!914 Twin HD Cannon ball request

[Neil74]

Can't beat widell industries for hard to find taps and dies, I had a left hand die made up to repair a transmission shaft one time. Made for a quick an easy repair with trans in frame. I've been getting stuff from them for more years than I'd like to admit convenient living around the corner.

[Slojo]

"The long and winding road"

Valve pockets, rocker tower ring nuts, and of course rocker towers are now completed. This concludes the area of the valve train for now, at least until the valves, keepers and springs are accounted for.

The pockets and ring nuts are uncommon in their design excluding the obvious changes. The pockets have a flange on top to aid in sealing. Basically I copied this off a previous vacuum leak repair I developed years ago on the 11 double. And then,,,, I stumbled on a valve pocket that is probably late !914. The flange built right into the design of the pocket has a taller top side pocket for an increased thread length. This greater thread length will aid in holding the high ratio rocker arms in place. Nothing new here.

To cut the valve spring clearance in the top of the pocket a special tool was made on the surface grinder utilizing a whirly jig. This fixture allowed me to grind all sides of the tool including back clearance angles in one set up. Once finished it ran well, deep in the pocket performing a face groove (tree paning) in a tight spot.

Previously the footboard frame rod nuts were made without the thread. Since then I purchased special threading bars to single point threads into nuts. Just the other day I stumbled across a special 7/16X18 tap in the M.S.C. catalog and had two taps sent by U.P.S.. These taps were a plug grind and worked well, although a spiral point tap would have been best for the through hole threading process.

You Tube Video. Cannonball bike build fabricating parts for a 1914 Harley 100_8082.MOV(92.1MB) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SYEfBLRpA8
Joe

[c.o.]

Cool video!!! Man I still marvel at the work that's being put into this machine....

[exeric]

You have to wonder how H-D timed the threads on the valve pocket and cylinder on a production basis. . . For that matter; I amazed how you did it Joe.

[Slojo]

Eric
!914 and earlier Harley port timing depended on the type of port they used, there were several styles. All ports would work in any position installed, just not as efficient as if timed properly. Harley allowed for misalignment in their design yet I would think they tried a couple ports while building the motor to find the best port for the specific cylinder. I have seen N.O.S. blank side window ports where the builder could machine the window in the side of the port for best alignment, efficiency.
Joe

[Slojo]

"Breath Deeply"
This weekend and lately has been a deep breathing exorcize. Today's task was intake manifold development and manufacture. Once again stock is best, yet to climb the mountains and run with the big dogs this !914 will need some help. I would rather not require assistance to reach the pinnacle of the several passes we will encounter.

I made four finished intake manifolds to adapt to the !914 and earlier bikes. This manifold is similar to stock and to the untrained eye will pass for stock. Until one compares this manifold to another pre 15 manifold. The new manifold has an 1/8 inch larger port tube and adapts an 1 1/8" inch carb in place of a 3/4" carb. Both carburetors are choked at the inlet with the same constant velocity restriction, something that will be looked into later.

I am reworking a big twin crank pin to fit between a pair of alternative flywheels. I have not made my final decision on the flywheels of choice. The crank pin is ready for threading and will either be threaded in the Okuma or I may look into a thread grinder service. Threading may be a problem in a lathe because of the two interruptions, a drilled oil hole and a key slot that now fall into the threaded area. These two locations will be harder than the rest of the threaded area.

In the following photos you will notice another shot of the graphics display following the tool path recording's. Often the graphics can be art in themselves. Again, photo progression of each process in sequence to show how the manifold is produced.
Joe

[Tom Lovejoy]

Joe, incredible stuff your doing and fun to watch too. I bet your machine well indeed climb the passes, really impressive stuff your doing. Once your done with the Cannon ball machine, then we just have to see if we can git you to make some parts for our old Indians too :-)

[c.o.]

I'd be curious to hear the answer on Injun parts Tom.... Joe has made it quite clear on what camp he's in.... I'm pretty sure it's all in good fun though...

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

The three P's

Tom
Indian stuff,,,, sorry bro it ain' t happening (unlikely anyway).

The best pinion shaft I have, had (key word) a broken screw in the end of it. My thought is someone tried to remove it 95 years ago and did not know it was left handed. It was tight, not to tight for Chris Razor he welded and extracted the busted screw in minutes.

Next, off to the "P"ainter, Rob has the project under control. Unfortunately he will not be finished until after the fourth. He will serve up the rims, frame and fork this week.

Over at Classic "P"lating Mike had the first run of parts ready for pick up. Most of the parts came out excellent some old rusty pieces not so good (no surprise here) and a few "P"ollished parts had an unusual finish. I will look into this last issue latter this week.

The build up of plating is already causing an issue with fit. This will be a time consuming messy issue that needs to be addressed prior to assembly.
Joe

[c.o.]

Lookin' Good!!!

[exeric]

One of the most exhilarating things about restoring a motorcycle is getting parts back from the plater. It's like Christmas was when you were 8 years old.

[rwm]

hello joe was the hardware originally plated on the threads?

[Barry Brown]

One of the most exhilarating things about restoring a motorcycle is getting parts back from the plater. It's like Christmas was when you were 8 years old.

Whoa there Eric! I guess there is no GRINCH in Florida. Never had lost parts? plated threads? buffed out logos? mysterious price increases? maybe he moved to Canada for the climate.

[exeric]

Barry, I've had that problem with chrome platers but I've been going to the same nickel plater for many years and he has never lost a part. I always do my own finishing and prep for nickel and have him plate it 'as is'. That way I can control how dull or bright the part will be. He can also do a 'wash' nickel, as Chris Haynes calls it. For cad plating, Indianut and I have been filling up 5 gallon buckets and taking it to a place in St. Pete. Anymore, you have to kiss a lot of butt to get a plater to do cad, or even chrome. You would think they would be begging for work in this economy. Maybe that's just Florida.