Hi all.
A while ago, I introduced myself and posted some pictures of our new trike we call Nutts. It was a cranky old bastard. We went away for a weekend on it, and the motor shat. I asked some questions on this forum and promised that I'd get back to you all when I got it all back together. Well, I finally got it up and running again after the blow up, and it’s been a steep learning curve. The new motor has 2,500 miles up on it now, and apart from 2 oil changes, I haven’t put a spanner on it, which is a bloody miracle. Anyways, I'll start at the beginning.
My wife and I had been talking about building a shovel trike for about a year. You don’t see many shovels on the road anymore. Last August, my wife found an ’82 FLH 80 Heritage trike at a Pawnbrokers store. It was out of rego, had been sitting for 6 years and needed some work. I knew it probably needed its electrical system tidied up. The tanks needed paint. The clutch was hard to pull in. The chain was very tight, but if it wasn’t tight, it would rub on the swing arm because it had no chain guides. There was a box full of oily newspaper under the gearbox, so the chain being tight had done some damage. Anyway, I couldn’t build a trike this nice for the 30K he was asking for it, and it was by far the best looking trike we’d seen. It was a shovel too, so we arranged for the owner to take it to his place and get it going so we could take it for a test ride. My wife and I were H.D. virgins, and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into…..Double Shovel Trouble!
My wife and I had been talking about building a shovel trike for about a year. You don’t see many shovels on the road anymore. Last August, my wife found an ’82 FLH 80 Heritage trike at a Pawnbrokers store.
It was out of rego, had been sitting for 6 years and needed some work. I knew it probably needed its electrical system tidied up. The tanks needed paint. The clutch was hard to pull in. The chain was very tight, but if it wasn’t tight, it would rub on the swing arm because it had no chain guides. There was a box full of oily newspaper under the gearbox, so the chain being tight had done some damage.
Anyway, I couldn’t build a trike this nice for the 30K he was asking for it, and it was by far the best looking trike we’d seen. It was a shovel too, so we arranged for the owner to take it to his place and get it going so we could take it for a test ride. My wife and I were H.D. virgins, and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into…..Double Shovel Trouble!
A few days later, he gives us a call and tells us he’s got it going. We go to his house, he unlocks his garage, fires it up stone cold and revs the crap out of it in neutral. First thing I noticed is how high it revved without valve bounce. And talk about loud. It spews oil out of the breather.
We jump on it and take it for a ride up the street. As I’m riding out of his driveway, I’m shocked by the weight of the steering. The clutch is hard to pull in, and has no feel. The gear lever has 2 inches of play, is adjusted so high I have to lift my foot 4 inches off the foot peg to change up or down, and changing up I have to pull the lever back with all my strength. And what’s the go with that stupid gear linkage? The brakes are dragging and the brake pedal pumps up with no free play. The chain is so tight the back suspension doesn’t move. It doesn’t have the power I thought it should have. The tail lights are doing strange things, possibly a bad earth. I notice that the electric reverse is lazy, and after a short run at night, the turn signals get lazy and electric reverse doesn’t work anymore. I have to kick start it. The owner insists that the battery is the culprit, but I figure the charge system isn’t working, so a stator and regulator is on the cards. It has a Morris magneto, so it will run without a battery if you kick it.
On a positive note, it looks good, it runs, I’ve ridden it, and it’s still got the original Avon Road Runner on the front. The Speedo shows 6000 miles, the rear end is well done, and for a shovel, I figured it was in pretty good shape. The gearbox and motor didn’t scare me, and as long as the bottom end was OK, I could handle what ever else it threw at me. Parts are cheap. I could do the labor.
We went home and thought about it. It didn’t take long. The next day we told him if he organizes a roadworthy certificate (called a blue slip), we’d buy it. He agreed, and it’s just as well. Before the inspection station would hand over a blue slip, they insisted the owner supply them with an engineer’s certificate. This is a one off $600 certified engineers inspection to approve the safety and build quality of this “home made” motorcycle. The attention the trike would get had them worried. A day later he had the relevant documentation, we handed over 30 grand cash, and the cranky old bastard was ours. And cranky it was……… We headed over to the inspection station to put the new rego plate on. Now that the trike had rego, he asked if he could ride it to my place. I hand him the keys without a thought. He hits the starter, the motor roars into life, he stomps it into gear and the shit fight begins. He didn’t get ¼ mile and the engine stopped. Turns out he thinks it needs to be ridden with the S&S B’s choke on till it warms up. He’s fouled the plugs and now he’s cranking it with the choke on, and every time it fires, he wildly cranks the throttle open-shut-open-shut till it drowns and stops again. After a while, a puddle of fuel has formed under the breather and he’s cranked it till the battery runs flat. I tell him to stay with the trike while I jump in his car and buy another battery. On my return, he’s got the cover off the Morris magneto and he’s into the points with some sand paper. I tell him he flooded it, leave the magneto alone, and we need to pull the plugs out. He goes to the car and pulls out a pair of pliers. He latches on to one of the spark plugs with the pliers and pulls it out. He latches onto the other plug, and I tell him to get his pliers off my bike while I find a spanner. I find a spanner, start undoing the second plug, and bugger me, it’s in crooked and it’s tight all the way out. Yippee! Now, while I’m trying to get the plug out, he’s telling me I’ve just cross threaded it while he’s putting the battery in. I tell him I haven’t pulled it out yet. He looks at me sideways and tells me it was OK before I touched it! By the time I get the plug out, he’s got the battery in and I crank it over…..no choke, fuel off, carby bowl drained, wide open throttle with no plugs in it. This will dry the cylinders out. I clean the plugs, make sure they have spark and put them back in. The rear plug won’t go in straight, so I put some oil on the thread and wind it back in crooked! So, time to fire it up. He insists he knows how to start it, chokes it, and as soon as it fires, he cranks the throttle wildly open-shut-open-shut etc till it drowns and stops. It was around about then I told him to piss off. He hit the starter again, and I told him to get off my bike, it hates him, and I’ll start it. I turned off the choke, wound the idle mixture screw out to 1 ¾ turns. It was only out ½ a turn…..no wonder it wouldn’t idle without choke! I opened the throttle just a tiny bit, hit the starter and it was running. What a friggin drama that was! Then I rode it home. On the way home, I feel the trike wobble. The tires are either out of balance, or they’ve got flat spots in them. I open the throttle, it gets louder, but takes forever to get to 70mph, and anything over 55mph it vibrates so bad that within a minute, my butt cheeks get so itchy I can’t sit still. The steering damper doesn’t do much, and it shakes its head a few times. When I get home, I check the charge circuit. I put a meter on the battery terminals. There’s no charge coming from the regulator. I find one of the battery leads loose, and the terminal on my new $130 battery has melted. The battery lead has been hot too. I should have put the battery in myself! Pain in the arse! I can’t see any oil in the gearbox. I fill it, and it takes a lot, and promptly starts leaking out of the main shaft seal. I loosen the chain, give it a wash and polish, make up a new terminal for the battery using shim as a mould, lead and an oxy. I take some photos and take my wife and kids for a spin around the block. At the end of a huge day, I push Nutts into the garage, plug it in to a power outlet to charge the battery, put a nappy under it to catch the oil leaks and give the gearbox an oil transfusion. I stand back and contemplate……….the poor old bastard!
We went home and thought about it.
It didn’t take long. The next day we told him if he organizes a roadworthy certificate (called a blue slip), we’d buy it. He agreed, and it’s just as well. Before the inspection station would hand over a blue slip, they insisted the owner supply them with an engineer’s certificate. This is a one off $600 certified engineers inspection to approve the safety and build quality of this “home made” motorcycle. The attention the trike would get had them worried.
A day later he had the relevant documentation, we handed over 30 grand cash, and the cranky old bastard was ours. And cranky it was………
We headed over to the inspection station to put the new rego plate on. Now that the trike had rego, he asked if he could ride it to my place. I hand him the keys without a thought. He hits the starter, the motor roars into life, he stomps it into gear and the shit fight begins. He didn’t get ¼ mile and the engine stopped. Turns out he thinks it needs to be ridden with the S&S B’s choke on till it warms up. He’s fouled the plugs and now he’s cranking it with the choke on, and every time it fires, he wildly cranks the throttle open-shut-open-shut till it drowns and stops again. After a while, a puddle of fuel has formed under the breather and he’s cranked it till the battery runs flat. I tell him to stay with the trike while I jump in his car and buy another battery.
On my return, he’s got the cover off the Morris magneto and he’s into the points with some sand paper. I tell him he flooded it, leave the magneto alone, and we need to pull the plugs out. He goes to the car and pulls out a pair of pliers. He latches on to one of the spark plugs with the pliers and pulls it out. He latches onto the other plug, and I tell him to get his pliers off my bike while I find a spanner. I find a spanner, start undoing the second plug, and bugger me, it’s in crooked and it’s tight all the way out. Yippee!
Now, while I’m trying to get the plug out, he’s telling me I’ve just cross threaded it while he’s putting the battery in. I tell him I haven’t pulled it out yet. He looks at me sideways and tells me it was OK before I touched it! By the time I get the plug out, he’s got the battery in and I crank it over…..no choke, fuel off, carby bowl drained, wide open throttle with no plugs in it. This will dry the cylinders out. I clean the plugs, make sure they have spark and put them back in. The rear plug won’t go in straight, so I put some oil on the thread and wind it back in crooked!
So, time to fire it up. He insists he knows how to start it, chokes it, and as soon as it fires, he cranks the throttle wildly open-shut-open-shut etc till it drowns and stops. It was around about then I told him to piss off. He hit the starter again, and I told him to get off my bike, it hates him, and I’ll start it. I turned off the choke, wound the idle mixture screw out to 1 ¾ turns. It was only out ½ a turn…..no wonder it wouldn’t idle without choke! I opened the throttle just a tiny bit, hit the starter and it was running. What a friggin drama that was! Then I rode it home.
On the way home, I feel the trike wobble. The tires are either out of balance, or they’ve got flat spots in them. I open the throttle, it gets louder, but takes forever to get to 70mph, and anything over 55mph it vibrates so bad that within a minute, my butt cheeks get so itchy I can’t sit still. The steering damper doesn’t do much, and it shakes its head a few times.
When I get home, I check the charge circuit. I put a meter on the battery terminals. There’s no charge coming from the regulator. I find one of the battery leads loose, and the terminal on my new $130 battery has melted. The battery lead has been hot too. I should have put the battery in myself! Pain in the arse!
I can’t see any oil in the gearbox. I fill it, and it takes a lot, and promptly starts leaking out of the main shaft seal. I loosen the chain, give it a wash and polish, make up a new terminal for the battery using shim as a mould, lead and an oxy. I take some photos and take my wife and kids for a spin around the block.
At the end of a huge day, I push Nutts into the garage, plug it in to a power outlet to charge the battery, put a nappy under it to catch the oil leaks and give the gearbox an oil transfusion. I stand back and contemplate……….the poor old bastard!
Over the next 3 month I work on it every day. There’s a bike rally in Imbil I want to take it to. That’s a 600 mile ride, so I’ve got some work to do.
I put baffles in the exhaust.
Now that the exhaust is quieter, I can hear the primary case rattling its head off. I open it up to find the drain plug missing, no oil in it and the tensioner foot has fallen apart. I replace the chain, tensioner foot and drain plug.
It doesn’t charge the battery, so I replace the stator and regulator.
While the primary is off, I go to change the gearbox main shaft seal. The main shaft is sloppy in 4th gear, the thrust bearing on the end of the clutch pushrod is missing, the main shaft needs replacing, the bush in 4th gear is worn and the drain plug has a crooked helicoil insert. I rebuild the gearbox and replace the above mentioned parts, seals and bearings.
I make a chain guide to keep the chain off the swing arm. I make it out of black austlon. This means I can run the final drive chain looser, so it doesn’t lunch the main shaft and 4th gear again.
I change the final drive ratio, gear it a bit taller to 3032rpm @ 60mph.
The tail lights don’t work properly. They’re wired up wrong. The wires go to the wrong lights. I fix that.
I fit a new clutch cable. The old one is crap.
It shakes its head and breaks the crap steering damper clamp. I make a new one.
The air filter falls apart. I buy a new one. It doesn’t fit properly and falls apart too. I replace it with an S&S one (which I asked for in the first place).
The OEM horn button is used to activate electric reverse. There is a crap substitute horn button on the dash. It falls off. I replace that with a better one and make an aluminium horn button.
After the gearbox and primary is back together, I snap the new clutch cable. I replace it with a new American clutch cable, and the clutch needs adjusting to suit. I pull the cover off the primary to find the clutch drowning in engine oil. So I pull the outer and inner primary off again to replace the crank seal.
I tidy up the wiring, it’s a mess.
Every time I ride it, something falls off. I try different grades of loctite, it still falls apart. The dash falls off, the front guard repeatedly comes loose, the rear exhaust repeatedly comes loose, front exhaust bolt falls out all together. This motor vibrates bad.
I helicoil the damaged spark plug thread in the rear head. I do this by putting the damaged head on the exhaust stroke. I put an airline up the exhaust and take the plug out. When I turn the air on, it goes up the exhaust, into the cylinder and out the plug hole. By doing this, I can helicoil the spark plug hole without taking the head off. It worked well.
I tidy up and re-bush the forward controls.
The brakes start to drag. The rear brakes are full of water. I replace the rear wheel cylinders and kit the master cylinder. I flush the brake lines.
The rear tires have flat spots. I replace them.
The steering damper drops its oil all over the garage floor. I replace it with a new $800 ohlins. It doesn’t shake its head anymore!
One of the front calipers drops its brake fluid on the front disc. I kit the front calipers and master cylinder. I flush the lines.
One of the lower tank mounts snap off. I weld it back on and re-paint the tanks.
It’s easy to kick over when it’s cold. There’s not much power anytime. I check the valve clearance, the valves are riding. I adjust the valve clearance (solids) and test ride it. It goes better, and compression is 120psi.
I check the points gap and ignition timing. It was good.
I kit the carby and play around with the jetting. I do top gear roll ons between 55 & 70mph, measuring the time it takes with different size jets. I drop the jet size from 184 to 174. It goes better again. This thing vibrates so bad above 55mph, the exhaust comes loose again.
The rocker covers start to leak oil after I give it a hiding whilst doing the jetting. I pull the heads off to fix the oil leak, check the valves which are pitted, one of the valve caps is hitting the rocker cover. The cylinders have some minor scoring. I pull the cylinders, measure and hone them, replace the rings, have the heads rebuilt, fit studs in exhaust mount holes and put it back together. There’s 160psi compression, and it goes much better. Still a cranky old bastard and vibrates like hell.
I set up the chain oiler on the oil pump to oil the final drive chain. It works a treat. The Speedo drive falls apart. I replace it with Taiwanese crap that doesn’t fit, so I replace that too. The rubber mounts on the battery case fall apart. I replace them. I buy a trailer to tow behind it. The trailer socket on the old bastard is wired wrong. I open another can of worms and fix it. The dash lights are intermittent. I fix them, fix them again and a couple of days later, I fix them properly. (Pain in the arse). Bits continue to come loose at speeds around 60mph. I’m using Loctite 680 super retaining compound now. I helicoil exhaust stud hole in front head. Still comes loose! After 3 months of buggery, money and hard work every day, we’re ready to take it to its first bike rally. My wife, my son and I hook the trailer on, and head off. Here’s a photo we took 150 miles from home on our first day away. Lunched motor! It’s around about now I start to think there might be a reason I don’t see too many shovels on the road anymore. There’s a noise coming from the motor, and I can’t isolate it. We trailer it home with our tail between our legs, to a chorus of “We told you so!” I look at the valve clearance, the primary chain, and I check the compression (150psi). It all looks good. By now, it’s November, I’ve had the old bastard for 3 months, and never in my life had I put so much effort into something for so little return. I needed some time away from it. I parked it in the garage for 2 weeks and didn’t touch it.
I set up the chain oiler on the oil pump to oil the final drive chain. It works a treat.
The Speedo drive falls apart. I replace it with Taiwanese crap that doesn’t fit, so I replace that too.
The rubber mounts on the battery case fall apart. I replace them.
I buy a trailer to tow behind it. The trailer socket on the old bastard is wired wrong. I open another can of worms and fix it.
The dash lights are intermittent. I fix them, fix them again and a couple of days later, I fix them properly. (Pain in the arse).
Bits continue to come loose at speeds around 60mph. I’m using Loctite 680 super retaining compound now. I helicoil exhaust stud hole in front head. Still comes loose!
After 3 months of buggery, money and hard work every day, we’re ready to take it to its first bike rally. My wife, my son and I hook the trailer on, and head off. Here’s a photo we took 150 miles from home on our first day away.
Lunched motor!
It’s around about now I start to think there might be a reason I don’t see too many shovels on the road anymore. There’s a noise coming from the motor, and I can’t isolate it. We trailer it home with our tail between our legs, to a chorus of “We told you so!” I look at the valve clearance, the primary chain, and I check the compression (150psi). It all looks good. By now, it’s November, I’ve had the old bastard for 3 months, and never in my life had I put so much effort into something for so little return. I needed some time away from it. I parked it in the garage for 2 weeks and didn’t touch it.
After a 2 week break, I reluctantly started to pull the old bastard down.
The pistons and bores were scored, and there was bearing material on the piston skirts.
The rear con rod had flogged the crank pin and rollers out. This explains where the metal in the oil was coming from.
I made some phone calls & nearly bought an S&S 93” shovel engine from Branko. He told me it would cost about $7,500 if I fit it myself. I hesitated. That’s the smart option, and I aint real smart. If I bought a crate motor, I’d end up with a motor I didn’t know how to fix, and I’d need to take it to a bike shop for servicing to maintain my warranty. I’m the only person who touches my bikes, so I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t help myself. I picked the phone up and priced bits to repair my old motor. This way, the frame and engine numbers match, and I wouldn’t have to get another engineer certificate for the 93 cube engine (it’s certified for an 88 cube). I’ll end up with a home made Harley engine, and I want a Shovel. When all is said and done, I want a Harley, not an S&S. I like the Morris magneto too. I ordered a stock cam (Andrews J grind) and cam bearing with stock valve caps and springs to suit. I ordered an S&S breather, S&S forged 3 5/8 pistons and rings, and an S&S stud and nut set to hold the barrels down. I ordered a set of Jims Powerglide lifters, lifter blocks, pushrods and roller rockers. Expensive little suckers, $1900 +GST!!!!!!
I made some phone calls & nearly bought an S&S 93” shovel engine from Branko. He told me it would cost about $7,500 if I fit it myself. I hesitated. That’s the smart option, and I aint real smart. If I bought a crate motor, I’d end up with a motor I didn’t know how to fix, and I’d need to take it to a bike shop for servicing to maintain my warranty. I’m the only person who touches my bikes, so I couldn’t do that.
I couldn’t help myself. I picked the phone up and priced bits to repair my old motor. This way, the frame and engine numbers match, and I wouldn’t have to get another engineer certificate for the 93 cube engine (it’s certified for an 88 cube). I’ll end up with a home made Harley engine, and I want a Shovel. When all is said and done, I want a Harley, not an S&S. I like the Morris magneto too.
I ordered a stock cam (Andrews J grind) and cam bearing with stock valve caps and springs to suit.
I ordered an S&S breather, S&S forged 3 5/8 pistons and rings, and an S&S stud and nut set to hold the barrels down.
I ordered a set of Jims Powerglide lifters, lifter blocks, pushrods and roller rockers. Expensive little suckers, $1900 +GST!!!!!!
I ordered a new oil pump shaft and seal. The rest of the oil pump looks good. I ordered cam and crank bearings, and a socket to get the pinion shaft nut off. I ordered a starter clutch and a set of spark plugs. I ordered a Jagg 6 row oil cooler and manual thermostat. I sent the crank cases, crank, timing cover and barrels to Redgrave motorcycles. Leigh and Richard bored my barrels. They replaced and line bored the cam bush in my timing cover. They showed me the crank bearing retainer sleeve was loose in the left case. They re-sleeved that. They re-built and balanced my crank and rods, using an evo crank pin assy. They pushed the crank into the left case half for me. They did a bloody nice job too. It was the week before Christmas before I had all the parts back, ready to be assembled. I figured I’d get Christmas out of the way before I dived in to putting it back together. I had the shits with the old bastard. It had touched me up bad. I’d never even looked at a Harley Davidson before August. I was in way over my head. Me and the old bastard had a score to settle. All up, the week before Christmas I spent just under $6,000 in parts and machine work. Apart from assembling the crank, I had to put it together myself……. Yippee!!!
I ordered a new oil pump shaft and seal. The rest of the oil pump looks good.
I ordered cam and crank bearings, and a socket to get the pinion shaft nut off.
I ordered a starter clutch and a set of spark plugs.
I ordered a Jagg 6 row oil cooler and manual thermostat.
I sent the crank cases, crank, timing cover and barrels to Redgrave motorcycles. Leigh and Richard bored my barrels. They replaced and line bored the cam bush in my timing cover. They showed me the crank bearing retainer sleeve was loose in the left case. They re-sleeved that. They re-built and balanced my crank and rods, using an evo crank pin assy. They pushed the crank into the left case half for me. They did a bloody nice job too.
It was the week before Christmas before I had all the parts back, ready to be assembled. I figured I’d get Christmas out of the way before I dived in to putting it back together. I had the shits with the old bastard. It had touched me up bad. I’d never even looked at a Harley Davidson before August. I was in way over my head. Me and the old bastard had a score to settle.
All up, the week before Christmas I spent just under $6,000 in parts and machine work. Apart from assembling the crank, I had to put it together myself……. Yippee!!!
Two weeks after Christmas, I knock up an engine stand, clean up the case halves and push them together with 3-Bond sealant. Leigh and Richard from Redgrave motorcycles did a nice repair to the right case. You can see the Crank Bearing Retaining Sleeve they made and shrunk in to hold the crank bearing in place.
Richard and Leigh told me to clean the outside of the cases in a parts washer using a hand wire brush. It worked a treat! Thanks guys. I put the oil pump in with a new shaft, seal and gaskets. The old seal was in backwards. I fit a new cam bearing and fit the gears to the pinion shaft.
Richard and Leigh told me to clean the outside of the cases in a parts washer using a hand wire brush. It worked a treat! Thanks guys.
I put the oil pump in with a new shaft, seal and gaskets. The old seal was in backwards. I fit a new cam bearing and fit the gears to the pinion shaft.
Shovels are heavy, so the next thing I do is fit the engine back into the frame. From there I clean the oil tank, tidy up its paint work, stick it in the frame and hook up the oil lines. I fit the rings to the pistons, space the ring gaps evenly around the piston and compress the rings with a ring compressor. I push the pistons into the barrels with a hammer handle, careful not to damage the rings. Here’s the piston, barrel and gudgeon pin ready to slip on to the bottom end. By now it’s night time, I’ve been at it all day. I can’t fit the pistons and barrels to the bottom end on my own. Time for some sleep and an early start in the morning.
Shovels are heavy, so the next thing I do is fit the engine back into the frame.
From there I clean the oil tank, tidy up its paint work, stick it in the frame and hook up the oil lines.
I fit the rings to the pistons, space the ring gaps evenly around the piston and compress the rings with a ring compressor.
I push the pistons into the barrels with a hammer handle, careful not to damage the rings.
Here’s the piston, barrel and gudgeon pin ready to slip on to the bottom end.
By now it’s night time, I’ve been at it all day. I can’t fit the pistons and barrels to the bottom end on my own. Time for some sleep and an early start in the morning.
The next day, I get an early start fitting the barrels to the cases. Note the use of the 11 year old home made Special Service Tool to line up the rods with the pistons.
Once the barrels are on, I get started on the heads. I fit the standard springs and caps to the valves, polish the rocker covers and start fitting the Jims Roller Rocker gear. Once the rockers and shafts are shimmed, I torque up the rocker shafts. Fit the rocker covers to the heads, torque them up and the heads are ready to go on……… It’s starting to look like a motor again. The time I spent cleaning, polishing and painting was definitely worth the effort. I’m starting to forgive the old bastard already. Anyways, by this time it’s dark again, and getting hard to see. If past experience is anything to go by, this thing will be worn out again in couple of weeks! There’s no hurry to get it going. There’s always tomorrow, so I take some time out and contemplate. It’s time to spend a few hours with the family.
Once the barrels are on, I get started on the heads. I fit the standard springs and caps to the valves, polish the rocker covers and start fitting the Jims Roller Rocker gear.
Once the rockers and shafts are shimmed, I torque up the rocker shafts.
Fit the rocker covers to the heads, torque them up and the heads are ready to go on………
It’s starting to look like a motor again.
The time I spent cleaning, polishing and painting was definitely worth the effort. I’m starting to forgive the old bastard already.
Anyways, by this time it’s dark again, and getting hard to see. If past experience is anything to go by, this thing will be worn out again in couple of weeks! There’s no hurry to get it going.
There’s always tomorrow, so I take some time out and contemplate. It’s time to spend a few hours with the family.
The next day I get started with the stator, flywheel, inner primary cover, compensator, clutch, primary chain, starter motor, solenoid and shift linkage.
Does any one know what kind of clutch this is? So far I’ve drowned it in oil twice, and it’s never missed a beat. Everything on the clutch its self is metric (screws, nuts etc). It’s a bloody strong clutch!
Shim the cam and the breather, make sure the cam lobes don’t hit anything they shouldn’t.
Fit the gear case cover.
Pour a generous amount of oil into the gear case.
Fit the Jims Powerglide lifters, blocks, pushrods and covers.
Fit the manifold, carby and air cleaner.
Put the outer primary cover on.
Put the fuel tanks and dash on.
Crap! The top engine mount is still sitting on the work bench!
Take the fuel tanks and dash off again. (Shit-Shit-Shit!)
Fit the top engine mount. Set it up nice and glue it with Loctite 680 retaining compound.
Put the fuel tanks and dash on again.
Fit the exhaust pipes.
Put the Morris magneto back together, line up the timing mark and set the timing.
Some people don’t like the Morris magneto. I do…..but then I like shovels too!
I fuel and lube it up, crank it with the plugs out till oil returns to the oil tank, put the plugs in and hit the starter. It backfires out the exhaust, but doesn’t start.
It’s late, (early hours of the morning), and there’s clearly something wrong. Time for more sleep. Maybe I’ll figure out what I did wrong after some sleep.
By the next morning I still hadn’t figured out what I’d done wrong. All the complicated crap things like valve timing come to mind, but I’ve got to come up with an easier solution than that. I jump on my trusty old KLR 650, and go for a care free trouble free ride to clear my head.
I’m 50 miles from home, 10 miles short of the Wolombi Pub when I come up with a possibility. Nutts, the old bastard, is backfiring through its exhaust. It’s getting spark while its exhaust valve is open……. I remembered back to when I was at high school, a friend of mine put a distributor into a small block chev 180 degrees out. He’d lined the timing up on the wrong crank rotation. I tried to tell him what he’d done wrong, but he wouldn’t listen. I thought he was stupid, and pissed myself laughing when I fixed it. Twenty five years later, I’ve probably done the same thing. When I lined the timing mark on the crank up, I didn’t check the valves. I probably put the spark at the end of the exhaust stroke instead of the end of the compression stroke. It took 50 miles to figure that out? I’m starting to show my age! I turn the KLR around and head home. I pull the spark plugs out, look at the valves through the plug hole and turn it over with the kicker. I watch the piston and valves, exhaust…….inlet…….compression……..line up the timing mark on the crank. Lift the cover off the magneto, and bugger me, it’s 180 degrees out. Bloody Wanker! Nowadays, I forget so much. Scary shit….. I’m too young for this! I dive in and turn the magneto around, set the timing, hit the starter, and go for a ride! What a fricken marathon! That was an easy re-build…….NOT! The new motor is quiet, and doesn’t vibrate like crap anymore. It still lets me know what it’s doing, but it doesn’t try to shake my teeth out anymore. I can slot it into top gear at 40mph, roll on the throttle and it lopes along effortlessly. I can roll the throttle on at 60mph and overtake people. It will sit at the lights and idle smoothly. But…..Best of all….It has stopped falling apart! So far, I’ve got 2500 miles up on it. Apart from an oil change and fitting an oil cooler, I haven’t put a spanner on it. I don’t often call it a cranky old bastard anymore, cause it’s not. I’m back to calling it Nutts, cause I reckon it’s got big ones. Nowadays, me and Nutts go together like Pigs and Poo. Here’s some more photos.
I’m 50 miles from home, 10 miles short of the Wolombi Pub when I come up with a possibility. Nutts, the old bastard, is backfiring through its exhaust. It’s getting spark while its exhaust valve is open……. I remembered back to when I was at high school, a friend of mine put a distributor into a small block chev 180 degrees out. He’d lined the timing up on the wrong crank rotation. I tried to tell him what he’d done wrong, but he wouldn’t listen. I thought he was stupid, and pissed myself laughing when I fixed it. Twenty five years later, I’ve probably done the same thing.
When I lined the timing mark on the crank up, I didn’t check the valves. I probably put the spark at the end of the exhaust stroke instead of the end of the compression stroke. It took 50 miles to figure that out? I’m starting to show my age!
I turn the KLR around and head home. I pull the spark plugs out, look at the valves through the plug hole and turn it over with the kicker. I watch the piston and valves, exhaust…….inlet…….compression……..line up the timing mark on the crank. Lift the cover off the magneto, and bugger me, it’s 180 degrees out. Bloody Wanker! Nowadays, I forget so much. Scary shit….. I’m too young for this!
I dive in and turn the magneto around, set the timing, hit the starter, and go for a ride! What a fricken marathon! That was an easy re-build…….NOT!
The new motor is quiet, and doesn’t vibrate like crap anymore. It still lets me know what it’s doing, but it doesn’t try to shake my teeth out anymore. I can slot it into top gear at 40mph, roll on the throttle and it lopes along effortlessly. I can roll the throttle on at 60mph and overtake people. It will sit at the lights and idle smoothly. But…..Best of all….It has stopped falling apart!
So far, I’ve got 2500 miles up on it. Apart from an oil change and fitting an oil cooler, I haven’t put a spanner on it. I don’t often call it a cranky old bastard anymore, cause it’s not. I’m back to calling it Nutts, cause I reckon it’s got big ones.
Nowadays, me and Nutts go together like Pigs and Poo. Here’s some more photos.
That’s it. It’s been one hell of a rough ride…..
Thanks,
Rick.
Mate great read, and I applaud your determination.
bloody well done.
What a great story, well done on the rebuild and the fortitude to see it through.
Thanks so much for the encouragement guys.
Obiwan, thanks for the compliment. Your right about me being naive about shovels. All I knew is they're trouble, high maintenance and I love them. Just like woman I suppose. But a shovel's made of nuts and bolts, so it's less trouble in the long run.
Lucky I've been around nuts and bolts long enough to dig myself out of shit with a shovel. But woman, that's another story!
Hmmm..........Titts or tyres = trouble......for sure.
Mate, that is definetly the best post I have read on here to date. Congrats
What are those brown things hanging under the back?
Are they why you call it "Nutts"?
