Carl La Fong...Boy Genius™

Fire In The Hole

2012-01-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a red letter day. I fired the bike for the first time in way too long. The new fuel system seems to work fine. I had a few minor leaks (ya gotta tighten down ALL of the fittings). Once again, I have to give props to my Odyssey battery. It has sat, unused, since I tore the bike down. I put the charger on it for 20 minutes or so and it started immediately. The real bonus was the clutch. In a previous post I outlined how I redid the bell crank from the cable to the booster. I'm not sure why, but the pull on the handlebar lever decreased markedly. It now feels like a normal HD clutch. Very light and smooth. I'm stoked over it. I may play with the ratio a bit to see if I can get a little more stroke. It will increase effort at the lever, but a bit more won't be an issue. For the few clutch bikes that are still out there, I really recommend the piggy backed booster and mousetrap. It was simple to build and it works.

Breathe Deep, The Gathering Gloom..........

2011-12-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I showed how I filled in the frame, in front of the tank, to clean up the looks a bit. This still left me with that big hole in the front of the tank. I suppose the thought is, it is there to serve as an air intake. I feel BH could have done better, as far as appearance is concerned. After making a few cardboard mockups, I felt I had the look I was after. I took two short pieces of tubing, hammered a flare on each one and welded them to a piece of sheet metal, cut to the shape of the gap in the tank with two holes cut in it to match the flared tubes. A piece of 1/4 rod was formed and welded to the bottom edge. Then the whole deal was welded to the tank. As always, when I weld a tank, I connect a length of hose from an exhaust source, in this case, my Diesel tractor. The other end goes to the tank filler. The exhaust displaces the air and, therefore, the O2 and an explosion is not possible. A thin coat of plastic filler, primer and paint finishes it off. I turned the bezels for the little grilles out of some aluminum and cut the mesh from an old desk set, one of those deals with a pencil holder, a letter organizer and so on. I keep my pencils in a coffee can. Looks like two, big ol' nostrils, sorta like Paul Jr.
In the photo, the tank appears shiny, gloss black and the frame, sort of a dull gray. Actually, both need final color sanding and a good compounding and final polish. Lacquer is time consuming, but the results are worth it. Ignore the loose wires. They'll go away, soon.

Will Ya Still Need Me, When I'm 64?

2011-11-22T17:09:00.000-08:00

It's time to pull the trigger on the new belt. 565 bucks American!!!! While this seems like a lot of dough, it's not quite as bad as it seems. It is a Gates GT Carbon Fiber Polychain, the latest hot setup. Much stronger than the Gates GT that I was running originally. The length that I need, (1750 mm) only comes in a 90 mm width, so by bandsawing it down the middle, I will have two, 45 mm, belts, which is the stock BH width. This should be the last, high ticket, item that I need to procure. I don't mind being nickle and dimed to death, but dropping 5-6 hundred clams kind of stretches the budget a bit, especially with our property tax due very soon.
The belt arrived the other day. Today I worked up the gumption to saw it in half. I'd almost rather do a root canal on myself. I have a, very nice, large bandsaw so I decided to use it rather than the tablesaw. I set the fence at 45mm from the blade and clamped another wooden fence 45mm on the other side of the blade, capturing the belt and holding it snug. I fired up the saw and began to feed the belt into the blade. I "rolled" the belt in, keeping the upper loop stationary and cutting the bottom loop only. All went well and instead of $565.00 worth of trash can filler, I have one belt plus a spare. Tomorrow, the swingarm and wheel assembly should go on for the last time. I may, actually, get to ride this thing before I turn 64 in three weeks. 64!?!?!?! Criminy!!!! I'm my own grandfather.

Polish Joke

2011-11-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

Not so funny, really. I've been spending a lot of time in front of the buffer, polishing all of the alloy parts that I can. Both wheels, the brake calipers and master cylinder, motor mounts, etc., etc. It's filthy work, compound and lint all over everything. The results are worth it, though. I was surprised at how dingy everything had become, especially the wheels. I used Blue Magic as a final polish after buffing. It's really good stuff. Cheaper than Simichrome and much easier to use.

Turn, Turn, Turn.

2011-10-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Today, I spent a few hours in front of the lathe, whittling some miscellaneous items. I made two of these little "hats" to cover the swingarm pivot bolts. I have stainless socket head cap screws on order to replace the black oxide ones currently holding the flanged bearings in place. The removal of the handlebar switches left gaps between the grips and the levers, so I whipped up a simple spacer for the clutch (remember those? Real motorcycles have them.) side. The throttle side was a bit more complicated. I still want a kill button, so I made a split collar. I machined a little plastic button and ran a wire to it. A spring from a ball point pen completes the gizmo. I have wired in a relay for the ignition. Turn on the key switch and it sends power to the relay and, in turn, to the distributor. The handlebar button, when depressed. interrupts the ground to the relay and kills the ignition. Simple, huh?

Fat Is Where It's At

2011-10-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

I always preferred the look of the old style fenders that the early bikes had. I'm, also, not a big fan of the stock, Tupperware, units that Boss Hoss uses. I ordered a genuine, made in China, from American scrap iron, "chopper fender" from an online vendor for a hundred bucks. What a bargain!?!? Of course it was not available in the width required for a real motorcycle, so out came the cutoff tool and I zipped it in half. A four inch strip of sheet metal was clamped between the two halves with these nifty little clamps from Harbor Fright. A few hours of welding, grinding, some judicious pounding with hammer and dolly and, voila, one custom bobbed Boss Hoss fender. A light coat of plastic filler and she'll be good to go. I'll be mounting the plate and tail light under the rear

Baby's In Black and I'm Feelin' Fine

2011-08-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

After another hospital stay, I figured enough clowning around. I've missed the riding season due to a variety of issues, some unforeseen and some self imposed. Back to the shop. In the past week, I've managed to prep the frame and the side covers and get a nice coat of black acrylic lacquer on them. the covers came out pretty nice after the mods that I made to them and the frame looks real good as well. Once they're rubbed out, they'll really sparkle. Tomorrow I will actually begin re assembly. I should be able to get the frame wrapped around the engine, the fuel and cooling systems installed, the front end on and a bunch of other odds and ends. Maybe next month I can make some noise. Probably when I fall off of a ladder

The Prime Directive

2011-08-16T22:24:00.001-07:00

The frame in primer. I did a bit of molding around the neck, the swing arm mounts and the rear frame gussets. I'll let it sit for a few days to finish drying and shrinking and then the lacquer goes on. The engine/trans are cleaned and detailed to LaFong standards. I replaced all of the bolts that I could with stainless socket head cap screws and those little snap in chrome caps. I got a new chrome intake manifold (thanks Stan) and stainless 12 point bolts from ARP. The fuel system is done, the clutch and shifter are very close, a couple of hours work and they'll be done. A few more welds and the swing arm will be done also. This will leave the rear fender that I have to widen and a modification to the tank that will be the subject of a future post.

Genesis or the Application of One's Self

2011-08-09T15:14:00.000-07:00

"In the beginning, God created the Boy Genius™. He saw that he was good".
Well, it may not have been exactly that way, but it sounds good, huh? Actually it was slightly less dramatic. As a kid at Camellia Avenue Elementary School in the early 50s, I displayed some unusual talents. My art skills were quite advanced for a 5 year old and the teachers took note. I've posted a painting that I did in kindergarten and another that I did, almost 60 years later. Yeah, yeah, I know, "which one is which?" Later on as I learned to read, I was reading at a level far above the usual Dick and Jane stuff. I got into trouble for reading my entire textbook in a few days, rather than waiting for the whole class to struggle along, at one or two pages a day. Again, the teachers took note. It was during this time that someone decided that I should be tested. I'm not sure if it was to find out if I was bright or an idiot savant. They gave me the Stanford Binet IQ test. I scored 124. Now, this should have marked a turning point in my young life. However, this was the unenlightened 50s. I suppose I was expected to do better, at that point, without any outside influence. I was never guided into any special programs or counseled in any way. I was just told, every time that I screwed up, that I was a smart kid and that I should "apply" myself. My parents, who were good people, pretty much did the same. I don't know if they were intimidated, by a snot nosed kid who may have been smarter than they were, or not. So, all of this, and my life long inability to focus on anything for more than an hour or two, led to a school career marked by failure with occasional bursts of mediocrity. I graduated from high school with a low C average. I attended school in the Navy and did well because the curriculum interested me. Later I attended welding school with the same results. I never had to study during either course. That is the extent of my formal education. I bounced around, pretty much, the rest of my working life doing this and that. I was an embalmer, an auto body and paint guy, a teamster, a carpenter and a bunch of other stuff. I guess my failure to "apply" myself led to my failure to capitalize on my, alleged, talents.
So, to get to the point of all this. Little Carl was a 7 year old "Boy Genius™", Big Carl is a pretty smart guy. No more and certainly no less. Do I feel that I am smarter than everyone else? No, I do not. I feel that I am smarter that most, if not all, of the ditzels, dimwits and career under achievers that we all come into contact with every day. I can, usually, do the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle. I can visualize a finished product while looking at a raw piece of material. I can do, basic, math. I can speak, spell and write reasonably well. I can dress myself. Am I still a Boy Genius™? Yes, absolutely. An adult genius ...........Nahhh, just Ol' Carl, the guy that knows how to do a variety of things with a fair degree of competence.

Back on Track

2011-06-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

Back to the subject of pulley alignment and tracking. On the V8BikeRiders website I have seen posts where riders have been advised to loosen their rear mounts and pry the transmission over to correct belt tracking problems. I would imagine that the engine/trans would tend to shift to the right under power. With this in mind, I slotted the mount holes on the rear cross member, that I built at the beginning of the build, to allow for adjustments later on. I also built this little gizmo to allow for easier tweeking of the belt tracking.

Square to the World

2011-05-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

I spent 5 or 6 hours in the shop today shimming, prying, leveling, dropping plumb bobs, measuring, establishing center lines and so on. Things just didn't seem right. Nothing was the same from left to right or top to bottom. The long and short of it is, the engine did not sit in the frame straight or level. It was 3/16" low on the right side and skewed to the right about the same amount. I don't know why my belt tracked straight with everything so far out of whack. I thought, at first, that it might have been due to all of the mods that I made to install the Ranger, but the only, real, change was the rear mount which was built with the original front and top mounts in place. Of course, all this tweeking came at a cost. Now the swing arm mounts, that I built at the beginning of this saga, are misaligned. So, out came the smoke wrench and 2 minutes later they were off and laying on the floor. No drama other than the small brush fire in front of the building. I'm still pretty spry for 63. Ran, grabbed the hose, ran through the shop,dragging the hose, soaking everything in the process, out the front door and extinguished it. After catching my breath, I tacked the mounts back on. Everything is now coplanar. That is very important with a belt drive. Every component has to be at 90 or 180 degrees to each other. If not, there will be tracking problems. Some riders compensate for misalignment by cranking up the left adjuster. This is bad practice for several reasons. First is the one inch diameter axle and the large slider blocks in the swing arm. They do not allow for the axle to be "gimbled" over. What really happens is the swing arm and the bushings are placed under, even more, stress. The other thing is the belt is deformed. The belt is, basically, a cylinder. When you tweek it to one side to adjust tracking, it is forced into a slight taper or funnel shape. It will take a set as the fibers bed in. The only real solution is to be anal about setting everything straight. I'm glad that I noticed this before finishing the swing arm. I only want to build this last one

Prototyping and Change Orders

2011-05-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

I stayed pretty busy today. I generally go into the shop with high hopes of getting something done, but often end up being distracted. I suspect it's an ADD thing or sumpthin'. I rarely seem to work in a linear fashion, choosing instead to fiddle fart around with three or four minor projects instead. I made a mounting bracket for the fuel pressure regulator. I re assembled the paint free frame around the engine/trans unit. The transmission crossmember that I built previously will need some minor notching to clear the large front pulley. It actually clears as is, but I need a bit more so I can change the belt without splitting the frame. The old swing arm is another story entirely. It has been cut and welded too many times and the pivot mounts need to be altered to clear the pulley as well. So, it to, has been consigned to The Big Box O' Failures. I feel that Boy Geniuses™ rarely fail, so henceforth The BBOF shall be known as The Big Box O' Prototypes. Has a much more professional ring to it. I grabbed two more pieces of the 2 inch square tube that the first swing arm was made from, mounted them in the mill and cut the slots for the axle just as I did in January 2008. No need for pictures, same deal as before. Tomorrow I hope to make up the new pivot mounts. cut and weld the swing arm to put the bend in it and weld on the shock mounts. The new swing arm crossmember will be much simpler, hopefully, than the old cut, weld, cut weld, #*&%#*& lousy no good, cut weld again monstrosity. We'll see.

Strippin' and Slickin'

2011-05-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been spent stripping off all of the old powder coat from the frame. It went fairly well. Boss Hoss didn't sandblast the frames prior to coating, so it didn't stick particularly well. Much of it practically fell of and paint stripper took care of the rest. A few passes with a 4" grinder with a wire wheel got into the nooks and crannys. Tomorrow I'll sandblast and begin slicking everything off with plastic filler and get it ready for primer. I was able to get good ol' lacquer primer/surfacer on line. I'm surprised that the tree huggers would allow it here in The Peoples Socialist Republik of Kalifornia. I have a new, unopened gallon of black acrylic lacquer that I dug out of the trash at work. Your tax dollars at work. Rest assured that an American Taxpayer will make good use of it. Some have said, "Why don't you just powder coat it?". Bondo and powder coat don't play well together. Lacquer has a look of it's own. Sorta warm and organic unlike the plasticky looking powder. Lacquer is totally forgiving. Chips and scratches are easy to fix. The real reason? Even though I have to buy the primer and thinner, the paint job will run less than a hundred bucks. Scrooge LaFong wins again. I think it's one of the Beatitudes, "The cheapskates shall inherit the good trash"

Not the Same Old Shift

2011-05-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

It's time to replace the ugly shifter that I cobbled up after the failed jockey shift episode. My idea was to find an old bicycle and use one of the crank arms as a shifter. After cruising a few yard sales, I found that junk bikes are still to much for the Po' Boy and most don't have the type of crank setup that I'm looking for. So, I grabbed a hunk of rectangular aluminum, put it between centers and cut away everything that doesn't look like a shifter. My lathe has a taper attachment that made it easy to come up with something that doesn't look home brewed. I stopped at the bicycle shop and bought a wedged cotter that most of the older bikes use to hold the crank arm on. I milled a flat on the shifter shaft and the cotter holds everything together nice and snug. At the same time, I moved the pivot up to the same axis as the clutch bell crank. This, of course, necessitated making a new bell crank since the old one had a little 3/8 bushing and the shifter uses 5/8. I cut it out with the torch, cleaned it up on the grinder and disc sander, made up a new hub, popped in a couple of bushings, added a Zerk and it's a done deal. Same for the lug that will weld to the frame. All in all it came out pretty good, I think

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

2011-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

It's time to address the wiring on my bike. The original harness looked as if it was made by a black widow spider on LSD. Additionally, it had been violated, repeatedly, by person or persons unknown who did not own a soldering iron, an assortment of crimp connectors or the crimping pliers. He (they) did, however, have an unlimited supply of electrical tape. I removed the entire harness and set it in front of me and went at it with knife and wire cutters. All I was left with was a few connectors and some lengths of wire. The factory wires with the application printed on them will, more than likely, be reused. Many of them will hit the trash can. There are no more electric pumps or tank valve so those circuits are no longer needed. The, mysterious, master relay will also disappear. I don't, quite, understand its function. I have wired a few cars and bikes over the years and none of them had a master relay. Another thing that will cut the number of wires to a minimum is the Grip Ace system http://www.gripace.com/ that I bought. The blinker, starter, high/low, and horn are all controlled by a touchpad that fits into the left grip. There are two, small wires that pull through the bars and connect to a module that controls all of the, previously mentioned, functions. All of the, sometimes, troublesome and bulky looking handlebar switches will go into the Big Box O' Unused, Unwanted and Unnecessary Parts. Simplification does have it's cost. I had to add a few relays that BH didn't originally us. I still have the fan and horn relays, but there are new ones for the lights, start circuit and the ignition. The new harness, when completed may be sent out and covered with, old style, cloth braiding. I have a local outfit that we used to use for our Austin Healey harnesses. Fortunately, for me, they're still in business. I do not like taped harnesses or the corrugated, split plastic loom tubing that most people use. Just too cheezy and off the shelf looking. The braided loom will look really nice next to the fuel lines. Most people will never see it. Those that do will, probably, not notice anything special but that's OK. I and other detail oriented folks will see the difference. Sorta like a secret handshake.

Trikes and Trikers

2011-04-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

On a motorcycle website, that I frequent, many of the members ride trikes. Often, some of them feel compelled to defend their choice of rides. Excuses range from, they are too old or infirm and a trike is their only choice all the way to trikes are, quite simply, better. I have ridden a few trikes over the years and even built one in the 70's. As a certified Boy Genius™, I have my thoughts about two versus three wheels. Of course, I am going to share them. The following are the reasons people ride tricycles.
1. Too old or infirm to ride a two wheeler.
No problem there. We all have to do the best we can with what we have left.
2. They have more carrying capacity.
Yes they do. There is plenty of room for a change of undies, tampons, your large collection of, douchey looking, do rags, nail files, Depends etc. How do the two wheel guys manage?
3. They're safer.
No they're not. Avoiding objects in the road is more difficult. Swerving between lanes, in an emergency, is out.
4. They won't fall over at a red light.
Oh Brother!! Maybe you should take a bus. What makes you think you won't just fall off the damned thing at any given time.
5. My wife likes it better than a bike.
My wife would like it if I wore a tuxedo, threw away all of my crappy T shirts and took up embroidery so I could keep her company. I'm keeping my testicles right where they belong. I love my wife, but certain thing are sacrosanct.
6. There's really no difference.
Uh huh, and sex with a man is just as good if the lights are off. Motorcycles, the kind with two wheels, are a Zen sort of thing. If you are a true biker, you know what I mean. You become one with your machine. Your brain is wired to the whole bike. You can feel the engine, feel the tires as they contact the road. The bike/man leans, counter steers, makes minor corrections automatically. The trike is a three wheeled car, a hermaphrodite contraption, a compromise.
Will the Boy Genius™ ever own a trike? Only if or when I fall into the first category, too ancient or stove in to handle two wheels. Of course, the extra room for travel essentials will be nice and, maybe, Wifey will want to tag along from time to time. Hmmmm, lesse, a Richmond 5 speed, a Jag IRS. You don't think I would take the easy way, do you?

More Fuelishness

2011-01-17T21:23:00.000-08:00

I have decided to remove the electric fuel pump from my bike and run a Race Pumps, piston style, pump. It will provide all of the fuel that I could ever ask for. It is not a cheap setup. The pump and regulator (you have to run theirs) run about 250 bucks. It is not a quick bolt on. A dimple needs to be made in the frame tube to allow the pump to fit. To make things even worse, I am re plumbing the whole system with black anodized AN fittings and black braided hose. I do not care for the looks of the braided stainless and the red and blue fittings that many choose to run. Too flashy for me. I know all of this seems to be overkill, but it looks so cool. I know of, at least, two BHs that have burned due to leaky fuel lines. I have never been a fan of worm clamps and auto part store rubber fuel line. The lines, that I put on during the Ranger swap, have already begun to get hard and show signs of aging.
Pix show the finished lines and pump. The AN fittings required a bit of finesse to install. The finish is quite fragile and ordinary wrenches will scar them. There are assembly tools available, but they are costly. I simply used a heavy piece of leather from an old belt and clamped the fitting in the vise. Using another hunk of leather i used a Visegrip to assemble the fitting to the hose. It sounds a bit brutal, but the fitting were scratch free after assembly.

Filling In The Blanks

2010-12-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

Another thing that bothered me is the big ol' gaposis between the steering neck and the front of the tank. It is even more pronounced on the big block bikes. Today, I cut out a couple of pieces of steel and welded them in place between the neck and the tank mounts. This will look much better than staring at the wiring harness and all of the other, assorted dohickeys under the tank. BH should step up their game and pay more attention to detail on bikes in this price range. There are new players now and their bikes have no loose ends whatsoever.
Another rider filled in the tank tunnel with a piece of expanded mesh. It looks pretty nice, but I have another idea. Mine's not, necessarily, better than his, just different. I want to be different, just like everyone else.

Tune In, Turn On and Drop Out

2010-12-07T18:08:00.000-08:00

No, Dr Leary isn't back from the dead. While the bike is apart, I decided to add a drop out crossmember. This modification allows the oil pan to be removed without dismantling the bike. This is not my innovation. It has been done a number of times before I came along. I was advised by another Boss Hoss guru to use VW exhaust flanges. I went to my, local, muffler guy and asked for some. He said he cannot get them any longer because VWs are obsolete. He's been in the business for many years, so I didn't argue with him. I jumped online and found them for 8 bucks each. Now, Jack and Mary Ellen La Fong didn't raise any fools, so I saved my 32 clams and made my own out of a hunk of 2 X 1/8" flat stock that I already had. Hole sawed them out, drilled a 5/16" hole in each corner and there ya go. I could have made 2 or 3 hole flanges, but 4 holes was easier and faster. The, somewhat, tricky part was cutting the crossmember out. I remembered an old trick for cutting tubing nice and square freehanded. Wrap a worm drive hose clamp around the tube, snug it down and use the edge of the clamp as a guide. My Sawzall took a dump, so I used a jigsaw with a fine toothed metal cutting blade. This all needs to be done with the frame still bolted to the engine so alignment is maintained. The flanges were bolted together in pairs, slipped over the stubs on the frame and the severed crossmember was put back into place. The flanges were then slid so one was on the stub and the other was on the crossmember. After everything was square to the world, all four flanges were tacked in place. The crossmember was then removed and the flanges were securely welded in place from the inside for a clean look.

You'll Put Yer Eye Out, Kid

2010-11-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

I received a call today from another BH tinkerer. His first words were, "Yer gonna kill yerself with those mounts." It seems that my assumption about the mounts and their intended function was all wrong. They are not there to keep the engine from moving up, down or around. They are to keep the frame downtubes from bowing out towards the front of the bike. It makes sense to me. So, I grabbed the ol' die grinder and off they came. He sent pictures to me some time ago of his mounts. They are nice, but he has different heads than I do and he doesn't have the same bolt holes as mine. Still, I should be able to come up with a similar setup. Time for some more head scratchin'

OK, boys and girls. I laid awake for almost 10 minutes last night and came up with, what I consider to be, a solution to the various issues that have been raised by experienced bikers, fraidy cats and naysayers (BTW, stop saying nay). There will be no welding on the frame and the mounts will be rigid enough to stop any, potential, movement in any direction. I have finished the right side. I cut a piece of 1/2 plate and drilled it to match the holes in my head (no, not that one, smartass). Using the original BH mounts, I drilled and tapped two more holes in the plate to match up with the holes in the mounts. The left side will be, somewhat similar, only with a much thinner plate bolted to the head because of the cylinder offset.

Later that afternoon.
Finished the right side. Since it is too thin to tap threads into, I welded a short, threaded bung onto the plate for the outer bolt. The other bolt goes through the plate and into the head. The BH mount lined up almost perfectly with the hole in the head. I just had to ream it a bit for wiggle room. All of the exposed bolts will get proper spacers to insure that the mounts all suck up tight to the heads.

Mounting Pressures

2010-11-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

While I'm tearing things down to the bone, I am trying to address every, little weak point that these bikes have. One has been, for many, the top mounts. Some have reported manifold leaks due to the original mounts being bolted to the intake manifold. I have noticed that I need to tighten mine fairly often. They now reside in the used parts bucket. Whenever I go to my favorite metal supply, I grab a hand full of mounting tabs (I used them for my tank mounts)and triangular gussets. They always seem to come in handy for various projects. With just a tiny bit of trimming and one hole each the gussets were perfectly sized to make these new mounts. The left side bolts flat to the head and the right side uses a spacer because of the offset cylinder head. Clean and simple. I was, initially, going to use just one mount on the left side. The two banks of the engine cannot move independently of one another, so one would probably do. I just couldn't stand the asymmetry. Additionally, this will quiet the naysayers who will warn of catastrophic failure, such as, "The bike will rip itself in half the first time you get on it hard."
I will need to redo the radiator mounts since they went away with the factory motor mounts. I imagine a couple of the aforementioned tabs will do nicely.

Tanks For Nothing

2010-10-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

If you pull your own wrenches, one of the most onerous jobs on a Boss Hoss is the removal of the gas tank. I intend to resolve that problem with a few easy modifications and a few home brewed parts. The first of these parts are two of these aluminum buttons (shown on the tile counter) that I made on my lathe. I measured them, mostly, by eye. The only semi-critical measurement was the small diameter, so that a short piece of 3/4" heater hose would slip on snugly. These bolt to the front mounting tabs of the tank and fit into these "C" shaped brackets that bolt to the original tank mounts on the frame. They will be welded in, later, since the weight of a full tank of gas plus the bouncing and vibration will, certainly, cause them to drop down. At the rear of the tank I tossed the original Adel clips (can you say Mickey Mouse?) and welded in permanent tabs that align with the tank mounts. All were drilled to 1/2 inch. I machined two more buttons with a half inch diameter that slides into the two tabs and locates the tank. I went to my local surplus house and picked up two of these quick release pins. They are 7/16 inch diameter. I drilled the buttons 7/16ths to accept the pins. I did not want to rely on the pins alone to hold the tank. I was afraid that the weight and vibration would damage them, so this is why I made up the little buttons. A washer with a 7/16 hole will be tacked to the backside of the frame mount so the pins will be able to lock in securely. Tank removal should take about 15 seconds.

Deja Vu All Over Again

2010-10-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

Again, the bike sits in the same spot as it did when I began this blog, torn down, it's guts exposed to the prying eyes of the world. This is the final, planned, dismemberment. The primary focus this time is to put the belt drive back on, complete the mechanical fuel pump installation that I began a few months ago (I'll 'splain in a later post), replace the shifter with something nicer, clean up all of the welds and assorted boogers, paint the frame and side covers and reassemble the whole thing with an eye towards detail and eliminating any unnecessary stuff. I have all winter, so I plan on taking it, fairly, slow and getting it right. Plus, I still ain't got noooooo money, Honey, so I'll be collecting aluminum cans and selling blood to fund the project

Cajun Carl's Stringworks and Gumbo Emporium

2010-09-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

I, recently, had a visit from my middle brother, the mysterious and legendary Jeff LaFong. I haven't seen or heard from him in five years or so. The 60s shaped his personality and he never quite left. When the Beatles and the Beach Boys were new and exciting, he picked up a guitar and never put it down. He is now a pretty good bluesman with a bent towards the slide guitar. During the course of his visit, he asked me if I knew anything about cigarbox guitars (CGB). I told him that I did not. I can set the stations on my car stereo, if I have the manual in my hands. That is the extent of my musical talent. He said that they were what the old bluesmen used years ago, during the depression or if they, like me, were Po' Boys and couldn't afford a mail order $4.95 geetar from the catalog. He wondered if I would be able to build one for him. I am a, fairly competent, woodworker. I did a bit of, on line, research and was fascinated by the whole culture, the ingenuity and the raw, beautiful sounds that guys are getting out of these primitive, homemade instruments. http://www.cigarboxnation.com/ I went to the local seegar emporium and bought a couple of boxes and went home. I had a stash of maple that I salvaged from some discarded church pews plus my buckets and boxes of scrap wood. The neck is maple with a walnut fretboard laminated on, the tuning pegs are dowels with walnut knobs. I reamed the holes for the pegs with a taper reamer and tapered the pegs to match, much like violin pegs. Most of the CBG builders buy the tuners, but I decided to do it as close to the way a guy would have done it in the 30s. There are no frets, yet. I noticed that some of the guys play them fretless, so I'm going to send it to Jeff as is. It is really a prototype and I need his input. I don't even know how to string it up, so I'm taking it to a friend to see if it will play. One variation in the nostalgic theme is, this CGB is electric. In keeping with the lo buck idea, the cost of electrifying it was about 6 bucks. The pickup is a piezo buzzer from Radio Shack and a 1/4" standard jack. Some genius (there are others, but only one Boy Genius™) discovered that if you take one of these buzzers and apply 12 volts to it, oddly enough, it will buzz. But, if you cause the unit to vibrate, it sends a small electrical charge back through the wire. Voila! Down and dirty pickup. So, anyway, I screwed and glued the whole mess together, sprayed a few coats of lacquer on it and there ye be, one CGB. Unit #1. Again, eagle eyes may note that it only has three strings. The three string CGB seems to be a favorite and the most traditional. What do I know. I couldn't play it if it had one string. Actually, there are one string CGBs. They're called diddleybows. It may go to the dumpster or it may sell on ebay in 50 years for 500K. Who knows. It was a fun build, took all of, maybe, 4 hours and the total cost was well under 10 bucks.

Epilog. November 2. Brother Jeff called to inform me that the guitar is wall art. The neck is too long as well as a few other problems. The good news is that everything else is good. Not being a musician, I didn't know the distance from the "nut" (the little gizmo that the strings pass over as they leave the tuners) to the bridge is critical in order to tune the instrument. I have an old guitar so, this time, I'll use it as a template. I wonder if Stradivarius got it right the first time?

Better Living Through Chemestry and Miscellaneous Ramblings

2010-05-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

This morning I took the first of my last round of chemo. Two weeks and I'm done. I'll be pretty good for about a week and then the side effects will kick in. It won't be fun, but I've been there before so I know what to expect. I'm OK with it. It is the price that I must pay to completely regain my health. I just have to keep smiling.

Last night our lovely granddaughter, Alexandria, graduated from high school. It's hard to imagine that our little 2 pound 13 ounce preemie is a woman now. She has been living with us for the past four years so that she could attend a top rated school rather than the sketchy schools near her home. It was a wise decision. She did well, better than I did, by far. I, as you all agree, am a Boy Genius™, but it came from genetics and self education rather than school room experience. She will be moving back home now. We will miss her, but she's a short drive away.

Two weeks ago, twenty people showed up at my door with rakes, hoes, weed whackers and other implements of destruction and cleared my property. Two ladies helped with the chores as well as providing a big ol' pile of grub for the crew. These were all members of my church. This is what Christianity is all about. It isn't the nonsense that you see on TBN, with all of it's magic tricks, annointed dish cloths and pleas for as much of your money as possible from slick hucksters and cotton candy haired, walking cosmetics counters, living in multi million dollar, Newport Beach, mansions. It is about Christ-like servitude. Help people, reach out your hand when someone is hurting, bring them a sandwich and a cool drink. It's easy.

I think, either today or tomorrow, I will take the bike out for a short hop around town before I get sick again. It's a bit windy today, so maybe tomorrow. I've turned into such a fair weather rider. I guess it's from all those years when all I had was a bike. I hate riding in the rain or the cold. Could also be the decline in testosterone levels brought on by advancing old age. Crap!

Chemo and Weeds

2010-05-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here I am, just beginning my second two week regimen of chemo. It sucked pretty good the first two weeks. Lots of pain in my hands and feet and one day (actually, about 3 hours) of feeling as sick as I've ever been in my life. It passed and I feel pretty good today. I expect to be back on the couch by this weekend, however. I had time to do a few, necessary, chores around the house. I reassembled my tractor which had been apart due to a blown head gasket. Put the end loader on today with, what was probably, my last surge of strength. I have 2 1/2 acres of weeds to clear, per fire department regulations, and I need my tractor. I have a gang of friends coming over in a week to do the hillside work. I can't stand or walk the slopes, nor can I handle the weed whacker with my bum feet and paws. Five or six weeks from now, I expect to be back at the top of my game. Granted, it's a bush league game, but it's good enough for me.

Good News/Bad News

2010-04-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

I had my follow up appointment with my oncologist yesterday and was told that, at the time I went into surgery, I was cancer free. The chemo/radiation had completely wiped it out. Surgery was still necessary, of course, so that the tissues could be examined by pathology. So, that is the good news. The bad news is that the doctor want's me to go through another round of chemo as a precautionary measure. I told myself at the beginning of this journey that I would do exactly as the experts recommend. It was a good decision and I'm going to stick with it. So, for two weeks, then a week off and then another two weeks, I'll be poisoning myself again. My previous regimen was for 5 weeks straight at a higher dosage, so I don't thing it's going to be too bad at all. The 5 week deal was a real booger. Plenty of pain and sickness, but some of it was the fault of the radiation. I beat cancer, so a little more discomfort is just another hiccup in my life. When I was diagnosed, nobody told me that I had the fun variety of cancer, only that if I had to get this disease, colorectal is one of the better ones to get. In all, it hasn't been as bad as I would have expected. Top notch medical personnel, lots of support from family and friends and the grace and mercy of God towards a, pretty, wretched sinner. I couldn't loose.

Semi Colon

2010-03-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

For all of you that have been following my adventures of late, here is an update. On Monday, the 15th, I went in to the West Los Angeles VA hospital where I underwent a low anterior bowel resection. For the layman, they took out about 8 inches of my colon. The sugery and, subsequent, recovery went well. There was little pain or discomfort. I was sent home on the following Monday, cleared to do just about anything except lifting anything over 10 pounds. I had some rather severe gas pains on that evening and on the following evening as well. By Wednesday, they had subsided. The worst part about the entire deal was waiting for the pathology results. I went back to see the doctor today and was told that all the tissues came back clean and clear of any malignancy. Woo Hoo!! I now join an exclusive club of "survivors". I wonder what the ribbon color is for colorectal cancer? Brown? How about a scratch and sniff? Maybe the world isn't ready for that just yet. I'll shelve it, for now.
A big thanks to all who wrote, prayed, cared or even feigned interest in my plight. It was a real blessing to both of us and we are, eternally, grateful. While this was no fun at all, it was still a good experience. To see so many people come together, on my behalf, made it more than tolerable. Time to get on with the rest of my life. It's lookin' pretty good.

My Most Amazing Post.

2010-03-05T16:55:00.000-08:00

I lay around on my dead ass watching, all together, too much T.V. It came to my attention the other day while watching some, pre-digested, dreck on the tube that the word "amazing" has become the most popular word in the English language. Everything is amazing. Celebs roll their eyes in rapture while describing their latest boy/girl friend de jour as being just the most amazing person. I was watching an ad for something or another and the voice over said, "My baby started walking today. It was amazing". What's so frikken amazing about that, you nitwit?!?! If the kid had sprouted wings and started flying around the room, that might have qualified, but guess what? All kids start to walk at some point unless there are physical problems. Amazing! My dog is just so amazing, I have the most amazing job, the cheeseburger that I had for lunch was so amazing. I'm amazed at the, obvious, fact that people are lemmings. They see or hear someone of great value and intelligence like Paris Hilton or K-Fat or some other celeb, Jersey Shore, douche say or do something that's....... well, AMAZING, and they feel the need to emulate them so they can be elevated to a higher plane of existence. Who will be the first to name their kid, "Amazing"? Hmmm, "Amazing LaFong". Has kind of a nice ring to it

Barkeep, Gimme Another Belt

2010-03-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

I received the belt from Grainger Monday and, sure enough, I miss measured and it was too short, So, back I go and sheepishly admit to the clerk that there is something wrong with my tape measure. Boy Geniuses™ don't make, simple, measuring errors. I return to The Fongderosa with the new belt clutched in my sweaty fist and we have a winnah. I fire up the bike. Parenthetically, I have to give props to my Odyssey battery. I haven't ridden the bike or charged the battery in, at least, 2 months and it fired immediately and without hesitation. I allowed the bike to sit, running, until it came up to operating temperature. No leaks, no apparent problems. It was a cool day and it sat at 180 for 15-20 minutes with no air flow over the radiator. The fan never kicked on. A good run on a hot day will come later. I have surgery in two weeks and there will be a protracted period of recovery. By the time I'm back on my feet, warmer temps will be here and I can give it a baptism by fire. There is no reason to believe it will not work perfectly. I didn't keep a pile of receipts, so I'm not entirely sure of the cost. The pump was about 40 bucks, the belt was 12, I bought a handful of copper fittings and a boatload of charcoal briquettes for my furnace. I probably spent more on those than anything because of the numerous casting failures.
I can now cross Jabsco off of my list of people that I will no longer have to concern myself with. I'm sure they're great folks, but it's not an item that you can just swing by Wally World or Pep Boys and pick one up. This pump has a lifetime guarantee and I suspect that I will never have to replace it.
Now, there is that noisy, sometimes troublesome electric fuel pump. Too bad there is no room for a mechanical pump....................or is there????

2010-02-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

The first pic is the pump, installed and ready to go minus the fan belt. I ordered one from Grainger and need to go pick it up Monday. I filled the system with water and there are no leaks so far. We'll see later on when it's pressurized. All the water in the pic is from my sloppy filling job with a funnel and a coffee can. I'll paint the copper fittings flat black so they "go away" visually. I also installed a petcock at the bottom of the pump to allow easy drainage of the cooling system. Eagle eyed viewers will note that the pic in the previous post shows a chrome 90 degree fitting where the petcock is. I found that when I installed the pump. I had miscalculated and the fitting sat too low. I solved that minor problem by drilling and tapping 3/4" NPT threads on the side of the bump, above the hole on the bottom and used that as the inlet. Not exactly as planned, but at least I didn't have to scrap another pump housing. The light is hanging loose right now because I needed to remove it to install the radiator. The other pic is of the Masonite mounting bracket template/pattern.

2010-02-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the new pump, pretty much done and ready to mount on the bike. The lower fitting goes to the radiator and the upper feeds the engine. The studs holding it together are extra long because they will also go through the mounting bracket. As you can see, I also cast and machined the pulley. It was a regular deal, no need to elaborate. I got all set up to cut out the bracket and realized I was out of acetylene. After a trip to the welding supply I will get with it. I hope to have it all done and pumping by the end of this week.

Persistance Is It's Own Reward

2010-02-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I poured , yet, another housing. I am happy with the result. As you can see, it is a bit different from the original one. I added a bump out on the back for the inlet instead of the flat back. This seemed to be a good idea, but it introduced a few new problems. The first was the issue of shrink defects. I actually poured another one a few days ago and it had a moderate divot on the rear bump. It was a usable casting as is. The defect was more visual than anything else. It upset my eyes to look at it, so I decided to make another. The biggest problem was that the bump made it, nearly, impossible to chuck it in the lathe. It needs to spin on center in both the horizontal and vertical planes to properly finish it. A huge PITA. My solution to both problems was to drill the back of the pattern and use a removable dowel for a sprue. This allows extra metal in the area that is prone to shrink and, since I drilled it on center and perpendicular to the mounting face, the sprue can be used to chuck the housing in the lathe. It worked out just fine and the machining process was a snap. My big problem now is to find the proper bit to drill for the 3/4 NPT fittings. You don't just go to The Borg and pick up a 29/32" blister packed, Chinese cheepo bit off of the pegboard. I think I will try to bore it out. We'll see.
Well, as usual, I screwed up and ruined my beautiful casting. I tried to bore it out and something went awry. The hole ended up egg shaped and too large at the same time. So much for experimentation. I went straight to Ebay and ordered the proper 29/32" bit. I should have it by the middle of next week. At least I have the casting process down to a science. I'm busy tomorrow, so maybe Sunday I will give it another shot. I think I will go ahead and pour a couple of housings, while I'm waiting for my bit to arrive, so I can have a spare. I'm normally not a very patient person so maintaining my cool has been a challenge. So far there has been little cursing and no thrown tools/parts. I can last for only so long, though. I've lost track of the number of pours that I've made.
Today is Sunday. I poured another housing today and it came out very nice. Probably the best, so far. Maybe I'm getting better or luckier. I'll take it however I can get it. I faced it off, bored the cavity out and generally cleaned it up. I will resist any urges to try to drill the inlet and outlet openings until my drill bit arrives. I can ram up and pour one of these things in about 2 hours, but I'm not anxious to do it again. I still have to make the pulley and a mounting bracket. The pulley will be cast aluminum and I will probably cut the bracket out of 1/4 or 3/8 CRS.
The first pic is of the sprue being trued up so I can turn the casting around and chuck up the resulting protrusion and face the housing and bore it to size. The next pic is of the semi finished pump. I just have to drill and tap for the 4 studs that will hold it together and the inlet and outlet. The sprue will be cut off since I no longer need it.

Introspective Thoughts and Self Flagellation

2010-02-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

I've thought about all of the failures that I've experienced while trying to cast the pump housing. Each one was different....sand too wet, melt too cool, core shift, sprue too close to edge causing fall out, etc. I feel that I've educated myself and the next pour will be a good one. Part of the problem was that my flask was too small and I couldn't ram the sand properly or keep the sprue holes far enough from the outside of the sand. Today I built a larger flask, re tempered my sand and, generally, got ready for tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so it will be a good day too fire up the furnace and pour some metal.

Overlooking the Obvious in Search of the Obscure

2010-01-28T16:29:00.000-08:00

Often, I find that my superior intellect interferes with my ability to see what is in front of my face. It is the curse of being a Boy Genius™, I suppose. The #3 housing would have worked perfectly well had I not drilled it in the center for the inlet fitting. I did it because it was expedient, since I had it chucked up in the lathe, anyway. Had I drilled it off center, into the area where the impeller vanes are, it would have worked just fine. The coolant doesn't care how it gets in. In the stock, MoPar configuration, the entire backside of the impeller is in contact with the coolant. All that really matters is that the outlet be at the periphery of the housing, since the centrifugal action of the impeller forces the flow to the outside. In the next couple of days I will pour, yet another, casting. As long as I don't try to reinvent the wheel, I expect the next one to be the last.

"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." Micheal P. Jagger

&%$$@!!!!!!!!!

2010-01-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

Well, tomorrow is another day.
I failed again, but it was entirely my fault. I stopped in the middle of a pour and got a huge gas bubble that didn't show up until I was boring out the back for the inlet fitting, which was the last step. I couldn't have found it before I spent several hours machining it. NOOOOO, that would have been too easy.

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of Victory

2010-01-25T16:16:00.000-08:00

Figuring that the third time is the charm, I rammed up the mold and poured another housing today. The casting came out very nice except for a few ragged edges at the parting line. No big deal, a few swipes with a file and we're lookin' good. I chucked it up, faced off the front and back surfaces and bored it out to accept the pump. So far, so good. As I stood there looking at it and feeling pretty smug about my limitless talents, I realized that there wasn't enough clearance at the rear of the pump shaft to allow coolant to flow in. The shaft nearly touched the inside of the housing. If I counter bored the housing to allow room for coolant to pass by, it would be too thin. Rats!! What I did was to attach a disc of 3/4 plywood to the back of the wooden form. This will give me enough meat to counter bore for coolant flow and the housing will still be thick enough to drill and tap for the 3/4 pipe threads needed for the fittings that will connect to the radiator. I forget how many light bulbs Tom Edison built before he got one to work, but it was more than four. Tomorrow, I will have a working pump housing

Prometheus Tamed

2010-01-23T14:38:00.001-08:00

Today I rammed up the pattern for the water pump housing, fired up the foundry and chucked in a couple of old pistons and a top fork crown from an old Honda ATV. In 25 minutes or so I had a nice crucible full of molten aluminum. As I poured it into the mold, my gut feeling was that it was going to be a bad pour. I was wrong. It was a horrible pour. I think the sand was too wet and steam filled the upper part of the cavity instead of the alloy. No big deal. I'll allow the sand to dry out a bit and try again later. It's been about 5 years since I messed with the hot stuff, so I'm a little rusty. I have plenty of time and the cost is next to nothing, so I'll keep on trying.

The second pour was another failure. Not as spectacular as the first, but a failure nonetheless. I didn't allow the aluminum to get hot enough and it began to freeze in the crucible as I poured.
Though I melted enough metal, I came up short and the mold didn't fill completely. All was not lost, however. The casting is unusable but, other than a large hole in the back of the housing, it came out rather nice. Let's hope that the third time is the charm. If I had a pyrometer, I could avoid the guesswork but it's not in the budget. They didn't have fancy stuff like that 100 years ago and they did OK.
It's too late today to do another, so I will have to wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned.

I Hate Meeses To Pieces

2010-01-15T16:48:00.000-08:00

I live in a semi rural area, surrounded by brush and many large open fields. As a result, mice are a problem. They get into my shop, leave turds everywhere, chew up anything that I leave out, and generally make my life miserable. I put out bait and spring traps with varying degrees of success. The bait disappears, yet I never smell any decomposing critters. The traps work pretty well and I will continue to use them.
I saw this contraption on the net a while back, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The soda can is baited with peanut butter. When Mickey and Minnie crawl up the ramp and try to dine on it, the can spins on the rod and deposits them into the pool. I could have left out the water and disposed of them "humanely", but I don't give a rats ass (pun intended). Die, fricken' vermin

Wooden It Be Nice?

2010-01-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

Finished making the pattern for the pump housing today. As I stated before, it is three pieces of 3/4 plywood sandwiched together. I used the gasket to trace the shape and I bandsawed it out. The recess was made with a circular pattern and a router. I used my spindle sander to smooth the sides. I tilted the table a few degrees to give it some draft so it will pull out of the greensand mold. I sprayed the whole thing with sandable primer/surfacer and coated it with automotive, lacquer based, spot putty and sanded the whole thing smooth. Another couple of coats of the primer, a bit of finish sanding and there ya go, one pattern. I'll wax it before I ram up the mold. The recess was made slightly conical with some Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty so it too will have sufficient draft to release from the sand. I could have left out the recess and machined it, but that's a lot of extra work
While I was whittling, I made a pattern for the pulley. I could have gone to Pick a Part and, possibly, found one that would work. I figured I could make one in less time and for free. Plus, I get extra bragging rights for making my own stuff.
Today I got some pictures emailed to me by a V-8 biker that built a pump similar to mine. His and mine are almost identical. Since I consider him to be a bit of a genius (though not a Boy Genius™), I feel my design is a good one and should work flawlessly. He also offered some suggestions to make the entire unit more compact. Since this would involve machining the pump housing, I have opted to keep the original size pump. I expect that it will never give me a bit of trouble, but if it does and I need to change it, I don't want to have to cut down another pump, especially if I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere.

We Will Pump You Up, Girlie Men

2010-01-12T17:15:00.001-08:00

Well, today I started the, much anticipated, water pump project. My goal is to build a belt driven pump, using an easily available automobile unit. I have never trusted the Jabsco pump that BH uses. If it conks out, you're screwed unless you're near a marine supply house or you carry a spare. I searched for quite a while for a fairly compact pump with a simple round housing. I finally settled on the Chrysler 383/440/Hemi unit. As it turns out, I was not the first to "discover" the MoPar unit. Another V-8 biker also has experimented with it with good results. There is also a remote mounted pump for V-8 Porsche conversions that uses it, so, it would seem, I'm in good company. I whistled down to my local parts house and they ordered it for me. I had to wait an agonizing 1 hour for it to arrive. Upon getting it home and having a look at it, I think it will be an easy and fun project.
The first thing I did was to glue together 3 pieces of 3/4" plywood for the pattern for the housing. I will be casting it from aluminum using my little foundry furnace. Plywood isn't the best material for patterns because of the rough edges. I will have to spend a bit more time finishing the edges with putty and getting it nice and smooth so I can pull it from the sand mold.

Cool Runnings

2009-12-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

After being laid up on the couch for over a month, with the side effects of radiation/chemo, I decided I was well enough, today, to go to the shop and work on the bike a bit. A lot of ideas have been buzzing around in my noggin regarding making it more dependable and less reliant on Boss Hoss for parts, etc.
The primary idea is to eliminate the Jabsco bilge pump. They are not, especially, unreliable but failures have and do occur. I want to be able to go to any parts store and buy a pump, off of the shelf, and install it in the parking lot with ordinary tools. I have a pump in mind and have designed it mentally. More to follow.
Another item that troubles me is the factory coolant manifold. As built, it directs coolant from the pump to the inlets in the block on each side of the timing cover. Seems simple enough. I, as well as others that I have spoken with, believe this part was ill designed. As you can see in the first photo, coolant comes up the left side of the manifold (right side in the photo, left side of the engine) and then to the left coolant inlet and then to the right inlet. The problem is, the coolant wants to keep going in a straight line to the right side of the engine, bypassing the left side. Enough coolant dribbles into the left side to keep it relatively cool, but I'm willing to bet the right side runs cooler than the left. I don't have a point and shoot thermometer, so I can't prove it, but it makes perfect sense to my imperfect mind. So, what I did was to plug the original inlet on the manifold and put a "Tee" fitting between the two block fittings. This will allow a fairly equal amount of coolant to enter both sides of the engine. The second photo shows the modified manifold. Additional plumbing will be added later, from the "Tee" to the water pump. I have never had an overheating problem with my bike, but I still feel this modification is a good one.

Choppers, Bobbers and other nonsense

2009-10-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

I read a lot of stuff online and peruse the bike magazines at the newsstand pretty often. I rarely buy them because I'm a cheapskate and they offer very little in the way of real down home DIY stuff. Iron Horse is an exception and I sometimes actually buy a copy. Several thing bug me in all the mags and online boards. It has to do with terminology and it's misuse. The younger guys are the torchbearers for the old guys and they're blowing it. I'm sorry, but many of them don't know their asses from their elbows as far as tradition, or as many like to call it, "old school". I've already ranted earlier about the non existent "suicide shift", so I don't need to belabor that point. Let's move on to the "bobber". First of all, the term "bobber" was invented just a few years ago, so the term "old school bobber" is a bit of an oxymoron. Sorta like an old school 2010 KIA. BTW, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the term, "old school" or even worse "skool" gives me the runs. Find a new term, you've worn that one out. Anyhoo, way back when, the early bikers bought old HDs and Indians and began stripping them down, not much though was given to looks. Front fenders were removed, rears were cut off at the hinge, windshields, bags and other unnecessary stuff was chucked into the dumpster. The result was a "Bob Job" or, before HD trademarked the term a "Fat Bob". All went well for a while until one of them decided that maybe an 18" wheel on the front might look lighter and might just handle a bit better like the Limey bikes. Then, again after looking at the foreign machines he thought that it might look a little better without that big ol' gas tank. So he got himself a Mustang tank or maybe he cut down the stock 3 1/3 gallon tanks. That big, fat rear fender is beginning to look out of place on this sleek machine, so he finds a '36 Ford spare tire ring and makes hisself a skinny rear fender. The pogo stick and it's 3 foot wide seat got the heave-ho and a Bates spoon was installed. What you have now is a chopper. It didn't have a raked frame, it didn't have a 5 foot long front end, a rear tire that was 10 inches wide, an Easter egg paint job or a "more money than brains" douche sitting on the seat. They were fundamental machines. No nonsense, no superfluous bling. Shortly after this they began to chrome them up, add a nice, basic, paint job and in my humble, yet always accurate, opinion (remember, I am a Boy Genius™), created the quintessential chopper. The choppers of the mid 60's were the high point. Nothing that came after made them better looking, better handling or better bikes overall. I'll take Dick Hirschberg's Knucklehead over any Bourget, OCC crap wagon, ugly assed HD Rocker or any of the rest. They don't get it. None of these bikes are choppers or bobbers, if that's the term you insist upon. They are bikes built to resemble choppers or bob jobs. Some may be nice, but they ain't the real deal and they ain't for me. Plus, I don't want to ride anything that I have to lean to one side to see past the gas tank. What are these clowns thinking of??
The second picture is Hirschbergs 69 Electraglide. He built it from a brand new bike 2 years before Willie G. Davidson "designed" the 71 FX Superglide. You don't suppose this picture from Hot Rod magazine influenced his creative juices? Nahhh, had to be a cowinkydink.

Going to the Movies

2009-08-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Time to shift gears again. I remember going to the scary movies when I was a kid. When the big moment arrived, I always hid or looked away. I couldn't look at the monster. I went to another monster movie last month. It was called, "John's Colonoscopy". As I lay on the exam table with a doctor and a couple of nurses guiding a camera up my exhaust pipe, I watched the monitor. I saw the monster. It was as ugly as any alien, Frankenstein or boogeyman that I've ever seen at the movies. Unlike the, aforementioned, creatures, this monster is alive and all too real. There was no biopsy required. The doctor said, as I lay there, "You have colon cancer". I was floored. They rolled me out to a recovery area where I had to tell my beautiful wife what I had seen. We went home with no real answers. Just a few papers and a picture of the monster. I told her to put it away. I didn't want to see it again. I cannot look at the monster.
I was scheduled for a CT scan. I went in and had the procedure and was sent home again. A doctor needed to look at the scan and determine what it revealed. I waited. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer. We drove to the hospital this past Friday, August 7th. My intent was to pound on some one's counter or desk until I had some answers. I went to the GI unit and simply told the lady at the window that I was here to find out if I'm going to live or die, because I need to prepare for either scenario. She said, "come back Monday morning and you can talk to the doctor". Yesterday arrived. I brought my wife and my posse with me. My pastor and his wife and two other good friends from our church. We sat in the waiting room for about an hour, waiting. I became very anxious and afraid. I started to shake, uncontrollably. Finally it was my turn to face my mortality. The doctor was a cute girl, seemed about 12 years old to my aging eyes. She told us that the CT scan showed no evidence of any spread, that it is a localized lesion. I will still need major abdominal surgery in a month or so. They will do a bowel resection. I asked if a colostomy might be done and she said it is always a possibility , but it didn't seem likely from what she had seen. I can live with one but, like everyone else, would prefer not too. I have too many cool T shirts. I still have more ahead of me, but I can do that standing on my head. I've been trying to loose some weight (down 12 pounds so far) so this upcoming procedure, while a bit extreme, should allow me to reach my goal of 200 lbs. or less.
To all who have gotten this far, consider this next statement carefully.
If you are 50 or over, get a colonoscopy. Get a prostate exam. Get a mammogram. Get a Pap smear. Be pro-active about your health care. Don't wait until you're bleeding out of an orifice or a lump gets bigger or it takes 10 minutes to take a leak. You do not want to hear the words that I heard. You do not want to plan your own funeral in your mind. It looks as though I got lucky and dodged the bullet. The monster is no quitter, however. I will continue to keep a close eye out for him from this point on. Do the same for yourselves and the ones that you love. The monster has no pity and no conscience.

Unchain My Heart

2009-07-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

The chain drive that I put on my bike has lost it's luster. It rattles, flops around, stretches and slings chain lube. It's time to switch back to a belt. I'm looking at the Gates Eliminator belt. It comes highly recommended. It is supposed to be stonger than any belt on the market, including the Gates GTs that Boss Hoss uses. As with all of the available belts, it is only available in finite lengths. Right now I am looking at running a 40/72 tooth sprocket ratio which will give me around 2500 RPMs at 73 mph with a 25 inch diameter tire. Doing some quick and dirty calculations,I think I will need a 44 inch belt. The closest that Gates has is about 46 inches, so I will end up with another inch of wheelbase. Not bad. I was aiming for as short a bike as possible when I began this conversion. I am at 79 inches right now, so I can live with 80. The pulleys for this belt are different than the stock BH pulleys. The have, what is known as, an RPP pattern. Reinforced Parabolic Profile, whatever that means. The countershaft pulleys are no problem. They are held on with the QD bushings, same as stock. The rear is a different story. All that is available is a large, heavy cast iron unit. It weighs about 40 pounds. I'm not a chassis guy, but I do know that unsprung weight is important and you want to keep it as low as possible. I don't know why, and maybe it's no biggee. One guy that I correspond with says he has no problems with his, so I may just go ahead and run one and see how it goes. I may try to cut an aluminum one later. I have a horizontal mill and a dividing head, but not a hell of a lot of experience. I would cut one from MDF first to see if my skills and math are up to snuff. I have a bit more research to do before I begin. I can't afford to screw up and start again. Money is too tight right now. I still have my Nesco to sell for additional funds, but I wanted to wait until I'm sure that the Ranger was the right choice (it was) and for the market to go up a bit so I can get the best price.

The Enigma/Conundrum of the Hard Core Biker

2009-05-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

Someone told me, the other day, that, maybe, I didn’t understand hard core bikers. This seem to be an odd statement. I pondered it for a few days and have come to a few conclusions regarding the hard core bikers. My opinions are not directed to anyone in particular, but if you fit the profile, then I guess I’m talking about you.

First thing on the agenda is to define the hard core biker, who we will call, for the sake of brevity, the HCB.There are a number of criteria that must be met in order to be included in this fraternity. The first is obvious. You must own a motorcycle. Ahhh, but not just any motorcycle will do. No siree, Bob. It must be a Harley Davidson, or one of the many clones that are on the market. Just a minute, though. Not any HD will do. It’s not gonna be that easy. It must be a Big Twin, the evolutionary progeny of the fabled 1936 EL Knucklehead. But, how about the Sportster, you may ask? Sorry Charlie, but in nearly every case, ownership of HD’s “Little Twin” is to be avoided. These are girls bikes. If you choose to ride one anyway, you will be suspect and some may even think that you prefer the company and comfort of large, hairy men. Step away from the Sportster.

Next is appearance. You cannot show up at the bike night in tennies, slacks and a cardigan. Might as well ride a pink Sportster. Think denim and dead animals. These are the most practical clothes for any biker, not just the HCB, so I won’t dwell too much here. It’s the accessories or “flair” that makes you a HCB. You must have a black HD tee shirt from a dealer that you wish you had been to. You can’t miss with Sturgis HD. Always a winner. A big ol’ honkin’ wallet with a chain clipped to your belt. I used to have one of these and at no time did I ever find the wallet dangling from the chain and thought, “Thank God for that chain.” A leather vest. Though it serves absolutely no purpose other than to make you look like Ed Norton, people see them and think, “What a macho looking man. I’ll bet he can impregnate a woman with the power of his mind.“ A belt buckle with a skull or an HD bar and shield. Gotta keep buying that licensed merchandise. Wrap around shades, as dark as possible. Never, unless it becomes absolutely necessary, should they be removed. Keep in mind that all of this is a total package and the removal or alteration of one or more of the “flair” items can diminish the “look”. Purchase, unless you are super HCB, then steal, the smallest, non DOT compliant, beanie helmet available. If it resembles a fiberglass yarmulke, you’ve made a good choice. This is important, DO NOT WEAR IT YET. Under the glass case at the cycle boutique you will find stickers with hilarious sayings, that other people thought of, on them . Buy, or again steal, a good selection of them Do not be too concerned about what they say as none are, particularly, original. Two, however, are mandatory. I cannot stress how important this is. One must say, “HELMET LAWS SUCK”, and the other must state, “IF YOU DON’T RIDE A HARLEY, YOU AIN’T S**T.” The logical conclusion to this has to be, that if you do, indeed, ride an HD, then you ARE S**T. Congratulations.

Proper hair care is paramount. Though the cue ball look has gained significant inroads in the past 15 or 20 years and is a perfectly acceptable look, unless your head is shaped like a light bulb or has noticeable divots or other cranial abnormalities. The long hair, somewhat unkempt look is classic HCB and should be considered as your first choice unless nature or age has robbed you of the ability. Facial hair is mandatory as well, though it is optional with the Yul Brynner look. Mutton chop sideburns are the kiss of death unless you are from the deep, deep south. Grow them at your own risk. For the profoundly hirsute, it is recommended that the shoulder hair be grown and braided.

Piercings are part of the visage of the HCB. Earlobes, left or both but never just the right side. That can land you on the pink Sporty in a heartbeat. For the exceptionally HCB, it is recommended that the ear be pierced with a paper punch and a number 630 masterlink be worn. As to noses, septums only.

Tattoos. No question about it, ink is an absolute must. There are two different schools of thought here. One subscribes to the neo modern, highly colorful and intricately detailed full sleeves. The biggest problem with this concept is, yes, you see them at the HCB gatherings all the time. You can also see the same thing at a West Hollywood gay bar…….or so I’ve been told. Parenthetically, let me state that at no time have I ever been inside of or within 50 yards of the "Ramrod" or the "Driveshaft". The preferred style, for the true HCB, is the random tats that were applied while the HCB was in a drunken and/or chemically induced stupor or incarcerated. We’ve all seen them, “Death Before Dishonor”, “Born to Lose” a little green worm with a top hat, a dagger going through the skin with blood dripping off of the point. This tells the world that you don’t subscribe to anyone's rules and you’re gonna get the tat based on how much you've got left in your pocket.

Now onto demeanor. You can have the look nailed, but if you don’t have your swagger on straight, you’re a poser. The basic rule here is to treat everyone, outside of your carefully chosen circle, like crap. Here is an example.
Parker and his wife, Muffy, along with the kids, Logan and Carter, happen to walk by, on their way home from the oxygen bar, and are taken aback by the comprehensive awesomeness that is your machine. “Nice 'sickel”, says Parker, “is it a Honda ?” The following MUST take place within a 10 or 15 second window of opportunity or you will loose the respect of your peers. Knock all of his teeth out, rape Muffy, devour the children and, if you have time, dig up his mother and violate her corpse. Honda, indeed!

Seemingly innocuous questions must also be given flippant answers. “Nice paint, who did it?” “Von None of Yer Bizness, Douchebag", is appropriate. Feel free to think of similar comments and practice them in front of the mirror.

Always remember that your bike is the culmination of the two wheeled experience. Never miss an opportunity to make that clear to anyone within earshot. As far as the bikes of others, they can be anything from a POS to a nice bike, but if it were mine I woulda done it better.

One accessory that I have to mention is, of course, the fair sex. Now if you have just fallen off of the turnip truck, here’s a heads up. All biker chicks do not look like the women in the old Dave Mann centerfolds in "Easyrider". No, in fact if you thumb a few more pages you will come across a more accurate representation of the typical “Ol’ Lady”. Good old Miraculous Mutha. Regardless of where your lady falls in the appearance department, she must display as much skin as possible. Don’t worry about the excess flab, zits, navel hair or stretch marks. She is a goddess that all men desire and wars have been fought over.

There are only three acceptable jobs for a HCB. Bike shop owner, auto body repair or bouncer in a nudie bar. The only exception to this rule is if the HCB decides to forgo the drudgery of regular employment, he is permitted to cook and/or sell Meth, but only to other HCBs and regular tweakers.

If you, my loyal reader, have made it this far in this, semi-coherent, rant you will agree that at a certain level I do understand the HCB. I don’t get it, but I understand. It is much the same for a lot of people that have attached a term or lifestyle to themselves. Traditional hot rodders, Goths, punks, skateboarders and on and on. They all have their rules, written and tacit. Now, I’m sure you’re all asking yourselves, “What about you Carl? Are you a HCB or just another pussy?” I don’t know, for sure. I try not to fall into any of the behaviors that I have listed. I do not own an HD, but my bike, in many ways, tops and trumps the Harley elite. I love HDs and may someday own another one. I have seldom gone more than a year without a two wheeler since I was 15 ½. I don’t ride as much as I used to, but I ride when I want to. I can’t toss down a handful of reds and a bottle of cheap wine and ride to San Francisco. I still think and dream about bikes as much as I did when I got that first Cushman in 62. I don’t think I can kick too much ass anymore. Actually, I never claimed to have a lot of ass kicking prowess. I’m too old now to engage anyone with any stamina. I did have an encounter with some clown a while back. I told him one of two things could happen. A 60 year old man would kick his ass or he would kick a 60 year old’s ass. It was a lose/lose situation for him. He gave me the standard, “You ain’t worth it, Dude.” reply and left. I think I could have taken him, though. I am whatever you want to call me, a biker, a motorcycle aficionado, a buff, an enthusiast or whatever. It doesn’t matter to me. I am comfortable in my skin. If I don’t fit into anyone’s preconceived notion, that’s OK. I like motorcycles. Period

If Yer Gonna Spew, Spew Into This.

2009-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Quote from "Wayne's World"
At the advise of another rider, I ordered this overflow or "puke" can for my radiator. The price was right and I needed one since I loose a bit of coolant during the hot months. It was suggested that a couple of billet clamps could be ordered to fit the crashbars that have holes that fit the can. I circumvented the clamps for a couple of reasons. I'm not a huge billet fan, I want to keep it simple and, of course, I'm a cheapwad. I simply drilled two 3/8 holes in the crashbar, installed nutserts and bolted it up using the, supplied, angle brackets. Again, clean and simple..............and CHEEEEP!

My Odyssey

2009-04-17T18:25:00.001-07:00

No, it ain't "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", just a new battery. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while. A friend has one in his 502 and has had no problems. It came with a couple of cheesy "L" shaped adapters to convert it to side post cables. They received a quick course at Captain La Fong's School of Aeronautics. Yup, the ol' flying lesson. I took the side mount cables and cut away all of the plastic and tossed the little bolts also. This left me with a small mounting tab. I cut the end of the tab off where the original hole was. This left enough remaining tab to drill a 1/4 hole. I covered most of the tab with shrink tube and bolted the cables to the battery with the supplied bolts. Nice and tidy. Using the "L" brackets that they sent would have worked, but there is no need for them and they only add more areas to experience corrosion and bad connections. Remember the KISS principle, Keep It Stupid, Simpleton.
The real bonus is the extra tool carrying capacity. I have a 3/8 drive socket set, a 1/4 drive set, set of Allen sockets, 12 inch and 6 inch crescent, 5 combo wrenches, pliers, screwdriver, Swiss army knife, zip ties, electrical tape, teflon tape, small roll of tie wire, extra chain, fuel pump, fuses, rags and there is still more room for additional stuff. The extra T shirt is in case I want to go somewhere nice. There is nothing in my fork bag and nothing in the pocket, that I previously made, in the right side cover, so there is still more room available for additional items. Plus, I have plans in my head for a rear mounted travel pack that will hold large items. It will attach to the sissy bar mounts. More to follow.

Coming Through in the Clutch

2009-04-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that I've finally solved all of my clutch issues. I've been having problems getting enough throw to fully disengage. It would work well when cold, but as everything warmed up it began to drag, to the point that I would have to shut it down in order to get it in gear. No Good!! I realized that, again, my geometry was off. The bell crank from the cable to the booster was at too acute an angle to work properly. It got chucked into the "Big Tub O' Failures". I fabbed up this new one and what a difference. The clutch action is smooth and light. Not two fingers, but an easy three finger pull. I used the foot peg as a pivot on the old one. This one pivots on a bronze bushing. Not the Torrington bearing that was recommended, but I think it will be fine. I can always change it later if it proves to be inadequate.

At the beginning, I was asked why a vacuum booster AND a mousetrap? I had no real answer, I just thought I'd give it a try. I think I made the right choice. As stated in earlier posts, full disengagement, no heel assist pedal and a comfortable pull at the lever were my objectives. There just seemed to be no way to achieve this with the booster alone. I decided to piggy back the mousetrap onto the existing system to see if it would help. It did. I also discovered that the mousetrap alone, when adjusted tight enough to disengage the clutch would not re engage. This is due to the diaphragm clutch cover and the fact that it becomes easier to pull the farther it disengages. So, the answer turned out to be two boosters, one vacuum, one mechanical. It seems Rube Goldberg and, perhaps, it is, but it does work. I also believe that the necessity to replace the clutch every 10 thousand or so miles on the old clutch bikes is, partially, due to the fact that there was never complete disengagement. At a stop, the disc was dragging slightly. It wouldn't be noticeable due to the weight of the bike. Every time you would stop, you were wearing out the disc and overheating the cover and flywheel.

Another Ranger conversion has a hydro/electric setup on it. It seems to work well from the pix and videos that I have seen. He is riding the bike and so far, to my knowledge, has had no problems. I wish him well. I don't think mine is better or worse than his, just two separate roads up the mountain. We'll see after we have some real miles piled up.

Rust Never Sleeps

2009-02-09T16:28:00.000-08:00

Time to change gears.

Here is a proven method for rust removal. Even though I am a Boy Genius™, I did not come up with this one. The key ingredient is Sodium Carbonate. It can be purchased as Arm & Hammer Wash Soda, or as I did, as pool and spa PH booster. I got a big ol' container of it at Wally World for about 5 bucks. Procure a plastic container large enough to immerse the rusty object. Tie a piece of wire to the rusty victim. You will need a piece of iron rod. A hunk of rebar works just fine. Place the rusty part in the bucket and put in enough water to completely cover it. Add a tablespoon or so of the Na2CO3. Stick the rebar in the solution, making sure it does't touch the part being derusted. Attach the negative lead of a battery charger to the wire connected to the part. Attach the positive side to the rebar. remember, in spite of what young Tom Edison said, DC current flows from negative to positive. You will see bubbles begining to form. This is hydrogen, so do this in a well ventilated area. Remember the Hindenburg? Oh, the humanity.

I used a crescent wrench that I found buried while clearing weeds. It is way beyond salvation, but was a good piece to experiment on. I left it in the solution for three days, only because I forgot to check on it. I removed it from the bucket and hit it lightly with the wire wheel. Nearly every bit of the rust was gone. It still is no good and will go back on the hook as a garage ornament' Next time I am going to try using my DC welder as a power source to see if it goes faster or better

Nooks and Crannies

2009-01-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

I don't like to venture too far away from my tools. The toolbox that I built will hold quite a bit, but I still felt there was more room to be found. When I had the seat off, I noticed that there was a large gap between the fuse box and the side cover on my bike. I made up this little box and glassed it to the inside of the side cover. I went to the Borg the other day and picked up a set of three zippered nylon bags, small, medium and large. They were cheap, under 5 bux for the set. The medium one holds a full set of 1/4 inch drive sockets and the small one has extra fuses, electrical and teflon tape, small zip ties and a Swiss Army knife. Both bags fit into the new storage pocket and free up space in the toolbox. I have room now for extra fuel and water pumps or whatever. I plan on going to a drycell battery when this one conks out, so there should be even more space for additional stuff.

Man Plans......God Laughs

2009-01-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

I took it out yesterday for a test run and all went beautifully. The clutch was working perfectly. A nice three finger pull. I was stoked. Woo Hoo!! Finally, sucess. I put the bike away and decided to get up in the morning and clean it up a bit and take a longer ride. This morning I put it all together and fired it up and.........THE FRICKEN CLUTCH WOULDN'T WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After calling the bike and myself a few choice names, I began adjusting all of the various links, the mousetrap, the spring tension.........nothing. As I was about to push the bike outside and set fire to it, I noticed that the pushrod that comes out of the back of the booster was cocking at an angle when I applied pressure. I said to myself, "Self, this cannot be good." I yanked off the booster and made a support plate. Simply a hunk of 2 x 1/8" flat steel with three holes, one in the center drilled to the size of the pushrod and two that fit the mounting studs. I placed shims, (OK, flat washers but shims sounds more professional), between the support plate and the pushrod seal to apply a bit of pressure and keep the vacuum in the can where it needs to be. Works bitchen now.
One suggestion, made by an old hand at this sort of thing, is to install Torrington bearings on the mousetrap and the cable-to-booster bell crank. I will be doing this very soon, but for now, it's working well with the bronze bushings in the mousetrap. The bell crank is steel against steel, so that will be the first thing that I will change. With the lessened friction that the bearings will give me, I think it will be, nearly, perfect.

Another Cheap Coverup Scheme

2009-01-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

I modified the left side cover today. I filled in the old switch holes as well as reshaping the bottom edge to cover the booster linkage and squaring off the lower corner to cover more of the frame. I hated to kill my flames, but cest la vie. I will repaint them black and put a BH logo on them. There is still a bit of work to do on them. There is at least 1/8 inch of Bondo and three paint jobs on them. I'll take them down to the bare glass and start from scratch. In a former life, I used to paint cars, but I may be a bit out of practice, plus the new paints are not like the old lacquers and enamels of yore. If all else fails, I still have a gallon of good old black acrylic lacquer on the shelf, but I understand the base/clear coat paints are pretty user friendly.

Thinking Inside The Box

2008-12-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

I took a little time today and hammered out a battery/tool box. I first made a cardboard mock up. After I was satisfied with the fit, I transferred the cardboard pattern to sheet metal. All that I had laying around the shop was a hunk of 16 ga. It's a bit thick, but at the cost of steel these days, I decided to use it. I don't have a brake. so I used the vise, "C" clamps, angle iron and a body hammer to fold it. A few, quick welds and there you are. The bracket for the fuse box had to go away as it interfered with the new box. The fuse panel was mounted to the side of the box along with the flasher. With the full sized car battery there is still plenty of room for tools and parts and like Johnny Cash's Cadillac, it didn't cost me a dime.

Boy Genius™ vs. Experience

2008-12-14T18:39:00.000-08:00

Another guy that has been through this conversion told me that the angle of my release arm was all wrong and it should be pointing at 7 O' clock and push to 5 O' clock as you look down at it. Being a Boy Genius™, I thought, "Hogwash!" The fulcrum is the same, the pressure plate is the same, the release arm is the same. How can the angle make any difference?? So, another trip to the parts house where I purchase a "long" Chevy throwout bearing. I stick it in and lo and behold, the clutch pulls much easier. Boy Genius™ never took geometry, so I guess there are forces working here that I am unaware of. The other thing that, probably, helped is that the new bearing has a curved face that slides over the fingers of the Belleville spring easier than the flat face of the old bearing. The flat faced bearings are for Long or B&B clutches only.
I noticed that when I shut off the engine, I could hear air rushing into the booster. "This can't be good", sez I. I put a clamp on the hose where it connects to the booster and, again, the clutch pull gets easier.
Another thing that has been pointed out to me is the importance of eliminating as much friction as possible and setting up the booster so it pushes the release arm as straight as possible. These are valuable suggestions.
At this time I have an acceptable clutch pull. I'm still going to look for improvement until I achieve the fabled two finger pull each and every time.

Consistant Inconsistancies

2008-12-03T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well, today I went out for a short test ride. The clutch just won't work consistantly and it won't disengage enough to shift without clashing the gears. But....it does work, just not as well as I want, soooooooo, I blew it apart again. I need to try a different pressure plate. I put a 12" Crescent wrench on the end of the throwout arm and it took all that I had to pull the clutch. Doesn't seem right to me. I have another pressure plate that I will stick in tomorrow. Fortunately, the mods that I made to the frame allow me to remove the trans and bellhousing without splitting the frame. I can have the clutch exposed in about 30 minutes, so it isn't a huge PITA. I never expected it to work the first time anyway. I've gotten some good advise from several people, so I hope to get it right on the next try. If it takes 5 or 10 more trys, so be it.

Nature Abhores a Vacuum

2008-11-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

I ordered a cheepo vacuum gauge from Ebay and it arrived yesterday. Hooked it up and I'm pulling about 25 hg at idle. Cool! I then went to my toolbox to put it away and layed it carefully atop my old vacuum gauge.....DOH!!!!! I sorta forgot that I already had one. I'll tell ya, old age ain't pretty and it ain't for sissies, either.

Several people have told me that I need a vacuum storage cannister. I looked around the shop for something to make it out of and spotted an old oil filter. I zipped off the top with a die grinder and soldered in a disc with a hole for the GM one way valve and grommet. I then soldered in a barb fitting for the hose going to the booster and, Voila, one Po' Boy freebee cannister. It's not as large as was recommended, but I think it'll be OK.

Musings of an Uneducated Man

2008-11-23T12:02:00.000-08:00

I barely escaped from high school. I took no algebra, no science classes, no foreign languages. Just shop, necessary classes for graduation and various yoyo courses. I may have ended up with a "C" average, but I doubt it. All of this in spite of the fact that I was tested in grade school, because of some unusual talents that I displayed, and was found to have a higher than average IQ.

I digress.

I was watching the Speed Channel this morning, eating my bowl of "Count Chocula" and listening to some guy telling me how performance can be improved by painting the underside of an intake manifold with white paint. According to the expert, white reflects heat and keeps the incoming air/fuel charge cooler, therefore, denser and as my Hawaiian buddy sez, "Mo bettah, brah."

Nice try.

Firstly, colors refect or absorb radiant heat, such as sunshine. Put a black object and a white object in the sun and it's easy to see that the white one will be demonstrably cooler than the dark one. Put the same objects in the oven, set it at 350 and check them in an hour. They will both be 350 degrees. In an engine, the friction, and combustion heat will transfer to all parts of the engine regardless of their color, just like the oven. Some areas will, naturally, be hotter than others. The exhaust manifolds will be much hotter than the intake, but not because of their respective colors. Additionally, colors do not exist in the absence of light. The inside of an engine is black. You can paint it pink if you like, but in the complete darkness of a lifter gallery, it is still black.

Maybe you know something that I don't, but for now, I believe this to be pseudo science, like concrete sucking the life out of a battery.

Switch Panel

2008-11-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

One of the big fears among BH riders is the frame breaking at the juncture of the rear down tubes. There is quite a distance between that point and the shock mounts. It is, certainly, not the best engineering. I figured that I might as well install gussets in that area while the bike is down. While cutting cardboard templates and trying to determine what size and shape to make them, I thought, "Why not make them large and use one of then as a switch panel." So I did. Now the left side cover will come off easily since it is no longer "wired" to the bike.
I also took some time to clean up the wiring a bit. There were still a few bad splices hiding under large wads of electrical tape. Some solder and shrink tubing did the trick. I tucked all the wiring up and as far foreward as it would go and now I have a nice shoebox sized area ahead of the battery to add a toolbox. I'll make a mockup from cardboard and then do some tin knockin'. I wish I had a sheetmetal brake, but a coupla pieces of angle iron clamped in the vise will do.

The Better Mousetrap

2008-11-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been spent installing the NOS Datsun brake booster on the bike. I had none of the brackets or any other hardware to make it work, so I improvised. I welded up a bracket to bolt to the side of the block in the holes provided by Chevy for the clutch linkage pivot ball. So far, so good. I rigged up an arm that pivots on the foot peg mount and engages the booster push rod. I then ran the clutch cable to the arm. Squeezing the lever pulls the arm and pushes the booster. A short. adjustable push rod goes from the opposite end of the booster to the throwout arm. I ran a vacuum hose to the booster and fired it up. It felt like the cable was welded to the frame. Two finger pull my butt!! Realizing that I may not be pulling enough vacuum, I went on my merry way to the junkyard in search of a vacuum pump. GM used them on a bunch of 4 cylinder stuff in the early 80s. I figured I'd pick up a couple just in case. Yeah, right. We have two large self serve yards nearby and not one lousey early 80s Citation/Sunbird/Cimmaron to be found. Too old for the regular yards and not old enough for the antique/oldies yard. So I went home and stared at it. I thought that something like a Harley mousetrap might be the answer, so I fabbed up this unlikely looking contraption. It pivots on the old swingarm hole. I went to the hardware store and grabbed two of the heaviest springs that they had. One end attaches to the lower end of the mousetrap and the other to a tab welded to the frame just under the seat. The springs are stretched tighter than a bowstring. A link attaches the mousetrap lever to the throwout arm. As it sits, the spring is over center and holds the mousetrap in the engaged position. As I pull the clutch lever, the contraption goes over center in the opposite direction and the tension of the springs assists the vacuum booster. The springs are a bit less powerful than the Belleville spring in the pressure plate, so when I ease off of the lever, the clutch re-engages. It seems to work very well. I still have some fine tuning to do. The hardware store springs look like they're stretched to the limit. I'm going to look for a more powerful spring to replace them. Maybe a hood hinge spring off of a large car or truck.
Of course, all of this didn't go without some hassle. The fuel pump had to be relocated. The On/Off/Reserve lever now pokes through the side cover. It looks better than what I had before. The hidden switch panel that I had, so cleverly, built also got the heave-ho. I need to find a new spot for them. I didn't like the key switch on the side cover because the leather fob rubbed on the paint and left a worn spot. I'll sit on my little thinking stool tomorow and stare at it some more

300 mile shakedown run

2008-09-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today I, and two other guys, took a ride of about 300 miles from the north San Fernando Valley to Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains. The bike and the trans performed almost flawlessly. One thing that I did discover is that the suicide clutch/jockey shift, while a noble experiment and fun to ride, sucks big time in off camber, low speed U turns. With this in mind, I will be gathering the necessary parts to convert to a hand clutch/foot shift this winter. The other problem is it still drags the pipes and kickstand badly. I will try to increase the preload on the rear shocks, but I think I still need to lengthen the shock mounts a bit more. It's not a big deal. I just need to make up two new ones, about 20 minutes work, whack the old ones off and weld the new ones on. That will be tomorrow's little project.

I am waiting until I'm satisfied that I have a finished product and, then, I want to shoot a short video of the bike and of me taking you, my faithful followers, on a short little ride so you can see how it all works. I have to wait for my production team (wife and granddaughter) to come home first.

Carburetor Blues

2008-09-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

The miss got so bad that the bike would barely run. I pulled the carb and, lo and behold, it was all clogged up with crud. The filter in the fuel inlet was completely blocked. and there was sediment in the float bowl. In my haste and cheapness, I used the old inline fuel filter when I reassembled the bike. I think I put it in backwards and it flushed all the accumulated gunk into the carb. Bad idea. After a good cleaning, everything is hunky-dory.

Another, ongoing, problem with my bike is the front brake light switch. It is inside the right hand switch assembly on the handlebars. It would work occasionally and, finally, the brakelight would stay on all the time. I pulled it out......again and found it had shorted........again. I gave it a flying lesson. I removed the 3 way fitting under the triple tree, drilled and tapped it for 1/8 pipe threads and a regular old hydraulic brake light switch was screwed in. I suppose I could have found a, proper, four way fitting at the local parts store. The one I use has a good Dorman inventory and a savvy parts manager, but I was too lazy and cheap to drive over there. End of problem, I hope.

Takin' A Leak

2008-08-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Bike night went well. There was no drama, but when I got home and parked the bike, the next morning there was a substantial puddle of 90 weight on the driveway. The Curtis box was leaking out of the output side. This is entirely the fault of Jack Phillips who sold me a defective gearbox. Well.........it could have been, partially, my fault. When I removed the side cover, there was a square indentation on the lip seal where I MIGHT have pushed the key into it, in my haste. It's far simpler to blame Jack than to admit that I may have f***ed up........as usual. One hour and a 6 buck seal and it's tighter than a frog's ass.
I haven't really romped on it , yet. There is a miss that I have to trace down. It ran perfect prior to the tear down. The only thing I touched was the fuel pump and lines, so I suspect a fuel delivery problem. I'll check it out tomorrow. The bike seems to have a whole different personality now. It sounds and feels different, especially when I close the throttle at freeway speed when exiting. A real nice rumble as the engine slows down. First gear feels a bit like a car taking off in second, but the bike doesn't care. It just sorta hunkers down and pulls hard. I don't have to slip the clutch at all. If I hit second a little hard, the bike torques to one side a little. This was a bit disconcerting at first, particularly because I have one hand on the bars. After a few times, though, it's no big deal.
I think that I am going to be very happy with this conversion. I am still going to try to rig up a hand clutch/foot shift. I may hunt down the booster and the bits and pieces and go that route. I've heard of two finger pulls with the stock BH booster setup.
I'll be the first to admit that this conversion isn't for everyone. Most of you love your automatics. I can't blame you. They are nice. I can't leave well enough alone, so that was one reason to yank it out. The horror stories were another. As I stated, early on, I can't afford to throw 2 or 3K into my trans every year or so. I didn't keep records of the cost of the modifications. It was under 3K. I did all of the work, so that, alone, saved me a bundle. The changes to the bike, while they are reversable, should be considered permanent.

Dialin' It In

2008-08-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I made the longer shock mounts and moved them forward a bit. I seem to have plenty of ground clearance now. I took a short hop down the block and back and it seems good to go. I'll be heading to the local bike night at Route 66 Cafe here in town tonight. It's about 15 miles round trip. Should be a good shake down ride. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and my cell phone charged. I hope the gremlin bell works.

SUCCESS!!!!..........sorta

2008-08-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today, UPS arrived with the, long awaited, master links. On they went and away I went. The first thing I noticed was the stench of burning rubber. The second was the rear of the bike sat WAY too low and I couldn't turn without dragging the pipes. I was afraid that would be the case, but I thought I would try it first. Back to the shop. The bracket that I made to support the bottom of the rear fender was too wide and the tire was dragging against it. Easy fix, just whack off the extra. The stock, swingarm on my 98 had a downward bend near the shock mount. I didn't include this bend when I made the new one. Big mistake. I snatched the swingarm off, pie cut it and welded it back together. This raised the back about 2 inches. Better, but still not enough. Tomorrow I will make new, taller, shock mounts and lift the rear another 1 or 2 inches. Maybe I'll make them with several holes so I can adjust the height of the bike. This will come in handy if I give a ride to a fat chick. The wife tips the scales at a staggering 105.
All thing considered, it was a good day. It runs well, tracks straight, shifts up and down and makes bitchen sounds when I down shift. I think I'm gonna like it

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go

2008-08-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Everything is all buttoned up. All the wireing, fuel lines etc. are in and connected. Hit the button and she fired up instantly. It was bittersweet. Such a lovely sound, but all I can do is sit there and rap the throttle and let it idle and listen to the cam lope. I shoved in the clutch, stuck it in first and eased it out a bit with the brake on and felt it pull on the chains. I think it's going to work just fine. I have master links on order from three different vendors. I will have no shortage of them by next week. I may have a pair by Tuesday. Keepin' the fingers crossed. Between now and then, I'll give it a good cleaning, some wax, chrome polish, Armorall, Ben Gay, Right Guard and Peach Flavored Astro Glide.

The Missing Link

2008-08-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

Isn't always the case. The project is for all intent and purpose, done. There will be a few loose ends, I'm sure. Yesterday was spent installing the exhaust, the rear wheel, hooking up a few stray wires and tightening nuts and bolts. Next came the chains. Laid 'em on the sprockets, determined that 5 links needed to be removed. No problemo. Let's see, where are the master links??? For the next 5 hours I turned the shop upsidedown looking for the *&%*#$@* master links. They are gone, vanished, taken aboard the mother ship, grew legs and walked out. All I can figure is that I, inadvertently, threw them away. Now, one would think that procuring a pair of #630 masterlinks in the greater Los Angeles area would be, fairly, easy. Nope, no dice. I called, drove and computer surfed all day today. I should have stayed home and watched Oprah. So, It's back on line to Bike Bandit and they order them for me from Wisconsin, which is not only the cheese capitol of the US but, evidently, the Fort Knox of motorcycle chains. So, instead of filling the air with the stench of tire smoke, I filled the air with a string of expletives.
I will spend the next week cleaning the bike and the shop, Taking the promised pictures and looking in the same spots, for the 50th time, for the elusive links, which will reappear the day after the new ones arrive. One of Murphy's Laws of Mechanics
I'm pissed, but resigned to my fate. Some day I gotta get organized.

Tomorrow Is Only a Day Away

2008-08-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

If all goes well, I will be irritating my neighbors again for the first time in a while. The swingarm is done. The sprockets are aligned (I had to make a spacer to go between the BH hub and the sprocket assembly to move it over 3/8"). The chains are on. The rear fender is on. The fuse box is in and the wires are routed. Tomorrow the pipes, seat and tanks go on, and that should just about do it. I'm holding off on the battery holder because I may switch to an Optima or Odyssey gel battery. I may just make it to bike night tomorrow night.

I will be posting a bunch o' pictures soon of the (hopefully) finished product. Stay tuned chilluns.

Objects Are Closer Than They Appear

2008-08-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

More progress today. Got the rear brake hitched up. I had to fab up a new hard line, since the old one is a few inches short. Some of the riders of the earlier BHs have recommended cutting the caliper bracket so that it floats and is no longer bolted to the rear of the swingarm. I went ahead and modified mine as well. This actually serves a two fold purpose. Besides floating free, now the arm that anchors the bracket takes all of the braking force and transfers it to the front of the swingarm, near the pivot. This eliminates most of the tendency of the rear end of the bike to squat under hard braking. Tomorrow I'll bleed it out and replace the defective brake light switch. All that remains, as far as I can tell, is to make up a new battery holder/rear fender mount, hang the pipes, put the tank on, re route a few wires and a coupla other small odds and ends. I was hoping to have it ready by next Wednesday, but I may come in early and under budget. I still have my old Nesco trans setup to sell, so that will cover chrome and powder coat later on. Hopefully there will be enough left over for a tank o' gas and a few cool ones.

I can taste it AND smell it, now

2008-08-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today was spent on the bike and a woodworking project.
I finished mounting the fuel pump, installed the trans mount/crossmember and stared at the battery holder, trying to see if it will work. I think I'll just make a new one, instead. I should have the fuel system plumbed, and all the electrics back in and hooked up this weekend. I need to get some radiator hose, as the old one leaked. Just a tiny bit of welding and grinding on the swingarm and it will go back in to stay, until this winter when I'll be sending it and a few other things for chrome and powdercoat.
I'm really getting stoked. I'm pushing for Wednesday the 20th. We have our local bike night every Wednesday and I have missed them all this summer. I guess I coulda ridden my moped, a 78 Benelli that I bought new. It has about 600 original miles. Original tires, spark plug, everything. I payed 100 bucks for it. Saw one on Ebay for a grand. After 30 years, I think I'll keep it. The only thing I've had longer is the wife. She still looks good, too.

I Can Almost Taste It !

2008-08-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

A lot has gotten done in the past 3 or 4 days. The modifications to the swingarm are about finished. Just a bit of grinding and finish welding. I was able to run the crossmember through the chains, as I had originally planned, rather than under them. It just takes a more torturous route. All the wierd bends and notches are pretty well hidden. I will, eventually, have the arm chromed, but will dust the crossmember with flat black so it hides in the shadows. The Curtis box is in for the last time. The QD bushings and front sprockets are drilled and tapped. I need to find some 5/16 USC X 3 inch grade 8 socket head cap screws to cinch them down. The shift and clutch linkages are done. I'm sure there will be some final "dialing in", but it looks good for, maybe next week.

Jockeying for position

2008-07-31T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since any, real, work has been done on the transmission conversion. I have just about finished the jockey shift/suicide clutch setup. It works slick as snot on a doorknob, sitting on the bike while up on the jacks. I expect it to be, pretty much, the same on the road. I have many miles on similar setups on my Indian and 3 of my HDs, so the learning curve will be short. BTW, the bent rod from the clutch pedal will be replaced with a straight piece. It's leftover from the, ill fated, foot shifter.

The antique, purple, glass doorknob has been on the road with me for years. I ran it on the 3 jockey shift HDs and, more recently, on my Cushman scooters. Maybe it's a good luck charm. I hope so.

As can be seen in the picture, the chains are in place, though still in mockup stage. That's why one has more slack than the other. The visual impact of the dual 630 chains absolutely kicks ass.

I still have to re weld the swingarm crossmember, weld on a new brake anchor, build a battery box/holder and a few other, small items and she'll be ready for the shakedown run. I'm gettin' itchy. Can't wait to hammer it in first!!!

"I sense failure is rapidly approching." The Brain

2008-06-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well, thing are moving along again. The trans is in for the last time (knock on wood) the Curtis box is in for the next to the last time and final alignments and adjustments are being made. As I feared, there is a clearance issue with the swing arm crossmember and the chains. I was expecting to, possibly, have to notch it out a bit. Yeah, right. It will require a bit more than that. I had to cut the crossmember nearly in half and will reconfigure it to pass under the chains. It's a little bit of a setback rather than a failure, but no real biggee. I should have it re done by Saturday if I'm not preoccupied with other stuff. I have to take wifey out for din din and a show. It's anniversary time again. 39 years!!!! It was cheaper to keep her, as they say. No alimony, no child support and, oh yeah, made the last house payment last week Woo Hoo!

Pix

2008-03-01T16:29:00.001-08:00

Workin' on the Chain Gang

2008-02-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

MMMM..... three piece sandwich

Today I mounted one of the rear sprockets to the BH hub. These sprockets come blank, with a 7/8" center hole. I had to lay out and drill the 4 holes to bolt it to the hub and also bore out the center hole to 2 1/8". I had to use my big ol' honkin' 14" faceplate for this bit of backyard machining. I had to, first, machine a plug to fit the center hole. this was used to find the actual center of the sprocket to lay out the mounting holes and later to attach it, concentrically, on the faceplate Once I centered it up, it went off without a hitch. I ended up with a center hole that was a bit over the 2 1/8 that I was aiming for but no biggee. It'll be fine. There will be a second sprocket next to it since I will be running two chains. I'll wait until I get the front sprockets mounted up before I machine the other one. I have the QD taper bushings coming in from Grainger on Monday. These are different from the ones that BH uses. Additionally, these industrial sprockets are made for #60 chain which is 3/4" pitch. 630 motorcycle chain is also 3/4" pitch, but narrower. I will be running M/C chain, so all 4 sprockets will need to be machined thinner. My old lathe is getting a workout. If you're any kind of gearhead, shop around for an old lathe. They are indispensable. Plus, when people come into your shop, they will know that you kick ass.
I received the QD bushings and after mounting them and the sprockets on the Curtis output shaft, it looks as if the outer, rear sprocket will bolt up to the hub and line up pretty well. The inner cog will need to be bored out to 6" to fit over the hub. Both of them will be separated with a 1" spacer, drilled and bolted together in a three piece sandwich. This should be done by next week as I am over committed and won't be able to work on it much this weekend

Mounties to the Rescue

2008-02-18T16:29:00.000-08:00

I went to replace the fan switch today, since it never worked. I just switched it on and off manually. In order to get a socket on it, the upper motor mount needs to come of. Mine did..... in three pieces. It's a nice piece of machining, but it seems a bit wimpy. I checked with BH and decided that they were a little too proud of their work for the Po' Boy. I made a new one out of some mild steel. Took about an hour. I will, probably, make another one for the left side. I'm gonna make this thing bullet proof if it kills me.

No More Fuelin' Around.....the puns will only get worse

2008-02-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

I never was real fond of the electric fuel switchover valve. More to go wrong at exactly the wrong time, so here's my fix. I bought a marine quality manual valve and screwed it into the "in" side of the fuel pump. Later, I will plumb the lines from the main and reserve tank into the two "in" ports on the valve and the 'OUT' will go to the carb. There is also an "off" position. I also moved the whole assembly to the left side so the valve handle will be easily reached and to make as much room for a battery/tool box later in the build

It's Not Easy, Bein' Cheezy

2008-02-12T19:57:00.000-08:00

I've been obsessing over the pot metal flanges on my new swing arm bearings, so I went to Grainger today and coughed up the cash and got the genuine Browning, cast iron flange, bearings. You can see from the pictures that they are much more substantial than the Taiwan cheepos. I had to enlarge the hole in the swingarm mount to accommodate them and needed to take a few thousandths off of the bearing housing so they would fit snugly. These are killer and will be maintenance free.

I see no reason why this modification couldn't be done on the stock BH setup as well. You would need to get a 2 1/2" holesaw, a big ol' 1/2" drill (I call mine the Widowmaker) and make a centering jig for the holesaw. This is nothing more than a piece of 1/4" plate with a 2 1/2" hole in it. Center the jig over your existing swingarm bushing, clamp it securely and cut the hole. The jig will pilot the saw on it's outer circumference. They are usually piloted by the 1/4" hole that is made by the drill, but we already have a 3/4" hole, so without some method of holding the saw on target, it will lurch around like a sailor on payday

I picked up two spherical rod ends for the shift linkage also. Oh yeah, I ordered a shiny, new Kuryakyn shift peg to replace the hex bolt. No more cheezy shortcuts.......for now.

Paradigm Shift

2008-02-09T17:36:00.001-08:00

I decided to switch gears (pun intended) a bit and make the shifter and linkage today. Here's what I came up with. I may put Heim joints on the ends of the rod if it needs them, but I think this will be OK. It shifts just fine sitting still while making the requisite VROOM VROOM sounds. The hex head bolt will be replaced with something a bit more attractive

Powder coating blues

2008-02-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

I recall reading on the V8riders site that there were some problems with the powder coating on some of the older bikes. I have noticed a great deal of peeling on my frame, some from before and some as a result of the modifications that I have made. On closer inspection it does not appear that the frame was sandblasted prior to coating. All the metal has the cold rolled finish still on it. No wonder it's falling off. I have had quite a few items coated over the years and the guy always stresses proper prep work for a good job. Thorough cleaning and sandblasting is paramount. I'm surprised that BH would take such a crummy shortcut. I will not. Actually, since I'm a cheapwad, I'll probably paint it. Depends on how much is left in the ever dwinding pot when I'm done

What a groovy and swinging cat Carl is.......

2008-02-09T11:13:00.000-08:00

The swingarm is mostly complete. There is a bit more finish welding and grinding to do, but it looks like it'll work. There could be some chain/belt clearance issues later on, so there may be some minor notching on the left side. We'll see. I did a quick and dirty wheelbase measurement and it looks like it'll be about 82 inches. I will bolt everything up, later today, and drop it down on it's wheels to have a look-see and to sit on it and make VROOM VROOM sounds

Metallurgy for Dummies/Carl/John

2008-02-05T10:02:00.000-08:00

Some concerns about my use of mild steel for my swingarm have been raised. There are terms that always bring a knowing smile and a nod of the head to most people. Terms like "Board Certified", "Micro Brewed", "Heliarc" and "Chromemoly". While I have no problem with the last two, I believe them to be, at times, buzz words. I'm a lousy TIG welder, so that's out the window on this build. Cars, bikes, high rise office towers and a myriad of other stuff has been built out of mild steel, with success for a hundred years. They have been gas, arc, MIGed TIGed, bolted, rivited, furnace brazed and even glued together. I believe my swingarm will be just fine. I don't know what BH uses, but the induced hydrogen embrittlement from the chrome plating would certainly negate some of the advantages of using chromemoly. I'm gonna run it and like it. If it fails, I doubt that it will be catastrophic. I will be keeping a close eye on all of the modifications for signs of failure. Just ride in front of me so the parts falling off don't hit ya.

Don't mock my mockup

2008-02-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more shots of the bike mocked up. The overall proportions look good. I don't want the stretch limo look. I welded up the swing arm mounts last night. Next, I will connect the two swingarms with a crossbrace that loops under the Curtis box to keep the wheelbase as short as possible.

No huge errors or problems.........yet. I did have a slight problem with one of the mounts. I didn't properly brace it and when I finished welding it in, it drew about 1/4 inch from the heat. A bit of heat with the rosebud tip and a judicious application of the BFH eliminated that screwup. Yes, I knew better, I thought the laws of the universe would change just for me. Man plans.... God laughs.

Stay tuned as I continue to create problems and attemt to solve them

Light at the end of the tunnel, dim but perceptible

2008-02-01T18:08:00.000-08:00

Today I made up the swingarm mounts. There will be two on each side rather than the one that BH uses. No real, solid, engineering reason why. I just thought it would be better, or at least no worse. Tomorrow is Saturday, so I'll be able to spend all day in the shop. I hope to have all the welding done and maybe take it off the jacks and see how it looks.

I've been thinking about final drive options. The Gates belt that we have on our bikes will be way too short. They only come in a few sizes and, evidently, there isn't one that will fit. Gates makes a belt called the Eliminator. It is supposed to be stronger than the GT, but it won't fit the BH pulleys. The pulley for this belt are only (I think) available in steel. A 70 tooth weighs 50 lbs!! The last option and the one that I am considering is chain. I will be running two 630 chains side by side. It should handle the power and look bad ass. I need to look at a double strand sprocket and see if there is room for the two chains. These sprockets are made for a special double strand chain. The regular bike chains may rub against each other which doesn't seem like the hot setup to me. More research. The devil's in the details, but it's been done before.

Swing arm

2008-01-30T17:58:00.000-08:00

Today I started on the new swingarm. I used 2 inch, 1/8 wall mild steel tubing. It was a tiny bit off from the stuff BH uses. I had to take a few thousandths off of the slider blocks before they would fit inside. Thanks to my trusty old 1925 Dalton lathe/mill combo machine, everything went charmingly. Tomorrow I'll do it again. I may be up on two wheels by this weekend. There is still the clutch and final drive issues, but I'll address those later. So far it is fun since there have been no problems that weren't easy to solve.

2008-01-29T18:01:00.000-08:00

In the past few days, I have tacked in the extended swingarm mounts and cut out a rear mount/crossmember. The crossmember will bolt to the rear of the Ranger where it bolts to the Curtis. I will weld ears to the frame to bolt the crossmember onto so the entire thing will drop out. This will make splitting the frame easier later on. To those that may have noticed the pitted appearence of the new crossmember, this is due to my being a scrounger and a tightwad. It's a piece of 1/2 plate that was part of a target at the shooting range at the jail, where I work. A little flat black and you'll never notice the bullet holes.

I picked up the square tubing for the new swingarm today, so as soon as the welding is done on the frame, I will start building the arm. It will be a shortened version of the stock item with a few changes to keep the wheelbase as short as possible

So far, so good. Minimal bloodshed, no hurling of tools/parts, one minor temper tantrum when I realized I had built two identical swingarm mounts. They should be mirror images. DOH !!!!

And The Beat Goes On.

2008-01-26T17:49:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, Monday to be exact I received the Curtis gearbox. With 90% or so of the needed parts and lousy weather, I decided it's now or never. Wednesday and Thursday evening were spent splitting the frame and yanking out the Nesco. No big deal. Everything came apart nicely. I bolted the Curtis to the Ranger and stuck the assembly on the bellhousing and bolted everything to the block. There is no clutch, yet. Everything is a mockup at this stage.

Using three Sawzall blades I amputated the rear crossmember. I coulda used the smoke wrench, but I figured I may be able to reuse it and didn't want to booger it up too much. Waste of time. It won't fit the reconfigured swingarm mounting plates. Chucked it in the weeds. Buh Bye.

The new plates for the swingarm were cut from 1/2 plate. I picked up two 3/4 inch four bolt flange mount bearings from Grainger. Appropriate holes were drilled in the plates and the bearings bolted in place. I was a bit dissapointed that the housings for the bearings are die cast. They are rated for around 3000 lbs (I forget exactly). I'll be keeping a close eye on them. If they give me any grief, Browning and others make them with a cast iron housing. I may go ahead and change them out anyway before I put it back on the road. These will be good for the time being.

Tomorrow I will weld up the plates and work on the crossmember. I hope to have the mounts all done and good before next weekend. I'll be fabbing a new swingarm after that. By the time I get through cutting and modifying the old one, I could just go ahead and build one from scratch.

So far, it all looks good. Everything fits as well or better than expected. The bike will end up less than 2 inches longer than stock, about 50 lbs heavier and I'll be able to hammer the crap out of it in first and second. Whooo Hooo

2007-12-18T17:44:00.000-08:00

Well, today is December 18th, my birthday. The Big Six Oh. Not older than God or even dirt, but pretty dadburned old, nonetheless. As George Burns said, "If I had known that I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." I still have outlived my Dad and both of his brothers, so that's something to crow about. I can still hold up my big ol' sickle and ride the snot out of it, so screw everything else.

No progress on the Ranger swap. I'm still waiting for the necessary parts to arrive. In the meantime, I'm working on some of my woodworking projects that have been on the back burner for a while. A sewing machine cabinet for the wife and a table for a friend. The cabinet was finished, but the top warped, so I need to build another one. Bummer, but "stuff" happens

That's my 47 Whizzer in the background. I'm doing it as a "barn fresh restoration". I have rebuilt and prettied up the engine, put on new whitewalls and a new echo pipe. All the rest will remain original patina.

2007-11-27T16:28:00.000-08:00

Well, nothing to report today, so I think I'll rant. Recognize these two knobs? Yeah, the Teutuls, who will, hereafter, be known as Nostrils and Walrus Face. Yeah, I know, they have more money than me. Money is all that they have. I watch their show because I enjoy beating myself over the head. It feel so good when it's over.

Where to begin? How about the bikes. I will admit that their fabricating skills have improved. At first, all Nostrils did was to go to the shelf, select a bunch of parts, assemble the whole mess and then begin welding on all of his ill chosen encrustations. Most of the bikes are, in my humble, yet accurate, opinion, heinous. The most striking example has to be the POS...oops, sorry, the POW bike. Holy Crap. That is supposed to be a tribute to our MIAs? The two Vets that were blubbering over it were probably left shell shocked by the comprehensive ugliness of the thing. And what's up with a solo saddle and a sissy bar??

Did you see the Gillette bike episode where Nostrils and Vinnie were going on about shaving, and then talking about shaving EACH OTHER???? The only thing missing was that "BOW CHICKA WOW WOW", porno film music. Jeezo Pete, what a couple of bone smugglers.

Ol' Vinnie seems to be a pretty regular guy, but he isn't the Master Mechanic that he's made out to be. They had to call in a guy, on one build, to assemble a transmission and on another, they got someone to install a big inch kit while Vinnie watched. As it happens, the bike wasn't quite ready for a show where they were going to debut it. It wouldn't start. Vinnie stayed up all night chasing an electrical problem. You could hear, over the TV set, that there was a compression issue, but he soldiered on, looking for the non existant electrical gremlin. The guy installed the wrong pushrods. DOH!!!

One time, Cody (who, BTW, has the best looking bike to come out of OCC) asked Vinnie why it's called a suicide shift. Vin 'splains it's because you have to take your hands off of the bars to shift. WRONG!!! I have enough gray in my beard and I was there 40+ years ago and here is the correct answer. There is no such thing as a suicide shift. It is a suicide CLUTCH and a JOCKEY shift, and here's why. Back in the Jurrasic period when I was a youngun, the old sickle hounds, in their quest for lighter, faster bikes, began removing the stock, rocker style, clutch pedal from their HDs and Indians and replacing them with a simple in or out pedal. It saved a few ounces and you could really bang a shift by just stabbing the pedal and grabbing the next gear. Here comes the suicide part, pay attention, children. While sitting at a signal, waiting for the green light, you're revving your engine to impress the babe next to you in the Stude convertible. You loose you balance, your foot slips off of the pedal, you shoot into the intersection and, the next thing you know, you've become the hood ornament on a Mack truck. Suicide. At the same time, a lot of guys yanked the shifter off of the tank and bolted it to the trans. When you reached down and behind your butt to shift, it looked like a jockey whipping his horse ie: Jockey Shift. End of History lesson, back to OCC rant.

Here is the thing that pissed me off the most. The episodes where they bored us to death with their trip to Europe. They were at one of the cemeterys where our fallen heros of WWII are buried. Young kids, mostly, who sacrificed all for the freedom of the world. And here we have Walrus Face, walking around, trying to look somber, but appearing constipated, wearing that stupid assed wife beater. You arrogant, ignorant, douche nozzle.You were on hallowed ground. Show a tiny bit of respect for those who never came home, while you avoided military service.

OK, that's it. I can't take it any longer. Maybe later I'll go on about Nostrils' girl friend. Does anyone think that with a face like that, he could land a hottie like her?? Couldn't have been the $$$$$? Nahhh.

Tranny arrived

2007-11-26T18:01:00.000-08:00

Well. boys and girls, I received my brand spankin' new Ranger III transmission. She's a beauty. I thought I'd post a picture for those who haven't seen one in person. It came complete with an adapter to bolt it to the Curtis box as well as a new bearing and race for the Curtis. For the time being, it will have to live in the shop while I am sourcing the rest of the parts. My old Nesco will be going on Ebay when the conversion is complete or I will entertain cash offers. It's recently rebuilt and works perfectly.

Ranger III Transmission Conversion

2007-11-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

This blog will follow my adventure into converting my 1998 Boss Hoss 350 motorcycle from the current one speed Nesco automatic tranny to a two speed, manual shift Ranger tranny. I will also, from time to time, interject some of my loves, hates, substandard observations and paranoid delusions.

Who is this boob, you may be asking. I have a partial bio listed already, but here's a bit more for those who care. I 'm a SoCal native, baby boomer, gearhead. I've been up on two wheels for 44 years, starting with Cushmans, Whizzers and the like. The BH is the culmination, the "Big O", 385 horse dose of Viagra. I have several welding certifications, a 1000 sq/ft home shop, a lathe and a mill and a fair degree of fabricating skill. I should be able to knock it out in a day or two....in dog years.

The Ranger was originally a two speed under or overdrive unit for trucks. It has been redesigned by Bill Alexander and fitted with an all new, custom, gearset. It has a 2 to 1 first gear, a direct 1 to 1 in high and a true neutral. It is bullet proof, all synchro and of the highest quality, built right here in The Peoples Republik of Kalifonia. It's like totally bitchen, Dudes.

Here is a shot of the victim bike, soon to come under the torch and my BFH (big f'n hammer). I hope to begin the transformation after the first of the year (2008), when things slow down a bit. I will also be addressing the swing arm bushings and replacing them with sealed bearings. There will also be a built in pump with miniature lines going to all major components that will inject a continuous flow of dielectric grease.

This will be a true, back yard, modification. I'm a tradesman, working for wages so I will not be able to go scoop a few shovels full out of the money bin.

So stay tuned boys and girls and watch as Ol' Uncle Carl cuts, welds, curses, bleeds and give tools and parts flying lessons. If it comes out as expected, great. If there are any screwups or failures, you'll see them as well.