fremont bound

My dad, Brittney and I spent the day getting ready for the first AMCA National Meet in Fremont Nebraska this weekend. We are taking Jim's 39 and John's 48 and a few parts orders!!!!. I am so excited to see all of my friends. AMCA people are the best. Hope to see you guys there!

HEre is the detailed out 48, man this bike is spot on. Miss Brittney did an amazing job detailing it out. My dad signed up to help the AMCA out and be the chief judge for a one year trial basis. He will be doing a judging seminar with Assistant Chief Judge Don D on friday. They are going to use this bike. It is the perfect bike, if you would like to learn more about old bikes and are attending fremont, come and hang out, it is going to be a blast.

our work area looks like a pack of life savers

Here is a fuzzy picture of the 39 and the 38, these bikes look so good together.

pressure testing pictures

My Dad made a pressure testing cap a long time ago out of a cheap car cap, it finally gave up, so it was time to make a new one. this is a nos army oil cap, it is important to use a non vented cap. The first step is to drill a hole through the cap.

Then weld a Milton fitting onto the end of the cap

Here is a picture of the tank with air in it. I like to have fifteen or twenty psi going into the tank, then I spray it with soapy water. If there are any leaks, they will bubble, and you will know where to weld. I tested four tanks and only had two leaks to fix.

Here is Wayne's 46 with the freshly tested tanks on it.

I dropped these tanks along with John's 48 tanks off at Mikes to get in Primer. Once they are primed, I will fit the dash on both bikes!!!!

We picked up our batch of exhaust paint this morning. Here is a cool picture of everything on Jim's 39.

klock works pre sturgis party and 39 pictures

Here is the picture that I have been thinking about for the last week. Three 39 EL Motors, a 38 and a 46. These things are so nice. I love seeing them all lined up. This is the biggest batch of 37-30 cam cover motors that we have had finished at one time.

Brittney and I cruised down south to the Klockworks party in Mitchell with my dad, sister, Chuck and Larry. It was an alright time. I enjoyed the ride there and back. I have not ridden my 36 since returning from our midwest tour a week ago. I was having problems with a dirty fuel filter. I cleaned it out a couple of times and it still seems to be clogged up a little bit. I will pull the carb tomorrow and clean everything out.

We got back from riding sometime around eleven, so I put Jim's 39 motor in to make up for the six hours I spent riding bikes. This frame required no shims on the front motor mount. I love it when things work out that nicely. It must be beginners luck

And the pretty side.

39 el pictures

My dad has been picking away at Eric's 39 motor. It is almost finished. Jim's is up next and should be done pretty quickly. This motor is so sweet.

I got the back end of the bike all sorted out and finished up, except for the dang washers under the center stand mounting bolts. It always seems like there is one little part that you have to order.

NOS horn button and dimmer switch. I love the feeling of stock Harley switches. They are so nice, no one has been able to come up with a good usable reproduction of either of them.

Check out the original battery flags and black painted fender straps.

I sorted out all of the front brake stuff too. I still have to run the inner cable, but that is relatively easy.

check out the 38 to 41 lug nuts. They have a little groove cut in them an eighth of an inch from where the taper starts.

Jim's 39 EL

I gathered up the bits and pieces for Jim's 39 yesterday and started on the roller this morning. Here is a picture of the fork and handlebars installed on the frame

Front Fender on and ready to go. THis is the first airway blue 39 that I have gotten to do. I like this color. It is very striking in person, and difficult to capture in pictures.

As it sits right now.

Pre War bikes had the bolt heads on top for the transmission adjusting strap. Check out the vented kicker cover. This is a one year only cover and very difficult to find

39 was the first year for a stainless steel handlebar lock plate, short acorn nuts and also for curved inner fork spring above and below the bushing casting on the front end. It was the last year for tall headed pinch bolts.

OOOO AAAAHHHH nos wire clips!!! I still have to get the headlight bracket painted along with some other bits and pieces.

This is a cool picture of the 39 and later steering dampener rod. It is forked and anchors on to a tab on the bottom plate. Earlier rods had a pin that anchored into a broached slot on the fork stem. Check out the anchor that goes from the fork to the frame, it is a nos piece that I bought at Davenport three years ago. It's perfect!

Carb pics

Some of our friends From the motor company are flying my dad and I out to York to do a tour and talk to some of the employees on wednesday. We will be back on Sunday. So I am trying to get some projects ready for Jesse and Ray to work on. My dad is gearing up to do a batch of carbs.... like 18 of them! All of the bowls in the front row are for early nickle plated carbs, that are still off at the platers.


Here is a dirty nasty bowl for a 45 that probably has not been cleaned since it was new!



This raised casting code is in all 38 and earlier aluminum bowls




The upper left bowl is for Jim's 36, the lower right one is a bowl that I have been holding on to for years. It is the hardest to find linkert bowl of all time, It isn't mentioned in any books, I have only seen two other ones. It is for super late 38s. It has the early casting date on the inside, and is machined with a fly cutter before the drain is drilled and tapped. Later ones were counter bored-drilled andthen tapped. Anyways, I am going to put it on Jim's 38 carb. I have to do a wild fix on the stem hole, but it will be worth it.

brakes!!!!

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


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



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

tag clarification and new tools!

A lot of people talk about early bikes having brass or copper tags. well they are correct, early bikes tags are made out of copper or brass, then the are nickle plated, then paint is put into the low spots. anyways, I took this pic of what looks like a brass tag. , please click the picture then blow it up and see the nickle plating on the tag by the rivet. I think that the heat and years of use just make the plating come off. Hope this helps someone.


I finally got my liquid cooler in for the tig welder. here is the little box I made for it to sit in.



Here it is ready to run! cant wait to try it out.

Ray finished up the 2 39 transmissions this morning . They are soooooo nice. I can't wait to build bikes around these things.


It is pretty common for the transmission filler plugs to be stripped out. We have the helicoil set up to repair the threads, but sometimes they are even too big for helicoils. This is jason's 47 cover and it is wollored out.



The only option to really fix this besides running a huge pipe thread plug is to weld it up and re drill and tap it. Here it is all welded up.




This is a 38 cover that was welded up too. In this picture the minor diameter ofthe threads are being bored out.





The next step is to spot face it after the hole is drilled and tapped. the diameter is 1.5 inches. we made a special fly cutter to do it, since we didn't have a 1.5 endmill.

transmissions

we got some early circuit breakers from Jim in iowa on saturday. 36, 37 and some 38 circuit breaker caps are different than later ones. They are kind of dimpled at the top. IT is a tought thing to photograph, but I tried.


Here is a cool pic of an original speedo cable with the stewart warner script on it. This cable came with the 42. these cables are very difficult to find. Some had the script and some did not.




Here is a cool detail. HD used a flat washer between the speedo cable clamp. This is the large diameter 5/16 flat washer not the small one. Our original 37, 41, 46 and 47 all have the same set up. I am not sure if this detail is in any factory literature.

Ray is cruising on the two 39 transmissions. The shifting forks are timed on Jims, and dougs are being worked on. We make the gears and the offset shift fork. The work great.

woo hooo! I am setting up primaries on three bikes, I will post pics later.

style!

My dad made it back from his weekend trip to wisconsin. He went to the knucklehead company's christmas party, and picked up a 39 paint job and his new chrome tanks.


Gilby's street department handled painting this bike, Larry Medwig did the body work. Both guys did an amazing job! Thanks for your help.

Gilby had the original paint 39 that sold for 110 k in his shop a while ago, and took all of the measurements of where the panel and decal are supposed to be. This takes all of the guess work out of the job.



OOOOOHHHH AHHHHH check out the super nice fender definition and rivets! I hate it when these are flooded with paint. This is what airway blue and white look like.




And I couldn't call it a night without seeing what the chrome tanks look like! This is going to be so bright! I am going to get a chrome front fender from harley for the front, but I really need to find a rear fender that is good enough to chrome plate. Do you guys know where I can find one? Please advise