Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

2nd batch to plater / rear wheel

Here are some pictures of the second batch of parts I've taken in to Industrial Plating for nickel plate:















A fair bit of prep work went into that stuff before I took it in. I'm really anxious to see it after plating. I'm sure you noticed the rear hub. This is a spare hub that I plan to lace to a 23 inch drop center rim. The brake backing plate is a repop of an early (like 1912) one that I got from Ziggy of Canada (Ziggy Kapuscinski). It doesn't have the bosses for the brake band around the outside, back then they only used the shoes on the inside of the drum. I decided to not use the external brake band, since I'm going to have a front brake.






Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Valve Train

Here's a video of how the cam, cam followers, valve lifters, and tappets all work together in an Indian Powerplus:







Here's what the original parts look like, before any work on them:























The parts that had been broken in half and brazed back together couldn't be saved. I found some more of them that were in better condition. The rest of the parts, it was a matter of restoring the wear surfaces. My friend Steve Rinker (Bucks Indian) suggested that they could be reground like a rocker arm for an overhead valve car. I took the parts to my friends at Central Cylinder Machine at the Omaha airport and that's exactly what they did. They have a Kwik-way valve grinder with the rocker arm attachment, and they reground all of the curved surfaces with it. The flat surfaces on the intake valve lifters they reground on a surface grinder. I'll have to post some pictures of the refurbished parts when I get home from this job. I got new rollers for the exhaust valve lifters from Ziggy of Canada, I'll cover that in the next post.






Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Exhaust Lifter Rollers

To get the old worn-out, corroded rollers off of the exhaust cam followers, I ground the big end off of the rivets and used a punch to drive them through the other way:







I polished up the pivot before putting the new roller and rivet on:







Then I flipped it over and peened the rivet:







After the rivet is peened, you have to file the peenage flat so it doesn't hit on the intake rocker that sits beside it. Sorry, I didn't get a picture.






Here is a picture of one that I couldn't save, the pivot is too worn. You can see how egg shaped it is:







Don't try this at home unless you are an experienced peenist.






Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Tappets

The tappets were all in pretty good shape:













The problem I ran into was on the intake tappets. By the time you polish the cam and regrind all the wear surfaces, you've taken a little bit of metal off of six surfaces. It all adds up, and in the end, when the tappet is all the way down, the hex on the top of the tappet hits the top of toad-stool that it passes through. My solution, which is as of yet untested, is to make longer tappets. I got Kent Thompson to send me a set of Chief tappets which are longer but the same diameter. I cut them to the appropriate length and had them re-hardened at Great Plains Metallurgy. I'll try to remember to post some pictures of them when I get back home.


I think that's it for today, later in the week I'll post something about the Magnetos, even though I haven't gotten much done.






Kevin


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[painterdale]

Kevin, where does the decompression lever come into play? That raises the exhaust valve, correct? I'm doing mine vicariously through you. That way I can resist the temptation to rip mine apart! You are doing a fantastic job of documenting this. Thanks. Dale

[panthersteve]

Here is a picture of one that I couldn't save, the pivot is too worn. You can see how egg shaped it is:


Kevin


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This picture looks exactly the same as the previous picture and I can't see anything egg shaped. Am I not looking right or did you put the wrong picture in ?

[Shaky Jake]

Kevin, where does the decompression lever come into play? That raises the exhaust valve, correct? I'm doing mine vicariously through you. That way I can resist the temptation to rip mine apart! You are doing a fantastic job of documenting this. Thanks. Dale

Dale, I don't have a picture with me. I'll try to remember to post one when I get home. There is a little gear/cam hybrid kind of thing that site behind the cam followers and holds the rear exhaust valve open.



Kevin



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[Shaky Jake]

This picture looks exactly the same as the previous picture and I can't see anything egg shaped. Am I not looking right or did you put the wrong picture in ?

Sorry. Missed that on the proofread. It should have been this picture. I'll go back and fix it.








Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Magneto / Condenser

One of the issues with the magnetos is the condenser. They don't last 100 years, and you can't buy direct replacements. With a bad condenser, the magneto will make spark, but the points will burn quickly. Here is a picture of one:







It fits into the breaker box like this:







And there is a cover that goes over it like this:









Like I said earlier, you can't go out and buy a new condenser to fit a 100 year old Dixie magneto. Fortunately, Mr. BoschZEV of the AMCA forum knows a lot more about these things than I do. He knows what modern capacitor ratings to use to replace the old condenser, and he sent me some out of the kindness of his heart. In order to figure out how to fit the new capacitors into the breaker box, I decided to mock it up with a piece of tin and a block of wood that is the size of the capacitor:















As you can see, I got the block of wood to fit by bending the piece of tin so that it drops down into the breaker box. For mounting the actual condenser I will use a piece of phenolic rather than a piece of tin, because I want it to be non-conductive. I've ordered a piece of thin phenolic, but I don't have a way to bend it like the piece of tin I used for the mock-up. What I'll have to do instead is shorten the stand-offs that it mounts to, so the whole assembly will fit under the cover. Here is a picture of one of the stand-offs:







When I can get back to it, I'll shorten the stand-offs, cut out the piece of phenolic, epoxy the capacitor to it, mount the hole thing up, and connect the leads.






Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

I have been away for a while, and have gotten behind on my posts. I will get caught up soon, in the mean time here is a teaser:




Kevin

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[fciron]

Hey, where did that motorcycle come from?

[Shaky Jake]

Hey, where did that motorcycle come from?

Springfield, Mass.



Kevin

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[fciron]

I walked right into that one. :-D

[Shaky Jake]

A little about the seat.

On an endurance run like the Cannonball, the seat is an important component. As you can see, the suspension on mine was a bit worn out:








Nothing fancy here, I just took a new piece of 7/16 inch dia. steel, bent it into the appropriate shape, threaded the ends, and welded on some washers:












The holes in the spreader bar were also worn out, so I welded on some new metal and re-drilled them:










Here is the seat suspension all bolted back together:








The seat was recovered by the guys at Heathers leathers, using a layer of gel, then a layer of foam under the leather cover:










I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:








Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Tail Light

I got this repro tail light from ZOW at Davenport. He said it was for a '20 something Scout, but there were holes in my fender that lined p perfectly. I guess we can call it a period mod:








It looks good on the bike. I just need to find an LED bulb to fit:








Kevin

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