post number 141

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

post number 131

post number 130

post number 129

post number 128

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

post number 126