lørdag 21. desember 2013

We wish you a merry Christmas & a happy new year.



Schwossshh.
Time goes by in a hurry, there is hardly daylight in the middle of the day.
It is time to be in the workshop, working on maintenance and new projects.

Suddenly, Christmas is here and the time is right to show all your friends they are appreciated.
To all of you whom we have learned to know the past year, those we have known since long, friends whom we know trough the www and those we have had the opportunity to share a beer with during this or previous riding seasons;

We wish you a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!!

AMcN
Sverre & Øyunn 


tirsdag 10. desember 2013

Frame Jig done (almost?)

Got some time today to install the frame to be modified in the jig. While the frame was there I welded up all parts, solid this time.
When applying heat during welding, parts start moving, even if tack welded before the real welding take place. I made spacers between the foot-board rod fasteners and jig brackets, when I loosened the nuts to remove the frame from the jig after welding it had stuck quite hard. After trimming the spacers in the lathe, voila no problem.
I considered making the gearbox plate fastener double, I think the single fastener will do OK.

The support for the rear-wheel fasteners have holes for old position, position 2 where the wheel bolt is moved 1" up and 1/2" forward. 3 position is where I want to go, 1" up and 1" forward. We will see eventually what the result is.Need to look how new piping will act in line with the upper frame tube.

Tomorrow I need to start looking into the fork jobs, shortening the legs, hmm, my cut down better not get limp!

Oops, forgot to mention I found the steering head center line to be 1/4" off. This bike have most likely been abused with a sidecar, my Henderson was close to 1/2" off before I started working on the frame.








søndag 8. desember 2013

Frame Jig progress

Got some more hours into the cutdown project frame jig, tomorrow I will drill holes and tack weld, then I will fit the frame to be modified and weld solid welds.



fredag 6. desember 2013

Frame jig for Cutdown project

Got hold of a decent piece of steel to start making a jig for the cutdown project frame. Had to get hold of external workforce to be able to handle the weight, I recon it is better to get the youngsters involved in old iron rather than the telly.

Years ago I came across an Evo chop based on an IOE frame. Luckily back then the Evo chop owner had not thrown the lower frame section in the dust bin, now it came in handy.

Its good to know Harley used pins trough through their cast pieces where they are joined with pipes.

Anyone know what the foundry mark in the lower frame cast means??







torsdag 5. desember 2013

Frame work

Threw the cutdown project frame and fork into my car yesterday to get my friend Erik the master blacksmith engaged in how to alter the frame according to my ideas.
The 25 to 29 IOE frames are bitches to alter compared to the 24 and older loop frames. To many cast pieces in the later frames, and it adds weight to the bike too, a lot of weight.
Having placed the chassis on some bricks in Eriks kitchen, we eventually got it all figured out. For sure, it will be some cutting. To alter the rake, shorten the rear frame and to lower the bike an inch, at least.

Now its time to start working on a fixture to make sure some of the frame parts stay where supposed to, whilst others move location.

Stay tuned!


onsdag 4. desember 2013

Spark plug threads

I have a lot of thread tables, I love the variation and amount of weird threads, think it might be a fetish?
In one old table there is a colomn for spark plug threads, they are M14x1,25, M18x1,5 and 7/8x18 threads per Inch.
My Harley cylinders for the ongoing engine build should have the later Harley option, M18 (kind of funny, M threads on a Harley back in mid twenties!).
Someone obviously "screwed it" on one of the plugs, and repaired it by increasing the hole to run 7/8 spark plugs.
I want two M18 spark plug cylinder`s, had to make and fit a bushing to bring the hole back to its former glory!

Today was known to be a day with no work shop time, I found it appropriate to mock up the engine, and dream!





mandag 2. desember 2013

Cast Iron

Harley J model cylinders, oh their look is so beautiful but what fragile constructions!
To make them even more a challenge for the restorer Harley have used thread`s for all plumbing installed, as well as on the ring securing the inlet valve cage.
Today`s task; removing all plumbing without disturbing them threads. Disturbed threads, someone way back in time had already disturbed the inlet cage ring threads on one cylinder, repaired by an over sized homemade ring. Good to know there are several different sized rings available from Thunman Tools in Sweden, was going to order some other parts from him anyway.

To ease the work with the cylinders I chose to make an adapter plate where the cylinder is mounted. Then the plate is secured in the vise rather than the cylinders. As I have ground both sides of the plate to be parallel, it allows me to use this in the cylinder bore where it is hard to mount the J cylinders in line with the bore stem.

For sure, back in the days Harley didnt pay any attention to gas flow into the heads of the IOE cylinder, check out the before and after pic from the inlet port! No more 90 degree angles !
I will taste and smell cast iron dust for days!!




Got this beautiful new 44 tooth rear sprocket from Phil in the US, very good workmanship!!