Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

As a note, if you rebuild two magnetos in the same way using the same aftermarket components and armature rewinder, you won't have one good magneto and one spare. You will have two magnetos that either will both function correctly, or that will fail from the same cause.

On the upcoming Cannonball different bikes will fail from seized valves, seized pistons, broken connecting rods, etc. However, based on lots of observational data I've collected over the past 15 years, the cause of failure that will be most common will be the magneto. If a magneto isn't rebuilt properly, tears will be shed.

Yes, you are exactly right. In my business that's what we call common mode failures. It's the reason I'm holding Dixie #2 back, and reworking it myself. I'll also have two crankshafts with two different kinds of rods, and a spare set of cylinders and a spare set of pistons, among other things. Otherwise, my strategy is to keep stress levels low; slow and steady wins the race.

A friend of mine just the other day was commenting on all my spare parts. He said that he thinks after all that effort, I'll probably ride the whole race with no problems and not need any of them, but at least I'll be in a position to help other riders out if need be. I hope he's right.

I really appreciate the input.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

p.s. if you send me a PM with your mailing address and dimensions of the cavity that holds the condenser, I'll send you capacitors for all three of your magnetos as partial payment for the enjoyment I get reading your posts. Depending on the size of the cavity it will hold either a 0.018 uF or a pair of 0.008 uF capacitors (that you will solder together to form 0.016 uF, as described in my magneto restoration thread).

That's the best offer I've heard all day. You've got a deal. I'll try to get it measured up tonight, if not I may have to do it this weekend after we return from St Paul.


Thanks,

Kevin

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[BigLakeBob]

No St. Paul, next one for me Wauseon. How about a Cannonball theme on the tank, maybe too tacky?

I thought about it, Bob, but it seems like it would be a lot more effort than just painting it, and for no real benefit. I've done some painting, but I don't know if I really have the talent to do a believable faux patina. Some of the bikes I've seen that have been done that way look pretty fake, once you get up close. I suppose I could bury it in the yard for a while. I don't know, what do you think I should do?

You going to St. Paul?


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

No St. Paul, next one for me Wauseon. How about a Cannonball theme on the tank, maybe too tacky?

What do you have in mind?


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Spark Plugs

For the Cannonball, I want to be able to use readily available modern spark plugs. The threads on the spark plugs used on the Powerplus engine are 7/8 inch diameter. I need to be able to use a plug with 18mm 1.5 threads. On the Powerplus engine, the sparkplugs go into the intake valve hole plug, the one that the wrench is on in this picture:







Here are the exhaust valve hole plugs (top of the picture) and the intake valve hole plugs (bottom of the picture):






I got the idea from some friends to use some reproduction exhaust valve hole plugs, which don't have a threaded hole in them, and machine them to accept the modern plugs. Repop 1917 and newer exhaust hole plugs are available at a good price from Ziggy of Canada. They are the same as the 1916 ones, except they have cooling fins on top. I started by chopping those fins off:











Then I drilled a hole and machined a relief in the top to match my old intake valve hole plugs:







Now and I'm just waiting on a 18mm 1.5 thread tap and appropriately sized drill to arrive, and I will drill and tap the spark plug holes.






Kevin #97


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[rwm]

seems like a lot of work for modern plug.
http://www.brattons.com/product.asp?...on=1&P_ID=1638
https://www.brillman.com/category-li...-8-spark-plugs

[Shaky Jake]

The spark plug mod was actually pretty easy to implement. Thanks for the links though.



Kevin #97


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[Shaky Jake]

I managed to get to Anamosa, IA this past weekend for the vintage motorcycle event at the National Motorcycle Museum. It's probably my favorite museum in the world, with all due respect to Messer's Barber and Walksler who both have fabulous facilities to their credit. The turnout for the event was good; the parking lot was full of bikes despite the pounding rain. I took the opportunity to study their old Indians some more, as I have done in the past.






One of the things I was looking at was the rear racks, because it looks like I'm going to have to build my own. This one is on a 1917 Powerplus:







Another thing I was looking at was exhaust pipes. To my knowledge, there are no reproduction pipes available for the Powerplus motor, so I'll probably have to make something. The pipes are 1 1/4 inch exhaust tubing. As you can see in this picture of the 1917 bike, the front pipe has several bends in it, which will make it more complicated to make:







I was hoping that the front pipe from the Indian Hedstrom motor would be close to the same, since reproductions are available. Unfortunately the Hedstrom front pipe is very straight, and probably won't be much help. This picture is from the 1913 Indian Twin with the Hedstrom motor:







The other thing I was looking at was the mounting arrangement for the muffler. My muffler has a horseshoe shaped mounting bracket on the front, but the parts book also shows a rear mounting bracket. I don't have one and will probably have to fabricate it. Here's a picture:







This is my favorite new addition to the museum:







Iowa is also great for Antique stores. My best Antique store find of the weekend was this six volume set of Automobile Engineering books. It's a 1935 Edition by the American Technical Society:







Volume III has a section on motorcycles, here are some examples of what it contains:











Next on my list is to measure up the condensers on my Dixie mags, and send to info to BoschZEV...



Kevin #97


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[BoschZEV]

Next on my list is to measure up the condensers on my Dixie mags, and send to info to BoschZEV...

I wondered what had happened to your plan to make the measurement "in a week," but then realized I'm unlikely to be the only person who measures progress on projects in dog-weeks.

On the subject of magnetos, a few days ago I noticed that the thread on restoring a Bosch ZEV I started a little over two years ago had moved into the number 1 position in number of views in the 'Electrical' section, passing a thread that has been collecting views for eight years. The fact most people own machines without magnetos, yet the thread has been steadily collecting views at a rate 4x higher than the now-second place thread, shows just how important/mysterious this component is to AMCA members.

[Shaky Jake]

Forks

Here's a picture of my forks:







Here's a picture of normal 1916 Indian Powerplus forks:







If you have a sharp eye, or if you can read the notes that I added to the second picture, you will notice some differences. It appears that my forks are a period modification of a set of 1917 Indian Powerplus forks. Here's why I think so:








I'm kind of excited about this because the 1917 forks are stronger than the 1916 forks. Why is this important? Because I'm planning on putting some miles on this thing and I probably weight 80 or 90 pounds more than the average man did in 1916.


So, I took my forks off of the frame to give them a good once over. The threads were in rough shape and it took four or five hours work with thread files and lapping compound to get the upper bearing cup off, and get the threads in good condition. After all that work, they look pretty good:








My spring connecting links are in pretty bad shape. Any attempts to straighten them would probably also weaken them, so I ordered new reproductions from Ziggy of Canada.







While I was at it, I also ordered new rockers and top connection plate, since the holes in mine were egg shaped. I already have new pins and pivots.







Here's a picture of the bike without the forks, just because:





More on this when the new parts come in.


Cheers,


Kevin #97


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[Shaky Jake]

Books

Sorry for the non-MC content, but I had to post a picture of another great book find. It's 33 volumes containing the transactions of the Society of Automotive Engineers from 1908 to 1926. I'm pleased to be the custodian of these historical documents. These guys were making the decisions about what the standards would be in the years to come. These papers contain the genesis of the transportation industry as we know it. Exciting stuff.






BTW - the set I bought contains extra copies of the 1911, 1917, 1918, and 1919 volumes. If anyone is interested in this kind of stuff, I would be willing to sell those volumes. Message me if seriously interested.


Other than that, I've been cleaning up the toy hauler and getting ready for Mid-Ohio (AMA Vintage Rally) and Wauseon (AMCA Vintage Rally).



Kevin #97


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[Shaky Jake]

Old 97

Well, just so you know, Clifford the big red Dodge broke down and left me stranded in IA, so I'm not going to be at the AMA VMD in Ohio. Still planning to make it to Waseon though.

On a lighter note, since I drew #97 for the Cannonball, I typed "Old 97" into Google, just to see what would come up. I got this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck_of_the_Old_97



Kevin, Old 97

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[pisten-bully]

Kevin, Old 97

Whew! You're in luck... from a quick glimpse of the Cannonball route it appears you won't be going anywhere along the original route of the original 97. That could've been some bad karma!

[Shaky Jake]

Whew! You're in luck... from a quick glimpse of the Cannonball route it appears you won't be going anywhere along the original route of the original 97. That could've been some bad karma!

I know! It's also lucky that the Cannonball ends on Sept. 24, because the 113th anniversary of the wreck of old 97 won't be until Sept. 27, 2016.


Kevin, Old 97

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[fillibuster]

Well, just so you know, Clifford the big red Dodge broke down and left me stranded in IA, so I'm not going to be at the AMA VMD in Ohio. Still planning to make it to Waseon though.

On a lighter note, since I drew #97 for the Cannonball, I typed "Old 97" into Google, just to see what would come up. I got this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck_of_the_Old_97



Kevin, Old 97

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That was really cool1
It's quite reassuring to see how much times have changed, especially in the priorities of safety, and respect for human life.
We still go ape over wrecks in NASCAR and such, but we don't openly celebrate suicidal streaks.