Some had asked, and I thought I'd post some of the recent work finished on
my 1942 Indian 741 Motorcycle Restoration.
I had the whole frame and sheet metal package (less gas and oil tanks)
sandblasted, painted in DP rusty red primer, and then painted I painted it
with Aervoe 34087 OD. To me, the Aervoe looks too light for the original
paint items I have had, but it is the only stuff out there, so I used it.
The front fork is braced with forgings on top and bottom, which are
connected to it by four forged stretchers or links. The two forgings are
lined with bronze sleeves and connected to the stretchers by long fork
bolts. The bronze was egg shaped, worn very thin, and the bolt was chewed
up as to be unuseable. So I had two new lower fork bolts made, gouged out
the bronze with thin chisels, reamed the inside, and fit in four new
bushings. This made the front end ready for assembly to the frame center
section.
The last thing to get attached to the fork during assembly is the handle
bars with controls. There are five separate controls on the handle bars-
front brake, spark advance, throttle, horn button, and dimmer switch. I
purchased a used dimmer switch on ebay (for half what an original goes for),
but still haven't gotten the horn button. I have all the rest, so I got
ready to repair the bends on the end of the bars. Boy was this fun. The
ends of the bars are slotted for the cable barrel to slide through, looking
very much like a split rivet, and are susceptible to being mangled on a
bike, stepped on, or abused when you kick over your piece of &h(^*** project
(long before I got it). Mine looked like someone had taken out all of their
woes on it. It took almost three hours of gentle hammering, bending, and
twisting to get the one side straight. It is absolutely necessary to get
the throttle side straight, or you might find yourself in a bike-inspired
default acceleration. So I got that done.
Further in on the bars, there is a mild steel fitting which you
attach the control spirals to. When I put on my spiral grip, it didn't seat
far enough. So tomorrow, I am un-sweating the fitting and re-brazing it to
the proper place.
Now for the gas tanks. Indians are a bit easier than Harley's to
restore from the standpoint that Indian manufactured their tanks by forming
20 gauge plated steel and then soldering them together. Harley's are
stamped and crimped together. So the Indian's can be de-soldered and put
back together. I do lots of welding, but wanted a real tin-smith to do the
tanks, plus plug the pin-holes on the sides. So this got done about the
time I was ready to go looking inside the engine.
I have the original serial numbered engine from my bike, in pieces,
needing re-build. Since this is not a skill I am ready to do due to lack of
equipment, I purchased an NOS 741 power plant from a guy in Cleveland. Bob
Brown of Michigan delivered it to me. Indian made thousands of these as
spares in WWII, and after the war, sold them surplus. Mine did not come in
the crate, but still had the shipping mounts on it, so I knew it was NOS.
There are many still around. Mine had sat in the basement of a Cleveland
Firefighter for almost 30 years, with the spark plugs out. So I decided to
pull the heads to check for screws or junk, and re-seal the cork float on
the carb.
The inside was beautiful. The engine had been run a bit at some
point, but the thin film of carbon came off with the gentle brush of a
finger to reveal beautiful NOS piston and cylinder underneath. I even was
able to use the original gasket to reseal the heads. 50 lbs of torque at
the bolts, and it went back together easily.
The carb is mounted with three slotted head screws to the simple
manifold, and came off easily. I was following the manual instructions (TM
10- 1485, dtd 1943), and having trouble getting the ring-shaped float out.
The manual says to remove the ring before removing the float needle seat. I
tried for almost an hour to jiggle the float loose in a special manner, when
I began to suspect that the manual was wrong and the needle seat had to come
out first. I knew Indian did publish a machine-fatal error in the manual
for the 841 shaft drive bike, but this manual had gone through three
printings before this final edition I had, so I was really wondering that I
was doing something wrong. I called my friend's father, who has been
working on them since 1948, and he asked me why I hadn't taken out the float
needle seat first....
DUHH! Shoulda followed my instincts to that one....
I get through all this, and as I am triumphantly removing the float
from the bowl, I realize that my can of model airplane dope, which is used
to seal the float, is still sitting on the shelf of the hobby store, which I
forgot to go to the day before....
But anyhow, the bike is ready to start being assembled. I will be
working on the auction, but hope to sneak a few days in getting the frame
attached to the motor, then building from that point. It has to happen in
that sequence, due to the weight of the assembled chassis, and how it mounts
to the frame. So my goal of having it driving around at the Mid Atlantic
Air Museum's WWII weekend is looking better.
Comments are welcomed, financial support encouraged, and temporary
insanity is not entirely out of the question for the defense...
My actual collection includes, but is not limited by my imagination to, the
following:
1942 BT13A
1942 Indian 741 (in restoration)
1942 Indian 841
1942 WC-53
1942 WC-53 (in restoration)
1942 WC-54
1942 GPW
1942 GTBS
1943 GPW
1944 MB (in restoration)
1944 Merritt & O'Keefe E3 generator
1967 M151A1 (for sale)
Time will not dim their deeds....
john@astory.com
http://www.astory.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 04 2001 - 08:10:48 PDT