March 22, 2006

Saturday, we rolled on the Shovelhead restoration. The crankshaft was pressed out of the case and we began the tedious task of masking off the engine cases and transmission in preparation for paint.

Last Saturday I managed to mangle a finger and destroy the high low beam switch. I needed to enlarge the mounting holes to allow them to fit. If you remember the switches have had their wiring routed through the handle bars, I drilled out the mounting holes while holding the switches in my hand. Needless to say I got away with this three times until the last switch. Then the drill cocked in the hole and grabbed the switch out of my hand and beat the crap out of my finger. It also twisted the switch wires around the drill bit and ripped them out of the switch. I figured the switch would have to be replaced; I was more concerned about my bleeding fingers to investigate it further.

Estle took the time to examine the switch and he fiddled with it until he got it apart and asked me if we could just break the solder connections and redo the wires and solder them back. We had an abundance of wire sticking out and it looked pretty easy. After a few minutes we were repairing the switch and it was reinstalled. He kidded with me, telling me that we didn't budget for another switch, so I was lucky we were able to fix that one.

We stopped work to make a short trip over to Casey Cycle to get some PJ1 Fast Black engine paint, only to discover they close at 4. We were just a few minutes too late. Without paint we came back and went on to finish up some more of the wiring At that point we were pretty much finished for this Saturday.

March 29, 2006

It's funny how a little thing can happen to make it look like you really have made some progress. The Shovelhead's engine cases are painted and I have reinstalled the crankshaft. This required a special tool, a puller to draw the crank shaft into the bearing housed in the left side case. Being the inventive sort, I drilled a hole in a steel plate and used the compensating sprocket nut to draw the crank into the case. I stacked some sockets under the plate and as I cranked down on the nut it pulled the shaft into the bearing race. Sounds pretty easy now, but for a while there I was stumped. I didn't have a drill bit big enough. After some time with my grinder and a rotary file it was made to fit. Simple fix to a simple problem; I did have to set it up twice, the nut ran out of travel but it worked.

All that's left is to seal the case halves and bolt the case halves together. My excitement is growing because now I can get to the part I really love to do, the engine rebuild. We have been waiting to get to this point for several weeks, actually all winter. The transmission needs two gaskets and it can be installed into the frame now that it's been painted too.

The rebuilding of the engine is one those milestones in the project, and of course once it's in the frame the whole project seems to take on a real life of its own. Something is just so right when you tear one apart and then put it all together and it lights off for the first time. It must be the same thrill Dr. Frankenstein had when he first zapped his creation with electricity and he came to life… all of the work was worth that first moment of life. Of course for us we don't need to worry about the towns folks showing up with pitch forks and torches to kill the new creation.

We are planning a light off party the day we fire the engine for the first time. So far I have not had one of my children not fire up on first touch of the starter button. The Sporty project took more than a couple of kicks to get it fired up but then I refused to kick it, and the owner didn't have the starting procedure down. But I have to tell you it was me who got it fired the first time. The old bald headed guy didn't forget how to kick start a motorcycle. (It did however remind me why an electric start is better.) After that it would fire up on the first kick if you did everything right.

April 2, 2006

Tuesday night after a quite dinner I went out to the garage determined to get something done on the Shovelhead Project. I started to apply the gasket maker to the right side crankcase. When I started to do the left side I saw it needed to be cleaned a little better than it was. This also required pressing the crankshaft out once again. After cleaning the contact area and drawing the crankshaft back into the case; I spread the gasket maker on the left case.

So far pretty simple; not that both case halves were ready to come together I remembered the studs were still in the cleaning tank being degreased. I quickly dried them off and wire brushed them and ran a die over several of them to fix some mangled threads. Remember the gasket stuff is now curing, thankfully very slowly. Now the studs are not all the same, some are different lengths, and two are actually a different diameter. A quick look at the service manual and each one is described and its location shown; I was ready.

Now I picked up the left crankcase with the installed crankshaft and carried it to the bench. I couldn't flip it over and insert it into the right side case so I set it back down on the milk crate. I also took some time to clean off the gasket goo from me and my clothes. I carried the right case over and set it over the crankshaft and mated them up. Using the bigger studs according to the service manual I pushed them in to align the case halves, evening up the nuts (insuring an equal amount of threads on each end) and finished installing the remaining studs.

Hey there are two holes still open? A quick look at the service manual and there are two bolts that go in there too. After an exhaustive and rampant search I couldn't find them or any to replace them. Now I don't normally let mechanical things get the best of me but all I could think of was not getting a good seal. There is no gasket between the case halves, just the gasket goo.

In a rush I picked up the engine crankcase and set it on the engine stand on the bench. Ok not being the strongest guy and the crank shaft is pretty heavy by itself never mind in the cases. I picked it up and with great care I held the whole thing close to my body. Well the gasket goo was oozing out of the joint and all over me. Now I am angry. I set the engine on the stand and began trying to get the goo off of me. My hands where covered in it, my shirt was protected by my bib, yes I wear bibs to work and was still in my work clothes, thank goodness.

Ok after getting as much of the goo off as I could I commenced to tighten up the studs. Well being the worrier; am I getting a good seal? I guess I may have used a tad more of the goo than was needed. But as I worked the pattern of studs to tighten the cases together the stuff was oozing out of the joint at a rather prodigious rate; in fact a lot of the stuff came out, actually most of it came out. That's a good thing but I was collecting the stuff with a rag, and it was getting all over everything, including me. Once again I stopped to clean me up some and tighten up the studs. I'm sure I got the best seal possible. At least the pockets on my bibs are now waterproof…

As you can see from the pictures, Saturday we pretty much finished up the transmission and installed it in the frame. The next task is to clean the benches good and start the re-assembling of the engine.

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