Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

Guys, I apologize for my lack of posts. My iPad, which I use as my main computer, locked up and would not update. I hadn't done a good job of backing things up, so I am having to restore it to what it was two years ago. I lost lots of stuff. I'll try to catch up.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Here are a couple of pictures of where I'm at now. I'll go back and fill in the details in a bit, I'm uploading the pictures. I checked on Smugmug, I've uploaded 1322 pictures for this story. Pretty amazing.











And here's a picture of two cats sleeping on my Jeep, just to make you smile.








Have a great weekend.


Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

I hadn't done a good job of backing things up, ... I lost lots of stuff. I'll try to catch up.

If it's any consolation, a few years ago a note was taped to all the elevator doors in my building from a graduate student pleading with whoever stole her computer to return the file with the draft of her Ph.D. dissertation on it. The note said the thief could keep the computer, but pleaded with them to return the file because she didn't have a backup of it. That file would have contained all the results from 5-6 years of her research so the loss would have been devastating.

[Shaky Jake]

If it's any consolation, a few years ago a note was taped to all the elevator doors in my building from a graduate student pleading with whoever stole her computer to return the file with the draft of her Ph.D. dissertation on it. The note said the thief could keep the computer, but pleaded with them to return the file because she didn't have a backup of it. That file would have contained all the results from 5-6 years of her research so the loss would have been devastating.

Shortly after this happened I spoke to a friend and co-worker who told me that his house burned down. So the way I choose to look at it is, no matter what I lost, at least my house didn't burn down.



Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

The long, sad story of Kevin's transamissions:

PowerPlus riders talk about how the gear boxes, or three speed counter shafts as Indian called them, are more trouble to work on than the engines. And it's true. I guess transmissions were cutting edge technology in the teens, and not quite as highly developed as the motors. If they're not just right, if they're too tight or too loose, if the detents don't line up just so, or any of a number of other things, they won't shift well or they will hang up between gears. I had a lot of trouble with my gear box in 2016, so I'm trying to resolve that. I decided that one of my troubles was due to a sloppy shifter fork segment shaft bushing. This is the bushing where the shift linkage goes through the case and engages with the shifter fork, and when it's sloppy it allows the whole shifting mechanism to get cocked and jam up. So my friend Bob made some really nice bushings for both my primary transmission and my spare. They were shifting really nicely and I was really happy about them.

The early gear boxes had an aluminum case. Then, during the Great War, they switched to cast iron, presumably to make them more durable, for the war effort. Or perhaps the government had spec'd cast iron transmissions. Anyway, I had built both of my transmissions in aluminum cases, I suppose just because it saves a couple of pounds and everybody knows aluminum is more sexy than cast iron. After I assembled my transmissions I decided to paint my primary one and leave the spare raw. That way I could quickly tell them apart and the painted one would match the engine cases. As I was flipping it this way and that to mask it off for painting, I noticed that when I tipped it one way and the gears slid that way they made a nice 'clink' when they contacted the inside of the case at the end of their travel. When I tipped it the other way it went 'thud' instead of 'clink.' It sounded just like a cracked piece of glassware when you thump it with your finger. I flipped the box over and started poking at the case with a sharp object, and sure enough there was an invisible crack along one of the casting lines. Crap. The whole gear box came back apart. I took the case to a welder friend, we tapped on the case from the inside, and a quarter sized piece came free:









Obviously the slider shaft had been sliding through its bushing and pushing against the inside of the case, and it almost made it through. So he welded it up for me and I primed (as in the next picture) and painted it:







Now I was at a decision point. I had a cast iron case on the shelf. I was thinking about the durability of the cast iron, but that case hadn't been rebushed yet and I was feeling some time pressure. I talked to my friend Ryan who had an aluminum case break on him in 2016. I took all this into consideration. Should I spend valuable time rebushing the cast iron case, and accept the 2 or 3 extra pounds of the iron, for better durability?

Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion of "The long, sad story of Kevin's transamissions."




Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

....but first, a few pictures from my Wauseon experience. Here you can see my deluxe accommodations in the rear of the Team Kelly's Heroes support van:








And some of the folks I hung out with, Single Malt Jim from PA and his family:








I also got to raise a few brews with Cannonballers Doug Jones and Mike Podger and their whole gang. Here are some pictures of my favorite Wauseon find, an old leg vise from the Colombian Hardware Company in Cleveland, OH.:












Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

And now, the exciting conclusion of 'The long, sad story of Kevin's transamissions:'

As someone said on my other forum, rebushing the cast iron case and swapping the gear guts into it is the right thing to do. It's a little extra work and a couple extra pounds, but the Motorcycle Cannonball is an endurance contest after all, and the iron box is more likely to endure.

I've covered assembling these transmissions a couple of times already, so I'm not planning to bore you with it again, but I do want to throw up some pictures of the shifter fork segment shaft bushing, because I've learned that it's a key point in making these things shift properly. The good news is, McMaster Carr carries a flanged bronze bushing that's dimensionally very close to the original, so only minor lathe work is required.








Obviously, you want to give the bushing a bit of a press fit into the hole, and a slight bit of clearance on the shaft. Cut the ID to where it will just slip over the shaft at this point, and we'll have to lap or hone it after it's pressed in to get our final clearance. It's important to match the flange thickness up with what the old bushing had, so that the shifter fork segment lines up properly with the shifter fork inside the case. The flange goes on the inside. You want to cut the length of the bushing to have just enough axial clearance to spin freely on your specific assembly. They're all a little different, especially after 100 years, so bolt yours together and measure it:








Once you cut your bushing to length, slip on the shaft and bolt it back together. Spin it with your fingers to make sure it turns freely:








Once the bushing is pressed into the case, its inside diameter will decrease slightly. I used a barrel lap with some diamond grit to get my final clearance. Alternatively, you could hone or ream it.










After that, assemble the unit in the usual way, and install it. Use some sealer on the studs, because the holes go all the way through.










There you have it. I'm expecting much better transamission performance this year. We'll see. The proof is in the putting.




Kevin

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[Jim]

There you have it. I'm expecting much better transamission performance this year. We'll see. The proof is in the putting.

Kevin

Putting?... are you into Golf as well?? OR Pudding like "Jello" HAHA!! Just kidding around!! You sure do nice work and it's always a pleasure to read your post about your Indian Rebuild. I don't even OWN an Indian and you've grabbed my attention and I've read every page since the beginning of your thread. Thanks for your hard work in posting the pics and keeping it updated!!

[pisten-bully]

As someone said on my other forum, rebushing the cast iron case and swapping the gear guts into it is the right thing to do. It's a little extra work and a couple extra pounds, but the Motorcycle Cannonball is an endurance contest after all, and the iron box is more likely to endure.

... and not to mention the paint left on that cast iron case, it definitely belongs on your bike!

[Shaky Jake]

Putting?... are you into Golf as well?? OR Pudding like "Jello" HAHA!! Just kidding around!! You sure do nice work and it's always a pleasure to read your post about your Indian Rebuild. I don't even OWN an Indian and you've grabbed my attention and I've read every page since the beginning of your thread. Thanks for your hard work in posting the pics and keeping it updated!!

Putting as in going for a putt. Thanks for the kind words Jim. It's my pleasure.




Putt putt putt....

Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

... and not to mention the paint left on that cast iron case, it definitely belongs on your bike!

Exactly. There ain't no way I'm repainting that one. The bike didn't have a transmission when I got it, but that one looks like it could have been on that bike for years.
Wait till you see the kick starter. It still has a faint ghost of military green.




Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

I got some discussion outside the forum about the lapping of the shift shaft bushing that is worth passing on. I get a fair bit of feedback via email and phone from this forum, and sometimes it's worth sharing.

The concern with lapping soft bushings is the potential for the grit to embed into it, which could result in accelerated wear of the shaft. Obviously, wear is bad, but especially in the case of century old motorcycle parts that we want to preserve. In my suspension, for example, I used Nylatron for the bushings rather than the original steel, to preserve the good original steel shaft that I found.

When you are lapping a harder material, like steel, it is common to use a brass lapping block or barrel lap, that will hold the grit. The grit embeds into the brass and wears away at the steel. My friend Bob, who is a highly experienced machinist and tool and die maker, taught me earlier this year to lap bronze bushings by using diamond lapping compound. You put the compound onto the brass barrel lap, and push it against a piece of carbide to embed the diamond grit into the brass, then you wipe away the remaining lapping compound so that there isn't any left the get embedded into the bushing. I think you can see a piece of 3/4 carbide bar about 4 inches long in one of the pictures I posted, it has some duct tape wrapped around it's ends as handles from when I was using it as a bearing scraper years ago. This method has worked well and I will continue to use it.

As an alternative, my friend Burgie, who restores and maintains old iron for a living, offered up that he uses a product called Timesaver for lapping soft bushings. Apparently it's a powder that you mix with water, and it doesn't embed into the bushing.












I'll probably look for a can and give it a try sometime.



Kevin


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[BoschZEV]

The concern with lapping soft bushings is the potential for the grit to embed into it, which could result in accelerated wear of the shaft.

Not to go too far off the main topic of restoring your Indian, but I've heard this for years about lapping. I realize that "everyone knows" lapping would embed particles in the part being lapped, but does it really? Maybe I haven't spent enough time looking, but what I've not found are metallographs showing that this is actually the case. Is there verifiable evidence showing what "everyone knows" is actually the case, or has it been passed on as "fact" from generation to generation without being tested because it sounds plausible?

Also, since honing uses hard particles held in a binder, why is it a problem to lap a bronze bush but not to hone it? All it would take to answer these questions is to point me to side-by-side metallographs of bronze bushes lapped and honed with, say, 400 grit. This is more than just of academic interest since I own a Sunnen hone (as do you), and I use its (hard) abrasives to fine-tune the IDs of (soft) bronze bushes.

OK, enough of the rhetorical questions. Back to the Indian.

[Shaky Jake]

Not to go too far off the main topic of restoring your Indian, but I've heard this for years about lapping. I realize that "everyone knows" lapping would embed particles in the part being lapped, but does it really? Maybe I haven't spent enough time looking, but what I've not found are metallographs showing that this is actually the case. Is there verifiable evidence showing what "everyone knows" is actually the case, or has it been passed on as "fact" from generation to generation without being tested because it sounds plausible?

Also, since honing uses hard particles held in a binder, why is it a problem to lap a bronze bush but not to hone it? All it would take to answer these questions is to point me to side-by-side metallographs of bronze bushes lapped and honed with, say, 400 grit. This is more than just of academic interest since I own a Sunnen hone (as do you), and I use its (hard) abrasives to fine-tune the IDs of (soft) bronze bushes.

OK, enough of the rhetorical questions. Back to the Indian.

10-4 BZ. Thanks for the comment. That's why I characterized it as a "concern" and "potential" rather than proven fact. It seems like it could happen so we take precautions. My electron microscope is on the fritz so I won't be able to provide any scientific evidence, do you know anybody that works for a university that might have access to one? ;-) I suppose that the art of antique motorcycle maintenance is based more on first and second hand expirience than scientific method. That's why forums like this are so valuable. We're lucky to have them.

Is your Cannonball mount ready? I've been so busy I fallen behind on reading you build blog. From what I've seen your build has been meticulous. Can't wait to see it.




Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Apologies for skipping ahead. I will go back and fill in the details, but this is the status of
Patience at this moment. Mag is on, timing set, cam case closed up, valves set, motor pretty much buttoned up other than carb and plugs.








Kevin

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