Another vintage project from Great Britain, target Speed Week 2011

[thefrenchowl]

Hi all,

Well, the end of a 4 day break, but I took it easy this time!!! At 4pm on Saturday, decided it was time for a break and headed to Talgarth, Wales (in the car...) where our HDRCGB 1st rally of the year took place. Just arrived there and I see one of me friends, Woody, already packing up, ready to go...

He jumps on me and shoves a good wad of cash in me hands for the project!!! Not even time to properly thank him and buying him a drink, he's on his way home... Got to say, our club magazine was out last week and there's in it a 5 pages article on the built, so the word is out that the bloody Frenchman is at it again... They though they were used to it after all these years, but I still manages to surprise them somehow...

So had a good night out, chatting away and meeting old and new friends, even saw a beautiful French girl there that lives with a Scottish lad, a noisy but OK band in the hall... Back at home at 3.30am for a bit of a kip...

Sunday... Classic Bike Show in Stafford, got to get there cause I need a few bits... Meet more people I know, even met the guy that sold me this KHK all these years ago, Terry Dobney... He's a druid and looks after a prehistoric man made mound in the south, certainly a character!!!

Found these bits:











Plus a long bit of angle alloy to make the chain guard...

So today, just messed around with "light" items...

A friend on the XL Iron Head forum, Dr Dick, did pass on his concerns about my belt drive and that's the job he does, belt drives for machinery, so I though I'd better listen to him... He was adamant an iddler was needed on the top near the small pulley for a better contact patch... Looked into the bins and came out with these 2 ball bearings. Couldn't clamp them as near as I wanted to look at the set up, but I can bring them nearer the pulley when ready... A suitably thinned down metric socket as a shaft!!!









Welded, not too uggly, a nipple on the plenum for the pressure gauge pipe:



Bit of soldering, wired up the clip ons kill switch, 2 red wires for the magnetos, the green is the earth:





And lastly, done one of the fork stops:





It's now time for a bath cause in the middle of all that, I managed to go with Susan, my wife, to the garden centre for a few aquatic plants to colonize our pond, full of tadpoles at the moment, life keeps going on!!!

All the best from Patrick

[thefrenchowl]

More "light" bits...

Remembered to bring from work the hole cutter, so prepared the plenum for the blow off valve nipple:





then looked at finishing the tacho drive... Had the fitting that goes on the bakelite cover, but not the extension that press fit into the top of the cam...

An old Amal carb main jet just did the trick...





2 more days at work and another long weekend...

Cheers from Patrick

[bubuche]

salut Patrick

super travail

j ai fait mais premier essaie hier rapport de transmission 1.78/1 il souffle 500g avec un amr500 et un moteur de 1200s

j ai un soucis quand je accélère a fond sur le dernier 1/8 de gaz le moteur régule quand je dés accélère le moteur s emballe

ma bougie est couleur chocolat tu pense que ca peut venir du plenum trop petit?

a+ bubuche

[charlie101]

Your blow off valve looks as small as the one Saltcracker Lars had on his blower, (INDIAN 741 Supercharged...See you in 2011, pg42)
His blowercase cracked most probably beacuse the blow off valve was too small, are'nt you making the same mistake as he did? The experience shared by Queeziryder of using a 2x2" milk carton burst plate made sense. You might not need that large and it hasn't to be round, but can be a formed as a slit along the intake in order to have enough area. A detonation in the intake is spiky like a hammerblow and the time to vent it is in milliseconds.

[thefrenchowl]

Thanks Charlie for your concerns.

Went to check your post on Lars' thread...

I have sent a email just now to Neil "Queeziryder" to talk it through with him...

My design is certainly not set in stone, so I do welcome suggestions and criticisms that will improve the safety of the engine, I've only got one!!!

I was in another way rumaging about the same problem one evening but viewed from another angle: the Fairbanks Morse magnetos I'm using both have the typical V Twin offset 2 lobes on them (small lobe, front cylinder, then 315 degrees, big lobe, rear cylinder, 405 degrees to complete 2 revs, 720 degrees) and I was thinking I do not want at all the wasted spark that will occur every 2 revs if it happens any time during or after the overlap... I plotted it all on AutoCAD.

If I was to use the big lobe for the rear cylinder mag firing, the wasted spark would happen slightly after TDC during the overlap, a good chance to ignite the plenum...

But by using the small lobe for the rear and 33 degrees advance, wasted spark will happen 78 degrees before TDC on the next exhaust stroke, no threat there and same on the front pot...

So no need to grind off lobes on the magnetos which would be a bit radical!!!

Cheers from Patrick

[charlie101]

Youre welcome Patrick   Great reserach on the magneto, I'll be certainly going to use that!

[thefrenchowl]

Hi, hope you've got as much sun as we do here this month!!!

Charlie 101, Neil's on holiday, he'll talk to me next Tuesday... In the meantime, back to AutoCAD... I 1st drawn a 2" one, but it looked a bit big for my plenum, then a 1"3/4 one:





On holiday, Brian busted his Achilly's tendon, so he's in plaster... Went to his home yesterday to sort his electric gate, hard at work for a few hours while his wife watched that wedding in London...

In the end we had to make one good motor out of 2 busted ones but it worked... He'll be waiting after work on Tuesday so I'll bring more drawings for more bits to do, plus a new supply of Argon to finish my welding... Never ending this game!!!

Today, did the 2 plug inserts on the heads (used the bench drill for proper location, not for driving it in!!!):









Sorted my rear brake, new fluid, flushed, seems OK so far...



And put a few more wires in for the kill switches...



See you all soon, Patrick

[saltwheels262]

looking good, patrick.

franey

[38flattie]

Loving it!

[thefrenchowl]

  Thanks guys!!! 

Charlie 101, here're the plottings for the sparks on AutoCAD... Might not show too well on your screen with the autoresizing this site does, but if you save it it should show OK...

Firing with dedicated lobes, small for front, big for rear, anticipated 33 degrees advance:



Wasted spark occur 78 degrees before TDC on the front cylinder, but 12 degrees after TDC during the overlap on the rear cylinder... DANGER!!!!

Firing with small lobe only:



Both front and rear wasted sparks occur at 78 degrees before TDC during the exhaust stroke... SAFE!!!! Don't know if Indians have the typical H-D wasted spark, but worth thinking about... Used to own a 42 degree Dixie magneto off a Powerplus in my youth, but can't remember if it had a dizzy on it??? Also had a 45 degree Dixie, that was for some French bike with a Swiss V Twin MAG engine in it, during WW1, they couldn't get the Bosch mags!!!

Think I'll pull out the engine tomorrow, it's about time I start its reassembly...

All the best from Patrick

[thefrenchowl]

Hi all,

Koncretekid was wondering if my blue thin water hose would be OK with methanol on the plenum joint... Did a soak test today...

Just put a strip in a tobacco tin full of methanol:



3 hours later, a bit hardened and some distortion:



5 hours later, some more:



Think it'll be OK on the day... I've let it soak overnight, don't think it'll get any worse...

More cabling, throttle:





For the clutch one, rotated the worm 120 degree so I can use a cable coming from the top of the cover. The std arrangement has the outer ending underneath the timing cover, a bit of a pain if one has to pull out the timing cover often...







Will finish with olives on lever ends when I find some MAP gas to silversolder them on...

See you around, Patrick

[Buzz Lightbeer]

Patrick use Samco hose. We have used the same tubing for the last 6 years & always checked it at the end of the race season, on our turbo alcohol efi funnybike. We have never had a problem with there product, check out www.samcosport.com
Its a long way go to the salt to get caught out using an inferior product, so hope this helps you out.
Regards
Dave, Ozco Racing

[thefrenchowl]

Yes, Buzz, I'd dearly love to use proper hose, but I've got less than a 1/4" clearance between the plenum and the rear cylinder, hence the need for a dead thin hose!!!



Another good and high spirited day in the garage, removed the empty engine from the frame, good cleaning all round and time to do a few photos of various stuff in more detail...

Supercharger bracket, nice job from Brian...





Trimming I had to do on the Ansin stamped tin cover:



View down the drive bearing bore showing spacer and seal:



Alloy engine front plates, the right one is trimmed to suit the frame and engine offset, the K and Sporty are always offset to the left!!!



Panic Jeff was worried about my cylinder studs not being long enough... Well, they are, just about 1/8th short of full lenght:



2 views of the added bearing/seal holder on the tin primary cover, had to trim the back a bit to leave room for the inspection access cover:





The mainshaft sprocket with the pulley holder attached, had to trim the 2 screws slightly, they were rubbing on the inner ring shown above:



Now left with a big pile of shinny stuff ready for assembling!!!



A few more nights and the end will be near!!!

All the best from Patrick

[thefrenchowl]

Hi everybody,

Pick up from Brian's the 1"3/4 burst plate, looks very nice, just needs some filing to suit the plenum curve, then welding...







And 4 spacers for the 3/4" reach race plugs, heads only have a 1/2" thread...



Looks like another busy weekend ahead...

Cheers from Patrick

[jdincau]

For heat transfer I think you would be better off using copper for the plug spacers.