Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[exeric]

Kevin, I hope you have a great time on your adventure. I love 1916 Indians, and you did a fantastic job on yours'. Thank you for the beautiful documentation, and thoughtful insight on your restoration journey. You did a great job of getting pictures of the tiny details that made your hurdles, and challenges easy for us to understand; and that is hard to do, not to mention, sidetracking you from the mission. You did things the right way, and that is also hard to do when a short-cut would be so much easier. I'm looking forward to your next project

[Shaky Jake]

I want to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the Omaha Chapter of the AMCA for their generous donation to our Motorcycle Cannonball effort, as well as their friendship and support over the last couple of years. They are a great bunch of folks and fun to hang out with. Team Kelly's Heroes will put the money to good use in coaxing Old 97, the hundred year old Indian, from coast to coast in September. Thanks again!

[sswaney]

Kevin, Thank you for bring the bike out and amazing the crowd last Sunday.
A 16 Indian doing hot laps in the parking lot has got to be a first for Butterfield's Party!
It sure sounds and runs strong. Coast to Coast should be no problem. Congratulations on a great job.

[sswaney]

There are some pictures of Kevin doing his thing located here
http://fountainphoto.zenfolio.com/p133339882

[Tom Lovejoy]

Fantastic ! sounds great, well done ! and good luck !!!!

[Shaky Jake]

Thanks for posting the pictures Scott. That was a fun crowd. They stood up and cheered when I rode it around the parking lot.

Here's a short shakedown video:






Kevin

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[painterdale]

Love the video, Kevin! Dale

[Jim]

That was FUN! Let's go for another ride! ;^)

[exeric]

Fantastic Kevin, and like Jim said, "Let's go for another ride!" I sure wish we had some long, lonely roads like your's, here in this part of Florida.

[Spacke2speed]

Kevin
While the separate manual compression release shown in Post433 is different. You may want to rethink that as you would have to let go of the handle bar controls to use it. While there are more then one way to start a motor, some bad, some better, some good. Other people out there may have even better ways then the way I start mine.
This is how I start mine.
With the stock setup, when fully backing off the control, the magneto is killed (with the kill pin and the grounding feeler in the magneto) and the compression release is open. That is use to kill the motor when stopping. It is also used when starting. Normally, at the start of the kick start stroke, the control is fully backed off, with the magneto killed and the compression release open. This allows the motor to spin faster at the start of the kick stroke without compression. Then partial thru the kick stroke, while the flywheels are now spinning, the magneto is advanced (which un-shorts the magneto) just enough to also close the compression release. This way, the motor with start easily with the spark retarded, while the flywheels are getting up to speed. This also takes a LOT of STRESS off the whole kick starter assembly by not fighting the compression without the help of the spinning flywheels, also helping to keep the kick starter gears engaged and keep the starter gear dogs to clutch plate dogs engaged. If the kick starter mounts flexes, moving the kick starter gears apart and/or causes the starter gear dogs and the clutch plate dogs to pop apart, the kick start is disengaged and the kick starter arm with go down very quick resulting in hurting only your knee if you are lucky. It also WILL damage the kick starter arm gear and starter gear teeth, and chip the corners of the start gear dogs as well as the clutch plate dogs. Once those dogs corners are rounded over, it well just keep popping out more and more. With the motor spinning faster, the magneto is putting out a hotter spark, a lot more then when it is just barely turning over.
Once the motor is running at this mid (for lack of a better term) spark advance setting, that is when the attention to the carburetor settings are adjusted before the motor dies. After the carburetor is adjusted to the proper settings, the spark can be advanced fully ready to ride.
Again, this is not the only way, just the way I start and the reasons why I start that way. Most important is you are up and running and riding!
Spacke2speed

[Shaky Jake]

Kevin
While the separate manual compression release shown in Post433 is different. You may want to rethink that as you would have to let go of the handle bar controls to use it. While there are more then one way to start a motor, some bad, some better, some good. Other people out there may have even better ways then the way I start mine.
This is how I start mine.
With the stock setup, when fully backing off the control, the magneto is killed (with the kill pin and the grounding feeler in the magneto) and the compression release is open. That is use to kill the motor when stopping. It is also used when starting. Normally, at the start of the kick start stroke, the control is fully backed off, with the magneto killed and the compression release open. This allows the motor to spin faster at the start of the kick stroke without compression. Then partial thru the kick stroke, while the flywheels are now spinning, the magneto is advanced (which un-shorts the magneto) just enough to also close the compression release. This way, the motor with start easily with the spark retarded, while the flywheels are getting up to speed. This also takes a LOT of STRESS off the whole kick starter assembly by not fighting the compression without the help of the spinning flywheels, also helping to keep the kick starter gears engaged and keep the starter gear dogs to clutch plate dogs engaged. If the kick starter mounts flexes, moving the kick starter gears apart and/or causes the starter gear dogs and the clutch plate dogs to pop apart, the kick start is disengaged and the kick starter arm with go down very quick resulting in hurting only your knee if you are lucky. It also WILL damage the kick starter arm gear and starter gear teeth, and chip the corners of the start gear dogs as well as the clutch plate dogs. Once those dogs corners are rounded over, it well just keep popping out more and more. With the motor spinning faster, the magneto is putting out a hotter spark, a lot more then when it is just barely turning over.
Once the motor is running at this mid (for lack of a better term) spark advance setting, that is when the attention to the carburetor settings are adjusted before the motor dies. After the carburetor is adjusted to the proper settings, the spark can be advanced fully ready to ride.
Again, this is not the only way, just the way I start and the reasons why I start that way. Most important is you are up and running and riding!
Spacke2speed

Burgie,

Excellent information, as always. Your posts and emails have been extremely helpful throughout this whole process. I spent some time trying to get the combined decompression/mag timing linkage to work but was not able to do so as I did not have a working example to copy. I have a linkage from a Hedstrom motor, but it is different than the PowerPlus linkage, because the front exhaust pipe is in a different place. The 1916 decompression linkage was longer and had to have a couple of extra bends in it, which ended up making it a bit springy and unprecise. I wonder if that is why they went to a separate decompression control on later PowerPlus bikes. You are right about the kickstart assembly, you can actually damage it if you over stress it. I have a friend who actually ripped the rivets out of his hub.

Since I am using a Linkert M-741-1 carburetor that has a traditional choke on it, I adopted a starting procedure that I found in an Indian Prince owners manual, and it seems to work pretty well for me. First, I close the choke, open the throttle, and set the spark advance. Then I lift the valves with my decompression lever by pushing it down and rotating it outwards so it stays down. I kick it through three times to charge the cylinders with air/fuel. Then I rotate the decompression lever back to normal and use the kickstart to push the engine up against compression. I lift the valves again and slowly give it half a kick to rotate the engine just past compression. Then close the valves, open the choke all the way, set the throttle at about 1/3, and give it the boot. If nobody is looking, it usually starts on the first kick. If I have an audience, it may take one or two more kicks.

I should add that I know it seems strange to think that you get enough flow through the carburetor to charge the cylinders, with the exhaust valves lifted. I guess the decompression lever doesn't open them very far, so you get enough draw through the intake valves to pull air through the carb. Anyway, it seems to work.

I'm glad your back on line. It's good to hear from you.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Status Update

Front brake is working, after a major design change. Taillight and brake light are working. I need to finish mounting the ICO speedo/odo, and I need to finish the headlight. After the last ride I found that the throttle was not opening all the way, so I made some adjustments. I also found that the clutch rollers were too tight, preventing the clutch from completely disengaging, so I honed out the race a little bit. Rear luggage is mounted. The strange noise in the last video turned out to be the chain rubbing on the primary cover, so I trimmed the cover a bit. Here's a video of the front brake:






Kevin

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[D.A.Bagin]

I have to say that was the closest thing to being on the bike with you. Thanks for allowing me to ride vicariously with you.

[TechNoir]

Jake. Your bike is brilliant. I have loved following your progress and once again well done and you must be very excited about the Cannonball.

I note from your latest post that you got the brake light working. You did ask me in an earlier post how I was doing my switch but I couldnt reply because I have only worked it out in the last couple of weeks. I have posted an update showing mine on my build thread but i would love to see how you have done yours.

Once again good luck on you forthcoming adventure.

John

[Shaky Jake]

Jake. Your bike is brilliant. I have loved following your progress and once again well done and you must be very excited about the Cannonball.

I note from your latest post that you got the brake light working. You did ask me in an earlier post how I was doing my switch but I couldnt reply because I have only worked it out in the last couple of weeks. I have posted an update showing mine on my build thread but i would love to see how you have done yours.

Once again good luck on you forthcoming adventure.

John

I didn't use a switch. I ended up using one of these: http://gearbrake.com/ It has an accelerometer that turns the brake light on whenever you slow down.


Kevin's

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