Progress to date, Sunday, March 26, 2006. I took a little break for a couple of weeks, so it was time to go back to work. Where to begin again, the workbench is much cleared off without that engine sitting there. It's been there for two years or so. I was beginning to think that it would never be moved off. So what do we have? Trans? Cam cover? Barrels? Heads? Let's work a little of all of it. Let's start with the cam cover. It is a beat to shit, nicked up, scratched, peeling chrome with all the bushings pulled out hunk of scrap. I pulled the bushings out because I was going to send it off and have the chrome plate unplated. Then I decided it wasn't worth spending the money on. I'm really beginning to hate chrome, it is not particularly durable, when applied over steel it eventually rusts, when applied over aluminum it eventually peals off, but not completely off, just enough of it peels off so that whatever it is on looks like shit and of course the chrome that hasn't peeled off is virtually impossible to remove. I've bead blasted, wire brushed and sanded this cover to try to give it a uniform finish for powdercoating and, of course, I can't get all the god damn chrome off. So i've decided to cut the cover down, less pitted peeling chrome to deal with, plus I like the way cut covers look, and cutting the cover is the only way to get to the crankcase vent line fitting for the hose that runs to the oil tank. I use a regular old coping saw to do the cutting, then a bunch of filing and sanding. When you cut the cover down you end up cutting through the oil passage that feeds the crank and rocker arms, I drill and tap the opening for a plug, it's a handy place to plug a pressure gage in or to just check oil flow by pulling the plug out. The finished product is far from perfect, but a nice thick layer of black powder will help hide a lot of defects. While I had the coping saw out I decided to cut down the sprocket cover a little, I'm still debating as to whether I want to drill a bunch of holes in it.
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How about a little head work? I had narrowed down the choices to two sets. One set was the set I had been saving as spares for my stroker. The other set was of unknown origin. As it turns out the unknown origin set looks like they had some porting work done, it also looks like they had been welded, so I decided not to use them. But... They still had valves in them so I decided to pull the valves out and see what they looked like. Have you ever had one of those days when everything you touched turned to shit? How about, have you ever had one of those days when you take apart a set of old heads and find out they have a perfectly good set of Manley stainless steel valves in them? I've has a lot more of the former and precious few of the latter, but I'll take em when I can get em. So I've been spared a trip to the box-o-old valves or another 150 bucks worth of parts ordering.
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After getting whacked 400 bucks for a valve job a few years back, I decided to buy my own valve job stuff. I had originally intended to buy use a used Sioux valve grinder and seat grinder. Guess what, that shit's expensive. So I ended up buying a Neway valve face cutter and Neway valve seat cutters. As I seem to recall the whole setup put me back about 600 bucks. Still expensive, but, they have more than paid for themselves. I'd hate to do a 4 valve per cylinder V-8 with them, but they are perfect for motorcycle work. Some words about valve jobs. I've had auto machine shops do valve jobs for me, they tend to be cheap but they only cut one angle. I've had some good valve jobs done buy some shops, they can be good, but they are always expensive. So I do my own. That way I have complete control. I always cut three angles, you want the valve to contact the seat in the middle third of the valve face, the only way to do that is by cutting three angles. So start by cleaning up the faces, the Neway cutter clamps in a vise, you rotate the cutter by hand and if you watch carefully you can see little curls of metal spinning off as you turn the cutter, it works great.
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I check the valve contact with the seat by making three little stripes across the face of the valve with a magic marker, I put the valve in the guide and rotate it back and forth about 10 - 20 degrees then take the valve out and look at the little stripes, the magic marker ink is rubbed off where the seat and valve make contact. In the picture below, the shiny spot is where the black magic marker ink has been rubbed off, right in the middle of the valve face. A perfect contact area. If the contact is too close the edge of the valve, you use a 30 degree cutter to lower it. Too close to the bottom, you may need to make the seat a little bigger, then use the 60 degree cutter to raise the contact area. The yellow anodized thing to the right of the valve is the Neway seat cutter, it drops over a pilot inserted into the valve guide and you rotate it with a speed handle, it works great too. A little hand lapping and the valve is ready to go. You can also see my poor mans head holding fixture, that would be a workbench with a hole drilled in it, through which you insert a threaded rod to clamp the head down.
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This bike will always be worth a nickel, at least, how so you may ask? I used a nickel to plug the speedo drive. I don't intend on using the speedo and the drives tend to leak. So, grind a nickel down a little, back it up with a homemade gasket and cover the drive adapter on the bottom of the trans. Somebody probably makes a plug for this hole, but, I bet the plug costs more than a nickel. Why do this now? Well it was laying on my bench and needed to be done sooner or later.
Progress to date, Sunday, April 2, 2006. Well
I can't get my god damn wireless router to work. Wait.. wrong
subject. Oh yeah, this is about Sportsters. The last few days
have been somewhat low key, with the engine in the frame, it
has the feeling of being over the hump so to speak. Fitting
the rear fender turned out to be a bitch as was building the
front wheel brake set-up. The rest should be easy. I know I've
just screwed myself by saying that. In any case, I ordered
a bunch of parts, bearings and bushings for the cam cover,
bearings and gears for the trans. That should keep me busy
when it all gets here. Anyway, I've set down in front of the
trans parts and looked it all over real good have figured out
what I need, the clutch gear is no good and the main shaft
third gear looks pretty beat. Other than that I am in pretty
good shape in the trans. I had two main shafts one was good,
the countershaft looked good, I actually had a sealed bearing
for the trap door that was good. I also had three that were
no good, I finally trashed them all. A word on those sealed
bearings, even though they are sealed, crud occasionally makes
it way into one. I have popped the seal out (it can't be popped
back in) and cleaned them out, they have worked fine, even
without the seal. I'm not sure why exactly they are sealed,
well, yeah, the obvious is true, to keep crud out. But none
of the other trans bearings are sealed. If you run a magnetic
drain plug to latch on to the chunks and change the primary
juice halfway often, the bearing without the seal should be
fine.
And now a training point on tranny trap doors (see the picture). The one on the right is for right side shifts, the one on the left is for left side shifts. They are basically the same, except that the one for left side shift has a cut out for the shift lever to pass through on its way out the primary cover. You can use the left side shift trap door on a right side shift bike with no changes, It looks to me that you can use the right side shift trap door on a left side shift bike, if you machine out the cut out for the shift lever. And a similar training point on the pawl carrier and shifter pawl. Notice the shifter pawl on the right, it is for a right side shift bike. You can tell because the shaft for the shifter cam extends past the top surface of the pawl carrier. The pawl carrier on the left is for the left side shift bike, you can tell because the shaft for the shifter cam is flush with the pawl carrier surface. This is so that it will clear the shifter shaft as it crosses back across to the left side of the bike on its way through the primary cover. I do believe you can use a left side shift pawl carrier on a right side shift bike. You cannot use a right side shift pawl carrier on a left side shift bike because the shifter cam shaft will hit the shifter shaft as it crosses back across to the left side of the bike on its way through the primary cover. A final note on the trap doors, when you press the clutch hub bearing in, put the outer snap ring in and press the bearing from the inside of the door to the outside and let it bottom against the snap ring. Why? Because there is some clearance between the bearing and the snap rings. If the bearing is pressed against the inner snap ring and it looses up and moves towards the outer snap ring it will screw up the end play on your main shaft. Which might make for hard shifts or popping out of gear. I've seen it happen. With the bearing pressed against the outer snap ring you can never get too much end play because the bearing is already moved as far as it can go.
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A little powder coating. I powder coated a few parts, the old battery tray, the starter bendix blanking plate, sprocket cover and cam cover. I wasn't real happy with the results cam cover, and I didn't think I was going to be. The pitted, flaking chrome was not a good base for the powder. But, I'm going to live with it. As flaws in fine leather, not really a defect, but proof the product is genuine. The cover is just loosely screwed on, I wanted to make sure I had all the screws and it is helping to keep dirt out of the cam chest.
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Progress to date, Saturday, April 8,
2006. As the sun set slowly in the west over my
neighbors roof, who isn't outside making a racket with his
god damn leaf blower for a change, I sit on my pa-tay-oh
doing this web update over my wireless internet hook up that
I finally got working last week and I'm probably about 6
gin and tonics into the wind. We just grilled up some burgers,
nothing beats the smell of beef cooking on the grill. God,
I love this country. It is one of those rare days in Texas,
not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, the bugs ain't
out yet, all is good in the world, at least this world right
here. So what is up with the scooter? It's been a busy week.
A load of parts arrived from J&P Cycles. Cam cover bushings
and bearings. Tranny bearings, tranny gears and a few other
odds and ends. The bearings went into the crankcase just
fine, I use a homemade driver to punch them in, made it on
the Smithy lathe. The OD of the driver matches the ID of
the bearing, make sure you whack the bearing on the side
with the part number showing. The cam cover bushings were
pressed in on my hydraulic press. One of the things that
is always a concern about pressing bushings in is that the
inside diameter shrinks a little after the bushing is pressed
in. A bushing that fits fine loose is often too tight after
it is pressed into its hole. I was pleasantly surprised to
find that these bushings were sized just right so that they
fit the camshafts just fine after being pressed into the
cam cover, no reaming required. I measured the OD and ID
of the new cam bushings and compared those measurements to
the measurements of the old ones and found that the new ones
fit about .008" tighter than the old ones. That is a
bunch. So I pressed the bearings and the bushings in and
checked the fit of the cams. Guess what? I found that when
the cam cover was tightened down the engine would not turn
over. The flange on
some of the cam bushings was too thick so that when the cam
cover was tightened the cam was pinched between the cover
and the crankcase. I was able to clamp the cover down in
the Smithy and mill a few thou off the offending bushings
(#3 and #4) to restore some end play and now the motor rotates
just fine. I probably could have used a file or some sanding
disks instead of the milling machine but the milling machine
is nice to have. This is one one of the reasons it is important
to use the right gasket on the cam cover, a gasket that is
too thick or too thin will throw the end play on the cams
off and you might not even be able to rotate the motor! Always
use a factory gasket on the cam cover, or be prepared to
re-shim the camshaft
end play. The only thing that pissed me off was that the
correct pinion shaft bushing was not included in the set
I ordered. So I was not able to finalize the installation
and bolt the cam cover down.
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On to the tranny, this tranny was built up from
the leftovers of a dozen basket cases. And god damn, it went
together just fine. I did have to replace the clutch gear and
the main shaft third gear, but that was about it. The gear
cluster was stuffed into crankcase a dozen times to get the
shaft end play set just right, but that is about par for the
course. I keep a good assortment of main and countershaft shims
on hand to set end play.
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The main shaft bearing race had to be replaced,
I used a Jim's race this time and found that it was sized just
right so that a set of standard size rollers fit just fine
after the race was pressed in. Some of the races I've used
required extensive honing to achieve a good fit for the rollers.
The last remaining problem is that the 1st/2nd shifter fork
tain't quite long enough, it goes into first too far and not
quite far enough into second. A plus .020" fork
is on order. It always pisses me off, I've got 6 shifter forks
laying around and I never have the size I need. So the shifter
fork is keeping me from finalizing the tranny installation.
If you look closely at the lower shaft (the countershaft) you
can see that there is no clearance between the countershaft
low gear (1st gear) and the sliding gear (countershaft 3rd
gear) and too much clearance between the sliding gear (countershaft
3rd) and countershaft 2nd gear.
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What next? I can never quite predict where a
day in the garage will lead. So with the cams and tranny waiting
for yet more parts I decide to look at the oil tank. I picked
up an XLCH tank on eBay for 10 bucks, I always thought those
square CH tanks were all the same. Guess what? They ain't.
Least this one ain't. I was missing the mounting brackets so
I bought a set from J&P, figuring the tank would be a simple
bolt in. Wrong. I don't know what the hell them brackets fit
but they sure as hell don't fit this tank. So an hour with
a hacksaw and 14 trips to the bench grinder and now the brackets
fit the tank. Neither the tank nor the brackets will ever
be the same. While I was at it I decided I didn't like that
flange on the oil tank, it makes the tank look like it was
pressed together with a fork like a pie crust so I ground flange
all off and am in the process of welding the seam back together.
It'll be one of a kind. That should be finished up and maybe
even powder coated by tomorrow.
Progress to date, Monday, April 10,
2006. It was a tough fight, but I won. The oil tank
is bolted in. Maybe permanently. We'll see. I was expecting to
have to cut the lower oil tank mounting bracket to get it to
clear the Pingle motor mount. As it turns out the Pingle mount,
being thicker than the stock mount, also moved the lower oil
tank mount up so that the oil tank wanted to run into the top
frame tube. I wasn't expecting to have to redesign and re-fabricate
the tank mounts. Nothing that a day grinding, cutting, welding,
grinding, drilling, cutting, grinding, welding, trimming, test
fitting, grinding, welding, cutting, test fitting, drilling,
welding etc., etc. couldn't fix. And of course I ran out of argon
for my TIG and had to finish up with good old oxy/acetylene.
My shop is more like a blacksmith forge on days like that. Like
I said, it was a tough fight but I won. The oil tank is fitted
the way I like. That standing flange around the middle was cut
off and the seem was re-welded. I plugged all the holes on the
tank and pressure tested it with about 8 psi of air and soapy
water. One weld had a pin-hole in it that I had to redo. To those
of you who have changed the oil on 70s XLCHs, you know how conveniently
the tank tank drain plug is located, wedged in right between
the battery tray and the primary cover. I stole an idea from
late model XLs, the drain plug was drilled and tapped for a 1/8"
NPT by 3/8" hose barb and a hunk of hose attached - before
the tank was bolted in- and run down along side the primary so
I can drain the oil with out making a big mess. The hose will
be plugged with a 3/8" bolt. The sludge in the tank was
flushed out in my parts washer, two bottles of CLR managed to
dissolve most all the rust. I managed to get the tank, mounting
brackets, kickstart lever and gear shift lever powder coated
today and bolted them in just as soon as they were cooled off
enough to handle. That is it for now. I'll be waiting for the
plus .020 shifter fork and cam cover pinion bushing to arrive,
then I can finish up the tranny and cams. In the meantime, the
blackness is beginning to show.
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Progress to date, Monday, April 17, 2006.
Some more parts from J&P arrived last week including
the +.020 shifter fork and the pinion bushing and a few
other odds and ends. I took a day trip
to Chicago on Saturday to visit my son. Allow me to digress
and talk about the singularly most stupid bit of motorcycle
riding I have ever seen in my life which I witnessed in Chicago
on Saturday. I was in Evanston heading back to O'Hare traveling
south on the Edens when a group of six jap sport bike riders
merged onto the expressway, rather than doing the customary
jap sport bike 140 MPH these jokers were doing 30 MPH. "What's
up with that I thought?" I soon found out, the rear three
riders would block traffic while the front three would hammer
the throttle and do the customary roll on wheelies. Cool.
They did this routine a few times, really pissing me off
as I lugged along behind them at 30 MPH on a 65 MPH expressway.
But the really stupid part hadn't happened yet. Apparently
one of the lead dumb assholes dropped something and the dumb
asshole bringing up the rear of the stupid parade came, are
you ready for this, to a complete kickstand down stop in
the middle of the Edens to pick up whatever dumb asshole
rider number one dropped. Needless to say, amidst the smell
of burning rubber and sound of squealing brakes, there were
a lot of pissed off motorist besides me. Way to go dickheads.
Which brings me to Easter Sunday. I
spent Easter Sunday, the way I like, out in the shop
doing motorcycle things. The +.020 shifter fork fixed the first/second
gear engagement problem. So bolting the tranny in was a no
brainer? Wrong. The tranny, which basically shifted OK on the
bench didn't shift worth a damn when bolted into the crank
case. How could this be? Well, I'll tell you. The end of the
shifter shaft was hitting the pawl carrier and binding up.
I stuck the shifter shaft on my lathe and made it a few thou
shorter. Mind you this was a brand new shifter shaft. The moral
of the story is that you can never assume that any two given
parts will fit together properly. Everything must be checked
and double checked. Everything. I bet I had this tranny bolted
in 15 times before I was satisfied that it was good to go.
The new pinion bushing inside diameter was too
small to fit over the end of the pinion shaft, I sort of expected
this. I took it over to my lathe and turned about .004 out
of the I.D. to get a good fit on the pinion shaft. It is easier
to to this before you press it into the cam cover. After that
I drilled all the cam bushings for the anti-rotation pin, I
did this on a plain old drill press. Then I checked each cam's
fit in the bushings one more time. After that I checked each
cams endplay one at a time by installing the cam and bolting
down the cam cover and reaching in through the lifter block
hole with a screw driver and pushing the cam back and forth.
According to the HD service manual you are supposed to be able
to stick a feeler gage in the hole to measure the endplay.
Yeah right, this is one operation I do by feel only. A little
too much endplay ain't going to hurt anything, not enough and
the motor won't turn over. Anyway I check all four cams one
at a time. The cam cover gasket must be the one you are planning
on using, different thickness of gaskets will change the cam
endplay. Remember too much won't hurt, not enough motor won't
spin. To keep the gasket lined up while I am taking the cover
off and on four or five times I use a couple 1/4" threaded
rods to hold the gasket in position.
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So after all that dorking around with bushings
and bearings and endplay it is finally time to install and
time the cams and bolt the cover down. So here are the cams
covered with grease and all of the mystical marks lined up.
I use grease for assembly lube because it might be six months
until this engine is fired up and I think the oil will drain
off of the parts and leave them high and dry whereas grease
will stick and still be where you need it to be even if it
takes a year until the motor is fired.
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So put the cam cover on and tighten the bolts
and once again make sure the motor spins freely. If it don't,
you fucked up, take it apart and figure out what is binding
it up. Now, one of my special checks. I hook up the oil pump
supply line and fill it with engine oil, sometimes a funnel
stuck in the end of a hose is all you need, in this case I
hooked it right up to the oil tank. Then I grab the rods and
spin the motor over until oil wells up in the holes that go
to the rocker boxes. This makes sure that the pump is working
and that all the oil passages are free and clear. Sometimes
it is hard to make a new motor start pumping, in those cases
I put an air hose on the oil tank and pressurize the tank with
maybe three or four psi out of my air hose to force oil into
the supply line. I had to do that on this motor. It is not
unusual. After oil wells up into those rocker box supply holes,
I plug them. I usually just stick an old ball bearing in the
fitting for the rocker supply line. Then keep spinning the
motor, after just a little bit you should see oil coming out
from around the connecting rods. If you don't you've got a
problem. And as bad as it is to find that out now, it is a
lot better to fine out now than after you've fired and fried
the engine. All the oil you see around these rods is oil that
got there by me spinning the engine over just by grabbing the
ends of the connecting rods. I also dumped a little oil into
the cam chest through the lifter block holes, after just a
little spinning oil started being pumped out of the return
to the tank fitting, so now I know the scavenge side of the
pump is also working. I do this procedure on every engine I
have the heads and barrels off on. It is cheap insurance to
avoid costly problems down the road. And now a short story,
I used to work in a Triumph shop years ago. A guy brought a
bike in that he had rebuilt, but it ran shitty and he was wanting
us professionals to do a professional type tune up on it. Well,
I happened to draw the work order and took said motorsicle
for a test ride and, god damn the guy was right, it ran like
shit; missed, farted and would barely do 30 MPH. I wheeled
the bike into the shop and up onto my stand, got my strobe
light out and was going to check the timing. I started it up
and it ran for 30 seconds, emitted a loud squeal and proceeded
to lock up tighter than a drum. The would be rebuilder had
crossed the supply and return oil lines thus starving the new
engine of oil. It wasn't pretty, I always make sure the oil
pump works on any engine I rebuild before I fire the motor
for the first time. Enough said?
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So this is the quitting point for now. The lifter
blocks are bolted in. The oil lines are all hooked up. I have
an external filter and a cooler installed, both leftovers from
other projects. The motor is all closed up, cept for them two
big holes on the top. I wonder what goes there? I need to order
the big nut for the drive sprocket, could have sworn I had
one of those laying around somewhere, but I sure as hell can't
flind it now. I also need to order a primary chain. I think
I managed to round up all the clutch parts I'll need over the
last couple of months on eBay, so I should be able to put the
primary together. I also need to order some .010 over piston
rings. I have a set of used pistons that were mated once upon
a time to the jugs I'm planning on using. It is actually starting
to look like a motorcycle. I think I can see some light at
the end of the tunnel.... So let's wrap up Chapter 5 and move
on to Chapter 6.
