GL 47 motor finished! and loctite saddlebags

Man O man this bike is going to be so cool. This is a very nice detailed out motor. Click the picture and zoom in.

UNGH

whoa

and we got the saddlebags for Andy's 47 today. I will mount them up this weekend, then we can ship out the bike wooo hooo.

picturesque riding pictures

My dad and I took the 47 and 42 into the Palm Garden for lunch. The bikes ran great.

My dad took Andy's 47. This bike is stellar. I love black 47 knuckleheads.

I had to adjust the clutch push rod and I chose to just leave the derby cover off until later.

I am pretty happy with this bike. There are still some growing pains to sort out. I should have it ready to roll in the next week or so.

Maiden Voyage

My dad took Andy's 47 for its first spin today. This bike runs and works so nicely. I love black knuckleheads!!!!

more 36 frame pics and good news.

Here is a neat detail on the 36 frame that I noticed. It is a DIF marking. I have seen these on some loops, but not all of them. The right/upside loop does not have this marking on this frame.


Here is a good shot that shows lots of damage that is expensive and difficult to repair. You can see where the tubes snapped off and were re welded. Also check out the neat fix for the seat post, they welded a gusset tube around the cracked and disfigured original post. You can also see where someone torch welded so many joints on this frame. The motor/trans mount and the foot board tabs are pretty obvious as is all of the extra welding on the tubes.




We fired up Andy's 47 today. I side kicked it for a bit and did not have much luck. SO we rolled it off of the lift, and it fired right up once it was straddle kicked.






This bike is Choice. I can't wait to ride it when the weather gets better.

brakes, dogs and

i spent the rest of the day sorting out the footboard and brake pedal on Andy's 47. Here is a picture of duke checking it out. He approves


OOOO aaaaahhhh. I love metal foot board mats. I think that the rubber mats started to appear sometime around the 5500 serial number range.

the little things

I finished up mounting the exhaust and tyed up the loose ends on wiring Andy's 47 over the weekend. I still have to put in the 47 only speedo light, but this is pretty much done.


This picture is a little blurry, I took it to show the post war self made terminals on the brake light switch and the paper gasket. Some gaskets are brown and others are white? I think that hte later ones are white paper. Our op 41, 46 and 47 have brown gaskets, I am not sure when hd changed it? do you guys know? please advise

mystery bike and knucklehead pics

Here is a neat picture of my fathers grandfather's brother back in 1918. I do not know what the bike is? Do any of you guys/Pete have an idea? HEre is a neat picture of Don's 42 foot board mat. I used nos mats on it, and they are beautiful. I am plugging away at Andy's bike. Here is a good pic of how the front brake cable should be routed. I should have this bike running soon. I cant wait.

go

Ray is finishing up Bob's 45 transmission today. It is turning out great.

My dad is cutting valve seats on knuckleheads and trying to catch these other three sets up with the rest of them.

And I am working on cables and Wiring on Andy's bike. The throttle cable runs outside of the frame on 36 to 47 big twins.

knucklehead pics

I put the vent and return lines on Andy's 47 last night. They look great.


I spent two hours last night trying to get some original horns to work. No matter what I did, I couldn't make them work. My dad came out this morning and spent a half hour on it and it was fixed. He is so damn sharp. I am very lucky to have him for helping me out on projects.



Here is a repro 41 and 42 front brake lever perch. I looked for an original one for the last two years and could not find one, so I pulled the original one off my dad's 41 and made some copies. This is a terrible business decision, because at the most I will probably sell two of them, but I have them for the bikes that need them. I have to look at the big picture in cases like this.



here is the side profile. I still have to sand down the parting line and polish it, but this piece is almost done.

brakes!!!!

I am in brake mode for a while. Here is a pic of a sunnen pin hone arbor for honing out the rear brake pedals for an oversize stud. I used to have to make these studs from scratch, but colony just came out with new standard and oversized pins. This saves soo much time.


Here it is after it is fit to the pedal. I like to have .010 to .015 clearance.



Here are the rear brakes that I am sorting out. I have most of the parts, but need to order springs. I love doing things in batches, it makes life so much easier.

fixing stuff up

Here is a 1941 rocker box that i got from my friend Dale, He needed it welded up and repaired. I have had to fix these up before, I don't know what causes this, I would guess somebody dropping a complete head on the ground. Who knows really? Have any of you guys ever busted one of these up?


Here it is all welded up and ready to machine. It turned out well and will be very difficult to notice once my dad is done machining it.



I fit the s pipe and front header pipe on Andy's 47 tonight after everyone had left the shop. It turned out well, I should have the exhaust for this bike, Don's 42 and my dual exhaust pipes at the painters by the time i leave.

some more 47 wiring shots

Here is the pic that tim requested a couple days ago.


I installed the rebuilt 32e generator from Dale Cashman this morning. Here is a neat pic of it all wired up. 47 was the first year for a green gen to relay wire.



and a shot from the other side. this all looks nice. I will be setting up handlebar controls shortly.

47 wiring details.

1947 was the first year for a green wire to the oil pressure switch. It is also the last year of this fancy nickle plated push on terminal. I made these up a few years ago and Love them. Here it is crimped and soldered into place. I have a bunch of nos panhead ones, but eventually they will run out and I will have to make those ones too.


I buttoned up a bunch of the wiring on Andy's 47. Here is a good front business shot of the horn



OOOO AAAAAHHHH sterile.




That red wire is the positive wire. It loops around from the right side frame terminal, goes through a little clip, then back to the battery.

Man o man I love having the right stuff on our bikes. This is a great pic. I hope these pics help some of you guys out that are putting your bikes together.

grinding surprises, nerdy details and oil pump fixes

A lot of people try to take the oil pump off without taking the key out of the shaft and mark up the hole that the shaft goes through. This was the case on the 55 that my dad is putting together. This is a fairly easy fix, you just put a dab of material in the hole and re machine it out.


I got my 976 stamp that I have been waiting for. This is a cool detail that we are now doing. Our 46 and 47 each had a white stamp with 976 on it. Our 41 and 37 horns are too rusty to tell if there ever was a stamp on them. I have only seen this on hummer horns and 42 to 57 horns. Have any of you guys seen the stamp on an original paint nine bolt horn, or a six bolt vl horn.



Here is an original horn off of a 45 big twin with the stamp. Pretty cool detail.




I prepped a bunch of stuff for aluminum welding tonight. This is the corner of Doug's 36 case. It had some pretty nasty repairs done to it in the past. You can see where I cut it with the cut off wheel in order to break the chunk out. Well I pryed on it with a screw driver and this chunk came out about a 100 thousandths above where I cut the case. Check out how dark it is, this has been cracked and ready to let loose for a LONG time. I don't know how to put into words how difficult it is to take a cut off wheel and grinder to a super early 36 knucklehead transmission case. After seeing this, I am glad that i did do it.





Here are some of the parts I ground on. Should be welded up and fixed pretty soon!

trim, lights and busted up parts

It is Ray's birthday today, so we got him a cake.


I mounted up the tail light on andy's 47. I love these blacked out bikes.



The inside is painted white to help reflect light better.




Check out the trim on the front fender ooooohhhhh aahhhhh. This makes such a difference.





I got this neat wr case in to weld up for my friend in North Carolina. This bike raced daytona in 50 and 51. I am not sure when the motor mount got busted off, but it did. I have a 42 wr bike to restore for a friend of mine. I am so excited about it.