post later

post number 121

2010-07-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

I burnt my arm with a hot fender brace, it just touched it for a second, but that is all it took. dang it

Here is where my oil pump is going to mount. The belt pully will be driven off of the motor sprocket. we are doing a 4 -1 ratio. This is going to be trick

HEre is what the cam set and lifter set up looks like. I ended up using different lifters than these, but didn't take a pic

Here is a pic of my flywheels in the cases for good! We trued them up within a thousandth on each shaft in the truing stand, then marked where the pinion flywheel was, so that we could measure the assembly in the case. After assembling everything in the case we checked it out with this set up, and the numbers were all perfect! I put the right case on tightened everything up, put the pistons on with out rings, installed the cylinders and checked to see how everything spun over and you can turn the whole assembly over with just two fingers, everything is smooth, perpendicular and square! I have not had much time to post ,I only have 26 days to finish the bike, so I will most likely be doing posts that cover a lot of steps rather than the super detailed posts like the previous ones. Wish me luck, I need it!

post number 120

2010-07-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of the inside of my oil tank before I welded the last side on. There is a lot of stuff going on in this little box. It would hold 4.25 quarts of oil, but I will probably only run three and a half.

Here is a pic of both tanks, I spent 12 hours pressure testing them and making sure that they dont leak. what a bunch of damn work. There are over eight feet of welding on the gas tank alone. I put the fake door on the toolbox, just cause it looks so finished and nice. I had to weld the inside of the rivets and the screws that hold the door shut. There were only three leaks in the toolbox and probably 20 in the gas tank! The main thing is that I got both of them sealed up and off for body work!

I engine turned my cases tonight. This is a very tedious process.

Here is a pic of the left case. The circles are about 5/8 of an inch from the edge of the case. The swirls are .75 and overlap half of the previous circle. What a bunch of damn rotating on the rotary table. AFter seeing the finished product, it is worth all of the work!

And the other side!!!!! This looks like a piece of jewelery and it should be in a glass case or up on a pedestal. I should have my front end and front fender finished up by this weekend, as well as my engine. The pieces are falling into place! I have to have the bike looking done by sturgis! whoa man the clock is ticking!

post number 119

2010-07-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of setting up the flywheel end play. I messed around with this set up for six hours. The flywheel assembly was rubbing on one little spot on the cases. after a lot of bluing, putting together, machining and taking apart we finally got it to spin free and work well. This is going to be a really smooth free wheeling set up.

I got my actuators from Delmar today. this thread has a 30 tpi which is extremely odd ball. That thread pitch isn't even in the machinists handbook. Very strange stuff

Here are the washers for the outer clutch hub lock nut. I have to install them in the nut still, but that should be relatively easy in the grand scheme of things.

Here are the handlebar spiral pieces that I had re cut.

post number 118

2010-06-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

I broke the short belt on the lathe this morning while machining my eccentric. dangit!

Here are the clutch parts that my friend Delmar sent down.

I have to have the splines cut out of the final drive sprocket with an edm still

Here is the complete unit. I still have a little bit of work to do and am waiting on spring plates, but should have them in next week. This is pretty exciting stuff. I went for a three day vacation to anamosa iowa this weekend and posted a bunch of pics on my other site, go check them out at www.oldbikesinsd.blogspot.com My daddy made a lot of progress on my motor while I was gone and everything looks good. I will post more pics this week.

post number 117

2010-06-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the clutch springs that I got from Fox valley spring company earlier this week. They are really nice and well made

The three shiny covers are pieces that My friend Paul made for me in missouri. The original is on the right. They are really nice copies! thanks paul

HEre are the clutch plates. Steve Huntzinger set me up with a good contact for bonding kevlar to the plates and I just got them in the mail today. The coating is on both sides of the male notched plate and adds .034 thickness to each plate which means that you end up running three plates of each style rather than four so that your clutch pack is the same thickness. The added benefit of having actual lining compared to just steel on steel is totally worth it.

My dad cut all of my valves yesterday. Here is a good pic of one of the exhaust valves where you can see the lapped in area. It is about two thirds up on the seating face. This is how we set up knucklehead seats and they work good, so it would only make sense that it would work on a spacke engine. The exhaust stem to guide clearance is .oo6 and the intakes are set up at .004

post number 116

2010-06-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well I got my cut out for my front fork spring laid out. This is uncharted territory for me, but I guess the whole project is to ha ha. Wish me luck!

Here is a pic of my axle block welded to the rocker. This worked out well. One block stuck out a little farther on one side compared to the other. I have the other rocker finish ground and it looks bitchin.

After the rockers were welded up I was able to move onto finishing the struts. The first step was to weld the strut to the bottom piece.

Then I welded the cone on in two spots.

Then finish ground and sanded it. It looks really nice. I am happy with how these monster rockers turned out. I am going to go cut up my front fender wish me luck!

Post number 115

2010-06-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

Safet is no joke!

post number 114

2010-06-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of my daddy silver soldering my handlebars into their respective castings. I plug welded them in two spots for extra strength!

After the bars were brazed together, I welded some cable blocks onto them, then I was able to get the proper angle on the little cable x piece. By the way those are the two pieces that were in a post a while back.

HEre is one of the cable blocks on the frame. Pretty neat stuff.

I recieved my cannonball shoes in the mail yesterday. They are very uncomfortable, so I have been wearing them around the shop in hopes of getting used to them.

post number 113

2010-06-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

Check out this little bracket that I made for my muffler. It is not stock, but adds a ton of rigidity to the whole exhaust system. Just by adding this little guy, I am able to pick the bike up by the header pipes!

Here is a pic of machining the center stand casting. One side was very easy to clamp onto, the other side proved to be a challenge.

Since I pulled molds off of a really rusty part, one of the edges of the actual casting was kind of rounded. This caused problems with clamping onto it in the mill vice. I tried to run a bead of weld on the part, then re machine it square in hopes of gaining the thirty or forty thousandths needed to clamp onto, but it did not work and the part still slipped out of the vice when I tried to tighten it up.

So I ended up doing a little bit of outside of the box thinking and welded a steel block to the casting. This worked well, but ended up being a little more work.

Here is a raw casting next to a finished one. This is a very tedious process, but well worth the end result.

post number 112

2010-06-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

HEre is a pic of the tube welded in place.

I used a knucklehead push rod for this application. It required a really small hole. The wall thickness on this sleeve doesnt need to be very thick, all it is doing is preventing the tube from being crushed. I am back out to the shop. wish me luck
!

post number 111

2010-06-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

This morning Ray helped me tack the skirt onto my sears outer primary. I have been putting this job off for months because it intimidated me. I am very happy with how it worked out and I am glad that I took the time to come up with a good game plan on how to do it. I have a total of 18 or 20 hours in this cover and I still have to trim it and make two mounting brackets, as well as metal finish it! What a bunch of work, but every step is one step closer to the finished product!

Pretty good stuff. Everything in this picture is calculated and precise!

Does anybody know what these two little guys are for? The first correct answer gets a cookie!

I usually only post pictures of successful parts, most of the time though, I have to scrap a couple pieces before I come up with something use able, here are a couple of junk clutch lever tension straps. I can't believe how much I struggled on this dinky little part.

Here is the finished piece installed on the lever. You can also see the top motor mounts that I made yesterday as well. I still have to silver solder the knob onto the clutch lever

post number 110

2010-06-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here is the rear motor mount of my new motor. I think that it is a thirteen. I have seen other thirteens with the star on them. This motor also lacks the extra oil inlet beneath the rear cylinder which I have been told came out in fourteen. Maybe some of you guys out there can shed some light on the situation. Please fill me in.

Here is the motor in all its glory. It came with a mag that is off of it in this pic. The timing plug has never been broken which is amazing

Here are the little spigots that I made for my header pipes

Here is a pic of my dad silver soldering them in.

And mounted on the bike. Everything seems to be coming along quite well. I will have a batch of plating to send off by the end of the week!

post number 109

2010-06-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a neat pic of machining the decompression/mag advance casting that goes on the frame. The seat t casting was cast in a similar fashion, but the tube that it is on is curved, so I had to drill and bore it out on the mill. This piece went a lot easier though since the tube it was on was straight.

Here is the tubing that I used for my bottom tank arrows.

Here is the back one prior to welding.

Ta Da! all finished up.

I also finished up my clutch lever stud and cap. This is a clean deal! I also roughed in my exhaust, finish ground my seat post and got a spare motor from ohio. Pics will be posted shortly

Post number 108

2010-06-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have made a lot of progress over the last few days. I got my bottom tube welded into my sears frame. I have run into some issues with things fitting because of raking my neck three degrees. One of them was gas tank fitment. My tank was lowered a little bit on my bike and I had to make clearance for the rocker covers. Here is the relief for the front cylinder. It is mostly done in this pic.

HEre it is all welded up.

After a bit of grinding. This is going to look so good all painted up.

I am working away on fitting sheet metal, exhaust and bits and pieces. the weekend is going really well and I will be a lot closer to my goals by the end of tomorrow. Have a nice day everybody!

post number 107

2010-06-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well I got my first frame yesterday. This thing is really nice. It is the prototype and there are a few things that will be tweaked on the others, but over all it is really nice and a great piece of craftsmanship. Good job Chad!

OOLALALA This is going to be so sweet. The pieces will fall into place. Don't blink or you will miss something haha

post number 106 frame parts

2010-06-08T04:19:00.000-07:00

HEre are all of the parts that make up my frame, I built a 1.5 inch longer fork for my race bike with the idea that it would end up being raked out three degrees in order to have the right rake and trail. All of this was because I wanted a longer wheel base so that my bike was more stable during braking and riding. I know what a difference there is between a 39 and a 41 knucklehead, it only makes sense that the same improvement would cary over to the sears project. I will know in a month!

HEre is the frame coming together. Pretty neat stuff. I got a little overzealous and made the tank with out the frame, so consequently I asked to leave the bottom tube out so that I can fit the pieces together.

Notice that all of the seams are tig welded this is a departure from stock that will only be on my race frame. the next batch that we are making will be plug welded and sweat brazed/silver soldered and be indistinguishable from stock. This is a great picture! Thanks Chad!

It is kind of difficult to see the difference in the neck in this picture, but it is there. Cant wait to get a roller! Have a great day everybody!

Garbage wagon 53 transformation and new repro parts

2010-06-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Things have been insanely busy lately and i have not had much time to update this site. I finished up a 46 and tarded up the 53, I am getting back on a 36 next and should have it done by the middle of next week. Lots of exciting stuff going on. Here is a box of rear header pipes that we bought from our friend Phil Santora in Ohio. He made them up and sold a few, then contacted us about buying him out. They are awesome! These are the nicest pipes that I have ever seen reproduced. They have beautiful graceful curves just like og ones. Shoot me an email if you would like some.

I also got some replacement tabs for knuckleheads from my foundry, these turned out really well and I have already shipped out half of them. They are 1020 steel and weld to the broken og heads really well.

I started tarding up the 53 after work today. Check out the 39 seat jewel in the 6 inch aircleaner! It is bitchin. Also not the repro site gauge in the oil tank and the rails on the fender! My friend Gina and I are taking this bike on a camping trip/ wedding/ break in trip this weekend. Just wait till i post a pic of the buddy seat rail-- it is killer!!!!! Hopefully the garbage wagon holds together lol.

I made up some candy canes for the top of the fender. It only took a half hour. I am going to make a different pair this winter and have them chromed, these ones are stainless. I also mounted a chevron and a gaudy front bumper. This bike is over the top!

Panheads are for decking out! I secretly think that my dad is trying to compete with my uncle Ricky's 55 panhead lol. My dad still has a lot of catching up to do.

post number 105

2010-06-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here is the first stand clip that I machined up. It turned out pretty well. I wish that there was a way to not have to use two castings to make one use able part, but at the same time I am glad that Ican have molded with out sacrificing the integrity of the original samples.This is the up position for when I am riding the sears

When I get off of the bike, I reach back with my foot and kick the little pedal down and it releases the center stand from the other clip. This is such a trick set up. I assume that other bikes used it as well but I am not really sure which ones lol.

I also did some clearance machining for my fork rocker. I cut into the scoop a little bit, but it isn't too big of a deal. I dropped it off at Rogers to get welded up. I am not very good at aluminum welding.

I got my spring plates back from engraving today. They are beautiful, I sent them off to get heat treated. It is kind of bizarre that this piece would be hardened, but the original ones are, so my repros have to be as well. The green box has one of my throw out bearings in it. They also showed up today, all the way from Germany! Which is really neat.

I also received these site drippers from Delmar, they are really nice and only need some light hand work to make them look like castings. should be an easy days work. I just have to find the day. Have a nice night everybody. My race frame should be done tomorrow, and as soon as i get it, I will have something that really looks like a bike!

post number 104

2010-06-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well I got a great box from my foundry today. Here are the rear stand catches they turned out pretty well. Still a lot of grinding cutting and machining to do but they should turn out pretty good. They are cast in 4130 steel and will make the trek from ocean to ocean!

HEre are my seat ts. They are 4130 as well. These are the early style with a narrow throat. I have to widen them up quite a bit to make them work for the 14 and later sears frames. This is not much of a problem though.

And my center stand castings. these are specific for each side. Somebody told me they are the same as excelsiors, but I dont know. What do you think Pete? Are they the same.

I also got my clutch actuators and they need to be machined which will be a real challenge. I am getting the piece that they thread onto tomorrow, so I will be able to figure it out. Have a nice day everybody! I am going to go work on knuckleheads

post 103

2010-06-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of the muffler body that I got from my friend Steve today. It has this neat little rolled and crimped seam in it. It is just like original what a nice piece.

He also sent me this gaured metal for my fender braces. This is nice stuff!

Check out the rounded edges. This is exactly the same as original brace material!

Here are the braces for the center stand. I couldn't find the material with a rounded edge so I sheered some .625 strips and radius ed the edges on the belt sander, then I bent them to fit my center stand.

Here they are ready to rivet on. I can not do this step until I have my race frame, which should be later on this week.

102--motor work!

2010-06-01T08:49:00.001-07:00

Well I spent most of yesterday making a scraper plate for my sears motor. I ended up making five total before I had a good usable piece. what a bunch of work.

Here it is in the case, it will scrape the oil off of the flywheels and push it towards the drain/pick up.

In this pic you can see the curve of the scraper and the distance from the flywheel which is .065

Here is the og intake valve pocket.

The valve on the far left is the og valve, the two in the middle are diesel truck valves that were cut down for my application. The one on the far right is what the middle ones looked like yesterday morning. Notice that the tulip was also cut off of the valve, this is vital so that the valve is able to seat all the way in the cage.

101a

2010-05-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited when I found these pedal arms . They are forged steel and look a lot like stock sears pedal arms except a lot beefier. I figured that all I had to do was some light grinding and radiusing and they would be fine..... wrong! It took me all day to widdle these things into looking right. The first thing that had to be done was to bore the hole out .140 to fit on the stock .750 pedal shaft.

The o.g. sears arms taper down to .450 on the pedal end. This was pretty easy to do. I raised the end up with the plainer jack to cut the correct taper.

Here is a side by side comparison, the one on the bottom is cut and the top one is the bulky version.

The next step was to cut the .625 radius into the big end. Then I cut over all taper into them. I left a little bit of material on the end for hand grinding.

The next step was to cut the radius on the backside face of the arm on the big end. This was done on the mill, then hand ground in. Finally I was able to radius and grind the small end of the arm. I left it a little bigger than stock just for strength. These were a lot of work, but I am very happy with how they turned out and I would do it again.

101c

2010-05-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Check out the radiused end and the nice fit on the pinch bolt!

Here is the finished piece. I still have to make the actual bolts and silver solder the starting disc onto the pedal shaft, but for the most part it is finished!

post number 100

2010-05-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

I spent the day making my first centerstand. There are a lot of processes involved in this piece. For starters, you can't get channel iron that has the correct dimensions, so you have to make it. I found some rectangular bar stock that was close to what i needed and milled out the center. This piece is over four feet long, so I had to do it in three set ups. After dialing the piece into the head within .002 I hogged out the center of the stock to a depth of .300. Then I cut a chamfer on each side with this 60 degree cutter.

Here is the fixture that I made for bending it up.

The trick is to pull the metal while you are bending it. The outside slugs were not installed in the first step.

Here it is after the second bends on each side.

Here are the ends welded on. I made a fixture to hold these in place too. This project would go a lot faster if I didn't have to make a fixture for every thing haha.

post number 99

2010-05-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my friend Sonal drilled out all of my muffler castings. I didn't get a picture of her doing it, so this pic will have to work. Here she is with my daddy.

I found this piece of scratch paper from when my dad and I were figuring out my front struts and fork dampeners. This is a good example of our blueprint skills.

Here is some raw material that i got today. guess what I plan on making out of this stuff.

Here is some more neat stuff that came in the mail. a chunk of 8620 steel for my pedal shaft, some 4130 .75 hex and tool box doors. Lots of fun stuff, this will keep me busy all weekend.

post number 98

2010-05-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well I spent six hours on tracking down this bearing today. What a rollercoaster of talking to people all over the world to get the bearing that I need. I was ready to say "uncle" and just have a small batch of the made up, but I lucked out and found one that is dimensionally the same on the i.d. and o.d. but has 2 more balls than stock. This is great news and my phone time paid off, woo hoo

I spent the rest of the day working on drilling out my rear fender for braces, mounting holes and the chain cut out. I borrowed an original fender from a friend and have to send it back tomorrow, so I made use of copying all of the details that I could.

Check out the round headed screws and square nuts that hold the braces on. What a neat detail. The screws and nuts are painted red. I think that Bill Nugent's sears has the same feature

Here are the notes that I took for the fender lay out. There was a third hole in the back of the fender that was kind of strange. I think it may have been for a olsol light. I am not sure though. anyways it is pretty obvious that I am not good at drawing by looking at this pic lol. Check out the striping details in the lower right hand corner. Lots of good details on this sheet of paper!

2010-05-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning straightening frames. While I was gone Delmar flew down with his wife and Gerald and delivered some clutch parts for the sears project. They are soooo beautiful! Thanks Delmar you do great work.

I also got some muffler castings in the mail. The minimum order at the foundry was 10 pieces, so I guess I will have these for the rest of my life lol.

Here are the outer lock nuts. I have to make up a die to crimp the counter bore down and hold the washer in place.

The tape measure is at the top of the threads in this picture.

and to the center of the axle it measures 27.5 inches.

post number 97

2010-05-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

2010 sears picture

2010-05-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of my sears so far. What do you guys think? The project is coming along!!! woo hoo, I Just need a frame now. Should be kind of rolling next week if everything goes well. Wish me luck and have a nice night

post number 95

2010-05-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

I spent the day working on shop bikes which is bittersweet. It is difficult to not work on my sears with the weight of this luminous deadline hanging over my shoulders, but at the same time it is great to be able to make some money and work on knuckleheads! After hours I spent an hour ordering material for my center stand various bolts and trying to find this damn bearing. It has proved to be very difficult. I have three different companies looking for me, bu I may end up having to make the thing from scratch. I have a game plan/vision of how to do it in my head, but hopefully I will be able to avoid the process and the money it would cost in tooling...

This is a piece of hail that fell out of the sky today. it is an inch in diameter! These made a big noise when they hit our metal building shop!

Here is my first clutch gate. My friend Sonal came out and prepped all of the pieces and cut the rivets to the correct length. I peened these over. I still have to sand them down so that the edge is nice and smooth. It is a nice piece. Thanks sonal!

post number 94

2010-05-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well today started out good, I got my fenders from Ohio. The tooling was pretty costly, so I had some extra blanks made up. They are made out of a little heavier gauge of metal which is a huge advantage on the rear fender since it is the muffler/toolbox mount!

The rear fender is pretty long and needed to have an extra piece welded onto the end to make it the correct length. pat even cut the tips of the fender so that it would be less work for me. Thanks man. These are soooo nice!

post number 93

2010-05-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for a long time to do this shot! WOOO HOOO! Still a lot of work to do, in a couple months, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Here is the front rocker stud. I will be using a friction dampner similar to jd racers. This seems like a good theory and hopefully will be worth the effort.

HEre are the rocker studs for my front end. I made them today. They are made out of 8620 steel and will be case hardened and finished ground!

post number 92

2010-05-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

I just had an intense day of working on my sears struts. These are the bars that go from the rockers to the leaf spring on the fork. I don't feel like typing out explanations so The pics will have to do tonight. I have to wake up in six hours and go circuit train. wish me luck and have a great day.

They still have to be welded, but you get the idea. Pretty neat stuff!

post number 91

2010-05-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my daddy and I worked all day together on my sears. It was my birthday, and it was a perfect day. We kicked ass and put out a lot of fires and made progress! When we made our flywheels, we increased the stroke by .23 in order to have clearance for the crank pin nut and at the same time use the same length rod with different piston pin height. Consequently we had to relieve the cases a bit to make room for the connecting rods. Here is a pic of my daddy milling some relief in the cases.

Once we got the grooves notched out we had to mill out the baffle plates.

Here is what it looks like after some machining. There is at least .060 clearance betwen the bottom of the piston and the case.

Here is a pic that tim took of us checking it all out. What a fun project.

Check it out! A stroker sears!

post number 90

2010-05-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

I got some parts from my friend Ron today. Here are the toolboxes. They have to be individually fit and soldered together, but this sure beats making them from scratch.

Here are some clutch parts. They turned out well. OG clutches are steel on steel, I am having the female plates lined with kevlar. The spring plate is a machined solid piece rather than two pieces brazed together. The clutch guide is very nice, I sent Tim into aberdeen to pick up some sickle rivets for it. I am making good progress on my fork and will have some more pics later on today!

post number 89

2010-05-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well my rockers are coming along nicely. This whole process has been a real challenge but at the same time a lot of fun. Designing parts is a blast! In this picture Iam boring a 1.75 hole into the rocker for the axle block to fit into. I did both rockers in the same set up, although I had to offset the rocker spacing accordingly.

Here is the other side. This is an interrupted cut, so it was kind of a pain and slow going.

Here is the latest picture of them. My next step is to make some rocker studs and then figure out the necessary spacing for welding the axle blocks into place. Holy moly what a bunch of work.

post number 88

2010-05-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

One of the first pieces that I made for my sears project was the top clamp for the handlebars. I matched it up to the original fork that I had and it turned out pretty well. The only problem with it is that I didn't notice that my og fork was bent. So consequently, the first top clamp that I made only fits on the bent fork that it was made for.. and not on newly made non bent fork! So I made a new one. Here are the five pieces that it takes to make a top clamp

Here they are all welded together and mostly ground down. I had to go back and fill in some low spots with filler rod, but it is coming along quite nicely. The next step is to cut the groove through the center then drill and tap the 3/8 24 holes for the pinch bolts. This is going a lot quicker than the first one and should hopefully be done tonight!

post number 87

2010-05-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

Last week I got poison ivy and it pretty much knocked me out of commission. The doctor prescribed steroids, bleach baths and calamine lotion to fix me up. I am pretty much healed and back to 100 percent which is good. Taking steroids is the equivalent of drinking 15 pots of coffee and it is probably the worst feeling in the world. Yesterday I started 10 projects and didn't really finish one of them because I was so jittery, I am glad that I am back to normal and able to focus. Here is the knob for the clutch lever on my sears. It is one of the projects that I started yesterday. I will finish it up sometime this week.

Here are the bars that I just got in the mail from my friend Tom. They are custom one off bars that are made out of 1" dom tubing. The og bars are 15/16 tubing and have really long sleeves on them. This is a departure from stock, but is absolutely necessary so that I can run a front brake lever on the bar itself. It also provides the opportunity to run good internal cables which is a plus.

Here are my rockers for my fork, they are coming along well. I still have a lot of grinding to do to them, but they will end up nice. The bushings are the same as a springer front brake shackle, this will provide a lot of durability and last through the whole jaunt from coast to coast

2010-05-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a neat photo that my friend Chad took of machining the front motor mount for the sears frame.

Here is a finished part!

post number 86

2010-05-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well I woke up this morning and put on my no nonsense socks in hopes that they would help me get a bunch of work done.

The first thing I made were these sleeves for my rockers.

Here is a pic of the bungs bolted to the fixture with the main material of the rocker welded on, on one side. I still have to flip it over and weld the other side. the socks seem to be working. More pics to follow!

post number 85

2010-05-09T17:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of the set up for cutting the top of the reinforcement tubes. The angle is 25 degrees. This is a pretty neat set up.

Here it is getting brazed into place.

Check out the nice radius on the bottom of the reinforcement bar. I am very pleased with how this turned out.

This is what it looks like all finished. This is hard work spelled f-o-r-k

page 84

2010-05-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

Check out my seat post bolt, the og one is on the right.

Ta da! the hex is 1.250

I welded my lower fork tabs on and bent my forks out, I still have to bend them back in, but that isn't a big deal. The legs have a bit of an s bend to them. I am working on the fixture for the bottom right now. I should have it done tonight!!!!!

post number 83

2010-05-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

I got a bunch of nice waxes from my friend Dan today. I noticed that not as many waxes are being broken now that the weather is decent. When it is cold outside they get brittle and snap into pieces. In this pic, you can see the center stand castings and the seat ts

Here are the clutch actuators

And some center stand clips. I did not want to take the original sample apart so I will cast two entire pieces in order to get one use able piece. Which isn't that big of a deal. I am just happy that I have the opportunity to borrow an og sample.

Here are the waxes for the watch fobs. My friend Tim Spacke gave me an original one and I had a mold pulled off of it. I doubt that I will ever sell one, but at least I have them.

post number 82

2010-05-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of my front fork getting brazed together. It is coming out well. The next step will be to bend the legs out and then back in so that I have the right distance at the bottom of the forks.

It is kind of tough to get into all of the nooks and crannies but we did a good job.

Here are some clutch arms that My friend Kevin made for me

post number 81

2010-05-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of one of the fender blanks. They look really nice.

Here is the side profile. They look really good. Pat said it was difficult to nail it since there was barely a straight edge on the entire original fender. I approved them and am moving forward with my order. I will have to weld a short section onto each rear fender to make up the length, but that is ok.

Tim Yeate's Motorcycle Cannonball support sidecar

2010-05-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Here is the flat bed that Tim built for picking up broken down motorcycles on the cross country pre 1916 motorcycle run that is taking place in september. Go to www.motorcyclecannonball.com for more info

The organizer of the event plans on selling ad space to sponsors on the flatbed. I am not sure what business "Your Name Here" is in. lol

post number 79

2010-04-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the set up for cutting the taper in the bottom frame rail. There is a .110 taper over 8.625 inches. I don't know why anyone would even bother to design such a small taper into a manufactured part. I have no choice but to replicate it, since I want the frames to be perfect. This is a finished piece after cutting and filing. It turned out really well. The wall thickness at the small end is still .125 , so it is far superior to an og frame.

The first step was to cut the one end down to .745, then I set it up in the lathe between centers and cut away.

post number 78

2010-04-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture that my friend Chad sent me. He is helping me out with the frame chore. He got most of the jigs made up to complete this job, now he is moving onto the castings. I am very fortunate to have a good network of friends that I can work with in order to move a huge project like this along.

I have been working on this fork fixture all day. What a bunch of work. It is turning out really well though. I will be able to finish it up in the next day or two. I am going to go back to work on customer stuff tomorrow, so the progress will not be as substantial as today.

I took this pic so you could see the tap that I busted and how narrow this frontend actually is. I have to widen it 3/4 of an inch, but I will have something to go off of. Wish me luck, and good night.

post number 77

2010-04-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

So here is a pic of the fork diving boards after being cut off and rewelded back in the correct place.

HEre is a pic of the bottom after all the metal finishing

And the top. It is pretty seemless. What a lot of work, check out the previous posts to see how crooked they were before.

post number 76

2010-04-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Well I have been having fun with forks all day. I took the day off of work to get some things done on my sears project. I honed out the fork stem hole so that I had a .005 press fit between the stem and tripple tree casting.

Here is a pic of them being pressed together. I knurled the stem so that the lower bearing race would press onto the bottom of the stem. og stems had a .005 larger sleeve, but I couldn't get the right material for the blanks, so I had to compromise.

Here it is all pressed in! There is a .060 groove all the way around the stem for good weld penetration.

And all welded up. This will never go anywhere!

post number 75

2010-04-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Check out this neat setup for machining out the muffler castings that I just got. This seems to work well, I can get them dialed in within fifty thousandths which is pretty good for a rough sand casting lol.

These two castings were the samples from the run that I made. The foundry was a little excessive when they ground the flash off of the end. I had to cut this one up a little to turn it into a use able piece. Luckily they hadn't ground any of the other ones. I like doing that work myself, then if it gets messed up I can only be mad at myself.

post number 74

2010-04-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

My daddy drilled out the .625 holes in my fork diving boards, they turned out well, now I just have to cut them off and weld them on straight.

I got my muffler castings in the mail for approval today. They castings turned out really well, I told them to not grind anything off of them because they were a little excessive on the prototypes.

Here is the small end. What a cool deal. I am going to run an aluminum one on my cannonball bike, it is half the weight.

Check it!

post number 73

2010-04-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

My daddy is helping me out today and machining up the triple tree castings. Before we could machine them we had to straighten out the diving boards. I had problems with these breaking off in the wax stage of casting, so I asked the foundry to set them up in the right spot before they cast them. Everyone of them was crooked and most of them have to be cut off and re welded back onto the casting which is a lot of work, but it kind of fitsthe theme of this whole project lol

While my dad was working on castings I was working on my fixture for brazing the fork together. Here is the top clamp for the fixture. I spent most of the morning on the phone getting measurements from all over the country.

We machined the bottom tabs down to .315 just like the originals! The bar between the two pieces is the bottom part of my fixture. Lots of work and ciphering

post number 72

2010-04-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

So I decided to go back out to the shop and make my bottom fork stud plates. The og ones are .312 thick, I didn't have any 5/16 plate but I did have some 3/8 ground steel plate from a tooling project from last year. So I am running a little beefier bottom stays. This will be advantageous for the cannonball run!

Here they are roughed out and with the holes drilled.

Here they are finished. This is a lot of work, and iwill probably have them lasered out from now on.

That was not enough so I decided to try and make my first bung for the front strut. I did a good job of cutting the radius and then cutting the groove in the center, but the only problem was that since I am using a thicker plate I ended up cutting quite a bit off of the length when I cut the wider groove. This mistake cost me an hour of my life that i will never get back lol, but I learned a good lesson, and the next parts will be better because of it!

post number 71

2010-04-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of me cutting threads on my sears fork stem.

Here is a pic of the top all finished up. Check out the little .125 groove that I cut in the stem. Delmar made the crown nut and lock nut.

Here is the finished piece. I had to knurl the base of it so that the bottom race would press on. Lots of cool stuff is happening so stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!

post number 70

2010-04-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is probably the last time my flywheels will ever be completely apart

Here is a pic of me pressing the crank pin into the left flywheel.

Pressed in and ready for service! I actually have to do some machine work on the other side. It is some pretty wild stuff. Photos will follow.

Here it is all together. am so excited!

post number 69

2010-04-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

I just got this picture on my phone of the bottom tripple tree castings that my friend Chad machined up. I should have them by the end of the week. Stuff is going to start happening pretty fast, so don't blink! lol

post number 68

2010-04-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

I received my sears carb back from Liberty in the mail yesterday. It is so perfect. Tom Cotten is a true craftsman.

I also mounted the tire on my front wheel. This is the gaudiest wheel I have ever had and I love it!

In work out news, I have dropped down to 192 pretty fast. Circuit training is brutal. It has been very effective at getting my body to tighten up and shed pounds. I have lost 15 pounds for the race already. I want to get down to 185 for the race, which is totally feasible. Wish me luck

post number 67

2010-04-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Check out my front wheel! This is such a sight for sore eyes! I am going to go mount the tire! Which side do you think I should put the brake on? Is one side more advantageous than the other?

post number 66

2010-04-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Here is the musselman hub that I got from my friend in California. It is a spot on reproduction of a sears musselman hub except it is a 36 hole rather than a 40 hole. I messed up when I ordered it and have to send it back. It's all good though. I took this pic before I sent it back.

Here is the cover for the left side of the triumph hub. I had it nickle plated. It turned out well.

Here is the oiler casting, The foundry was pretty Conservative when they cut the part off of the tree and unfortunately they cut off a little more metal than they should have. Check out the post that comes out at a 45 degree angle.

Here is a pic of the same casting next to one that I put some metal on. It worked well.

post number 65

2010-04-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

I got some neat parts in the mail today from north dakota, these are fender mounting pieces, front fork spring retention plates and locking washers for the front fork. Pretty good stuff.

I also got a neat hot air intake for my carb, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I will post a pic later.

post 64

2010-04-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

The lever on the left is the one that I tried drilling free hand. I suck at anything freehand, fortunately I am good at making fixtures. Once I made a simple mill fixture I turned out nine use able perfect pieces!

Here is a completed lever. This is for the de compression and mag advance.

Here is the bung that I made for my gas valve. It turned out well. I am using a 1916 to 1939 petcock.

Here it is all welded up. I also finished welding up my gas tank. I measured all of the seams that got welded up and there was over seven and a half feet of welding that had to be done!

post number 63

2010-04-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Here are the top and back pieces for the sears oil tank.

Here are the bottoms after being bent around and into shape. They turned out pretty good and are very close, but still require a lot of fitting, bending and work to make work.

Here are the baffles and the tops.

Normal bungs are just soldered to the back side and flush with the tank. I drilled out the original .1875 holes to .375. Then I cut a .045 deep shoulder on the bungs. This is what the assembly looks like before welding. Check out how the bung is flush with the top surface of the tank.

Here is one all welded up. This works pretty well.

post number 62

2010-04-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

I pressed the tank together with these blocks and welded the baffle in place.

Ta da! This required a lot of bending and fitting. There were still a few gaps, but I welded them up.

Here is the baffle installed. and the bottom bungs. The back is also on as well

Here it is all tacked together. It is turning out quite nice.

Here is the tan after four hours of welding. This was really involved. I should have it done today.

post number 61 case problems!!!!

2010-03-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

So I was checking out my right case today and discovered a crack from web to web on the inside of the case. I don't know how I missed this before, but I did. Luckily I have an earlier 1912 or 1913 case that I can use on the run.

Here is the earlier case, This has an extra rib on the bottom too, so this is probably a win win situation for me. I had to machine some aluminum away from the center of the case to make room for my bearing. everything clears, and now I can send this case off to get polished.

post number 60

2010-03-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

I balanced my flywheels last friday. I had to remove the two windows of material in order to get the weight right.

Here you can see the holes that I drilled 180 degrees from the crank pin in order to balance the wheels. There is a shaft through the sprocket shaft hole that is on knife edges.

When everything is perfectly balanced, you should be able to position the wheel anywhere that you want it, and it will stay put. If there is a heavy spot, the heavy spot will roll to the bottom. IF and when it rolls to the bottom, you drill holes in the wheel and remove metal from it.

And that is how we do it.

post number 59

2010-03-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

I had a fun weekend in Minneapolis with my dad and friends. We picked up my cases from Pat olbanger. They look like they are chrome plated! I still have some machine work to do on the inside of the cases then I am going to engine turn them. I couldn't wait to mock up my engine and see how it looked.

Look at all the little nooks and crannies, pat did an amazing job as always. We send him all of our beat up and mangled knucklehead parts and he sends them back looking like new.

Here is the other side! OOO man o man

post number 58

2010-03-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here is another pic of the seat I mentioned earlier. It is a real puzzle, this is pretty clost to how it goes together. The springs are upside down in this pic./

I finished my seat post last night. I chose to cut the slot a little different than stock. I have seen these posts break at the bottom corner, a radius is a lot stronger than two sharp points, so I think that this will work better on my cannonball bike.

Here are the gas tank pieces that I got in the mail today. I should have made these pieces before the bottom parts, but it doesn't really matter now because I have them all.

I also started to machine this big hunk of steel. I love how it doesn't really matter how nasty a piece of metal looks on the outside, and it looks brand new after a little bit of turning. This is as far as I got last night before calling it quits and going home. Can anybody guess what it is? Please comment and let me know.

post number 57

2010-03-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here is an o.g. seat post that my friend Bill sent me to copy.

I had to file a bur off of the large diameter to get the large nut piece to slip off. This is also the seam where the .5 threaded part presses into the upper piece. I can not tell if Sears sweat brazed the two pieces together because of nickle plating,

I decided to make the seat post for my cannonball bike one piece, which meant a lot of turning lol.

Here is the piece almost done, I still have to cut a groove in it and drill a hole for the top bolt, but you get the idea. The other ones that I plan on making will be two pieces just like the originals.

post number 56

2010-03-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

I got a seat frame in the mail today from Dewey price, his website is www.earlyharley.com This is a nice seat frame, but it is very complicated when compared to a Later knucklehead seat pan lol.

I got some castings in the mail today. These are triple tree castings for sears. They turned out nice. The extensions broke off when these were in the wax stage during shipping. The foundry glued them back on, but unfortunately some of them were crooked, so I will have to cut them off and weld them on straight. This seems like a pain, but it isn't really a big deal.

Here are the cast levers for the magneto advance.

Here are the oiler castings for the bottom of the tank.

And some motor mounts and axle plates.

post number 55

2010-03-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Check out the sweet package that jesse picked up today. It is the most well secured box that has ever been shipped to me.

Check out the combo locks!

These are the parts that were in it. My friend Bill sent them to me to copy for my own project. Thanks bill!

post number 54

2010-03-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished flywheel. We decided to balance the bottom end at 60 percent which is the same as a knucklehead, they are both 45 degree twins, so it should work well. Each flywheel was very heavy at the crank pin side. This was the best area to take metal out and not sacrifice structural strength.

We took the metal out in small increments a little bit at a time.

This is how we started. I didn't really want to take that much metal out, but I do not have a choice. This rotating assembly has to be smooth or it will shake itself apart.

In this pic, you can see where the outer race of the bearing was hitting on the flywheel I remedied this by cutting a .020 relief for clearance issues.

The clearance is super tight on this engine. Check out where I machined the sprocket shaft nut and flywheel for clearance. I also had to relieve the rods for clearance.

post number 53

2010-03-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning checking out my new bottom end stuff. This is the first time that I have done something like this. The cases in this picture are not the ones that will be used in the race. My cannonball cases are off getting polished. I just wanted to do a rough mock up to see what clearance issues we were going to run into. The left flywheel and bearing assemble are bolted in for good. The crankpin is just lightly pushed into the flywheel.

The little triangle piece to the right of the flywheel was hitting the sprocket shaft nut, so I had to grind it off. I thought I uploaded a picture of the ground rod, but I didn't oops!

Here is where the rod hits the case. We increased the stroke of the flywheels by quite a bit in order to make clearance for the crank pin nut. I will have to do some modifications in order to make everything fit in my cases, but it will work out well.

Here is a pic of the top of my piston at top dead center. It is exactly where it needs to be. The displacement on my engine is 88 inches. A stock spacke 9hp engine is 71 inches. This is quite an increase.

Post number 53

2010-03-12T16:11:00.000-08:00

My friend Delmar just delivered a bunch of goodies for the sears project. All of the parts that he made were made on a cnc machine. In most cases I ordered more pieces than I will probably ever use. Here are the screws for the tool box doors These will end up getting nickle plated.

Here are the lock nuts for the fork stem.

Here are a bunch sprocket shaft nuts. They are perfect! The rings on the left side are the bungs for my gas and oil caps. They solder into the tank before it gets painted.

Here are the bungs for mounting the gas tank and tool box.

And the really cool stuff! My bottom end. I am going to try and balance and assemble it this weekend. Wish me luck!

post number 52

2010-03-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

post number 51

2010-02-25T15:33:00.000-08:00

Here is the end of my new rods. The are the same length as the og spacke rods. The bottom of the rods are from a sportster and the tops are off of a knucklehead. They are Frankenstein rods!

HEre is a neat pic of my new rods next to the og spacke rods. My new set up allows more bearing surface and increased durability, especially for the front rod. My rods are the same length as originals. I will be using stock .080 over FL pistons which have a shorter pin to dome height, so I increased the stroke of my flywheels .200. This motor is going to be a real power house! I am so excited.

in other news, I completed my first week of circuit training which entails an hour and a half of insane exercise every morning for the last seven days. It is a necessary evil in order to change my body type into a leaner form for the race. I very happy with the progress of my bike and my physical condition. I can't wait for September!

2010-02-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

HEre are the waxes for the oilers on my sears. They turned out well

And motor mount u bolts! I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered 24 of them lol.

post number 50

2010-02-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

I went to my friend Brad's place today to find a front drum brake and hub for my sears project. Brad has over 100 japanese bikes, so I figured I could easily find something that worked. This is the only 40 hole hub/brake combo that I could find in the whole place. It is off of a triumph 650. This thing is huge! It is a beautifully made piece that will look out of place on my sears, but it will work well and do a good job of stopping the bike!

I ordered the spokes to lace it up to my 21 inch rim from buchanans today. The center of the hub has fins in it, just like my musselman rear hub lol.

post number 49

2010-02-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

Whoa! Look at the beautiful knurling on the upper race. If this race was a movie, its beauty would bring a tear to my eye.

four sets of brand new sears neck cups and races! They are made out of 8620 and heat treated for the long haul. I will send them off to get nickel plated next week!