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.

Dig this song

Steerig Shaft Nut (2)

3 A.M.

Steerig Shaft Nut

Decided to make a nut for the steering shaft today quickly before i left for a family function. I have to finish it up and add some knurling but I figured I would post some pics of the process. I cant take pics while I'm making cuts or cutting threads because the piece is short and I really didn't feel like crashing the lathe.

What is it?

New tail light in t-3 days!!

Sight Glass for Oil Tank

The oil tank needs a sight due to remote mounting of the filler . I ordered this sight and it comes with BPP threads. I wasn't going to buy a $100 tap and the sight didn't come with a bung so I ended up making it on the lathe.

One Time Deal

If you ride one of these Yamaha Shadows...(I think that's what it is called) I am going to make a one time offer. Bring me your bike for a head back exhaust at 50% off. That's right, to save you embarrassment from riding around on a muffler with wheels. Seriously, this thing looks like an oriental rug rolled up and stuffed onto the end of a couple pipes. So, For $500 do yourself a favor and save your image.

Dealership

Had to go the the dealer to pick up some parts for the XS fork. This was the best they had to offer.

Butterfly valve

Top end, low end: quite literally.

Butterfly valve control cable

HD tachometer

Cooking with Beer

V-Band

Some more shots of fitting the carb with a v-band. I machined a bit of the inside of the clamp out then began the 45 minute welding process. In order to weld the carb body without it warping I ran about a 1/2" bead of weld, then cooled the unit with compressed air, then move to the other side and to the same.
In the end everything worked out great.