1915 Militaire Cannonball Run Engine Build

[twinnick]

My name is Nick Serio, I'm an adjunct instructor at Canton Colleges' Powersport Program. I'm part of a team working under the supervision of Mark Hill to rebuild an engine for a 1915 Militaire motorcycle that its owner, Jim Dennie, intends to ride in the 2010 Cannonball Run. Mark, as many of you know, is primarily an Indian and Henderson rebuilder who is the lead instructor in the State University of New York Canton Colleges' Powersport program. Mark will be sheparding the build in which two Powersport curriculum students, Matt Wach and Jadon Spooner, will be assembling the 65 cubic inch 4 cylinder engine.[IMG]twinnick.80221@uploads.photobucket.com[/IMG].
On Monday we received the upper case back from Babbitt Bearing in Syracuse (click on the bearing cap and you will be able to see photos of the intake and exhaust manifolds, upper and lower case and pistons and cylinders). We will update our progress as the build progresses. [IMG][/IMG]

[jurassic]

sounds interesting. sure is a beautiful machine.

[Slojo]

Hey Guys good to see you join the fold. I enjoyed the time spent talking in Florida at Docs party and look forward to your participation with AMCA events. Keep the flames burning.
Joe aka sojo

[Tom Lovejoy]

That is so cool, I can"t hardley believe he is actually going to ride such a rare machine on the event. This post has upped my interest even more in this awesome effort, those wood spokes - too cool, cant wait to read about and see it happen. Right On!

[felthamw]

Wow!
How cool is THAT!!!
Good luck!

[Greg H]

Awsome! nice one, Jim Dennie

[twinnick]

The boys are hard at work this week. This was basically a bearing fitting week. Here's an entry that Matt and JaDon put together.
BEARINGS
We just received our new bearings back from Babbitt Bearings Incorporated, they look fantastic. We then sanded down the halves to achieve .001 thousandths of an inch installed height over the saddle yoke height of the connecting rod big end to achieve proper bearing crush. This will allow for the proper crush factor in the bearing housing by seating the bearings in their bores. Strong radial pressure will be achieved by performing this operation. This was the first step for qualifying the rods to be line bored on the Van Norman Connecting Rod Boring machine 232 to continue further assembly. Here's a photo of one of the rods. [IMG][/IMG]
Click on this thumbnail to see additional pictures of the rods and a picture of JaDon hard at work and Matt (with girlfriend) on the Buffalo street where Militaire's were manufactured. Now for a little bio on the two engine builders.

Matt
Hi my name is Matthew M. Wach; I'm one of the two builders working on the engine for the 1915 Militaire. I'm from Buffalo, NY where this exact bike was produced on Kensington Ave. where I visited on 3/14/10 for the St. Patrick's Day parade. This engine means a lot to me because vintage bikes interest me a lot, even though most of my generation aren't into vintage cycles because of costs, I have this rare opportunity. This is also a great opportunity to have this bike competing in the 2010 cannonball rally. Motorcycles have always been a huge part of my life, but this specific bike is one of my greatest challenges yet! I'm really excited to be a part of this project and am anticipating big things for this 1915 Militaire and it is definitely the bike to watch in the 2010 cannonball rally.

JaDon
Hello to all of you vintage motorcycle enthusiasts! My name is JaDon Spooner and I am from Keeseville, New York (Near Plattsburgh). I am a second semester freshman at the Suny Canton Powersports curriculum. I have always had a huge interest in any type of motorcycle. Since I have been in the powersports curriculum I have been introduced to many antique motorcycles. With Mr. Hill as my instructor we have been introduced to the Cannonball Rally Race. Matt Wach and I are rebuilding a 1915 militaire motorcycle for Jim Dennie. This is the most difficult project I have ever been involved in because you cannot just go down to your local parts store and get parts for this motorcycle. All of the parts have been specifically machined for this engine. I would like to wish good luck to Jim all throughout this race. He has one of the most unique and exotic motorcycles in the Cannonball. Stay tuned, there's lots more to come

[jurassic]

probably the rarest bike on the run.thanks for sharing this build.

[twinnick]

As we all know the 1915 Militaire doesn't come with much technical data for it. This week JaDon and I will be producing the crankshaft information including the fillet radius, the journal diameter, and reconditioning process best suited to our application. This project is going full steam ahead and it is coming along with hard diligent work, we can't wait to unleash this 1915 Militaire on the Cannonball Rally! Submitted by Matt

[Greg H]

Going to be an interesting comparison on the cannonball between the Militare & Henderson ( hope the riders submit their thoughts)
Militare design of bolt up tranny interface, way before cleveland produced a four with that set up
I wonder if William Henderson ever rode a Militare to judge the competition.

[big jesus 151]

WOW !

Way to go gang, give her hell ! Sweet ride Jim ! Good Luck on the quest ,Carl

[twinnick]

militaire update

Hey all you Militaire fans this week we have another update and some interesting discoveries! We thought we would share our findings with you through a technical data aspect, pictures, and the process of reconditioning the crankshaft. First off we found pitting from acidic oil sitting on the crankshaft. What happens is oil starts as a base or a soapy solution and a period of time after the engine is run it becomes acidic and from sitting on the crankshaft for a period of time (years) it started to eat away the hardened surface on the crankshaft. We came across this on the first main journal of the crankshaft. The interesting part is the acidic oil pitted the journal in the pattern of the oiling path in a “X” shape on the crankshaft. The pitting on the crankshaft wasn’t a problem at all, but by some bizarre act we had a spare crankshaft! Mr. Hill was given a spare crankshaft from a close friend named Byrne Bramwell, a prominent AMCA member and a four cylinder afficienado, Byrne thought it was a crankshaft for an early Henderson not knowing it was for a Militaire. We are lucky with this extra crankshaft because now we can send both crankshafts out for regrinding and the better of the cranks will get the nod.
(click on photos for close ups)JaDon and I then moved onto magnifluxing both of the crankshafts for any cracks on the fillet radii on the crankshaft. For those who don’t know what magnifluxing is, it’s the process where fine iron filings are sprayed onto the crankshaft. Using an powerful electromagnet the iron filings will align along any cracks, making magnifluxing a great method of crack detection.
Good thing for us our crankshafts are forged instead of cast, making our crankshafts stronger. It would have been preferable to have a rolled radius crankshaft because a forming die is used to make a deep radius which puts the metal in compression overall making the fillet radius area extraordinarily strong. For what it’s worth we discovered the crankshaft had a 1” diameter on the main journals and .9062” or 29/32nd” on the connecting rod journals after we measured the crankshaft. JaDon and I then moved on to measuring the fillet radii of the main journals and the rod journals, we had to measure these ourselves because there is no technical data provided for us. We used fillet radius gauges to find the fillet radii which came out to be a 3/32nd fillet radius on the main journals and a 5/64th on the connecting rod journals.
This technical data is important because the stone needs to be dressed on the crankshaft grinder to reestablish the fillet radii as the journals are being ground. When JaDon and I send in the crankshaft for grinding we want no more than .030” (.015” a side) taken off our crankshaft because too much metal off will result in weakening the crankshaft resulting in breakage or we could grind through the original hard facing. JaDon and I have been working non-stop doing every little thing to this engine so it will be in the hunt to be number one in the cannonball rally! Submitted by Matt

[twinnick]

1915 militaire engine build update

It’s time for another update on our 1915 Militaire all you supporters, we apologize for the tardiness on our update. However we had a rare chance to ride with professional motocross rider Phillip Nicoletti, national AMA plate number 175. We obviously played hooky and took this amazing opportunity to have some fun in this nice weather! Now that it’s all out of our systems, it will be all business from here on out. We did get some work done that involved finding the installed height of the exhaust and intake valves springs; other data collected included coil spring wire diameters, and the free length of the springs. We also have some drawings of this procedure; we took pictures for you to check out. We have yet to measure our closed and open valve spring pressures using a spring pressure tester, though a typical spring pressure tester may be too heavy duty for our springs and we may have to use a fine measurement scale instead. This information for the valve train is very important because we need to have the best measurements we can get to help in the manufacturing process. These drawings depict installed spring height
Work has begun to determine our camshaft lobe separation angle. This will help us establish our camshaft and crankshaft timing. JaDon and I will use a degree wheel and a dial indicator to determine this process. We used the lathe to make an adaptor tool for the degree wheel which was a first time thing for both JaDon and me.
Next week we will be on our spring break but while we are home our case will be getting welded due to a crack on the crankshaft main journal area. Our old shims for our connecting rods and main bearing journals will also be sent out along with prints to help manufacture new shims. The current shims aren’t wide enough to let oil flow freely on the crankshaft. If we do not correct this the bearing edges will act as scrapers ruining the hydrodynamic oil film action. This picture shows the connecting rod with old shims installed. This last drawing indicates the dimensions of the shims which will be manufactured
Finally over break we have a “to do” list which starts with receiving our new pistons. During our time off we also will have the valve springs sent out to Ferra valves for them to manufacture new valve springs. Finally we will be checking our connecting rods for straightness. We are looking forward to our time off from school but we will still be working hard on this great 1915 Militaire! That's all for now. We'll update again in a week to 10 days; stay tuned

[Tom Lovejoy]

Very interesting stuff, wish you guys all the best. I think you will need it, I think the run is asking alot of the Militaire - of all the machines. I would love to see it make it, come roaring into Santa Monica - awesome stuff, keep up the good work!

[twinnick]

1915 Militaire Build

Hey everybody it’s time for another update on our 1915 Militaire! Spring break was a great time to relax and calm down from all our hard work on the Militaire but we are back at it and working hard again. Over our spring break JaDon and I took some well needed time off while our crankshafts were magnifluxed, our new shims were made, and our case was welded. We have some pictures for you of our newly welded case

and our brand new shims!
Unfortunately our crankshafts were not back from Effingham today so we won’t have pictures till our next update.
Now that we are back to work we will be finding the clearance between the brass bushings and the camshaft that seat it into the case. We need a .003in clearance between the bushing and the camshaft because there isn’t any forced oiling for the camshaft. Then we need to hone the camshaft bearings for this clearance. We also have to take our case halves to the school’s CNC machine shop to deck the main bearings to the case. Then we are going to take out the bearings and machine the case .001in lower to achieve an accurate crush factor.