Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

Putting?... are you into Golf as well?? OR Pudding like "Jello" HAHA!! Just kidding around!! You sure do nice work and it's always a pleasure to read your post about your Indian Rebuild. I don't even OWN an Indian and you've grabbed my attention and I've read every page since the beginning of your thread. Thanks for your hard work in posting the pics and keeping it updated!!

Putting as in going for a putt. Thanks for the kind words Jim. It's my pleasure.




Putt putt putt....

Kevin


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[pisten-bully]

As someone said on my other forum, rebushing the cast iron case and swapping the gear guts into it is the right thing to do. It's a little extra work and a couple extra pounds, but the Motorcycle Cannonball is an endurance contest after all, and the iron box is more likely to endure.

... and not to mention the paint left on that cast iron case, it definitely belongs on your bike!

[Jim]

There you have it. I'm expecting much better transamission performance this year. We'll see. The proof is in the putting.

Kevin

Putting?... are you into Golf as well?? OR Pudding like "Jello" HAHA!! Just kidding around!! You sure do nice work and it's always a pleasure to read your post about your Indian Rebuild. I don't even OWN an Indian and you've grabbed my attention and I've read every page since the beginning of your thread. Thanks for your hard work in posting the pics and keeping it updated!!

[Shaky Jake]

And now, the exciting conclusion of 'The long, sad story of Kevin's transamissions:'

As someone said on my other forum, rebushing the cast iron case and swapping the gear guts into it is the right thing to do. It's a little extra work and a couple extra pounds, but the Motorcycle Cannonball is an endurance contest after all, and the iron box is more likely to endure.

I've covered assembling these transmissions a couple of times already, so I'm not planning to bore you with it again, but I do want to throw up some pictures of the shifter fork segment shaft bushing, because I've learned that it's a key point in making these things shift properly. The good news is, McMaster Carr carries a flanged bronze bushing that's dimensionally very close to the original, so only minor lathe work is required.








Obviously, you want to give the bushing a bit of a press fit into the hole, and a slight bit of clearance on the shaft. Cut the ID to where it will just slip over the shaft at this point, and we'll have to lap or hone it after it's pressed in to get our final clearance. It's important to match the flange thickness up with what the old bushing had, so that the shifter fork segment lines up properly with the shifter fork inside the case. The flange goes on the inside. You want to cut the length of the bushing to have just enough axial clearance to spin freely on your specific assembly. They're all a little different, especially after 100 years, so bolt yours together and measure it:








Once you cut your bushing to length, slip on the shaft and bolt it back together. Spin it with your fingers to make sure it turns freely:








Once the bushing is pressed into the case, its inside diameter will decrease slightly. I used a barrel lap with some diamond grit to get my final clearance. Alternatively, you could hone or ream it.










After that, assemble the unit in the usual way, and install it. Use some sealer on the studs, because the holes go all the way through.










There you have it. I'm expecting much better transamission performance this year. We'll see. The proof is in the putting.




Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

....but first, a few pictures from my Wauseon experience. Here you can see my deluxe accommodations in the rear of the Team Kelly's Heroes support van:








And some of the folks I hung out with, Single Malt Jim from PA and his family:








I also got to raise a few brews with Cannonballers Doug Jones and Mike Podger and their whole gang. Here are some pictures of my favorite Wauseon find, an old leg vise from the Colombian Hardware Company in Cleveland, OH.:












Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

The long, sad story of Kevin's transamissions:

PowerPlus riders talk about how the gear boxes, or three speed counter shafts as Indian called them, are more trouble to work on than the engines. And it's true. I guess transmissions were cutting edge technology in the teens, and not quite as highly developed as the motors. If they're not just right, if they're too tight or too loose, if the detents don't line up just so, or any of a number of other things, they won't shift well or they will hang up between gears. I had a lot of trouble with my gear box in 2016, so I'm trying to resolve that. I decided that one of my troubles was due to a sloppy shifter fork segment shaft bushing. This is the bushing where the shift linkage goes through the case and engages with the shifter fork, and when it's sloppy it allows the whole shifting mechanism to get cocked and jam up. So my friend Bob made some really nice bushings for both my primary transmission and my spare. They were shifting really nicely and I was really happy about them.

The early gear boxes had an aluminum case. Then, during the Great War, they switched to cast iron, presumably to make them more durable, for the war effort. Or perhaps the government had spec'd cast iron transmissions. Anyway, I had built both of my transmissions in aluminum cases, I suppose just because it saves a couple of pounds and everybody knows aluminum is more sexy than cast iron. After I assembled my transmissions I decided to paint my primary one and leave the spare raw. That way I could quickly tell them apart and the painted one would match the engine cases. As I was flipping it this way and that to mask it off for painting, I noticed that when I tipped it one way and the gears slid that way they made a nice 'clink' when they contacted the inside of the case at the end of their travel. When I tipped it the other way it went 'thud' instead of 'clink.' It sounded just like a cracked piece of glassware when you thump it with your finger. I flipped the box over and started poking at the case with a sharp object, and sure enough there was an invisible crack along one of the casting lines. Crap. The whole gear box came back apart. I took the case to a welder friend, we tapped on the case from the inside, and a quarter sized piece came free:









Obviously the slider shaft had been sliding through its bushing and pushing against the inside of the case, and it almost made it through. So he welded it up for me and I primed (as in the next picture) and painted it:







Now I was at a decision point. I had a cast iron case on the shelf. I was thinking about the durability of the cast iron, but that case hadn't been rebushed yet and I was feeling some time pressure. I talked to my friend Ryan who had an aluminum case break on him in 2016. I took all this into consideration. Should I spend valuable time rebushing the cast iron case, and accept the 2 or 3 extra pounds of the iron, for better durability?

Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion of "The long, sad story of Kevin's transamissions."




Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

If it's any consolation, a few years ago a note was taped to all the elevator doors in my building from a graduate student pleading with whoever stole her computer to return the file with the draft of her Ph.D. dissertation on it. The note said the thief could keep the computer, but pleaded with them to return the file because she didn't have a backup of it. That file would have contained all the results from 5-6 years of her research so the loss would have been devastating.

Shortly after this happened I spoke to a friend and co-worker who told me that his house burned down. So the way I choose to look at it is, no matter what I lost, at least my house didn't burn down.



Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

I hadn't done a good job of backing things up, ... I lost lots of stuff. I'll try to catch up.

If it's any consolation, a few years ago a note was taped to all the elevator doors in my building from a graduate student pleading with whoever stole her computer to return the file with the draft of her Ph.D. dissertation on it. The note said the thief could keep the computer, but pleaded with them to return the file because she didn't have a backup of it. That file would have contained all the results from 5-6 years of her research so the loss would have been devastating.

[Shaky Jake]

Here are a couple of pictures of where I'm at now. I'll go back and fill in the details in a bit, I'm uploading the pictures. I checked on Smugmug, I've uploaded 1322 pictures for this story. Pretty amazing.











And here's a picture of two cats sleeping on my Jeep, just to make you smile.








Have a great weekend.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Guys, I apologize for my lack of posts. My iPad, which I use as my main computer, locked up and would not update. I hadn't done a good job of backing things up, so I am having to restore it to what it was two years ago. I lost lots of stuff. I'll try to catch up.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Potential spare cylinders. Or these may go on the racer. I wish I'd taken a picture before a cleaned them up. They had mud and something that looked like barnacles. I soaked them in solvent for a couple of days, them simple green, then a week of two in a bucket of EvapoRust. They are actually looking pretty good. The valves are time-welded to the guides though. I literally soaked them in Kroil for over a month. It still took A cut off wheel, a torch, and a lot of hammering later, to get the valves out.










Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

The new intake cam followers and lift levers have been CNC'd out of A2 tool steel. They are things of beauty. I just dropped them at the post office to go to the heat treater. I was so excited I forgot to take pictures. I should have them back in a week or two, I'll post some pictures then.


Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

my Sunnen Honall, because I plan to bring it along on the Cannonball... You never know what someone is going to need.

Hmm, maybe I should rethink my bike's toolkit, that was going to be a Crescent wrench and Swiss army knife...

[Shaky Jake]

If you haven't already discovered it, be prepared to be shocked at how much the consumables for your hone cost...

If you want to dance, they say, you have to pay the band.

Right now I'm focused on finding additional adapters and mandrels for my Sunnen Honall, because I plan to bring it along on the Cannonball. The Honall is a portable hone that uses the same type of mandrels as the big one. I'd like to be able to hone up to at least 5/8 inch with it. Or 3/4 would be nice. You never know what someone is going to need.




Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

Now I just need to put my engine hoist together to lift it off the pallet.

I hope you don't find, as I did, that the legs of your engine hoist aren't quite wide enough to straddle the pallet. If so what should take only 5 min. to lift, slide pallet out of the way, and lower turns into a much longer, and more perilous, job.

If you haven't already discovered it, be prepared to be shocked at how much the consumables for your hone cost. Just to cover the range from 1/8" to 1" requires mandrels in nine series, each with its own stones. At full retail, Sunnen's price list shows a box of the smallest size in that range is $35-50 (depending on composition), and of the largest size $67-$100. Taking an average of ~$60, if you only planned to hone bronze, and wanted roughing and finishing stones for only that material in that that range, they would cost 2 x 9 x $60 = ~$1100.

It's not unlike toner cartridges for a printer, where the manufacturer could afford to give you the printer for free because they'll make a fortune off the cartridges. Or a horse, where even if it were free you then have to pay for the stable, feed, vet and farrier bills, tack, horse show fees, trailer and truck to haul it to the horse shows, ...

p.s. because each mandrel only covers a very limited range ones from eight of the nine series would be needed to deal with holes in steps of 1/16th. So, while only nine of the approx. 80 mandrels required to cover that range with no gaps would be needed for steps of 1/16th, the cost of stones still would be ~$1000.