O.K. next progress report,
Not a whole lot really. Couple of good excuses for that though; Mrs Shoveltrouble is Expecting another little shoveltrouble and has been doing the morning sickness thing bloody hard. Work was kind enough to transfer me to the other side of town and increase my hours somewhat, a favour i repaid with a resignation letter, problem solvered! I'm currently sitting in Vietnam, Nice and hot, 150mtr pool with a swim up bar either end though, Having a ball.
Back to the bike, Heads are done, came up bloody nice, ported, polished, whatshamacallit valve seats so the unleaded thing isn't an issue etc etc. Bike is still with a mate who is an autoelec. it's hard to rush a job too much when it's free or close to. With the vietnam holiday looming there was no point in rushing anyone to much for the bike to just sit in the shed, still in pieces. Tins (all bar oil tank) have had the flame thing done, white to yellow to orange to red with a thin blue pinstripe and the black background. I haven't picked them up yet but will when i get back 27/08?
So that's about that. I'm looking forward to getting it back together and heading out on the road.
O.K., Bikes back. Wiring still needs to be finalised. My headlght was rooted so i bought another but still need to chase up better indicators, another neutral switch and handlebar switches / controls / master cyl. Heads are all back on, engine wise it just needs the exhausts put back on.
Just sat the tank on to check clearance, trying to find a neat place to mount the V.O.E.S.
Will try to fit up rear guard etc over the weekend. More updates to follow...........
Nice flames, gotta love a shovel..................
It lives!!!
Started her today, bloody fantastic!
I've been a bit slack with the updates, the cocksmoker that claims to be an auto elec had soured the whole adventure somewhat, but it's all heading in the right direction now.
I've never been good with electrical stuff, people have tried to explain it to me using analogies about pipes, water flow and what not, basically it's all chinese to me, thats why i asked the auto elec "Does it matter if i run resistor or non resistor style plug leads with the new electronic ignition?" his reply was along the lines of "Nah mate, non resistor may just interfere with peoples T.V. reception, who gives a fuck". The ignition kit i bought from Daytona twin tec came with all the stuff to make your own leads. The auto elec had made them up but were a little short (I like to run them a bit longer and route them up and out of sight as much as possible) so i put my original leads back on, they weren't that old and are the correct lengths.
Anyway, fueled her up this morning, what seemed like fifty kicks, a little back firing out of the carby, "O.k. if its back firing it's gotta be getting fuel and spark, just @ the wrong time", adjusted the timing, but because the ignition module hides everything i wasn't sure if i was advancing or retarding the timing. Adjusted it clockwise, more kicks, still backfiring etc, adjusted it anti clockwise, more kicks, carb starts leaking from accelerator pump, pull out the plunger, the little leather seal / doo dad thing has gone hard and crusty, massage some vaseline into that, put carb back together, more kicks, more farting and carrying on. Keeping in mind i had just finished a night shift and been awake for too many hours, my frame of mind wasn't overly great, come to mention it either was my right knee. About to give up and go to bed when i was double checking the igntion instalation instructions and came across "... Correct H.T leads must be used or unit may misfire....", so i put the leads that rainman had cut too short back on, first kick and cracko, into life.
It's sounding bloody sharp too, I'm not sure if its because of the signle fire ignition, the super fat blue spark or the extra compression fron having the heads shaved, valves, guides, seats and springs done but yeah, quite a happy boy. Stopped and started her a few times, i just need to look at the kicker and she's roaring into life.
As long as there's no big issues it will be ready to ride to Pakenham on Sunday. Still won't be 100% finished but will be close enough.
Hi Doug,
Great news mate, you'll have to buy a few lemons to get the grin off your face
As Dave said, the sparky's fucked in the head. Could have stuffed the ignition module, lucky it only spat a bit out the carby.
By the sound of things the timing's pretty right. I used to time mine by ear. Started the motor and warmed it up (removed the points cover and loosened the plate, re-tightening only 1 of the bolts back up before starting the bike.) Then get the revs up to 2000rpm and advance the timing plate clockwise VERY SLOWLY until it starts to break up. Back up the plate (anti clockwise about 1/16. Take it for a ride. If it hesitates when you crack open the throttle back it up 1/16 more.
Once you have the single fire set-up correctly it becomes very easy to kickstart (provided all other factors are kosher). I used to be able to start the old girl by hand ( I mean the BIKE guys ). I'd set the kicker up before I left the bike and when I got back I'd sit down and casually reach back and press down on the pedal and Ka-thump, ka-thump and off she'd go.
Played mind games with the yuppies in the 80's ( especially the ones that used to come up to the Shovel and ask, "Is that a Harley?".)
Ride safe mate.
Regards,
Cris
Just about done, only a couple of small things to finish her off. Rode to the Pakenham rod & Custom show last weekend, couple of small issue, but that's what a shakedown run's for.
When the tanks were acid dipped and then resealed the sealing agent blocked both the bottom (Cross Feed) and top (Vent) outlets on one of the tanks, funnily enough the tank i didn't check when i was putting it back together in a hurry. The other issue was the plunger seal for the accelerator pump had dried out and split, not an issue when riding but caused a little leakage while parked. It was only going to be a quicky month rebuild so i never worried about storing the carb or seals drying out. Pity i didn't count on the lack of pace from a cumdrinker auto elec!
So yeah, a couple of things to tidy up then a super detail.
Still undecided if personalised plates are wanky or not but hey. Trying to work out if i should've blacked out the plate in the photos for some street cred.
Chino, why Chino? I guess it pays homage to the wild one but it's more about a quote i read, Basically most people thinks Johnny's the hero, but he only smiles once in the whole movie. Lee marvin's character, Chino doesn't stop smiling, he gets knocked of his bike he's smiles, he gets in a fight and laughs about it. While everyone deals with the calamity and confusion,and while johnny is nearly broken by the system, Chino is the only guy who has life by the balls.
Great looking bike Doug,
love the clean apes, classic flames and the whole thing blends together beautifully.
I agree with you about who the real biker was in "The Wild One", Johnny mainly sulked through the whole thing, didn't seem to know what fun was if it hit in the face. Chino rode the Harley and stole the film as far as I'm concerned. And I know who I'd rather have beside me in a dark alley if any shit came down.
Have fun,
Thanks Mapleleafs, the acrobatics are good fun, thought about joining the circus but i guess you've gotta be a clown to ride a shovel anyway...
Thanks Cris. I just scored a new (second hand) supertrap 2 into 1 of e-bay ($81.00, Bargain). I like the sound of them on a Harley, apparently not to bad performance wise and with the plate / baffle setup they throw the noise out sideways more letting it bounce of cars, the road etc. Being 2 into 1 I'm expecting a bit of a loss of the Harley potato, potato thing at idle but thats no big deal. I'll wait and see what condition they're in to see if i polish them, ceramic coat or wrap.
One, hopefully last, bitch about rainman the auto elec.... I noticed a oil leak from the nosecone, @ the points cover end, "Hmmm, that's new.." so i zapped the points cover off, didn't tell me alot so i took the ignition module out, not much to see there either, W.T.F.? on closer inspection oil was coming out of the sheathing that contains the wires running to the ignition module, W.T.F.? Turns out retardo had been enlargeing the hole in the nosecone that the old points wire run through (A common adjustment when converting to elec ign, more wires and shit) and had gone of kilter with the die grinder and straight through the nose cone into the timing case section. F@CK!
O.K., no huge deal, 1 X pipe of, nose cone off to patch from behind. All of and cleaned up, discovered he'd hit an oil gallery / passageway so no access from behind. F@CK, nose cone back on, squeeze shiploads of silicone / silastic into hole and bob's your uncle.
Took her for a testrun the next night, It was starting to cool down a little by the time i hit the road and with the nice cool dense air, she was running like a raped ape, came back down through the hills @ mach 2.1. Oil leak is solvered.
Never a dull moment.
More updates to follow, hey it's a shovel.
