Pa's 42WLA Build

[Paps]

The rear tail light wiring harness was a trip to figure out. It took me a while but I found what I was looking for. I put together the info I sought and found for those who may have the same questions in the future on their WLA model 45's. The pics below hold the answers. What made this a bit of a task was the wiring harness male terminal plug for the left rear light assembly. The teats on the terminal body are equal, not offset as these types of terminal usually are. The female socket slots in the lamp housing are equal as well. In other words, one can install the wiring harness male terminal into the left side female socket lamp body two different ways, making the harness color coding useless since the wires do not enter the terminal horizontally in line with the teats which make contact with the bulbs two contact points. Having the correct military service manual on hand helped a bunch to boot.
As for the lower bulb in the left rear lamp assembly, It is a spare as noted in the pics below.


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[Paps]

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[Paps]

I installed my handlebar assembly then. I got a real surprise when I connected my timer/carburetor control cables to the carburetor and timer.
Below pic shows carburetor lever positions for both the throttle and the choke.


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[Paps]

My handlebar throttle spiral was not positioning the carburetor throttle lever correctly. When I twisted the handlebar grip to open the throttle, the carburetor throttle lever closed. When I twisted to close throttle for idle, my carburetor throttle opened. I thought to myself.....what did I do wrong ??? How could this be ?? My handlebar timer control spiral was working correctly. So I took both spirals back out of the handlebars for a comparison. Below is what I found.

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Yep !!! One was a WLC spiral and one was a WLA spiral. Man was I bummed out !! My real mistake was to assume both spirals would be ok since they both came out of military packaging with the very same factory part number of 3312-35N. One was actually a missed labeled packaged WLC part number 3312- 35AN. This really put the brakes on my build assembly for a spell. Control cable routing is a must before tanks can go on. I made numerous telephone calls and web pleas for a correct 3312-35N good used oem one or an nos one. I had several offers. In fact Chris Haynes and Robbie, both being long standing members of this forum, offered to give me an nos spiral. Steve, another member of this forum and good friend of mine, offered a spiral as well but his spare turned out to be a later spiral. I put the offers from Chris and Robbie on hold until I could chat with my Australian friend again. I would not accept a free spiral from either Chris or Robbie. I know how rare they are to find in any good usable condition, let alone in nos condition. What are the chances I could find another to replace it if I were to have accepted either offer ?? No chances...was my thoughts. Because of this mindset, it is my belief my spiral situation turned out the way it did. My Australian friend came through for me. He had an nos one and let it go to me for a very fair price. Below is that nos spiral.

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One more view of my new nos wla spiral that replaced the factory mislabeled wlc spiral.


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[Paps]

When I began work on my catseye dash cover, I knew repairing it would be a bit of a challenge. My bike would have left the factory with a sharp V die impression catseye dash cover as apposed to the most common flat die impression stamp catseye dash covers. My oem dash cover had been modified at one time or another for what it appeared to be for additional dash light lenses. My dash cover also had numerous cracks around the speedometer area and front face. It was bent out of shape to boot. I would need to fill the additional holes, repair all the cracks and reshape it. Below is a couple of pics of how it looked just before I started repair.

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Filling the additional holes was no big deal since all I had to do was trim a few pieces of correct gauge sheet metal out to fit them and weld them in. Repairing the cracks in the front face was not an issue. A quick welding would take care of those cracks. Repairing the cracks around the speedometer opening diameter was a little more of a challenge. The speedometer opening was not round anymore and those cracks needed repaired. My thoughts ??? How do I repair those cracks and shape it round again ??? If I repair the cracks and then try to re-shape it, it most likely will crack again and other cracks may open up in other areas of the speedometer opening. If I re-shape it first, weld repairs will most likely pull it back out of shape and others cracks may appear. I needed to be able to do both re-shaping and weld repairs at the same time. The solution took me a spell to think up. I had a piece of round stock cast iron on hand. The dash cover is sheet metal. I will take dimensions from the actual speedometer and lathe turn a die out of that round stock cast iron to those dimensions. The die was made. See pic below. This die permitted me to shape the speedometer opening with the use of a torch. I heated the dash cover to cherry red and lower the die into the speedometer opening from the bottom side of the dash cover. The cast iron die easily found home in the speedometer opening and the opening was now round and true again. No new cracks appeared because the cherry red heating prevented any additional cracking. Since weld does not like to bond very well to cast iron, I was able to weld all the cracks on one side while the cast iron die was inserted. I reheated the dash cover up and the die dropped out freely. I then flipped the dash cover over and weld up the opposing sides of the cracks. Next I ground the excess weld off the underside of the speedometer opening, flipped the cover over again and ground the opposite weld repairs down. A bit of filing and the weld repairs were completed. Once more I heated the dash cover up, re-inserted the die, allowed the dash cover to cool completely, and then gently knocked the die out of the speedometer opening. The dash cover fit over the speedometer perfectly and over the tanks just as well. It was now ready for the paint.

Here is a pic of the cast iron die I made with dimensions.

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[Paps]

Ohio-rider:
All I can say is Wow! Great job Paps, I’m learning quite a bit about the differences between the WLA’s and the WL’s from your build. The differences are almost like night and day between the two. If I was you, I’d have that thing judged just for shits and giggles next month at Wauseon. I can’t wait to see that thing in person.

Yeah one thing though, the photo showing” Linkert Carb Control Positions” is confusing. I think you have the choke open and closed positions titled backwards.
Thanks Steve !

I will have a few actual AMCA judges who are friends look it over for their opinions and expertise in military motorcycles, notably the wla, eventually. I highly value those friends opinions but I won't accept an AMCA Paper written judgment. I won't enter it for judging until the AMCA reverses their new judging criteria and policy of not standing by their judging and the disclaimer one now must sign which indicates one can never use an AMCA score of judging, given by the AMCA to his motorcycle, as a promo pitch in the case of maybe selling their motorcycle one day. I doubt they will ever return to the past judging criteria and policy. Besides, I would have to strip all of the during the war time additional parts which were added during the war years, to bring her back to an as from the factory look, since the AMCA does not have a category for a bike like mine is now. WLA's did not have the star painted on the tanks when they left the factory either. If you are in near town anytime just call me to make sure I am here so you can check it out personally.

I will have to pull my carburetor oil bath aircleaner hose elbow back off to verify whether I made a typo or not Bro. "CRAP" !!

I pulled the oil bath aircleaner hose elbow off this morning Steve. Previous drawing looks ok to me. See pics below. What am I missing that you were trying to point out ?

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[Paps]

I mentioned earlier about the many parts I assembled on to the bike. A few I noted as temporary. The outer primary cover was one of those temporary parts and since I removed the aircleaner to carburetor hose elbow for the choke lever verification, I figured I might as well pull off the temporary outer primary cover which I never intended to actually use. Its an an aftermarket outer primary cover. I am just one of those folks who must see what a cover on would look like in reality. Since I had an aftermarket outer primary cover on hand, I went ahead and painted it and put it on until I restored my oem outer primary cover. I actually learned something about aftermarket outer primary covers in the process. The aftermarket one I temporarily used was Made In America. I can’t vouch for others but this is what I learned about my particular USA made cover. It fit well but it was not intended or made close enough to oem specifications to use on a wla model sporting a rectangular oil bath aircleaner. It is more suited for a civilian wl model. I know this because I decided to add the correct level of oil to my aircleaners oil pan and when I unlatched the oil pan from the aircleaner while I had the aftermarket outer primary cover installed, I could not remove it from the aircleaner. It would not drop all the way off of the aircleaner in order to remove it all the way off of the bike. This was due to the design of the aftermarket outer primary cover. The aftermarket outer primary cover did not include clearance for this procedure. The oil bath aircleaners must be serviced. The oil must be changed out and the filters cleaned. One should not have to remove the aircleaner from the bike in order to remove the oil pan from it. Oem oil bath aircleaners and oem outer primary covers were designed with this clearance built in so the aircleaner oil tank [bottom of the aircleaner] would drop right off vertically. The clearance the USA made aftermarket outer primary cover neglected, or missed to incorporate, was in the 3 stage stepped terraces near the clutch drum area which is purposely incorporated into the oem cover design. The height of the aftermarket cover terraces is excessive and prevents the aircleaners oil pan from removal. See pic below. Before I forget....the oem outer primary cover I just installed, permits the oil bath aircleaners oil pan to be removed, dumped, cleaned, and refilled, easily. Filters come out just as easy to boot.


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There are other obvious differences between the real deal oem outer primary cover and my USA made cover. However, those other differences are cosmetic and will not affect performance. If I were an AMCA judge though, I would deduct points for using them, just because of the cosmetic differences. If anyone would like to view those cosmetic differences, just shout out and I will post a comparison of those cosmetic differences.

[Paps]

Ohio-rider:

That’s weird, the choke on my M88 is setup opposite from yours. My choke plate is even upside down from yours and swings in the opposite direction as well. Just goes to show how forgiving these Linkerts are, we can even put them together backwards and they work just fine.

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Don’t mean to highjack your thread Paps but this has got me wondering this morning so I did a google search for m88 photos and to my surprise I have found photos showing the choke setup both ways just as you and I have. Now I’m really scratching my head as to which is the correct way. I’m betting you have it right though.

Pa

Not a hijacking at all Steve. I am hoping members will chime in on all posts. I think I remember using a military service manual photo when I put mine together. I will look for the photo and put it up on here. I also think I remember pondering why the hole should be down and just figured the MoCo must have wanted additional drainage for floated fuel.

[Paps]

Figured regardless of the lack of shout outs for the oem verses reproduction outer primary cover cosmetic differences, I figured I would post them anyway. Heck....Someone on the web may have use for them.

Note the black lines pointing to the reinforcement ribs. Compare the oem primary cover with the reproduction primary cover. The ribs on the reproduction cover are wider than the ribs on the oem cover. The lower rib on the oem cover is one continuous rib and the lower rib on the reproduction cover is broken into two lengths. There are less spot welds on the reproduction cover as well.

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[Paps]

Pa

OK..... I did a quick look into my books but did not locate the pic I spoke of yet. However, I also looked into Bruce Palmer III's book, "How To Restore Your Harley Davidson", and on page 253, left side of page, second paragraph from the bottom, Bruce basically states... 1", 1-1/4", and some 2" choke discs with a hole in them, the hole goes on the bottom.


John HD:

The choke disks with no hole were part of a "sub zero" starting package that included a fuel tap installed in the drain plug for filling a blow torch and a red painted choke lever.
the blow torch was for pre heating the cyls.
Pa, your choke lever is correct and the same as mine.
John


Pa

Thank you John. Yippeee !!! These relics are a trip though.


Ohio-rider:

Oh for “explicit” sakes, why is mine always the wrong one? :lol:

John HD:

Ohio,
thats the way it is with my pan. face plant with my palm!
the instructions for the blow torch are at the bottom of this page: http://www.theliberator.be/liberator2.htm
thanks to Johan and Craig Timmerman.
John

Pa

Great info John !! I saw that blow torch. It is in one of my books. Pretty neat for them to have thought of heating the carb up and using a completely closed choke disc to draw pure fuel in for extreme cold weather. Johan has documented the wla and wlc model 45's extensively and he constantly finds files and photos of ww2 45's for us. Johan also has an awesome collection to boot.

I cannot count how many times I installed a part incorrectly during this build, only to have to remove it and reinstall it correctly. I only wish I would have documented all those bumps in the road. Every time I hit one of those bumps in the road, all I could say to myself was "Stupid Ass". Sometimes the wife would hear me make that comment to myself and then ask me if I enjoyed talking to myself. Documentation may have prevented me or someone else from stumbling. One off the top of my head is the jiffy stand assembly. My jiffy stand is put together from all nos parts which I gathered together over the years. When I assembled it, the spring gave me issues. That is one strong puppy !! I remember trying to stretch it onto the positions and I could not succeed getting it on that way. I found a really easy trick to installing that spring but I do not remember what that trick was. It had something to do with a combination installation of additional parts of the assembly and how you position them in relation to the spring, the leg, the plate, and the bushing.

[Johnnyf]

Holy cow this is an amazing journey! Thanks for posting and sharing you are truly a WLA Jedi!

[tmckinch]

My springer.... I cannot take the credit for my springer. Steve Lemay put it together for me. Steve did an excellent job. I needed a brazed springer and Steve was the man to ask. Only one issue makes my springer incorrect for an early type III 42 WLA. The date code on the spring fork is a bit later than what my bike would have left the factory with. Then again I thought.....Since the theme of my bike is how it returned from war duty, Who is to say the spring fork was not replaced during the war ? After all, those men beat these bikes in active duty. Though my spring fork sports a bit later casting code, it still is brazed.

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I want to thank you for all the posts, and when I think of the jeeps I beat the snot out of in VN, I can imagine they did the same to the motorcycles