Cam Cover

I made a swastika to fill the void in my cam cover because I hate no one, except ignorant people who think Hitler invented this symbol.

Breather Repair pt. 6

Finished machining the case so the cam gear clears the breather pocket. I'll have the bottom end wrapped up tonight, unfortunately the machinist who is taking care of the pistons and cyls. couldn't meet up with me today so that's going to have to wait till' Monday.

Breather Repair pt. 5

I got back to work on the cam compartment after stopping for some quick dinner. I was going through the gears and noticed one of the bushings was super sloppy in it's bore so I had to fix that. I have been bouncing between finishing the motor and making tail light assemblies so by the time I finished buffing brackets my back was ready to stop working. Tomorrow I'm going to finish machining the breather sleeve and have the motor fully assembled. If all goes well I might have a completed Lic. plate/light assembly to show off.

Bad bushing

Breather Repair pt. 4

Got the reed valve breather in today and I finished up making the sleeve and cutting the window in.  Getting the bottom end put back together tonight and I'm getting the jugs and pistons back from the machine shop tomorrow. Hoping it's burning fuel on Sunday!

Still need to machine the sleeve for the cam gear then it can be welded

Breather Gear Repair pt. 3



Sleeving it as soon as the new gear gets here.



New Tool

Lock stopped by with a box full of old tools today and this was in the bottom. Thanks L!

Relax

Choppers

Studded

I got a brand new set of heads so I needed to install new rocker box studs. The studs were made by Sifton and made like shit. I understand the necessity for the studs to not turn out with the nuts if they need to be taken free but when the studs wont turn in more than half way without bending or being close to snapping, than WTF?

Notice how flat the threads are on the standard stud. It's machined like this to go in tight and not come out.

I ended up re cutting the thread about 2/3 the way up the threads. This is plenty to keep it securely in it's hole.

Hot-rod

VINTAGE MACHINES - 0003

Best exhaust flanges Harley never made

First-things-first, machined  ring in the original SUS V-Band flange

Machined this aluminum flange/port extender and put a reverse ring in it's face this fits inside the ring on the other flange.

The flange on top fits inside the exhaust port and centers the V-band while its welded.

 Weld er'

Burt

Breather Repair pt. 2

Made a plate to protect the case and add rigidity and support for the pulling procedure.

I ended up welding the shaft of an existing puller onto the breather gear, making sure to put the nut on first. Note the color of the weld. That's the aluminum bronze rod I mentioned a couple days ago. I made a couple short beads with ER70S-2 filler rod and it cracked, so I switched the machine to AC, grabbed a stick of aluminum bronze and problem solved.

Notched a heavy I-beam so it would slip around the stud. I used this as the fulcrum base because the gear needs to be pulled strait out and cant be turned.

It's a crude looking tool but it only took and hour to make and it works

I got the gear 3/4 of the way out and it ended up snapping. I tried coxing it around while still in the bore but there was half a spiral clip wedged deep in there and it wouldn't come free.

The other half of the gear stuck in the pocket

Well, I got everything out and I don't really feel one way or the other about the amount of damage. Before I attempted to get the gear out there were hair line cracks all over the outside of the pocket and there was just no way that gear was coming out with all the shrap metal wedged behind it. I was planning to ream it and machine a sleeve anyways. Maybe I'm numb, but at least I'm confident.

Tear Down and Repair

As if I don't have enough going on right now, I decided I am ready to face the inevitable and break down and repair my Panhead. It all began in Sturgis this past year when I went to start my bike one morning and I found myself bobbing on the kicker. Wtf?! So I tore into it initially with Dale from Mad Jap, using his trailer as shelter from the never ending dust storm brought on by swarms of weekend warriors parading their baggers up and down the lot. At first we were optimistic, hoping the problem would be in the kicker end of the trans. but when it wasn't and we dug deeper into the cause; the evil bitch reared it's filthy little head and stuck it out right in my breather gear pocket. Instantly we knew the fix would have to wait till I was back home and I was up shits creek without  bike in Sturgis! Well, Dale was nice enough to loan me his ride which was awesome of him and definitely made the trip fun again. It got my head out of shit-ville and I was able to have a good time. That being said when I got home I was disgusted and just wanted to use some of the fresh ideas I had gotten from the trip on something new. I have been putting the whole thing off until tonight when Lock posed the question to me "are you bringing any bikes to Daytona?" Right then I got the inspiration I needed to get back into the motor. Thanks guys!

Anyways, come to find out the problem was; somehow a spirolock in the rear cyl. came loose and worked it's way out of the piston. How? I do not know, because I made damn well sure that I felt/heard every one snap into place when I put those pistons in. I knew once I seen half the lock in the breather gear exactly what happened, but with fingers crossed I pulled off the cylinders. The front was great, even wear and everything in tact. However, when I pulled off the rear and saw the wrist pin hanging half way out of the piston I knew my fears had officially been confirmed. Thankfully the damage was minimal and I should be able to fix it with....well, let me not jinx myself trying to foresee the future. 

On a final note sorry for the lacking picture quality lately. I spilled paint thinner on my phone and well that's what happens. I can't see spending $250 on a new phone or even paying $90 for the insurance deductible when there are motorcycle parts that need purchasing. I'll bring a camera into the shop next time I remember.

The breather pocket with seized gear. It has no screen because the guy who did the bottom end thinks Its  better for performance. If the screen was left in it would have done it's job and stopped the second half of the spirolock from winding around the gear and marring the shit out of my breather pocket/seizing the gear! 

What the piston looked like when I took the cyl. off

The culprit

New Tailights!!!!!!

As I promised new taillight lenses are made. I'm working on some lic. plate brackets, I wanted to have a bunch made off site but it's time consuming and I'm already trying to do too many things at once. I'll have these up for sale as soon as I get a few brackets made.

Today was a good day

Got all my top end components in today, spent about three hrs checking everything over and in the end I only had to file the rings and ream a wrist pin bushing.

Ampco Bronze

There are times when you want to pull your hair out trying to get a job done. This job was one of those cases. Not because it was difficult to complete, but because the two metals I was trying to join were of dissimilar characteristics. I assumed the base metal of the heart shaped forging was just that, forged steel, that said every common filler rod I tried on it would crack when the weld cooled. I tried pre/post heating; didn't work. So I did some research and found this filler rod for joining dissimilar metals. It worked amazingly on a test  piece and it strong as hell. It requires that you weld using alternating current. That's right, it sounds fucked up but it worked.  If you build shit and TIG weld than get a tube of this stuff, it was $15 for 1lb and I can see it coming in handy more than just this once.