Cannonball firing order 1-3-4-2

[Slojo]

Mercury balancing would probably cure the JDH vibration problem. I just had a flywheel done for my Chief. It is not assembled yet so I can not personally vouch for it but others who did it recommend doing it. It balances a v twin for any rpm. Tom Wilcock AMCA# 381

Mercury balancing, does anybody have evidence that it works and how well it works? It makes no sense to me having the stuff rolling around in your flywheels. I guess it may operate like a harmonic balancer. Any info out there? What affect does it have on balance factor values prior to pouring it in?
Joe

[Barry Brown]

I thought Duesenberg cranks had it from the getgo. I know that Don Doodie founder of the Laughing Indian Riders and prolific indian collector has been using it for many years on his rebuilds as have quite a few others on the wet coast. They swear by it.

[Pete Gagan]

Slojo:
The mercury balance guys sell small disks that can be used on the outside of the engine on the drive side. My 1914 Zenith Gradua V Twin is an excellent strong runner, but when running on the center stand walked across the concrete floor on its own because of vibration. It was unpleasant to ride at speed for too long. I decided to try one of these before dismantling the whole thing which had been rebuilt but not balanced by its former owner. I bought one that was made for a Harley Sportster, which I mounted outside the drive sprocket, and it looks like it came with the bike. It was about a $120 gamble as I recall, and I was sceptical.
The Zenith now is quite smooth. I would estimate that 75% of the vibration is now gone. If you are doing an engine, inserting the mercury gizmo in the flywheel(s) is even better, apparently.
It does seem a bit weird, but it works! Mine is no bigger than the engine sprocket.
I bought it from "Balancemasters" who I found on the web. They also do flywheel inserts.
Pete Gagan

[Slojo]

Interesting, thanks for the input. Anybody else have a testimonial?
Joe

[c.o.]

I can echo Barry's comments. I've talked to a lot of folks that had engines built by Don and they all seem happy with the results. Aside from that I got nothin'.... I'll likely see him in the spring and will ask but I'm thinking you'd like feedback sooner than that.....

[jurassic]

[4thcoast]

Bring on the Shwinns and let the games begin! That's a cool little rhyme. Let's see what I can come up with. Here goes:
Say it ain't so, Joe.
The motor company let Connie go.
And more recently, Massimo. (That's Massimo Tambourine, lead design engineer of the mighty Ducati 916 and MV August F4)
That's right folks, for a millisecond, the motor company had an option to acquire Tambourine in the ill-fated MV Augusta deal. Quite possibly, the most prolific design engineer in the last 20 years.
Arguably, the Ducati 916 is the most significant motorcycle created in the last quarter century. Back to the rhyme:
And only a fool would have said goodbye to Mr. Buell (shareholder fiasco, getting rid of most well known American motorcycle design engineer in the last 25 years and a chance to work with a new demographic of riders - something Gen X and Y would actually ride)
Now there's something really smelly - they're going to open a factory in New Delhi?!? (India??)
Instead of working with the MV thing and moving forward with Buell, we're going to export kit softtails and pewter figurines to the rest of the world, God knows where they are made, not here.
Hey, wait a minute - this is about the Cannonball.
Everybody knows what it takes to win, you've got to be on a Schwinn. Count me in.
I'm going to take my 29 KJ because there's nothing finer than riding a streamliner.
Hey, Joe, for what it's worth, I found a valve manufacturer made in USA that will do small production runs or one-off pieces for sodium filled valves. I didn't have any problems with Frank's bike but, man, we suffered crazy valve seat recession on the Militaire. I know you had some recession issues with the Ghost, but not nearly as bad as Jim's. I want you at your best.
Mark

[Slojo]

Mark
You nailed it on all three fantastic engineers of the times. I will bet that Harley has the best bean counters money can buy. Everybody knows how important bean counters are, who needs well educated engineers anyway when you can farm that job out to India for three dollars and hour?

Guys like Connie, Massimo and Eric they come and go with the times "will the wind ever remember the names it has blown in the past", perhaps it will if those names are bean counter's names. I to am not pleased with the direction Harley has taken with Buell and MV Agusta. DID HD REALLY SELL MV FOR AN EQUIVALENT OF $4.OO? they spent 165 million to purchase and fund it.

My valve manufacture did me well I am having problems with the valve "seat" in the cylinder.

Cannonball II? I may have an alternative bike up my sleeve other than the !922 JD, this is yet to be determined.

How bout,,, Say it ain't so, Slojo.

Joe

[Barry Brown]

Here is the future winner of the next Cannonball.
[img][/img]

[c.o.]

That bike is a beauty!!!

[Slojo]

I wouldn't puff my chest out to soon Barry. One never knows what the future holds, watch out for the green roadrunner. Nice wolffour.

Joe

[Barry Brown]

Here is hopefully a less distorted view of the best US made bike from the year of the crash. This one was printed on GERMAN paper . Those saurkrauts can't win wars but they sure know what lignin is!
[img][/img]

[4thcoast]

Valve Seat Recession

I recently pulled out my old copy of T.A. Hodgdon's Golden Age of the Fours. I had never taken the time to look through the Heath aircraft engine section. As most of you know, the Henderson motorcycle engine was converted for aeroservice by this specialist company out of Chicago. Interestingly enough, some of the very same problems like valve seat recession and bearing longevity had been thoroughly taken to the next level by the Heath company. Besides the magnito debacle, these issues were faced at Cannonball. The Heath company had made a thorough study of valve seat recession and bearing longevity in the late 20's and early 30's (people tend to get pretty interested in making it work when you are in the air). To combat the valve seat recession and to aid in cooling of the exhaust valves, Heath used large stem silichrome exhaust valves which added more service time before grindings of the valve and seat. I am gong to use sodium filled valves on the next Cannonball engines. Heath had actually even developed their own cylinders. There are actually a pair of these cylinders being installed in a deluxe in the New England area and will be up and running very soon. They have extra cooling fins and a larger bore than the stock deluxe engine. As for the oiling patterns of the bearing grooves, stock Henderson deluxes have some really funky linear grooves that run lenghwise with the bearing journal rather than in concentric annular rings. I've always thought they'd act like perfect scrapers that would ruin the barrier film of oil that exists between the rotating shaft and bearing shell. Heath compensated for this by increasing the oil pump capacity 5-10 psi to 40-50 psi. When Constantine got to Schwinn's place and got down to work on the KJ, he eliminated the goofy grooves in the bearings and also increased the oil pump capacity for the 5 main bearing engine instead of the old 3 deluxe. Heath had learned lessons from the long sustained run time at steady state that airplane engines are subjected to. I am finishing up a deluxe right now and I eliminated the oil grooves from the rod bearings and brought them up to KJ specs. The bike will also use a KJ oil pump and suction line. Hodgdon's book is a great read for this time of year. Many of the accounts in it are first person as he actually spoke with the engineers who designed these machines. The Henderson four cylinder engine was easily adapted for aeroservice and there are some cool accounts of light aircraft endurance races of the time. All the contests were won by four cylinder powered Henderson engines and to quote the newspaper article, "twin cylinder motorcycle engine powered aircraft conversions were all forced down before the end of the contest."

[Tommo]

These photos may be of interest here. They came to light in the last few days as a result of my quest for display items for the Pukekohe display.
This conversion is known as a "Clancy-Henderson" and was done by Bill Clancy in Australia to power the aeroplane known as the "Clancy Sky Baby"
The manufacture dates on the cylinder head is visible, 25-11-34
I know no further details about this particular engine other than it is alive and well somewhere in Australia.
The photos came from the estate of a long time Henderson fan.

[Tommo]

Now to the NZ built version.
The attached article was written by Bob Entwhistle and appeared in the NZ Vintage car club magazine, Beaded Wheels, many years ago.
At least two of these described engines still exist, one in Auckland and one in Christchurch. The Auckland one will be on display at Pukekohe if things go to plan.
The Christchuch one is owned by a very good mate of mine and he even has one of the original patterns that was used in the manufacture of these engines.
I'll try and include some detail photos following Pukekohe in February.