the seat post!

[pisten-bully]

Nothing urgent here, but I'm taking care of the undercarriage on my Chief after 50k miles, sidestand, center stand, battery tray off for blasting and painting. To get the center stand off you get into one of those chain reaction procedures.... batter tray needs to come off to get to the nuts on the center stand, seat post nuts need to come off to get the center stand bolts out. So I figured as long as I have all that stuff off I may as well remove the seat post and see what's worn to improve the bottoming out I get on the the big bumps. Full disclosure, I don't weigh a whole lot at 160#, but on the bigger bumps the seat will hit hard on the bottom... so off it comes (...I couldn't find any past postings on the seat post, so here I am).

First thing I noticed (besides the copious amounts of grease inside) was that the bottom of the post was assembled unlike the parts book details:

bottom as assembled.jpg

... and the whole assembly didn't match the parts book, either:

as assembled.jpg

[pisten-bully]

Parts book shows three springs all the same on the bottom rod, yet I had two the same and the third a bit shorter:

parts diagram.jpg

and the top springs were wrong on mine, both springs were below the upper spring seat instead of one above and one below:

upper springs.jpg

[pisten-bully]

... and there are two spring seats in in the lower spring assembly, yet they are different diameters on either end of each spring seat... the larger cone shaped end only fits into the shorter spring:

spring seat.jpg
and there was spring wear on two of the longer lower springs where they rubbed against the frame tube:

spring wear.jpg

[pisten-bully]

So I'm pondering putting everything back to stock, or to simply get another spring or two and go from there (it wasn't all that bad after all!)

[TH47Indy]

Hey Harry, I also had a post with mismatch springs and similar issues. I was told it was a Harley post, so I went with a new one from Todd, but thinking that I may order the 3) heavy duty springs, which are a little longer. I'm a little over 200lbs, and haven't ridden mine yet but they the new post does seem too soft for me as is.

[Skirted]

Harry,
I rebuilt my spring assembly this past year after my wife badly bruised her tailbone on the luggage rack after the Chumee seat bottomed. I think it may have been original springs. They were worn flat on the sides like your pic and everything was assembled correctly. I bought all 5 new stock springs from Greer. All the other parts were fine. Its an interesting assembly for sure. I can see why they got reassembled wrong.......especially back before the handy camera phone to document disassembly.
The new springs made a huge difference. Its quite firm now.

[Rubone]

Without one of the top springs above the rod the post will go all the way into the top sleeve allowing bang and/or allowing the pan to hit something below it. With them both below it lowers the seat height though.They are recoil springs. It is common for different diameters as the heavier springs generally are different gauge wire.

[pisten-bully]

Thanks you three! Any Harley Davidsonesque looking parts there? The lower mid spring seats don't make sense

[indian301]

Harry,

Check the seat post bushing in the frame as well. On my '48 Chief it was egg shaped and missing more than half of it.

Dave

[pisten-bully]

Bushing looks good, thanks Dave, it's round but I need to check the clearance even though it holds the tube without slop:

8A8DAC1F-859E-4A05-928D-F74D046D850F.jpeg

[pisten-bully]

What I believe I have here is a hybrid, Harley springs on an Indian seat post. From what I can see when looking at HD seat post pictures (I don't have an HD parts book), on the lower end of the seatpost Harley used two longer springs with a shorter one in the middle, while Indian used three springs of equal length. So far I've measured the top tube and the full length rod and they match up to Indian's tube and rod, and the top two springs match up to Indian specs, too. So my first guess is that somewhere along the way somebody put in new springs and all they could get at the time were HD springs.

More measuring with the idea that I'll simply install three new Indian springs and seats and call it good!

[scootertramp46]

Thirty six years ago when I got my 46 running, an "old guy" told me to put a piece of front spring around the seat post above the frame to keep from bottoming out . You can take about 2 1/2 inches of front spring or bigger shock spring. It works great and is out of scrap parts, so cost is nothing. I have done this on several bikes since then.

[pisten-bully]

...going to wrap this up by reporting that I went with three lower new main springs, and since I replaced the HD springs with the Indian set-up it required two new spring seats for between the springs and a new lower spring seat. So everything's back together in the correct sequence, and as the book says "coat the springs with grease" and then back in the frame it goes!
91B9D5A2-F8E4-443E-B6FE-8C3632F9B979.jpeg

[Jim]

Thanks for that update! I always appreciate it when people update posts.