Friday 31 July 2009

Old Indians Never Die Rally 2009


well..... the deadline to get the Indian up and running was frideay 24th, about a week ago I had all the big bits boted together, just had to get the clutch and primary fitted, sort out the oil pump and check the motor over. So last monday I had a day off from the shop and headed over to my mates workshop and got tore into the bike, rebuilt the oil pump with new gaskets, checked the valve timing, timed the oil pump and fitted it up.
Did a mod to the oil sump pick up and used a late chief scraper (scrapes the excess oil off the flywheels) which should help the oiling along. Also got hold off a Moto valve to gegulate crankcase pressure.
so... engine bolted up tight, gearbox boted in tight, fitted the gear selector lever, and feckkk........ only selecting 2 gears, turns out I have only ever had 2 RH engine/trans engine plates and the LH one has a larger cutout for the gear selector
so after PULLING THE MOTOR AND BOX OUT AGAIN, bluntening all of my drill bits on the nice stainless plates and attacking it with a drill burr I can now get all 3 gears 8-)>
monday just wasnt enough, back over on tuesday night to build up the clutch, all went fine tilI found that I had the wrong nut to lock the clutch driver onto the mainshaft, straight hme and emailed Moen at Indian Parts Europe (BIG THANKS TO MOEN) who posted ayet another LAST parcel of bits the next morning. meantime I got on with making up a new T bar for the seat, I wasnt happy with the way the cheapo universal mount moved around so much, fitted the seat and got the brakes sorted on the front end.
Parts arrived from Denmark on Thiursday while i was at work so basck to the workshop on friday morning, still to fit the tanks up plumb them in and fit the primary. So I set to and fitted the tanks, went to fit the breather and the return fitting and found that the Junior Scout bosses ar different sizes from the 741 pipes and fittings I have. tanks off, into Inverness to the plumbers merchants. Indian plumbing fittings are US NPT, nobody in Inverness has any thing NPT so eventually I ended up in B&Q at the plumbing section and tried every fitting they had untill i found a 22mm stop end that tightly threaded onto the boss for the feed pipe.
Back to the workshop heated the 22mm fitting to anneal it and then screwed it carefully into the tank boss, the steel boss thread re tapped the thread as it went ... perfect, took it back out drilled a tapered hole to suil the Indian oil feed fitting and the jobs sorted.

By this time I realised that I wasnt going to get the primary side built or all the oil lines fitted and still get to the Indian Rally at Traquair, so I fitted all the cvers and the footboards the tanks and the gearshift and loaded the Indian up ready for the off on Saturday morning
Nearly there but not quite!!!!!