So it's been a little while since I last posted some about the bike - I think my writing bank was empty. But I recharged last weekend & am ready for some more...
Some people would probably say that motorcycles consist of more than the engine & "everything else" but those people aren't me. Maybe I have yet to experience those other things, but when I think of riding (it's winter here so I'm only dreaming. Even if I thought I was tough enough to ride in these temperatures, I'm not dumb enough to let my pile of iron and aluminum be exposed to the salt clouds on our highways..), the two bits that excite me the most are the exposed movements (wind in your face, highway inches below your heels, rocks and rain like needles on your cheeks, the blunt smell of a pig farm somewhere that you cannot escape by rollin up the windows..) and the engine churning away at the twist of my wrist dumping heat into my legs. The noise of a smooth running engine without the structural reinforcements to dampen the valve train or gearcase noises is some of the best music for an engine man's soul. I feel like I'm just out there, riding an engine - and that's cool. Sometimes I think about the tires, drive chains & front brakes because they make some noise - but that's not often. So then - with respect to where I'm at in my motorcyclin experiences - everything still falls into sub components of the scoot or the engine.
The Frame
The frame is an old wishbone style HD frame that had been chopped in the neck at some time. It wasn't stretched, just chopped a bit to squeeze a bit of a longer fork on. I have no idea how good the quality of the chop is or how strong it is - it's been hidden under a good-n-thick layer of bondo. So basically - the frame is stock & fits a +4 inch fork. Considering some of the pictures I've seen of chops w/ stretches - I'm pretty glad this frame didn't get stretched; I like the chopped look much more. I got a new gas tank so I ground down the mounts my dad had made for his fat bob tanks & welded on my own mount setup which I think turned out real clean & smooth. I also picked up a solo seat to mount on a hinge & springs - so I lathed some spring perches & bought a hinge kit & welded those on as well.
I don't weld well - my bud Erik does a damn fine job of that & I owe quite a lot to his help & shop for letting me a mess during the brainstorming & manufacturing of some of this custom stuff.
The Gas Tank
The Pan had some big fat bob's before I took over. Granted, they had a real nice copper / chrome illusion paint job & could probably hold enough fuel for me to go to Mexico w/o stopping - but the rest of this bike is a skinny rig. A look head-on @ the Pan w/ those tanks was like looking @ a top heavy 90 lb lady - nature never intended it. Functionally awesome, but I thought I could make a good compromise & found a king sporty tank w/ 3.3 gallon capacity. The tank is bare steel, so I'm free to paint as I want. I saved the gas cap from the bob's though..
The Seat
The Pan also had a 70's chopper seat with some good cushion, elevation for the passenger & a back rest. Frequently - on the longer rides - my dad would strap a sleeping bag onto the passenger bit & ride as if in a lay-z-boy. The seat was never really mounted to the bike - he just tarp-strapped the back rest to the sissy bar & that was pretty good. In my effort to make this machine smooth & cool, I found Birdman Customs would make a solid solo seat w/ some customer leather tooling for ~$120. Add some springs & I figure this would be a good ride. Birdman tooled a Viking scull & crossbones on the dark brown leather seat, laced it to a seat pan & within a week I had it. Mounted to the frame w/ the hinge kit & 3" springs atop my custom perches is actually perfect spring rate for my ass. Vicki swears there no give to the springs when she hops on - but I know there is, even if only metal.
I don't have a passenger seat yet. I never intended for a passenger. According to the book my bro Jesse gave me for x-mas, I need this solo time to reach my zen. If I have a passenger - I cannot reach that zen because I'm concerned about their comfort & boredom. Add that to the fact that Vicki's never really liked to ride motorcycle (she's tried once & wasn't a huge fan) - I haven't added that seat yet. I know I'm sounding selfish but as I stated in one of my earlier posts - it's for my sanity. I don't plan to ditch my solo seat & can't find a cool, dark brown pillion pad. Birdman Customs will make one for me - which I may still pursue, or I 'll just get one of those suction-cup pillion pads that I can take off when she's not with. I've got a bit to think about before this topic is completely closed...
The Rear Fender
I'm reusing the Pan's fender. I think it was a chopped square one about 5" wide; it should fit the setup nice. It's not going to
Feb 12, 2009
Feb 6, 2009
Post #9 - Engine: Everything I haven't Covered Before
There only a couple of systems I haven't talked about on the engine - fuel supply, ignition & exhaust - that's it, and these bits are short because I haven't had to do much & don't know much.
Fuel Supply
So I'm not really sure what kind of carb my dad was running on the Pan - it doesn't seem to look like any of the other common Harley carbs but it's clearly stamped with an AMF logo. I know it's newer & more sophisticated than the ol' brass Linkert card - it's got an accelerator pump & some plastic parts on it - I don't care really, I'm going to give this guy a try until I find it's limiting my performance or just junk.
The intake T is a stock, o-ring setup. A chrome coupler has been added to adapt this carb to the intake. The intake filter is also off a non-Linkert Harley - it's a stock round bit that I'm gonna rock until I can no longer rock it.
Ignition
My dad was running the stock points distributor, an Accel coil & wires and some champion plugs. I'm going to reuse the Accel coil & wires because those were fairly new and good quality. The spark plugs I'm not sold on yet - I have to do some research to see what heat range is preferred - when the plug is installed, seems the electrode is at least 1/4" from even being directly exposed to the combustion chamber. In my ideal world - the plug should have the electrode completely exposed & closest to the fuel source intake for best results - so I'll look around some more.
The old distributor was starting to get quite sloppy around the shaft & leaking on the longer rides - add to that fact that it's using points to contact circuits - a super vintage technology that's inefficient as compared to moder ignition systems - I sought to upgrade to a modern digital system. Through VTwin - I found this electronic, auto advance ignition that I assume was hosting some cheaper electrons for managing ignition timing & whatnot; but this assumption landed me a new points distributor with some auto advancing springs. This was definitely not the direction I wanted to go - not only does it not look original or cool - it now functions only marginally better than the original setup. I was looking for something with a rev limiter & programmable advance curve - but am not willing to shell out $500 for a Mallory distributor with dual fire - so I've settled to accept this new, moderately better ignition.
Exhaust
The pan made noise through a pair of un-baffled drag pipes, & the noise was good but the pipes did nothing for the pan's daily driver purposes except direct that noise out the backside. The pipes are too short to take advantage of significant inertial supercharging, there's no baffling to provide back pressure & then no cross-over tubes for flow scavenging - thus I intended to make my own system - a dual exhaust w/ pipes that ran straight back from the jugs w/ some baffles & cross-tubes. Seeing that the bike revival has consumed this much time already - I've ditched that idea for a stab at modifying the pan's current exhaust w/ some short baffles & header wrap. I'll someday build that new system & that day will be sweet.
That's it for the engine as of right now... until the rebuild!
Fuel Supply
So I'm not really sure what kind of carb my dad was running on the Pan - it doesn't seem to look like any of the other common Harley carbs but it's clearly stamped with an AMF logo. I know it's newer & more sophisticated than the ol' brass Linkert card - it's got an accelerator pump & some plastic parts on it - I don't care really, I'm going to give this guy a try until I find it's limiting my performance or just junk.
The intake T is a stock, o-ring setup. A chrome coupler has been added to adapt this carb to the intake. The intake filter is also off a non-Linkert Harley - it's a stock round bit that I'm gonna rock until I can no longer rock it.
Ignition
My dad was running the stock points distributor, an Accel coil & wires and some champion plugs. I'm going to reuse the Accel coil & wires because those were fairly new and good quality. The spark plugs I'm not sold on yet - I have to do some research to see what heat range is preferred - when the plug is installed, seems the electrode is at least 1/4" from even being directly exposed to the combustion chamber. In my ideal world - the plug should have the electrode completely exposed & closest to the fuel source intake for best results - so I'll look around some more.
The old distributor was starting to get quite sloppy around the shaft & leaking on the longer rides - add to that fact that it's using points to contact circuits - a super vintage technology that's inefficient as compared to moder ignition systems - I sought to upgrade to a modern digital system. Through VTwin - I found this electronic, auto advance ignition that I assume was hosting some cheaper electrons for managing ignition timing & whatnot; but this assumption landed me a new points distributor with some auto advancing springs. This was definitely not the direction I wanted to go - not only does it not look original or cool - it now functions only marginally better than the original setup. I was looking for something with a rev limiter & programmable advance curve - but am not willing to shell out $500 for a Mallory distributor with dual fire - so I've settled to accept this new, moderately better ignition.
Exhaust
The pan made noise through a pair of un-baffled drag pipes, & the noise was good but the pipes did nothing for the pan's daily driver purposes except direct that noise out the backside. The pipes are too short to take advantage of significant inertial supercharging, there's no baffling to provide back pressure & then no cross-over tubes for flow scavenging - thus I intended to make my own system - a dual exhaust w/ pipes that ran straight back from the jugs w/ some baffles & cross-tubes. Seeing that the bike revival has consumed this much time already - I've ditched that idea for a stab at modifying the pan's current exhaust w/ some short baffles & header wrap. I'll someday build that new system & that day will be sweet.
That's it for the engine as of right now... until the rebuild!
Feb 5, 2009
Post #8 - Picture Break
I know - this blog can get boring without something to view & speak for itself - so a picture of the engine in nearly its current state:
It's a low-res image - apologies - it's taken from by brother's phone camera bad at my dad's shop in Canby - but it's a pic @ least. I say it's a pic of the nearly current state because once I returned to I added the push rods & push rod tubes (which I'll also be rebuilding as the new gaskets from Adams were way too tight on the tubes & I couldn't get a good-n-tight fit) + the valve covers.
And another pic - one from Barnetts web features - the gas tank & fend color I'm shooting for:
It's kinda light gray / green & I think it'll look good.
It's a low-res image - apologies - it's taken from by brother's phone camera bad at my dad's shop in Canby - but it's a pic @ least. I say it's a pic of the nearly current state because once I returned to I added the push rods & push rod tubes (which I'll also be rebuilding as the new gaskets from Adams were way too tight on the tubes & I couldn't get a good-n-tight fit) + the valve covers.And another pic - one from Barnetts web features - the gas tank & fend color I'm shooting for:
It's kinda light gray / green & I think it'll look good.
Post #7 - Engine: Case Halves, Camshafts & Oil Pumps
Case Halves
The most important part of the Pan was the engine's case halves as they're the only pieces I can 100% claim as original from '48 - unless someone (the dude) did some # stamping voodoo - but for my mental reasoning - I'll assume he didn't. The #'s on the case halves match - both inside & out. They've been beat up, dropped (as an engine assembly), broken & repaired. Most of the screw threads are boogered or hogged out & tapped to larger diameters - but they're the bikes history & identity and I'm damn sensitive to their well being.
With all that's wrong - initially - they required relatively little work to prep for assembly. I took all of the jug & oil pump studs out, cleaned some threads & hand filed the gasket surfaces. I r&r'd the cam bushing & pinned that in place. The idler gear's shaft, just like the original pinion shaft, decided to wear the hardened steel instead of the gear's brass bushing. I'm not sure what type of oil was used or temperature extremes this brass was exposed to for the past 60 years - but it's somehow hardened the brass so the steel wears instead of the original intent of brass wearing, steel = good, and I'm not going to figure out why. With a bit of knowledge from the Boar House (neither the Harley factory manual nor goddamn Clymers tell you how to do this) - I was able to pop this shaft out (I didn't intend for that to sound sexual) & tap in a new one. I've also replaced the both the idler & circuit breaker gears' brass bushings.
I cleaned the threads of the original jug studs & began the install. I applied a bit of blue Loctite & threaded the studs in until they bottomed out in the cases. When I came to thread the center studs in - I couldn't get their installed heights to match. Two of the studs installed at the height of the other four (I refer to this as the "proper height"), but two remained about .4" too tall & I had no idea why - maybe the threads were still crap or something was keeping the studs from going all the way in. I tried & tried again but no change. I then tried to pull the two center studs that were at the "proper height" until I found their extraction extremely tough. A bit of an investigation with a flashlight & I found the two studs bottom @ the same point in the case half so when you have one stud all the way in, the other bottoms on the installed stud's threads - so my try & try again method only further damaged the threads of the installed studs at the "proper height" - making removal without case thread damage impossible. I left the damaged studs installed & drove the other studs until they bottomed on the installed studs & proceeded to assemble. When I put on the cylinders, I only had about 4 threads of the "proper height" studs were available to grab with the cylinder nuts - meanwhile the tall studs afforded approx 10 more threads which was more ideal. With only 4 threads grabbing what I assume are grade 2 nuts - considering the cylinder pressures I'm expecting during running - I am way too exposed to failure here. So I revert to the fact that I'll be doing a complete dissassembly before running to obtain a few more threads to hold the cylinders in place. Because the damaged studs won't be removed without significant case thread damage - a new solution is required. I plan to remove the studs - even though there will be thread damage - and then drill, counter bore, tap & install some 7/16" Time-sert steel thread bosses. Then - as the jugs basically self align themselves during install with the exposed cylinder sleeve - I'll just use some grade 5 allen bolts & aluminum spacers (thermal expansion compensation). Then...these cases should be mint.
Camshaft & Lifters & Push rods & Oil Pump
The camshaft already received some mention in another post - basically - I ended up with an Andrews B grind. I'm psyched - this will be a good cam.
I believe my dad replaced the lifters, lifter blocks & push rods not too long ago. The blocks were in great shape - the lifters had some bad wall scuffing - well beyond buffing so I scrapped em in exchange for some new Sifton solids. These seem to fit well in the lifter block bores.
The wear on the original push rods is a bit concerning - appears as if a shortage of wall lube or excessive side loading was present. The new cam should help the side loading - the lift ramp is significantly less than the original. I still don't know why the wall lube wasn't there - hopefully the new Sifton oil pump will resolve (replaced the old because the gears were sloppy & running pressures were below 10 psi). The lifters will be something I keep a close eye on during maintenance - if I get this thing running.
The most important part of the Pan was the engine's case halves as they're the only pieces I can 100% claim as original from '48 - unless someone (the dude) did some # stamping voodoo - but for my mental reasoning - I'll assume he didn't. The #'s on the case halves match - both inside & out. They've been beat up, dropped (as an engine assembly), broken & repaired. Most of the screw threads are boogered or hogged out & tapped to larger diameters - but they're the bikes history & identity and I'm damn sensitive to their well being.
With all that's wrong - initially - they required relatively little work to prep for assembly. I took all of the jug & oil pump studs out, cleaned some threads & hand filed the gasket surfaces. I r&r'd the cam bushing & pinned that in place. The idler gear's shaft, just like the original pinion shaft, decided to wear the hardened steel instead of the gear's brass bushing. I'm not sure what type of oil was used or temperature extremes this brass was exposed to for the past 60 years - but it's somehow hardened the brass so the steel wears instead of the original intent of brass wearing, steel = good, and I'm not going to figure out why. With a bit of knowledge from the Boar House (neither the Harley factory manual nor goddamn Clymers tell you how to do this) - I was able to pop this shaft out (I didn't intend for that to sound sexual) & tap in a new one. I've also replaced the both the idler & circuit breaker gears' brass bushings.
I cleaned the threads of the original jug studs & began the install. I applied a bit of blue Loctite & threaded the studs in until they bottomed out in the cases. When I came to thread the center studs in - I couldn't get their installed heights to match. Two of the studs installed at the height of the other four (I refer to this as the "proper height"), but two remained about .4" too tall & I had no idea why - maybe the threads were still crap or something was keeping the studs from going all the way in. I tried & tried again but no change. I then tried to pull the two center studs that were at the "proper height" until I found their extraction extremely tough. A bit of an investigation with a flashlight & I found the two studs bottom @ the same point in the case half so when you have one stud all the way in, the other bottoms on the installed stud's threads - so my try & try again method only further damaged the threads of the installed studs at the "proper height" - making removal without case thread damage impossible. I left the damaged studs installed & drove the other studs until they bottomed on the installed studs & proceeded to assemble. When I put on the cylinders, I only had about 4 threads of the "proper height" studs were available to grab with the cylinder nuts - meanwhile the tall studs afforded approx 10 more threads which was more ideal. With only 4 threads grabbing what I assume are grade 2 nuts - considering the cylinder pressures I'm expecting during running - I am way too exposed to failure here. So I revert to the fact that I'll be doing a complete dissassembly before running to obtain a few more threads to hold the cylinders in place. Because the damaged studs won't be removed without significant case thread damage - a new solution is required. I plan to remove the studs - even though there will be thread damage - and then drill, counter bore, tap & install some 7/16" Time-sert steel thread bosses. Then - as the jugs basically self align themselves during install with the exposed cylinder sleeve - I'll just use some grade 5 allen bolts & aluminum spacers (thermal expansion compensation). Then...these cases should be mint.
Camshaft & Lifters & Push rods & Oil Pump
The camshaft already received some mention in another post - basically - I ended up with an Andrews B grind. I'm psyched - this will be a good cam.
I believe my dad replaced the lifters, lifter blocks & push rods not too long ago. The blocks were in great shape - the lifters had some bad wall scuffing - well beyond buffing so I scrapped em in exchange for some new Sifton solids. These seem to fit well in the lifter block bores.
The wear on the original push rods is a bit concerning - appears as if a shortage of wall lube or excessive side loading was present. The new cam should help the side loading - the lift ramp is significantly less than the original. I still don't know why the wall lube wasn't there - hopefully the new Sifton oil pump will resolve (replaced the old because the gears were sloppy & running pressures were below 10 psi). The lifters will be something I keep a close eye on during maintenance - if I get this thing running.
Feb 2, 2009
Post #6 - Rotating Assy & Pistons
Recall that 60mph wicked vibration my Dad noticed - turns out the retaining nut of the sprocket shaft had loosened allowing about 0.25" play in loose the uninstalled state (I'm sure with the bearings support & such, the assembled movement wasn't that much). This looseness translated into a bit of con rod slop & abnormal pinion shaft wear - but that's about as far as I can see the damage went. I'm not totally certain - but fairly confident the 60mph vibration is directly related.
Pistons:
The original pistons (at least they appeared fairly original, cast iron bits) had some fairly good skirt scuffing, other than that - they were in good shape. Seeing that I bored 0.010" over, I needed new pistons anyway so I didn't do much investigation into piston health & just ordered some forged aluminum hardware from Wiseco.
Con Rods:
The Pan's con rods appeared to be square (no bends) & only had some abnormal wrist pin bushing wear due to the odd alignment (more sprocket shaft induced fun). The large end bearing races looked smooth (no pitting) - so I only replaced the wrist pin bushings. A bit of a knick in the middle of the front cylinder's rod didn't cause much concern for me, but both my dad & the Boar House weren't fans. Add that to the fact that the bore house pointed out my crappy bushing install (a bit crooked - can't always rely on the con rod to guide the busing properly will provide some side loading of the wrist pin & eventually drive past the pin keepers & into the cylinder bore...) & the con rods were junk. I got some new, replica rods from V-Twin w/ the bushings already installed & races hones to fit a matching crank-pin & bearing setup.
Pins & Shafts:
The Pan's crank pin had some surface pitting, likely below the hardened surface - so that was immediately junk. Replaced - as mentioned earlier - with a V-Twin replica.
The Pan's pinion shaft developed some abnormal wear @ the very end (bit that's riding in a bushing within the gear case cover). Instead of actually wearing the brass bushing - the shaft wore quite significantly. So that was junk as well - replaced with a V-Twin replica. This new shaft fits well inside the original gear case cover busing - so I kept that bushing.
The sprocket shaft was worn & pitted on the taper mating surface due to the looseness.... junk as well - replaced with a V-Twin replica.
I thought that'd be the end of replacing this rotating parts - I mean - there's not much left...
Flywheels:
The flywheels appeared to be original hardware. Even though the sprocket shaft worked loose - abnormal wear didn't appear present in the taper joint - so I thought they'd be reusable. Turns out - they weren't. Knowing that I was going to be changing quite a bit of cranking assy stuff - I brought all the new stuff in for static balancing @ the Boar House. They educated me to look for the signs of an abused flywheel assy - & the weld build up & peening of the con rod thrust washers was a good sign that these flywheels had been apart a number of times. I'm not sure who did this work (likely the dude because I pretty sure my dad's chicken coop didn't have a welder..) but it was awesome. The Boar House gave reuse a go & ended up breaking chunks of flywheel off with every attempt to peen new washers in place; I trust they were honest with their attempts & not trying to take advantage of my naive ways. Eventually - I landed a set of Truett & Osborne flywheels (stock stroke) in a complete assy from V-Twin. They managed to balance the everything (they should've been able to - everything was spankin new..).
Pinion & Sprocket Shaft Bearings, Washers & Oil Seals:
The shaft bearings measures to stock diameter but fit a bit loose. The races measured round & true. Combining the two measurements - I found, with some light honing, that I could get a real good fit with +0.008 bearings for both the pinion & sprocket. My dad & I pin-honed these bores and, although not mirror finish, the fit is great. I reused the original bearing cages.
The crankshaft thrust washers were a bit pitted but cleaned up & are also being reused.
I installed a new sprocket shaft oil seal. The oil ring for the pinion shaft - although I recall seeing it sometime during the disassembly - has caught the Santa Anna winds & fled - so I've got to find one of those.
I noted there was a bit more side - to - side play in the sprocket shaft bearing - to - oil seal area, so I found a thin washer to take up some of that side play. The washer has a bit of a crap on it that I couldn't clean off (it's uber thin & I didn't want to distort is permanently). I'm trusting a bit of running will smooth that washer out...
____________
So I haven't touched on a few parts of the engine tear down yet (gear case, cases...) - I'm getting there - but I'll tell you something about the new parts in their installed state as of today. I thought I had all of the i's dotted & t's crossed when it came to the rotating assembly. Maybe after reading this posting you can already point out where I've fucked up.... think about it a bit...
I didn't check the thrust clearance of the crank assy with respect to the case races. I did some preliminary installs & threw a couple of case studs in to make sure things were ok & during pin honing of the case races - I thought it was going to be a snug but OK fit. During my final install of the rotating assy into the cases - with everything pre-lubed, that gunky washer installed, & the case studs torqued to spec - I found things real snug. I could still force rotation by hand (pushing on a con rod or something - not by grabbing the sprocket shaft though - that took a wrench)....
Understand that I try to do these technical tasks always in a time crunch for 1000's of reasons & my patience with the engine at this stage was thin so I charged on thinking - maybe that gunky washer or the prelube is causing that drag. It's been 1 month since I did that engine assembly. Before I try to start this beast - I'm gonna tear this whole engine down again & mill some race material away to free the rotation a bit. Maybe I'm being too sensitive to this, maybe there's a better solution - but the cases are the only identification the Pan retains & with respect to thermal expansion - I don't want to end up pushing races out or cracking the cases - so better safe than sorry.
Pistons:
The original pistons (at least they appeared fairly original, cast iron bits) had some fairly good skirt scuffing, other than that - they were in good shape. Seeing that I bored 0.010" over, I needed new pistons anyway so I didn't do much investigation into piston health & just ordered some forged aluminum hardware from Wiseco.
Con Rods:
The Pan's con rods appeared to be square (no bends) & only had some abnormal wrist pin bushing wear due to the odd alignment (more sprocket shaft induced fun). The large end bearing races looked smooth (no pitting) - so I only replaced the wrist pin bushings. A bit of a knick in the middle of the front cylinder's rod didn't cause much concern for me, but both my dad & the Boar House weren't fans. Add that to the fact that the bore house pointed out my crappy bushing install (a bit crooked - can't always rely on the con rod to guide the busing properly will provide some side loading of the wrist pin & eventually drive past the pin keepers & into the cylinder bore...) & the con rods were junk. I got some new, replica rods from V-Twin w/ the bushings already installed & races hones to fit a matching crank-pin & bearing setup.
Pins & Shafts:
The Pan's crank pin had some surface pitting, likely below the hardened surface - so that was immediately junk. Replaced - as mentioned earlier - with a V-Twin replica.
The Pan's pinion shaft developed some abnormal wear @ the very end (bit that's riding in a bushing within the gear case cover). Instead of actually wearing the brass bushing - the shaft wore quite significantly. So that was junk as well - replaced with a V-Twin replica. This new shaft fits well inside the original gear case cover busing - so I kept that bushing.
The sprocket shaft was worn & pitted on the taper mating surface due to the looseness.... junk as well - replaced with a V-Twin replica.
I thought that'd be the end of replacing this rotating parts - I mean - there's not much left...
Flywheels:
The flywheels appeared to be original hardware. Even though the sprocket shaft worked loose - abnormal wear didn't appear present in the taper joint - so I thought they'd be reusable. Turns out - they weren't. Knowing that I was going to be changing quite a bit of cranking assy stuff - I brought all the new stuff in for static balancing @ the Boar House. They educated me to look for the signs of an abused flywheel assy - & the weld build up & peening of the con rod thrust washers was a good sign that these flywheels had been apart a number of times. I'm not sure who did this work (likely the dude because I pretty sure my dad's chicken coop didn't have a welder..) but it was awesome. The Boar House gave reuse a go & ended up breaking chunks of flywheel off with every attempt to peen new washers in place; I trust they were honest with their attempts & not trying to take advantage of my naive ways. Eventually - I landed a set of Truett & Osborne flywheels (stock stroke) in a complete assy from V-Twin. They managed to balance the everything (they should've been able to - everything was spankin new..).
Pinion & Sprocket Shaft Bearings, Washers & Oil Seals:
The shaft bearings measures to stock diameter but fit a bit loose. The races measured round & true. Combining the two measurements - I found, with some light honing, that I could get a real good fit with +0.008 bearings for both the pinion & sprocket. My dad & I pin-honed these bores and, although not mirror finish, the fit is great. I reused the original bearing cages.
The crankshaft thrust washers were a bit pitted but cleaned up & are also being reused.
I installed a new sprocket shaft oil seal. The oil ring for the pinion shaft - although I recall seeing it sometime during the disassembly - has caught the Santa Anna winds & fled - so I've got to find one of those.
I noted there was a bit more side - to - side play in the sprocket shaft bearing - to - oil seal area, so I found a thin washer to take up some of that side play. The washer has a bit of a crap on it that I couldn't clean off (it's uber thin & I didn't want to distort is permanently). I'm trusting a bit of running will smooth that washer out...
____________
So I haven't touched on a few parts of the engine tear down yet (gear case, cases...) - I'm getting there - but I'll tell you something about the new parts in their installed state as of today. I thought I had all of the i's dotted & t's crossed when it came to the rotating assembly. Maybe after reading this posting you can already point out where I've fucked up.... think about it a bit...
I didn't check the thrust clearance of the crank assy with respect to the case races. I did some preliminary installs & threw a couple of case studs in to make sure things were ok & during pin honing of the case races - I thought it was going to be a snug but OK fit. During my final install of the rotating assy into the cases - with everything pre-lubed, that gunky washer installed, & the case studs torqued to spec - I found things real snug. I could still force rotation by hand (pushing on a con rod or something - not by grabbing the sprocket shaft though - that took a wrench)....
Understand that I try to do these technical tasks always in a time crunch for 1000's of reasons & my patience with the engine at this stage was thin so I charged on thinking - maybe that gunky washer or the prelube is causing that drag. It's been 1 month since I did that engine assembly. Before I try to start this beast - I'm gonna tear this whole engine down again & mill some race material away to free the rotation a bit. Maybe I'm being too sensitive to this, maybe there's a better solution - but the cases are the only identification the Pan retains & with respect to thermal expansion - I don't want to end up pushing races out or cracking the cases - so better safe than sorry.
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