Hi Folks
I thought i might share a recent bike building experience with you all.
This all started in late August, we were having a bit of a discussion in the shed about doing a trip to Albany for the annual hill climb. We thought a whole week would be nice so we could check out the southwest and have a nice long ride as well, check out the hill climb in the middle of it and then mosy home.
About this time i thought it would be great to take a hill climb special along for the ride, I’ve been talking about building a special for years so this was the ideal opportunity to get off my bum and put a machine together.
What was needed was something light and fast, so a bit of a dig around in mine and Chris’s spares came up with a 27/28 short frame 101 designed for a 600 cc engine, i had a spare 26 front end which fitted nicely and an old 44 chief rear wheel that might fit.
So in the space of an hour we had the makings of something that might work
Now the engine took a bit of serious brain work, a scout engine bored, stroked and ported might do, but for a hill we really needed big cubes and a long stroke for torque. So we started looking at an old seriously banged up chief engine I’d been carting around for ages. The cases were cracked and the magy mount and half of the cam case was broken off and missing, but a bit of artistic repair might just work, we didn’t need a magy anyway.
Off to Dave the welders and had the cracks repaired, i made a blanking piece for the cam side and had that welded in, a bit of flat fileing and hey presto we had a set of usable cases, they didn’t look much like chief cases anymore but should work o/k. Now welding usually distorts aluminium a bit (a lot) so i had to set the case halves up in the lathe and make them true which wasn’t a drama but it did mean we had to make an oversize bearing race for one side, so off to my mate bob the machinist and he made, hardened and ground a special one for me.
I had a set of flywheels and rods left over from my 44 resto so i set up a nice bottom end with all new pins and bearings, and trued it up in my jig (0.00 runout, you have to be happy with that).
Barrels were another thing - i did have a set but they were ugly and i’d been avoiding using them for years, one of them was already 60 thou over, all of the head bolt holes were nackered and needed helicoiling, it was cracked from the inlet valve to the bore, two of the base mounting ears were broken off and the valve seats were badly recessed, and a heap of cooling fins were broken off. Usually something like this would go in the bin but hey the bike was only going to run for about half an hour a year so may as well give it a go, we welded the valve seats, repaired the base flange, made some fins and welded them on to replace the missing ones, sleaved it and bored it and hey presto we had a still ugly but usable barrel.
The other one was fairly simple in comparison it just needed the base flange repaired and a bore and it was good to go, usually i don’t use parts this bad in a resto because you generally can’t rely on them but they seem to be holding up nicely so far.
Chris came to the party with probably the ugliest chief heads I’ve ever seen, they looked like they had spent the last 50 years in the ocean, serious corrosion of the fins but the combustion chambers were perfect so a bit of work by Charlie on the belt sander tidying up fins, Jimmy on the face plate making the mounting face flat, Andrew spot faced the head bolt seat areas and they fitted just fine.
The oil pump as well was ugly, it came from the same smashed up set of cases we were using so it seemed only appropriate we should repair it and use it, the bottom return pipe casting was smashed off so i pruned off all of the broken bits, removed all the unnecessary casting and made a base plate (the old one was broken in half) and fitted new return gears. Now because the whole front of the right side engine case was missing i had no engine breather either, i modified the oil pump (or what was left of it) and the cam cover to pull crankcase ventilation from there, piped it out the side of the oil pump and she was good to go, i even had it Cad plated to make it look good.
I had a cracked gearbox housing from a 24 chief and Chris had a banged up primary from a 23 chief, unfortunately both needed huge repairs to the cases (inner primary was broken in half) before they were usable but they too came up a treat, the best remaining gear set i had with new bearings and a new cluster shaft went in, a few mods to the drive side engine case and they fitted like they were supposed to be there. Also had a early scout shifter that someone had shortened hanging around in my junk pile, that got a tidy up and went on as well.
So power plant all assembled with all new internals (pistons, rings, valves, guides, bearings, pins and housings) a bit of super secret porting to the barrels and heads and balanced to perfection and we had an engine ready to go.
Next step - make it fit a frame that was made for a 1927 600cc engine hhhhmmmm.
Without the heads the engine fitted o/k (a bit tight), but there was only 15mm clearance from the top of the barrels to the top frame tube, modifying a good frame was not an option (don’t bugger up any usable Indian bits is my shed moto) so it had to be the heads, these were seriously nackered anyway so it was the best option. Lots of work with the sander and a half round file and a custom made thin head gasket had the heads fitting under the tube with about 0.5mm to spare, made some custom front engine mounts and it all fitted great.
So we had an assembled engine in the frame and a set of forks, next was the wheels, front was a bit of a problem, i didn’t have anything suitable, Steve came to the rescue with a 18in rim he’d found on ebay, so i made a front hub and axle and used the old spokes from Micks scout bobber project and wala a wheel, Jimmy donated the old tyres from his sports scout to the project and we were looking good. Rear wheel wasn’t too much drama, i had a complete 44 chief wheel, and Chris donated a rear brake drum that fitted up nicely after some repairs, new bearings and sprocket, i made a backing plate, brake cam and fitted some old unidentified shoos that i had hanging around and we had a rear brake and wheel.
A this stage im getting excited, its looking like a bike, only problem was i couldn’t start it (no kicker) a chief kicker won’t fit because the engines a chief in an scout frame and a scout kicker won’t fit because its a later engine with a different driver so i had to make one, i found that a scout gearbox cluster gear had the same gear tooth pitch as the chief kicker gear, so i found a cluster gear set that had missing teeth on second gear (hey i keep everything Indian), then hack sawed off first gear (these teeth were o/k), split it in half, made a bush then welded on an old breaker bar from my tool box and hey presto i had a kicker, cool.
Chris has to get huge credit for this bike, he repaired a banged up, rusted out fuel tank and made it like new, he also supplied lots of parts from his shed so we could make it happen as well, so thanks mate it means a lot.
Last step was the start and final tuning, Geo and Jim had dropped over for a chat that day so they both helped with the first start. Jim made a temporary oil tank (Chris hadn’t finished the main tank at this stage) and Geo supervised, i hooked up some wiring and after that the start up went without a hitch, once we had fuel, oil and spark (did i mention i had to make a complete dizzy as well) it started after two kicks with a huge roar and a couple of big macho barks out the pipes and then settled down and ran like a clock, with return oil coming straight up. Jim was amazed, Geo was gobsmacked and i think i had wood. What a day.
Once Chris had finished the tank all that was left was the first ride, this was also entertaining to say the least, as you can see in the photo I’m running a home made suicide clutch (spring return) and the flanders handle bars are a tad low so its not the most comfortable at low speed. But once she’s rolling she’s a rocket, surprising how much difference a huge weight reduction makes to a bike, the old girl has more grunt than a yard full of pigs and pulls hard up to about 80mph (haven’t tried going faster yet- still running it in), its also loud because of the short pipes and blows some impressive flames out the pipes when you back the throttle off – just love it. Andrew and Jimmy have both had a ride and have both claimed undying love for the old girl, Jimmy is adamant he’s going to send the old girl a valentines card - he loves it that much.
I have a few bugs yet to sort out like it pulls through the clutch under full throttle in top gear (Kevlar clutch should sort that) and i might fit a steering damper to tame a slight head shake at 80 mph but apart from that we’re good to go for Albany.
Now if we can just get matched up with a Goldstar (polka dot helmet boy would be great) or a Trumpy to embarrass when we get there I’ll be happy.
So the lesson I’ve learned from this is don’t throw broken bits away, because they can be used to make a tough special.
Might have a dig around and see what other broken bits i’ve got hanging around, and build a 750 stroker version for barbagalo.
Wayne Elezovich DAM
