!914 Twin HD Cannon ball request

[Ohio-Rider]

Not just in Florida Eric. I dropped off a British headlamp to our local guy who does plating way back in February and I’m still waiting in line.

[Paquette]

Cad plating here in NC is still alive and well. Once again, I must say this stuff is AMAZING--I wish I had skills like that!!!--Michael--6671

[Slojo]

Plating
I had all the nickel plating processed together to save time and cash. I was not concerned with the details such as bright or dull plating. The parts were cleaned, blasted if necessary and then polished lightly for a nice finish. If more time was available things would have been handled differently, not this time. Besides some of the parts are slightly defective yet original and when possible I chose to use the real thing instead of remanufacture it.

Calls coming in from my customer base prohibiting my constant attention with the important things in life motorcycles. My quality time being eaten by the very thing that allows me to do what I want to do, rock, hard spot? Today an easy one, I was required to do what usually never needs to be done on this particular machine. An Okuma automatic tool changer was tangled up, some tool changers can be almost impossible to untangle not this one within a short period of time all was well again. Back to motorcycles.

The crank pin made it's way to Thread Grinding Service in Farmington Michigan for,,, threads to be ground on each end. Doug said he could have it ready; for tomorrows pickup,,,, you have the job.

Meanwhile Welder Chris said he could make the three broken fins on the cylinders out of T.I.G. welding rod. A.C. current a blend of inert gases and most important talent. Once again tomorrow all will be ready.

Back home on to the Okuma, tonight's project was the carburetor adapter to the manifold. Brass is so nice to machine. This item to be in its optimum form also required to be timed, not a problem here, just screw the carb on prior to milling and align it to the cross drill bit calculate zero and let it run.

This thing looks massive, With a slightly different design the assembly appears larger than it actually is.

Lonnie at Competition sent a set of raw casting for my flywheel project, they look good. I am anxious to start machining on them. First thing, make measurements and then possibly modifications at the welder and off to heat treat. All prior to cutting the first chip. Problem is the nuts on the crank pin of choice clearing the two shafts. This will require,,,, dare I say it a mild stroker motor. Humm compression and displacement. If I am forced to go with this alteration motor displacement my creep up from 61 inch to perhaps 64 or 65 inches.
Joe

[c.o.]

With mention of stroker notions I have to admit it brings a smile to my face.........

[Slojo]

Color

Chris did an excellent job locating the three missing fins for my cylinders. This proves if you know what you are looking for you can find almost anything you want in the strangest places, such as a tube of welding rod or in my case a bar of stock. Problem is, "you can't always get what you want, but if you try real hard you can get what you need".

Ok that being said, on to the latest info. Doug at Thread Grinding Service called, come get your part . He ground the 1"X 20 threads on each end of my crank pin and did a beautiful job.

Meanwhile over at Rob's the paint was drying fast. Rob sent me home with the frame rims and front brake drum/hub. The excellent color match was taken off a back side of an original paint gas tank, un-blemished by stains or sun fade. The finish is just what I was looking for no surprise here. Rob is one of the best sculptors and an excellent painter also. We did not rub out the paint and I am unsure if I will as it looks great right now. He will be out of town for the fourth so the balance of parts will have to wait until next week.

The remainder of time tonight was spent re-running the carb adapter. I wanted to perfect the part and process. The adapter made yesterday was good just not good enough for the now GRAY Ghost. I reduced the overall length about 1/4" and fine tuned the match of the adapter with the port hole in the manifold.
Joe

[Tom Lovejoy]

This post is so cool and those parts are awesome. I cant believe how good you guys are at this stuff! Really fun watching the progress, I said it over on the Cannon ball site too. I think I am going to scream my lungs out cheering you guys on near the finish, awesome stuff! way to go Joe.

[c.o.]

Scream a little extra loud for me would ya Tom?

[Slojo]

Wheels

Several parts were delivered this morning too a new plating source for a quality check. This company is up the street from me and it would be beneficial to open up a line of communication for local and quick service if the quality is good. Afterwards a run to a customer for service on his Okuma. A quick easy fix and out the door, back to the barn.

Today was wheel day, I must build and true the wheels for the up coming visit of J.Z. a new paint striper source from my good friend Will. Both wheels laced and trued Ok. This is a messy job because I use Never Seize on the spoke threads, my fingers and every thing they come in contact with.

Finally back on the Okuma to program a nut that holds the manifold adapter to the manifold. With this nearly finish my thought patterns started to fall of. Time to call it quits for the night, I can finish the program tommorow.
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

Friday Finally

Work has continued on the fittings for the intake manifold and now cylinders are in the flow of processing. The new fins that Chris fabricated from welding rod look great. It will take minimal effort in metal finishing to achive the finish and shape.

After checking manifold alignment I determined the intake port machine work on the cylinders is out of alignment miss-directing the manifold cylinder to cylinder. This will cause a problem with intake manifold leaking and possible stress loading of the cylinder castings. In the past I have seen casting cracked in the area that the manifold attaches. I will sleep on this issue prior to making a decision on what to do about it.
Joe

[Barry Brown]

Hey Joe, Why not use a flow bench or is that a ridiculous idea? What do J models rev to? Barry

[Slojo]

Barry
This project is not an all out performance machine, just a better state of tune is my desire. At this point time is rapidly eroding. I must reluctantly make decisions based solely on time restraints not top shelf details. If time was not such a demanding subject many things would be done different, reality has struck.

I believe a good J model could rev. to 5k range. 1928 -29 motors have increditable breathing capabilities with their large port configurations about three times the size as what I am working with. The 14 and earlier twins have no where near the breathing capacity as the later pocket valve motors.

My new port configuration is developed to increase the velocity in the valve pocket by eliminating the dead zones of the traditional intake valve pocket. This along with the other intake modifications should improve intake charge. Reliability, climbing the big hills and keeping up with the superior 15 twins is my objective.
Joe

[Bill N.]

Joe...
Things are lookin great so far! I'm just hoping to get a few miles on my bike "before" the Cannonball ... My hats off to you !

Bill Nugent

[Slojo]

Ice Cream in Hell?

Bill
Thank you for the kind words, stick around for the ride its about to get interesting.

Today was a long one. First responsibility, I showed final respects to a truly wonderful woman who on her own raised three of my good friends the Cooper family.

Next was a garage hop, my garage. Will had some friends in from Cal. they rented bikes and went on tour here in Michigan. Will took them to his club house (greezy bikers) I hope he bought them some ice cream in Hell its good ask Matt Olsen and Louie Hale.

After the garage hop and cabin tour was over it was time to get back to work. The Okuma turning center again to make the fittings for the intake manifold / cylinder adapters. A special threading tool is required for the external threads.

Yesterday it was over to Mark Spark to grind the custom tool for threading on the opposite side of a center flange and down to a smaller diameter. I know of no standard tooling to do this operation. If not for making this tool the part would have to be processed in two separate set up / operations.

Setups on the Okuma are becoming quicker for me, easier. Once several setups are made the common tooling is already in the machine or on hand to go in the machine. Programing is also becoming faster less troublesome. Typically I copy and paste sections from previously proven similar part program to make a new program for what I am working on. Afterwards the edits are made and then proven in a dry run mode where the graphics are used for trouble shooting.

I completed both part programs and ran two perfect parts off each program (and a couple not so good ones also). Tomorrow I will make the intake manifold compression sleeves from both brass and plastic. For the past 20 years or so I have made the plastic compression sleeves and they have worked well. This bike does not have a carburetor support and it might be wise to use the brass compression sleeves instead of the plastic ones unless a carb. support can be devised without spoiling the appearance of the bike.
Joe

[Slojo]

With several sets of plastic intake manifold compression seals made today, I moved on to machining the flywheels that Lonnie at Competition sent last week.

The flywheels arrived as cast and have plenty of stock to remove to bring them to net shape. Today I just brought them to a workable condition, ruff machined. I then studied the engine case set and the old worn out flywheels to determine what the final dimensions should be.

A check of the parts book describes two washers to be used in the assembly. I am not sure if one washer is for flywheel thrust on the sprocket shaft and the other is for thrust between the flywheel and rod set. Once the dimensions are finalized the rest of the machining will continue. It would help if I had the original washers the book is referring to, or at least some more information on the size and placement of the wshers.

Well I finally did it, I could not resist anymore. A ride on the 48 pan to Buzz's house for some quality time with good friends, food, and home brewed fire works. I had guilty conscience only part of the time.
Joe