Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Spacke2speed]

Kevin
Going south on the freeway out of Carson City in Nevada, while slowing down (from about 60mph) for the next turn off, my '14 Indian dropped the neck linkage on the throttle side. This resulted in the motor idling only. After a long time walking up down the shoulder of the freeway too many times to count, my friend (who was riding my '14 Indian at the time) and myself stopped looking for it. Of course, some forcefully encouragement from the Nevada Hwy Patrol (two patrol cars, three officers) helped stop the search. We switched bikes and I hand throttle the carburetor until the turnoff, at which time I took the missing neck linkage parts from the other side (spark and compression) and got the throttle linkage back working for the remaining two days of the tour so my friend could continue riding my Indian. It made starting interesting. Do not remember what failed, but I do know I had the cotter pins in the screws on the neck linkage clevises. The only good news was at that time, I had extras of all the missing parts at home.

Mentioned this to show you that you had the parts with you to get the throttle side working again.
Ahhh, the joys of riding old motorcycles.
Spacke2speed

[gww]

we need the video with sound .

[TechNoir]

Re: Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

Kevin,

Frustrating and annoying as these little problems are at the time that they happen it is good that you are putting some miles on the bike and ironing out the issues before you get on the Cannonball. Hopefully this sort of thing happening now means less chance of it happening on the coast to coast.

Also, this just adds to the tales that you can tell in the parking lot.

Good Luck

John

[frichie68]

Man, you sure know how to have a good time . . . . a true learning experience!
Glad it work out ok.

[Shaky Jake]

If you happen to ride a pre 1918 Indian motorcycle with the mechanical throttle and spark advance linkages rather than cables, don't forget to safety wire the little pins that attach the clevises to the pivot arms. If you don't, the pin may fall out, rendering your throttle or spark advance controls inoperable. If that happens, and you're not quick enough in reaching for the kill switch, you may get to take a short ride through the tall weeds when you arrive at a stopping place only to find that your throttle won't close. Don't ask me how I know. If that's not enough, and if you're really lucky, the forces of nature may also conspire to rotate the pivot arm just right so that the little retaining pin lines up with the corresponding little groove, and the pivot arm may separate from the motorcycle frame to be lost forever. You'll probably end up walking up and down the road for a couple hours looking, and then make an emergency telephone call to ZOC for a replacement. The good news is, you get to ride home with your hand on the carburetor, feeling like a board track racer.

Sigh.

Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

I spent yesterday afternoon fiddling with the magneto timing. It is supposed to be set at 9/32 inch btdc, but it always seemed to me like it needed to be advanced a little more. I bumped it up to 5/16 inch and it runs much better. I've put about 40 miles on it today so far. While I was in there I took a peek at the cam and valve lifters, they all seem to be breaking in properly. Next I'm going to swap the rear sprocket from 36 to 40 teeth and see what that feels like. After that I have a pretty bad transmission leak that I need to address.

Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

You know, twenty plus years ago, when I started getting into long distance dual sport riding, I had some of those big aluminum boxes made for the back of my bike. I remember that I designed that set to be just wide enough to hold a paper grocery bag, which was 7 inches I think. They're all the rage now, but they were less common then and most people had to either make them or find someone to make them for them. They make you look like a real adventure rider, they hold a lot of stuff, and they make you feel like your stuff is secure. I started noticing, though, that there was a bunch of stuff in the bottom of the boxes that just sat there and got packed down, but never got taken out. So I took all that stuff out and left it at home. I found that the bike was a lot more fun to ride without that extra weight, especially off-road. I had smaller boxes made, I think I had three sets made over the years, each set getting smaller and lighter. Eventually I ditched the metal boxes all together and got some small gortex saddle bags for my dual sport bike, which by then was a KTM 640 Adventure. I think it took me ten years to figure out that it's all about the ride, and the ride is more fun with less luggage. You don't need all that stuff, and the security of the metal boxes is an illusion. There are less thieves out there than you think, and if you don't have much on your bike, it's less likely to be bothered anyway.

So I guess I'm regressing back to the metal luggage, not my typical MO anymore. I just love the way the Fordson tractor tool boxes look on it. The top box is lightweight tin and doesn't weigh much. I like that it is crusty and doesn't match the bike. It fits the rack perfectly.

Enough rambling. I really wanted to talk about kazoos. I always say that a kazoo is the most fun you can have for a buck. People love kazoos and it's fun to teach people how to play one, especially if you don't speak their language. I have given people kazoos in, I think every country in Central America, about half of the countries in South America, a few European countries, Canada, Alaska, and Viet Nam. Brenda and I had custom kazoos made for our wedding reception. They're great ice breakers and everybody loves them. My favorite kazoo songs are La Cucaracha and Amazing Grace. Why am I talking about kazoos? Well, we had some custom 'Old 97, Motorcycle Cannonball, Team Kelly's Heroes' kazoos made. If you want one, send me a stamped, self addressed envelope to Kevin Naser, PO Box 784, Fort Calhoun, NE 68023. If you would like to include a donation to our Cannonball effort that would be very much appreciated, but not required. Many of you have already given us your support in other ways. We'll send you a kazoo either way if you're one of the first 200 to send in. We only have 250 kazoos, and I want to keep 50 of them for the ride, so I have 200 available. Don't forget the stamped, self-addressed envelope.Here's a picture:



Thanks for your support.




Kevin

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[gww]

great job. looking forward to seeing her. take some bungees.

[TechNoir]

Re: Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

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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Kevin that a fantastic idea.
I like your luggage although I do have one comment. I dont think your brake light is big enough!

[Shaky Jake]

How's this for some adventure luggage?












Kevin

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[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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[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

[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.

[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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[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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