Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

Scruffier Shifter

The shifter quadrant that I've had mounted to the bike up to this point is an original 1916 Indian part, but someone years ago had stripped the original nickel plating off, so I had to have it re-plated. Nothing wrong with that, in fact it's a beautiful piece, but it kind of sticks out on my scruffy old bike. I came upon this one, that still has the original finish, and seems to match the bike better. It was twisted and bent, but repairable:












I managed to get the twist out of the quadrant without breaking the rivets, and the lever straightened out better than I expected:










This one even had the original helical spring, which is rare:








The detent on the lever was worn out and cracked. It had been repaired before. I decided to braze it, and file it back to the original profile:














Kevin

.

[exeric]

As always, I love to see what you're doing, and your generous photo documentation. Sorry to hear about all the sadness, and grief in your life right now. I always thanked God that I had such a great hobby to occupy my mind when health issues with loved ones were beyond my control.

[Shaky Jake]

As always, I love to see what you're doing, and your generous photo documentation. Sorry to hear about all the sadness, and grief in your life right now. I always thanked God that I had such a great hobby to occupy my mind when health issues with loved ones were beyond my control.

Amen to that, Eric.


Kevin

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[painterdale]

Thanks Dale. How's your '17 coming?


Kevin

Still just soaking up all of the knowledge I can. I have to chuckle a bit at the apparent ease with which you seem to "source" spares for your project. Shifters, clutch pedals, etc. It's been said a lot, I'll say it again. Fantastic job you are doing! You raised a question about the use of split lock washers that far back. You haven't found any on your bike? I'll touch on that in my thread so I don't clutter yours up. Dale

[TechNoir]

Re: Powerplus or Bust

Hello Jake. I am so sorry to hear of your bereavements, please accept my sincere condolences.


The bike is looking great. It looks like you are not too far off but all of those small final jobs all take time but it seems that you are on top of them. Do you have any idea of when you hope to have it ready for a test ride?

I am looking forward to your next update.

John

[djones]

Do you have any idea of when you hope to have it ready for a test ride?

Kevin,

That has kind of become a joke around my house. I call it my sliding scale. It was going to run by the Sunshine meet, then Oley, ok it will be Denton, for sure Barbers......

It does take hours and hours to move a step foward, without taking a couple back. I'm right there with you, so keep the faith and keep your chin up. Remember the goal is Atlantic City, then Carlsbad.

Keep on checking off the boxes, I bet it runs like a top!

See you there,

Doug

[Shaky Jake]

As always, the encouragement is appreciated. I always find with any project like this that the last 20% of the work seems to take 80% of the effort.

When I got this bike there was no transmission or clutch with it, nor any of the related controls or linkages. Over the last couple of years I've collected a pile of transmission parts with the intent of assembling two usable transmissions. In this picture, there is a complete aluminum case 1916 transmission on the left, a fairly complete cast iron case transmission in the middle (which I had taken apart some time ago), and a pile of parts on the right including another cast iron case, various gears, and other components that I bought individually:








When I started on the transmissions, I thought the red cast iron one would end up being my primary unit, but as I compared parts it appears that the red iron case is in the worst condition, as far as bushings, threads, etc. The aluminum case and the white iron case are both in pretty good shape. In fact, the aluminum transmission was in very good condition, for a 100 year old piece. Other than the thrust bearing, which had failed, I think I could have just added oil to it and run it. So my plan is to take the best gears and put them in the aluminum case. I will use the old bearings, which are good. Then I will put the next best gears in the white cast iron case with a new small bearing and perhaps a new large bearing, or maybe just new balls in the old large bearing. There are differing opinions on whether the aluminum cases or the iron cases are better. Some like the aluminum cases because they are lighter. Some think the iron cases are stronger, although the only breakage I've seen in my admittedly limited experience has been in the area where they mount to the frame, and I have seen that area damaged on both aluminum and cast iron cases. I suspect that kind of damage is more from abuse and bad maintenance work more than anything. Anyway, here is the aluminum case transmission taken apart. Note that the nut that holds the sprocket on, shown in the picture sitting on the sprocket, has right handed threads, but the smaller nut that holds the clutch to the tapered shaft (not shown in this picture) has left handed threads:








The disasembly is pretty straight forward, but also be aware that the this seal holder outboard of the large (left) bearing has left handed threads. To remove it I used an adjustable pin spanner, which worked fine:












Once that seal holder is off, you can get a good look at the large bearing race, which was in good shape. Some may disagree with my decision to reuse the bearings in this transmission, and maybe I'll regret it, but once I got them cleaned up there was no visible distress and they spin smoothly.








Here is a pre-assembly picture of the transmission parts and a picture of the bike, just because:










Stay tuned...


Kevin

.

[Shaky Jake]

Once everything is cleaned up and lubed, the drive gear assembly drops back into the case:










This splined shaft carries the slider gear and allows it to engage the three different ratios on the cluster gear. The clutch keys to tapered end:










This two part thrust bearing fits on the splined shaft and rides inside the drive gear. As you can see, it had some wear. I smoothed it up on a bench stone, and polished it on the lath. Sorry, apparently I forgot to get an 'after' picture:








The first part of the thrust bearing is a press fit on the shaft, so I gave it some heat and chilled the shaft. The second part of the thrust bearing just slides on:










This little shifter segment has to go in before the splined shaft:








Then the shaft gets inserted through the drive bearing:












More to come...


Kevin


.

[Shaky Jake]

Then the slider gear can go onto the splined shaft:










The shifting fork goes in, and engages the slider gear and the curved shifter segment that we put in earlier. Once it's in, you can slide the shaft through it:














From the outside, you can see the teeth on the back side of the shifter fork, for the spring loaded detent that we will install later:








Kevin


.

[Shaky Jake]

The layshaft that the cluster gear spins on is keyed the the case on it's left end:



\






The other end of the layshaft has an oil groove:








This is the cluster gear, and how it goes into the transmission:
















Kevin


.

[pisten-bully]

Go-go-go! Great progress Kevin!

[gww]

DITTO. your doing great..

[Shaky Jake]

OK, just a couple more posts and the transmission will be done so we can shift gears to more interesting things. See what I did there?

This notched quarter round do-hicky, which the shifter linkage will connect to, slides on to the eight sided shaft of the shifter segment that we put inside the case earlier. It's held on my a special nut and washer:








This is the detent that I mentioned:










This is the clutch worm. When the clutch linkage rotates the worm, that 7/16 inch ball next to my thumb pushes on a rod that goes through the transmission main shaft (the one with the splines). The rod pushes on an adjusting screw in in the clutch, which causes the clutch to disengage:












This is the "Safety Latch." It prevents you from shifting gears while the clutch is engaged:










When you step on the clutch, the clutch linkage pushes the safety latch out of the way like this, so you can shift gears:








When you release the clutch, the safety latch locks the shift linkage like this:








Kevin


.

[Shaky Jake]

So, now the only thing left on the transmission is that felt seal around the main shaft, just outboard of the large bearing. I ordered a new piece of felt from McMaster-Carr, and one of these twirly circle cutter things that craft ladies use from Amazon:










I used the twirly thing to cut out a seal and a spare:










The thin part of the seal holder goes in over the large bearing, and the new piece of felt goes on top of that:








Then the cover threads on (left-handed) and viola! the transmission is ready to mount:










On an unrelated parallel activity, Brenda's kitchen got torn out. The cabinets got re-purposed around the neighbor hood, and the tile and everything else got thrown into the back of the dump truck for appropriate disposal:




Kevin


.

[panthersteve]

You are doing a great job Kevin, I am enjoying every post.
It is also a credit to you that you are still taking photos and documenting it on here when you are nearing the pointy end

Cheers
Steve