Tour de Farce Test and Tune Ride 4-15-2023
Tech day in LaGrange
The SMC Tech Day on Jan 11th working on Kent's '31 VL clutch was a fun success. The clutch was removed disassembled repaired and installed and then the bike test rode. A few other parts for replacement were discovered in the process, such as the worn throwout bearing. It was put on the list to be ordered and installed later. Mike's Linkert carb for his solo 45" got some needed attention as well the day before. He was happy. Check it out if you missed it!
HUNTSVILLE Goings On
HUNTSVILLE Goings On (by Erik Bahl)
The Knucklehead is back on the road – and Dorsey’s got a new one burning up the pavement too!
Dorsey and I met on Sunday March 29th for lunch and some road testing of two bikes that were in work over the past few months. Lots of repairs on the Knucklehead have happened since the Cross Country Chase. I was real excited to get this work done and get her back on the road. Dorsey has a Harley VL that has been a project bike for several years. He finally has it on the road and is dialing in the oil pump and enjoying some riding. We did a couple hours of riding in the local area on one of those rare nice days we were blessed with. Thank goodness winter is wrapping up – cabin fever is setting in. I want to report the ride went well for both bikes. So, I think we are both ready to attempt some club rides or a possible AMCA Road Run.
Riding these old bikes can be tiring – Dorsey took some time for a roadside siesta!
I captured Dorsey in a rare moment where he is educating the younger generation (me) on how real men drink Harley Oil! Man Up!!
CROSS COUNTRY CHASE Presentation to the North Alabama Vintage Club.
I will be giving a presentation to the NAVMC on Saturday April 4th at the Blue Plate Café 7540 Memorial Parkway in Huntsville. This will start at 8AM and I will have a short slideshow and presentation covering my experience on the 2019 Cross Country Chase. This happens over breakfast and the rest of the day is wide open. Afterwards we could convene to the Bahl Compound for a tech day or do a local ride. This is up for discussion. So, mark your calendars and plan on coming to Huntsville.
OPENING PANDORAS BOX (THE KNUCKLEHEAD) CONTINUED…
Since the tech day in November there has been a lot of forward progress on the 47 Knucklehead. I know everyone was busy for the holidays and I tackled this work solo but thought it would be good to update the Smoky Mountain Team as everyone has had their paws on this machine.
Once I removed the damaged intake nipple some of you might recall I brought the head and two possible replacement nipples (one standard and one oversize) to the SMC Christmas party to solicit advice on how to move forward. I ended up using the standard size nipple and coated both the threads and securing rivet in Lab-Metal High-Temp. This is a brush on compound that is good to 1000F. This was at the recommendation of Roy Chapman and should result in an air leak free intake nipple. Photo below shows the new intake nipple in place.
I also decided to replace the valves, guides and springs in both heads. Below you can see where I knocked both valve guides out of the head (they are on the right). Turns out all of my guides were +0.002” over. After doing measurements I replaced them with the same size. You will also notice the intake nipple has been removed.
Once the guides were installed, they need to be reamed out to ensure proper guide to valve stem clearance. The manual calls for 0.004” to 0.006”. I took care of that with the hand reamer below.
Once the valve guides were finished, I recut the valve seats to clean them up for the new valves. Below shows the new valves in place.
Here is a top view showing the new springs.
Of course, with both heads done, I started to get excited as I thought I was going to reinstall the refreshed heads, do a couple other minor repairs and get this old girl back on the road in short order! Well nothing is ever as easy as you hope. Remember, all this work was being done with the motor still mounted in the frame. One of those minor jobs was to make sure the motor was mounted properly as I lost the top mount during the Cross Country Chase. So, I was examining the lower front motor mounts, and something looked a little off in the frame motor mount. I started to scrape off some of that 70-year-old dirt and grease and lo and behold the frame forging was cracked. Well, out comes the motor and I cleaned everything up to get a better look. OUCH. Notice the nice crack in the photo below. The next task is to weld this up and start to move this project forward again. It’s just another slight delay….
OPENING PANDORA'S BOX (THE KNUCKLEHEAD)
OPENING PANDORAS BOX (THE KNUCKLEHEAD)
The November Huntsville Tech Day has come and gone. If you didn’t make it, you missed a pretty interesting meeting. Dorsey, Mike McCloud, Kent, Erik and John Lindberg met for the Huntsville group breakfast at Rolos prior to getting their hands dirty in Erik’s garage. Keith Kizer came to the breakfast meeting as well but was an hour early (did you forget to change your clock? Daylight savings time…) and was gone by the time everyone else showed up. It was chilly in the morning, but the sun was out, and it quickly warmed up for a comfortable time in the garage. The main task was pulling the rear head on my 47 Harley. You might recall this bike developed an intake leak during the Cross Country Chase a couple of months ago. I was able to bandage it on the road and complete the event, but it was time to fix it properly. Intake pipe is in the photo below on the right. It’s not a big piece but if it’s not sealing properly your bike will let you know!
I have also never been into this engine and the last time this bike ran prior to it coming to my house was 1976. So, we pulled the rear head and it was interesting to note that it had a 30 over piston in the rear cylinder, so this engine had been rebuilt in the past. The cylinder looked pretty good and the decision was made not to pull it and run it as is. The valves came out and they looked pretty fair. Since I have the head off, I will go ahead and replace the valves and guides.
We took a late lunch break at Straight to Ale. Afterwards Dorsey and Kent headed home. Mike and I decided to continue working in the garage. We pulled the front head to go ahead and do a valve job on it as well. It also had a 30 over piston and the cylinder was in similar shape. Mike discovered one of the front motor mount bolts was broken and we addressed a few other things that were not quite right. Overall it was a very productive day. So now I am rounding up parts to include a new intake pipe. Turns out the rear intake pipe was really loose, and actually screwed out somewhat. The threads in the head and on the pipe are pretty worn. I have ordered both a standard and oversize intake with the hope one of those can be used without having to have the head threads machined and reworked which would probably be a pretty significant task.
"How Much fun can you cram into a day??"
Saint Patrick’s Weekend Tech Day – How Much fun can you cram into a day??
SMC Member Erik Bahl
This is one for the books! Tech weekend is over and I can’t believe how much was accomplished in such a short period of time. The out of town Smoky Mountain Chapter members started arriving Friday afternoon as we had a Saturday morning 2018 Motorcycle Cannonball presentation to give to the North Alabama Vintage Club at the Blue Plate Café. For those traveling 3 hours or so to get to Huntsville from GA, TN and other locations in Alabama, the 8AM breakfast made leaving on Saturday morning a bit inconvenient. The presentation focused on a support drivers’ life and the spotlight was on 17-year-old Zeke Smith who drove the Ford Transit Van “White Whale” coast to coast across the United States in support of Erik Bahl (#63, 1915 Harley Davidson). It was a packed house with at least 50 people including several guest Smoky Mountain Chapter members. The presentation lasted about 1.5 hours and included an interesting presentation from Smoky Mountain member Doug Jones (#96, 1914 Indian twin) where he discussed the challenges in nursing this delicate piece of machinery from coast to coast. He had a nice display of very expensive failed components to include a head that was destroyed when a valve punched through it when the head separated from the stem. Erik rounded out the discussion with a short presentation on his trek on the 1915 Harley.
Afterward the Smoky Mountain Chapter members regrouped at the Bahl compound. The December tech day activity was removal and disassembly of the transmission from Erik’s 1947 Harley. A lot of work on the transmission has occurred since then and a show and tell of worn and new parts was done. Mike McCloud brought a special lapping tool for the new fourth gear bearing that will properly size the race. This will allow reassembly to begin.
After show and tell Erik’s 1917 Indian Powerplus with sidecar was rolled out into the driveway. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was out. This bike, when purchased had square tires with rubber as hard as a piece of wood. Doug Jones headed up “Clincher Tire School” The wheels were pulled off where one by one the old tires were removed using any means necessary which included a sawzall! Wheel bearings were cleaned and repacked. New tires (provided by Doug) and tubes were installed. Due to the difficultly getting the old tires off, multiple members worked on a single wheel at once. True teamwork!
With the front wheel removed we discovered the front forks were loose in the steering head. A second group of Smoky Mountain members removed the forks, cleaned and inspected balls, races, regreased and reassembled. In the middle of all this activity we took a late lunch break and headed down to Straight to Ale. It was St. Patty’s and there must have been three hundred people there celebrating. We wrapped up the work about 6:30 PM and chilled out until a late dinner at Ruth’s Chris later that evening (Doug and Patty treated – THANKS!).
Shout out goes to first time Huntsville Tech Day participant Wes Connelly (The Ambassador). He showed up with gifts for all!
Sunday morning the remaining Smoky Mountain Chapter members had a short class on measuring bearing components with micrometers. Afterwards Mike McCloud showed us how to setup the lapping tool in the 1947 Harley transmission so the 4th gear race could be sized properly. Now its up to Erik to spend a few hours in his shop cranking the lap to remove the 0.0015” that is required.
Thanks to everyone who attended. We had a great time and all experienced a lot of generosity of both time and material items. What a great group of people we have.
"BEWARE OF CONTEST PRIZES!" By SMC member Erik Bahl
BEWARE OF CONTEST PRIZES!
(Yes, that free item can cost you lots of money…
I knew I was in trouble when I got the email that I had won a muffler for a bike I did not own.
As part of the AMCA recruitment program I was selected for one of the prizes which happened to be a muffler from Carl’s Cycle Supply. This muffler fits Harley Davidsons from 1941-49. It turns out this is a great muffler, but I don’t have a bike for it! So, I was staring at it for a month not exactly knowing what to do with it. It was crazy, I was not able to focus on my day job, what had they done to me with this gift! Carl’s donated it and I did not feel right selling it, I had to put it to a good use. After pondering, I finally figured out how to get the burr out of my boot. I just needed to find a bike that needed a muffler. So, after a three plus month of searching, turning over rocks, interrogating vendors at swap meets, and placing ads on Craigslist I have found a bike this muffler can fit!! I know you can feel the relief, because I sure do!!!
What is a little perplexing is how a simple email emptied my bank account so much – I might need some professional help….
Here is the invite –
I propose the weekend of June 30th (this could shift by a week depending on holiday schedules). Since the 4th falls on a Wednesday this year I am not exactly sure how everyone’s holiday plans line up. Come to Huntsville and help me fire up this beauty for the first time since 1976. Now there is no guarantee this will happen as it feels like there is no compression, but we will go as far as we can. It’s entered the hot season, so it might be warm in the garage – wear shorts and a tee cause we might sweat a bit, however I will have cold beverages and a shower. You are welcome to stay at the house but bring a sleeping bag. I have plenty of space to camp, but it might be warm outside (yes I have AC in the house so fill the floors up). At Monte Sano State Park they have one cabin open (CB14 as of this email). There are hotels within 6 miles if you want some privacy.
This is the opportunity to participate in something historic. A one owner bike that has not run since 1976 (42 years!). Yep it still might not run due to an engine issue or something I forgot to buy to make it happen, but this is still pretty cool!!
I may test the compression this weekend and if the bike truly needs more work, we can just look at it. There will be door prizes which consist of really old Harley dirt and cobwebs.
