Wednesday 14 December 2011

Aluminium tanks

Made in India, shape looks good, finish isn't perfect, theres a slight ripple feel along outer face. But for the price and for a race bike ..... Yeah, they'll do fine!



Wednesday 2 November 2011

A couple of LSR Scouts...

Getting ready for next year on the salt

Chris Ireland's 741b

And Jim Mosher's Twin Scout... parked next to some other Indian ;)

Tuesday 25 October 2011

'37 Bonneville Scout flattracker

Back in the summer Wes White, of Four Aces Cycle Supply,  put a pic up on Facebook of him kickstarting a Sport Scout flattracker.... There wasnt much more info available about the bike other than it has some race history and was bound for England.
This evening I got an email from my friend Tony Carabine at Indian Trading, with some pictures of the same bike attached. Its a 1937 45cu" Sport Scout motor housed in a 1950's Warrior vertical twin frame. Has been raced by Dodge Bros. Racing. Its now up for sale here in the UK


Monday 24 October 2011

Package from the Ironwigwam

A pair of Stroker Scout pistons and rings from Rocky at Ironwigwam.com ... boneville race crew T shirt and sticker a bonus 8)

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Cerianis for the Scout

Traded for some Borranis, will be going on the Stroker Scout with a TLS braked 19" front wheel to replace the Triumph disc front end




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Saturday 1 October 2011

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Sorting out some issues

While I'm waiting for the cylinder heads to come back from the machine shop, i stripped the front end to fit a Hyde forkbrace and a set of progressive springs that have been lying in wait. While it was apart i checked the tubes with a straight edge, LH tube is slightly bent, New set of tubes and seals will get it sorted out!










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Wednesday 24 August 2011

A bit about my pots

With the the cylinders off the motor i have been able to check them over properly. Front pot is a square based one that has been relined at some point on std 2.875" bore, rear pot is an earlier round base one still on its original bore. The pop up pistons are of unknown origin marked 005 on the tops. The head bolt tappings have all been helicoiled to m12 at some point then the castings have been nickel plated.





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Tuesday 23 August 2011

Rings

Moen at IPE put me on to a company in Somerset, Cox & Turner . I called John Cox yesterday and told him about my ring issues, gave him the sizes and this morning i have a set of quality rings in my hand, one piece oil ring and two compresson rings per piston.




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Monday 22 August 2011

Homework

Lots of emails and phonecalls over the weekend trying to source a set of new pistons and rings for the Scout. Moen at IPE doesnt have any that would suit my motor, but has been very helpfully looking for alternatives. Rocky at Iron Wigwam has big oversize ones of the correct type on his ebay store but is currently at Bonneville with his Dreamcatcher streamlimer, outta town til early September. I have cleaned up the damaged piston with a hand file and polishing mop, it still has some scoring but no raised edges now. In the bore its now .012" clearance on the skirt compared to .006" on the front one. Thinking of refitting them with new rings for now, while i wait for pistons to come from the States.





Saturday 20 August 2011

Stripped to the waist

Managed to haul the Scout into the jewellery workshop at the shop in Achnasheen




I noticed some scuffing to the rear cylinder when I shined a proper light down the bores this morning. Decided to strip off the cylinders and inspect ...... glad I did!



First thing I found was that there were no spreader washers fitted on the base nuts, and they were not very tight




Pistons havent been fitted with proper oil control rings and none of the rings were gapped correctly, the pair in the bottom groove had seized and the piston is very badly scored!




Front piston has some minor scuffing but the same issue with the two rings in place of oil control ring





Friday 19 August 2011

Headworx

While i am waiting for the new gaskets to arrive i have got busy with the dremel cleaning up the combustion chambers. The front head was blowing the most and had a lot of carbon build up around the sparkplug area..... The casting in this area was quite rough, possibly been repaired at some point.


















After a quick clean up, still to finish off with some fine emery and the polishing mop.

The front head will need lightly skimmed to make sure the mating surface is spot on. The rear one has not had anywhere near as much machining in the past and is 2.5mm thicker meaning the compression ratio on the front pot is considerably higher than the rear! Will have to get the rear head skimmed to match the front and check all the clearances. Also ordered special 4mm thick 25mm od washers to suit the head bolts. The ones i had used are looking a bit mashed!


Wednesday 17 August 2011

Heads off

Been trying to work out why the motor has been running rough, it started to need a bit of choke to keep it ticking over and seemed to be fouling the plugs all the time. At first i thought it might be the manifold nipple on the rear pot, they are as tight as they can go... So this morning i whipped the heads off, both James gaskets have blown between the head bolts and the cylinder. New copper gaskets on order!










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Location:Arthurs Terrace,Achnasheen,United Kingdom

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Scraper relief

Think i need to open up the inner web of the crankcase to help side to side oil flow to the sump pick up, theres too much of a lip there to get the oil away efficiently


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Sunday 31 July 2011

Out in the sun

Been doing some oddjobs outside the shop at Achnasheen over the last couple of days, tidying up the plumbing, control cables and touching up the paint on the frame.








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Wednesday 27 July 2011

More plumbing

Finished off the breather pipework this afternoon with a 1/4" return oil pipe reducing to 1/8" T'ed into the 3/8" open breather on the timing plug hole. This will let excess oil return to the crankcase sump from the Fossbilt baffled breather tank.

Started the motor on the paddock stand and let it warm up, considerably less smoky and no oil coming out of the breather valve ....... more road testing to come.
Next, some alteration to the sump pick up to make sure the pump gets the excess oil away from tbe crank as efficiently as possible and to minimise drain back down the return line.



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Monday 18 July 2011

Matchimg front

Fitted the 100/90x19 front tonight, LH tank should be back on tomorrow





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Friday 15 July 2011

18" on the back

After a bit of special wheelbuilding, i managed to build in 35mm of offset using a BSA crinkle hub some special length spokes and a Borrani rim. Fitted a 120 section Pirelli and now ive finally got both wheels properly in line.









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Friday 8 July 2011

18" for the back




Just finished this un 18" borrani bsa crinkle hub, spaced over 1/2" to suit back of the sport scout, rim straightened and repaired by Richi at Fossfab


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Monday 4 July 2011

Whatever happened to Junior???

Back at the tail end of last summer, I had started to mock up a "left overs" Scout using my spare 741 motor in a Junior Scout frame with BSA A/B series forks and wheels and an early pre unit Triumph 4 speed transmission. 




As the Sport Scout progressed and the Chout gathering continued I realised that I needed to sell some more parts to get what I needed for the two main projects. A 4 way deal was struck with Grizzy, Shaun, Moen and myself which ended up with me getting a complete Hecker 101 front end for the Chout. Grizzy got two frames, a '24 Raleigh frame for his "Blunderbuss" project (more later),and a swing arm Indian Fire Arrow frame (re badged RE Clipper).Shaun got the Junior frame for his "Cochise" project, along with a selection of BSA wheels and other odds n sods.

Grizzy and Neil drove up from the south back in May and filled "dirty Sharon" (the old veedub) with frames and wheels and headed back down the hillbilly highway...... Grizzy takes up the tale 

"Hi ya Steve ,

your southern correspondent reporting .

I thought you might be interested in the progress of the  valuble ( and rare ) vintage motorcycle parts ( old-crap ! ) I relived you of last May after my fleating visit from the Londons patio  (  Kent ) .


First from the " Highland Hoard  " , the Sir Walter frame ! meet   " Blunderbuss " , as you will appreciate it is  very much in the " Blue Peter " stage ( sticki back plaza an all ! ) but  it looks and will be a  feasible proposition . I shortened the sadle tube by 2.1/2 " and re - brazed the engine lug back on , I lengthened ( slug's ) the rear frame down tubes 2" as well . its exactly what I wanted and  the round tank Bezza fork crown is just purfic 'as well . lots of Re - tubing , and stuff to make but yes mate , should make an old 16H  a whole bag of fun . 


Then all Blunderbuss play stoped as Shaun of the panthers  was booked in to see if all this Junior Scout  stuff was going to be any good for his 741 engine and box . 

Well , some and some is the answer to that , the front frame is as near a 741 as you could wish for and the heads up from yourself that Bezza forkes ( A's n B's )  were a close enough fit and have an uncanny look a like and resemblance to the 50's Indian Warrior and Arrow it makes no difference ! 

I found the easy-est way to fit the fork is turn up bearing cups to fit the Indian frame and the Bezza bearings , as you can see in this first shot the forks are a little " Chopper "ish and need to sit about 2.1/2 " lower , all good so far.
However , the rear frame whatever way you try , will not accept a Scout gearbox , the only way is as you found , use of a brit box would be the only way. SO ! out with Mr Angrygrinder ( 9" ) and cut the hell out of Amerrycan heratage !  ( sorry chaps , friendly fire ! ) . I found some useable sidecar lugs from the " hord " to which I turned down to accept some 1" tube , the lugs were hot rivetted to the rear wheel lugs , the tubes were bent to fit , then the whole lot brazed togeather , the width of the top rails have been made
2" wider . the bottom brace is 1.1/8th tube Its much the same as a stock 741 in style but slightly close-couple it has to compromise the length of the forks .

With the rear like it is putting 741 gas tanks would have made it look even shorter! What was needed is a pair of Junior gas tanks, ( no chance ) so I as I have used a ES2 tank in the past ( Geronimo ) and it don't look too out of place , thats what I tryed on this we beastie, 9" Mr Angry and the tank is now "2 narrower , yes that is gas welded , I also took an inch and a half off the bottom as well . 
Well this is as far as we got and I dont think this 741 stroker would look out of place in a flat-track class " C " race !

the exhaust took a bit of buggering about , front pipe made an inch longer and set upwords to match the rear .

as the ES2 tank , now mutch modified is just gas , I had to make an oil tank much on the line of the Daytona 648 tank .



GT 750 rear wheel with the cush narrowed , YDS Yamaha front onto the Beeza fork with some spindle spacers and buggerin , seat earholes , on the rear frame, gear shifter , yes not a bad stab at it and still a lot to do like foot pegs , controls, kick stand , but I'v handed all over to Shaun , he's got a lot of nutting and bolting before 2nd fix .

Ok mate I'll keep you updated as and when ,

I'm back on DiXiE now making SOME progress so

Be Lucky


Later Grizzy . 
I compressed the forks to about where I think they
should be !
p s - Hangonamo is Geronimo's patient brother !"


Shaun will take up the story on his "In The Shed Speedshop" blog