Monday 27 February 2012

Rolling Chassis Two


Whilst I was planning to be showing you my paintwork this weekend, the bodywork has sat on the back burner for a while, and is still unfinished. All is not lost though as I thought seemed a good idea, with the surprisingly nice weather, to roll the bike outside and fit the engine.

The first obstacle was to remove the engine block that I had temporarily fitted, which was an easy task. This block almost immediately went into my Dads chassis so that we could sort his engine(s) out on a bench rather than in a frame. I also had my eye on the Indian silentblocs.



With Dads 2011 engine on one workmate and mine on the other, we changed the engine mounts. Removing the Indian mounts went fairly smoothly aside from a small niggle with an exhaust bracket. However, one of the engine mounts in my engine posed a greater problem, our tool simply would not work properly. Even after dressing back the welds so that the tool would fit, the mount was so long that it could only be extracted part way. But after a bit of innovation on my part, we finally removed it thoroughly. Pulling them in was a much more easy task.



However, before the engine went into the frame, I had a couple of things to do to it which would be much easier with it on a bench.

For a start, the exhaust needed to be thought about. After popping over to Replay Scooters in the Bongo, Chalkie had repaired my cracked/holed exhaust and re-attached the bracket – great news. As soon as I got home, it received the standard treatment of some black exhaust paint to be drying so that I could properly mess around with it on the Sunday.



While I was at Chalkies, he also re-iterated the advice he had given me about the exhaust bracket mounted to the magneto flange. Basically, we want as little vibration there as possible. This involved removing the flywheel to get access to the bracket bolts but luckily I was going to be doing this anyway due to having a replacement, lighter flywheel.


I also wanted to have a look inside the engine as I knew nothing of its components or history. In fact, the only part that I had been told about was the LI150 gearbox inside; perfect for a beginner.  After taking off the engine cover, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few great things. For starters, everything inside was shiny. It had a new chain and what looked to be a fairly unmolested eight plate clutch. The oil was still green in colour so in summary, everything inside was fresh and exactly what I would have hoped for.



By the late hours of Saturday, I had successfully got the engine back together and in the frame. I was even lucky enough to slide the engine bolt straight through, which I am told is a very rare occurrence. The hard part came on Sunday morning when, with no hub or wheel fitted, I wanted to move the bike. I now realise how accustomed I had become to having a rolling chassis, so this had to be rectified as soon as possible. With the help of my Dad and a few arm aching minutes, we positioned the bike outside, in the Sun.


Thinking about the cabling was the next major hurdle for the day and as I was jumping in straight away with a non-standard rear brake, I was understandably nervous about its position with regards to the exhaust silencer. So as the exhaust had now dried, I delicately moved it temporarily into position, making full use of a bungee to help hold it. It also allowed me to test the replacement bracket I had made, which now just needs a bit of shaping. In any case, the brake was luckily clear of the exhaust silencer, not by much though.




After this panic was over I had to fit the rear hub and wheel to make it into a rolling chassis once more. However, until this weekend, one of the things I had neglected was the rear hub. We had drilled out the extractor studs that had got stuck in from the previous owner, but we had not tapped out the M7 thread required as we simply didn’t have the taps. After receiving delivery of these some months ago, they were finally used and we have a hub that can be removed. The hub was fitted and wheel added in no time.


In all of the excitement, I even treated myself to a sit on ride down the drive – she handles well at 3mph. On a serious note though, I had a productive weekend through the blood, sweat and tears. We are a few steps closer with mine but I have inadvertently aided my Dad too with the removal of his engine. I have even tidied the garage to help with working on our bits which should speed things up.

Thanks again to Dad for the time, advice and help he has given me over the weekend. Chalkie also deserves big thumbs up for giving me honest advice and useful suggestions and of course the repair welding. Lastly but no means least, Mum for providing the food, spirit and putting up with my grubby hands constantly making a mess in the house. Who knows what I’ll be writing about next week? I don’t think I do yet.

1 comment:

  1. Your blog makes great reading and will prove inspirational to anyone considering a build of this type. You must get the link added to the next installment in Scootering. Purely for educational reasons not advertising - me a shrewed businessman? Never. Can't wait to see the finished racer.

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