Filling In The Blanks

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

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

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 left 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

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

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

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

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?