Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[BoschZEV]

How did I get so lucky?

Posters to the AMCA Forum are strongly self-selected for this kind of luck. At least, those of us who are married. Without luck most of us either wouldn't still have motorcycles, or we wouldn't still be married.

[Spacke2speed]

Kevin and BZ
On the issue of cheating using motorcycle with a swing arm.
After more than 15 years of riding my ’14 Indian on motorcycle tour, car tours, and locally, on one of the Minden pre-16 motorcycle tours, I had a flat tire, so a friend let me ride his ’14 Harley for that day. After that day’s ride, some of the other riders asked me what I thought of the Harley. My response was “I do not remember the roads being that rough”.
To me, the Harley’s ride with its rigid frame, was a lot different than the Indian’s ride with its leaf spring front suspension, leaf spring rear suspension, and leaf spring seat suspension. After that, I still keep riding my ’14 Indian on tours and such for the next 5 years or so, even though I had other pre-16 bikes with rigid frames. I just let my friends ride the rigid frames. Yes, my bad, keeping the comfortable ride to myself.
Over the last couple of years, I now ride a rigid frame, as a while back, situations forced me to part with my comfortable riding Indian and some other bikes.
Spacke2speed

[Shaky Jake]

You have to admit, Indian was way ahead of their time on the rear suspension.

Continuing on with the assembly of the three speed countershaft. If you're going to do this, pay attention this time. There are a couple of subtle but important points.

Once the bearings are in place as previously discussed, put the two smaller shafts into the case, and slip the shift segment through its bushing:








Then you can put the splined shaft in like this:








Then you'll want to put the cover on temporarily, with a gasket, so you can check the end play of the main shaft. There's a couple of ways you can measure the end play, I used a depth mic, or you could use a dial indicator. The end play should be about 1/32 of an inch. To adjust you can add or remove shims from the large bearing, use a thicker or thinner gasket, or a thicker or thinner thrust washer.










Once the end play is nailed down, take the cover back off and put the rest of the guts in. You have to put the slider gear and the shifting fork in at the same time like this, simultaneously engaging the teeth of the shifting fork with the teeth of the shifter segment as shown:








Notice how, when the fork is all the way down in the third gear position, the last tooth of the shift segment (the quarter circle part) hangs over the end of the shift fork teeth (the straight toothed part):








Now rotate the shift segment up towards first gear. The cover stud shown in this picture can thread too far through the case, if it has too many threads. If this happens it can hit the teeth of the shift segment as shown in this picture, preventing proper movement. Seal this stud in place with loctite or gasket sealer. The other studs have blind holes, so they don't need sealer.








The shift segment should be free to rotate up this far, which is the first gear position:








Notice that the toothed part of the shifter fork extends up above the gasket joint when in first gear. That's the reason for the round relief in the cover, where the small shaft fits into it:






That's all for now,

Kevin

.

[Shaky Jake]

And now, the moment that you've all been waiting for: the putting in of the cluster gear:










At this point I like to put the detent in place while the cover is still off, so I can click it through the gears and see that everything is lining up properly:












If it clicks through the gears ok, it's time for the cover to go on, with the gasket:








You can put the clutch rod in at this point, or you can do it later from the other side. The important thing is to make sure that it is straight, polished, and well lubricated. Otherwise the clutch will drag noticeably when you engage it.










Ok, we're getting close to wrapping this up.




Kevin

.

[TechNoir]

Great stuff Kevin, another step closer to ironing out all the issues ready for September.

Looking at these old gearboxes it always occurs to me that, bar a few details, the insides of a 1916 gearbox (or other old box) is not that different to a more modern box. I rebuilt my XR400 not so long ago and its basically the same.

As always I am following your progress with interest and look forward to your next installment.

John

[Shaky Jake]

Great stuff Kevin, another step closer to ironing out all the issues ready for September.

Looking at these old gearboxes it always occurs to me that, bar a few details, the insides of a 1916 gearbox (or other old box) is not that different to a more modern box. I rebuilt my XR400 not so long ago and its basically the same.

As always I am following your progress with interest and look forward to your next installment.

John

Thanks John. One of the things I learned in 2016 is it's that these little things can eat away all your beer drinking time on the Cannonball. Best to get them sorted out in advance. ;-)


Kevin

.

[Shaky Jake]

This little spiral bit is called the "worm" for obvious reasons. It actuates the clutch by pushing on that rod that we installed earlier.








It has a little ball bearing that is held in by a wire clip. It's an easy job to replace the ball if it has a flat spot on it:










Then just thread it into the hole in the obvious manner:










And screw the cap on with a bit of your favorite sealer:










In the next installment we'll assemble the felt seal on the output shaft, and we'll have a complete transmission.




Kevin

.

[pisten-bully]

Thanks for that Kevin, the pictures are great (and will be quite helpful as get into my 1930 gearbox)!

[Shaky Jake]

Thanks for that Kevin, the pictures are great (and will be quite helpful as get into my 1930 gearbox)!

Your welcome Harry.


Kevin

.

[Shaky Jake]

Getting tools and spares ready to load into the van in September:






Kevin

.

[BoschZEV]

That's an excellent idea. There's nothing like being pretty sure you have an item you need, but if you do it's probably somewhere mixed in the mess in a large cardboard box.

Were you this organized on the last Cannonball, or is this as a result of what you learned that time?

[Shaky Jake]

That's an excellent idea. There's nothing like being pretty sure you have an item you need, but if you do it's probably somewhere mixed in the mess in a large cardboard box.

Were you this organized on the last Cannonball, or is this as a result of what you learned that time?

Last time most everything was in large bins, mostly because we didn't have time to organize it any better. We lost a lot of beer time digging through those bins looking for parts and tools.




Kevin

.

[Shaky Jake]

Let's wrap this three speed countershaft refurb up. All that's left is the shaft seal. It consists of three parts, a thin flat washer, a felt seal, and a threaded retainer. I made the felt seal out of F-1 felt from McMaster Carr. If you want to see how I cut it out, scroll back about a year or so. Ultimately the felt will get sandwiched between the other two parts.









You'll need an adjustable pin spanner with pins that fit the holes in the retainer.









Drop the thin washer in on top of the bearing. Place the felt on top of it, around the spacer that we polished earlier.










The retainer threads on next, with the recessed side toward the felt. Put some kind of sealer on the threads. The threads are left handed.










Tighten with the pin spanner. Lefty tightie.










And there they are. Two little Indian transmissions.






Kevin

.

[Jim]

Pretty sure it went like this...
Two little Indian (transmissions) sitting in the sun;

On got frizzled up and then there was one.

Just kidding! They look great, Nice Work!!

[BoschZEV]

I made the felt seal out of F-1 felt from McMaster Carr. If you want to see how I cut it out, scroll back about a year or so.

Coincidentally, a few hours before you posted this I had decided to make a felt seal for the output shaft of my 1928 Ariel:

http://www.britbike.com/forums/ubbth...l-c#Post724959

I already had ordered the felt but was wondering how I would cut it once it arrived so that the ID would be a snug fit over the shaft. Not that anyone is counting, but your post about cutting felt was 18 months ago (time flies when you're having fun):

http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...elt#post156426