misc blizzard pics

Here is a pic of outside the shop. I have been snowed in for a few days. it will probably be another couple days before I can go home. the temperature has been dancing around zero degrees for quite a while. the wind chill is easily -10. It is a lot better to be snowed in at the shop, than to be snowed in at home.


Here is a neat pic I took of a 37 oil tank that is in the shop for repairs. Check out the inside of the filler cap-- there is teak red paint on it. HD did not mask anything off, this is a question that I get asked from time to time. hopefully it helps some one out.



I did a bunch of neat welding and fab work today




Ray is just about done with the 55 transmission. this thing is so nice. I am really excited about the bike it is going to be blue with hard black bags.

order of operations

Here is a neat pic from last night. I installed #4, #3 and #2 cylinders and realized that I hadn't taken a pic of the motor, so I shot this pic. I guess I was just having too much fun.


Here they are all installed. On four cylinder motors, you want to leave the cylinders loose, and bolt on and tighten the intake manifold before you tighten the cylinder base nuts. This aligns all four cylinders to each other, then you have to tighten the unit to the case.



These cylinder base nuts are very difficult to get to. Lots of wrench flipping went on to get them all tight!




Ta DA!!!! This is so beautiful. I have to adjust the tappets, set the valves and install the magneto still, but it is coming along. I am going to finish machining the choke mechanisms first.

neat cylinder endgap tool

I spent the day fitting rings on two sets of henderson cylinders. Four cylinders a piece, four rings to check and fit the gap on per cylinder--32 rings in all. IT is important to check the gap past the relief for the cylinder skirt, make sure that the feeler gauge that you are using is square and perpendicular to the bore and gap!


Check out this awesome tool. The little wheel is a diamond wheel that cuts the inside of the rings so that you can dial in your gap to exactly what you want. The tolerance for these small little pistons is .008 to .016, I set all of mine up at .014 and .015.




HEre are the kj cylinders. the deluxes are on another bench. I am going out to put the cylinders on the motor!!!! wooohoo!

plating and poor workmanship

This is a pic of the main drive gear on a 58 transmission that we got in to rebuild. It is from a fellow in Las Vegas, his uncle bought the bike in the early sixties. He had his motor and trans rebuilt by somebody that did a substandard job, he sent it to us to go through. We have encountered some interesting repairs that will need to be redone. Anyways It is always kind of challenging to figure out what happened and how it was dealt with. something went through this transmission and did some damage to the gears. whoever rebuilt itjust dressed the maindrive gear up with a flapper wheel or some other type of sanding/grinding apparatus.


Check out how the keepers were hammered over. You do not need to get these that tight, you want to bend them over and not creat a sharp edge when you do it. Ray went to take the keeper off of the countershaft and the metal ear just fell off with barely any pressure applied. You can see it on the piece of tape, this little shard would have shaken loose and went through all of the gears and caused big trouble!



Jesse spent the day prepping some parts for plating and parkerizing. these are the valve covers for a 39 ulh, they are nickle plated, all of the other parts are cad plated. I thought this was very interestesting.




Here is the pick up tube for the deluxe motor that I am working on. Check out the built in oil filter! I would hate to solder brass mesh all day long. That was somebodys job at the henderson factory 80 years ago! I spent the day working on the tappets and tappet adjusters and sorting out the other parts to finish bolting this motor together.

WELDING and 1928 henderson deluxe!

I spent a couple hours welding today. This kicker cover is for a 37 we are doing. Check out how the boss that the clutch sleeve sits in does not have a relief for the 39 and later style throw out bearing.


This thing was cracked out pretty badly. I was plunging into it with an endmill and a huge piece just fell out of it. YOu can see the discoloration in this pic. I wonder how long it was cracked?



HEre it is all welded up and ready for machining. There are a few spots that I need to add more filler at, but I ran out of rod, so it will have to wait till monday.




I decided to switch gears for a little bit, and pulled out a 28 henderson motor that I have to finish up. This thing is going to be choice. Carl Vandre showed me how to do the machine work on the bottom and top end. I had special pistons made for it, but they were the wrong ones, so I had to have them re made! I love my job





I think about Carl every day, he was such a great friend and positive influence in my life. I am a better person because of him. I am going to finish this thing up this week, then I can move onto a 29 kj motor that has all of the hard work done. Please leave comments and let me know if you want to read henderson posts, or if you would like this site to remain hd. Thanks and have a nice night.