Week 4 – Half a roller

My parts arrived!

My massive order came in the mail on Wednesday. Now that it’s here, I can begin work on finishing the installation of the steering stem, and eventually, begin the process of building the front fork. Here’s a list of what I received:

• Beautiful shiny new exhaust pipes (the PO sold the originals)
• Exhaust gaskets and brackets
• A new drive chain
• Wheel bearings for the front wheel
• A new headlight (the original headlight bucket was cracked in half)
• Brake shoes for the front drum brake
• Hand grips
• O-rings for the front fork bolts
• Valve tappet covers
• A gas tank cap
• A throttle tube
• A nut for the steering stem

There were a few issues with the order though. First of all ( because I’m an idiot -_- ) I ordered a bottom mount headlight instead of a side mount headlight. I’m going to have to return the headlight I bought and replace it. Additionally, the fork o-rings I bought seemed to be too big. They were only like 99 cents a-piece though, I just drove to O’Reilly’s and bought myself a new pair that fit.

Here’s a picture of the shiny, new, un-mutilated valve tappet covers. Also, note that the camera I’m using isn’t that great. Everything is much cleaner and shinier in real life.

Now to the real stuff: My number one achievement for this week? I got the rear wheel on!

Honestly, that was probably the least impressive thing I got done this week. I’ve had the rear brake panel completed and sitting on a table since spring break. Now that I’ve got the bike on a makeshift stand it wasn’t difficult – just stick the brake panel into the open side of the drum and slide the axle through both it and the drum. But one way or another, it’s half-a-roller now. Give me a week or so and it’ll be on two wheels again for the first time in years!

Also, as you can see from the picture, I got both of the carbs attached to the bike.

As of now, they aren’t completely installed – they’re missing a few nuts and bolts for attachment, and I haven’t started to adjust them. I’m going to worry about that,the valve clearances, and the points advance once it’s on both wheels.

For the real event of this week, I got the steering stem installed. And let me tell you, I completely botched it. So, a week or so ago, I pressed the steering bearing races into the neck stem. The problem is, I didn’t get the bottom race completely seated, as it is actually recessed into the neck stem.

The way I had it installed is on the left, the way it should be installed is on the right. But that wasn’t the big mistake. The big mistake was that I thought I could use the triple tree as a press. I figured that if I put the triple tree in place and tightened the steering stem bolt, it would compress the stem and seat the bottom bearing. The issue is, the thread on the tree is very fine, and instead of pressing the bearings, I stripped the threads on the tree.

     

You can see how mangled the threads are. So I spent several hours this week on a wild goose chase trying to find a thread chaser or a die that with a big enough diameter and a fine enough pitch. Unfortunately, out of the many machinists I got in touch with, no one did. In the end, I managed to fix it by sitting down and working on it with a thread file for an hour. Then I used a bearing driver (like I should have in the beginning) to seat the bearing. Thanks to Mike Seegert for the advice and tools!

BUT in the process, I knocked the TOP bearing out of its race, and a bunch of ball bearings were lost into the dark abyss of the frame.

So then I had to go buy more ball bearings. All in all the process turned what should have been a 15 minute job into half of a week. =/

I learned a valuable lesson this week about patience. If I had taken my time and done things the right way the first time, I could have saved a lot of time, effort, and money. I doubt this will be my last big blunder in the project, but man was it frustrating.

Anyway, having finally seated the bearing race properly, I was able to install the steering stem.

After which, I was able to attach the handlebars.

I may take them back off and paint the mounting brackets though. They’re aluminum, so rust isn’t a problem, but I think they’d look better in the same black as the frame. That aside, with the stem mounted, I’m ready to start working on the front fork.

Speaking of the fork, I was able to finish up the front brake panel now that my shipment of parts arrived.

So now all I have to do to finish up the wheel is to get it trued and have a tire put on. I intend to take it to Homer’s Cycles in Toledo on Tuesday for truing. They may be able to order me a tire as well.

With the rest of my time this week, I attached several of the smaller parts that I’ve restored. I attached the clutch cable and passenger footpegs.

I also restored and attached the air filters. Each filter box had a bare steel side that was rusted out. I cleaned up the rust and painted it. They don’t look very pretty, seeing as I left the old paint on one side of each filter box, but they’re going to be covered when the bike is done.

And attached:

All in all, despite the mistakes, I got a lot of work done this week.

To-do list:

• Get the front fork restored
• Have the front wheel trued
• Acid dip and seal the gas tank
• Restore the hand controls
• Attach the chain

• Ask around and get quotes on body paint
• Find a new front tire to replace the oversized ones the PO bought