post number 61 case problems!!!!

So I was checking out my right case today and discovered a crack from web to web on the inside of the case. I don't know how I missed this before, but I did. Luckily I have an earlier 1912 or 1913 case that I can use on the run.


Here is the earlier case, This has an extra rib on the bottom too, so this is probably a win win situation for me. I had to machine some aluminum away from the center of the case to make room for my bearing. everything clears, and now I can send this case off to get polished.

post number 60

I balanced my flywheels last friday. I had to remove the two windows of material in order to get the weight right.


Here you can see the holes that I drilled 180 degrees from the crank pin in order to balance the wheels. There is a shaft through the sprocket shaft hole that is on knife edges.



When everything is perfectly balanced, you should be able to position the wheel anywhere that you want it, and it will stay put. If there is a heavy spot, the heavy spot will roll to the bottom. IF and when it rolls to the bottom, you drill holes in the wheel and remove metal from it.




And that is how we do it.

post number 59

I had a fun weekend in Minneapolis with my dad and friends. We picked up my cases from Pat olbanger. They look like they are chrome plated! I still have some machine work to do on the inside of the cases then I am going to engine turn them. I couldn't wait to mock up my engine and see how it looked.


Look at all the little nooks and crannies, pat did an amazing job as always. We send him all of our beat up and mangled knucklehead parts and he sends them back looking like new.



Here is the other side! OOO man o man

post number 58

Here is another pic of the seat I mentioned earlier. It is a real puzzle, this is pretty clost to how it goes together. The springs are upside down in this pic./


I finished my seat post last night. I chose to cut the slot a little different than stock. I have seen these posts break at the bottom corner, a radius is a lot stronger than two sharp points, so I think that this will work better on my cannonball bike.



Here are the gas tank pieces that I got in the mail today. I should have made these pieces before the bottom parts, but it doesn't really matter now because I have them all.




I also started to machine this big hunk of steel. I love how it doesn't really matter how nasty a piece of metal looks on the outside, and it looks brand new after a little bit of turning. This is as far as I got last night before calling it quits and going home. Can anybody guess what it is? Please comment and let me know.

post number 57

Here is an o.g. seat post that my friend Bill sent me to copy.


I had to file a bur off of the large diameter to get the large nut piece to slip off. This is also the seam where the .5 threaded part presses into the upper piece. I can not tell if Sears sweat brazed the two pieces together because of nickle plating,

I decided to make the seat post for my cannonball bike one piece, which meant a lot of turning lol.

Here is the piece almost done, I still have to cut a groove in it and drill a hole for the top bolt, but you get the idea. The other ones that I plan on making will be two pieces just like the originals.

post number 56

I got a seat frame in the mail today from Dewey price, his website is www.earlyharley.com This is a nice seat frame, but it is very complicated when compared to a Later knucklehead seat pan lol.


I got some castings in the mail today. These are triple tree castings for sears. They turned out nice. The extensions broke off when these were in the wax stage during shipping. The foundry glued them back on, but unfortunately some of them were crooked, so I will have to cut them off and weld them on straight. This seems like a pain, but it isn't really a big deal.



Here are the cast levers for the magneto advance.




Here are the oiler castings for the bottom of the tank.







And some motor mounts and axle plates.

post number 55

Check out the sweet package that jesse picked up today. It is the most well secured box that has ever been shipped to me.


Check out the combo locks!

These are the parts that were in it. My friend Bill sent them to me to copy for my own project. Thanks bill!

post number 54

Here is the finished flywheel. We decided to balance the bottom end at 60 percent which is the same as a knucklehead, they are both 45 degree twins, so it should work well. Each flywheel was very heavy at the crank pin side. This was the best area to take metal out and not sacrifice structural strength.


We took the metal out in small increments a little bit at a time.



This is how we started. I didn't really want to take that much metal out, but I do not have a choice. This rotating assembly has to be smooth or it will shake itself apart.




In this pic, you can see where the outer race of the bearing was hitting on the flywheel I remedied this by cutting a .020 relief for clearance issues.





The clearance is super tight on this engine. Check out where I machined the sprocket shaft nut and flywheel for clearance. I also had to relieve the rods for clearance.

post number 53

I spent the morning checking out my new bottom end stuff. This is the first time that I have done something like this. The cases in this picture are not the ones that will be used in the race. My cannonball cases are off getting polished. I just wanted to do a rough mock up to see what clearance issues we were going to run into. The left flywheel and bearing assemble are bolted in for good. The crankpin is just lightly pushed into the flywheel.


The little triangle piece to the right of the flywheel was hitting the sprocket shaft nut, so I had to grind it off. I thought I uploaded a picture of the ground rod, but I didn't oops!



Here is where the rod hits the case. We increased the stroke of the flywheels by quite a bit in order to make clearance for the crank pin nut. I will have to do some modifications in order to make everything fit in my cases, but it will work out well.


Here is a pic of the top of my piston at top dead center. It is exactly where it needs to be. The displacement on my engine is 88 inches. A stock spacke 9hp engine is 71 inches. This is quite an increase.

Post number 53

My friend Delmar just delivered a bunch of goodies for the sears project. All of the parts that he made were made on a cnc machine. In most cases I ordered more pieces than I will probably ever use. Here are the screws for the tool box doors These will end up getting nickle plated.


Here are the lock nuts for the fork stem.



Here are a bunch sprocket shaft nuts. They are perfect! The rings on the left side are the bungs for my gas and oil caps. They solder into the tank before it gets painted.




Here are the bungs for mounting the gas tank and tool box.





And the really cool stuff! My bottom end. I am going to try and balance and assemble it this weekend. Wish me luck!

post number 52