Hardest two hours I worked since starting this job

[user 213]

Exactly so Steve. Because I was lowering the frame onto the engine, the angles worked better for inserting the 'A' bolt first. I had the 'new' motor on a furniture pallet, so some maneuvering was easy.

 

[Patriot]

Good for you Howie. I would feel bad for all the trouble you guys had but I can see from the pictures you guys are wearing shorts. fukers.

Hot as a mofo, too. 98 degrees in the garage when I got home. What's this "cold weather" I keep hearing about?

We had a "cool snap" a week ago....low of 68, high of 88, but it quickly disappeared and record temps for an October followed. It was 105 degrees here Saturday afternoon, and hasn't dropped below a high of 94 since Thursday 10/7. :angry2:

Nice job RH!
Oh, and +1 on the FL heat. Stupid, silly hot lately. Doesn't feel very Octobery.

-BD

Glad you chimed in on the heat issue. It's been "middle of July" hot for the last week and a lot of our Northern Brethern probably think I was handing them a line of shit.

Folks, it REALLY is "middle of July" hot here in Florida right now. Last Friday night, at the high school football game broadcast, it was 96 degrees at 9:30pm. :dribble:

Right now, not so bad.....83 degrees.

Hit 92 today on the way to MS to deliver the bike (89 now)...saw the engine sitting on the floor...looked good on the outside...at least everything was there including PAIR...starter, stator, clutch all there...really does look complete less fuel injection...even the back of the engine shaft protective housing was pristene :yahoo:

fingers crossed and sacrificed a chicken to the engine before I left...then ate the KFC in the van on the way home

 

[RadioHowie]

:thumbsupsmileyanim: :yahoo: :clapping:

 

[Fred W]

Damnation, son!

I sure hope I never have to go through this shit.

(Knocking feverishly on all species of wood within my reach...)

You're doing great, man. Keep it up.

And when you get up here on that Phoenix, the beer and lobstahs are on me.

 

[RadioHowie]

Damnation, son! I sure hope I never have to go through this shit.

(Knocking feverishly on all species of wood within my reach...)

You're doing great, man. Keep it up.

And when you get up here on that Phoenix, the beer and lobstahs are on me.

When does "Mud Season" officially end? Middle of May, ain't it?

 

[ionbeam]

Damnation, son! ...You're doing great, man. Keep it up.

And when you get up here on that Phoenix, the beer and lobstahs are on me.

When does "Mud Season" officially end? Middle of May, ain't it?

Indeed, if you make it up here I'll buy you a dinner to celebrate No More Tears Motorcycling.

The seasons are: Snow; Mud; Black Fly/Mosquito; Foliage -- I highly recommend Foliage which is usually 4 days in October, then it's back to Snow.

We aren't really into sheep and only rarely have matinees but we do have these:

 

[Fred W]

Sweet picture, Ion. But where's the turkeys?

This morning a gaggle of about 8 or 10 went through my back yard (turkeys not cows) and really set off the 2 labbys.

But back to radioSteve: Yeah man, you come up here with that AIW chic and the Patriotic guy there'll be some massive seafood orgies.

Make it happen!!

Oh, and bring your lady along too. We never hear much about her, but she obviously has to be a saint to put up with your BS.

 

[wfooshee]

Folks, it REALLY is "middle of July" hot here in Florida right now. Last Friday night, at the high school football game broadcast, it was 96 degrees at 9:30pm. :dribble:
Right now, not so bad.....83 degrees.

I think fall happened today. Finally. Thunderstorm woke me up in the wee hours, and right now it's 70 outside. In the middle of the afternoon! Still muggy as hell, though. I see on the weather map that it hasn't quite reached Howie's neck o' the woods, yet, but hold on down there! It's coming!

 

[RadioHowie]

I think fall happened today. Finally. Thunderstorm woke me up in the wee hours, and right now it's 70 outside. In the middle of the afternoon! Still muggy as hell, though. I see on the weather map that it hasn't quite reached Howie's neck o' the woods, yet, but hold on down there! It's coming!

Right on the money, Walt....the "front" is about 2 hours away...could be a wet night at the football stadium tonight.

But OH MY it's gonna be nice and cool working on Frankenbike tomorrow. The whole day is MINE and I should get a shitload of work done!

'Howie

 

[Patriot]

yep, rained last night and dropped into the 60's with lotsa wind today...66 and sunny now...kite flying weather :yahoo:

 

[chrisflock]

OUT is 10 times easier than getting it back in. Maybe 20 times easier.

Perfectly seasoned, though some will prefer a dash of 'That's what she said.'

not to mention you're going from a very tight place to a very loose place.

Like switching from the girlfriend to Madonna?

Also, the title of this thread can provide another dash of flavor.

 

[manwhoride]

Nice job RH!
Oh, and +1 on the FL heat. Stupid, silly hot lately. Doesn't feel very Octobery.

-BD

Glad you chimed in on the heat issue. It's been "middle of July" hot for the last week and a lot of our Northern Brethern probably think I was handing them a line of shit.

Folks, it REALLY is "middle of July" hot here in Florida right now. Last Friday night, at the high school football game broadcast, it was 96 degrees at 9:30pm. :dribble:

Right now, not so bad.....83 degrees.

80 here and a sauna humid

Okay, I usually stay clear about the lack of weather in SoCal because in San Diego our average temp is 69 degrees. Today Oct. 16th the thermometer is pushing 98. with evenings down in the 40's. Yeah, It don't suck to be in San Diego at the moment. Of course I don't know anywhere else as I am a native and it wasn't until I was thirty years old did I see snow fall out of the sky....

 

[RadioHowie]

[SIZE=18pt]Saturday Update 10/17/09[/SIZE]

When we last left Project Frankenbike, Wednesday night 10/14, I nearly killed myself putting that 300 pound 10 gallon motor inside a 9 gallon frame. This was the result of that night's work:

One tiny problem. If you look REAL close at the output shaft at the bottom rear of the motor, you see I left something out:

It's the smegma-shield to protect the U-joint from mud, rain and varmint guts. The one on the motor was accidentally damaged during the install. Not only was it bent to hellandgone due to an unplanned gravity event, it kept getting hung up on the sidestand mount, thereby doubling the difficulty level of the install. So I pulled it off with all intentions of putting it back on after the motor was installed.

One problem....you can't install it with the motor in-frame! The bolts holding the dust shield in place are about 1 1/2 inches long. Unfortunately, the clearance between the engine case and the sidestand mount, part of the frame, is only 1/2 inch: You can't finagle that bolt in no matter how you try:

Now at this point, I'm faced with two choices...leave the dust shield off and have my U-joint grind itself into oatmeal in a few thousand miles.....or pull that effin' motor and bolt it on.

It took me about 1 ciggy and a cup of coffee to decide to pull the motor back out. I am NOT going to compromise a single step of bringing Frankenbike back to life, so out it comes. I tried removing the rear motor mounts, hoping there would be enough "give" to pivot the back end of the motor down far enough to put the dustshield on, but no-go.

All the motor mounts had to be removed to lower the motor far enough to re-install the dustshield. Unnecessary extra work? I dunno, but like I said...no compromise!

So now I'm back where I was Wednesday night. Damn. Time to put the motor BACK in the frame. Still no hoist, Eric....but I did figure out an install method that was simple and fast.

With the motor sitting flat on the floor, you can't simply lower the frame over the motor, since the centerstand, exhaust mounts and bottom of the shock will hit the floor long before the frame is low enough for the motor mount holes to match up.

BUT, if you tilt the motor forward about 30 degrees, using a block of wood to keep it from tipping completely over, the rear motor mounts are raised more than enough that two people can pick up the frame, and slide it forward and down over the motor and the rear motor mounts line up perfectly. Install the long bolt through the frame and the upper rear motor mount...

Put the nut on the other end.....

Now the other long bolt through the lower rear motor mount and screw it into the frame.....

Now install the two top-rear motor mounts.....

And snug everything up. Just past finger tight. No more, because you still have the four motor mount bolts to insert through the frame spars -- 2 on the left, two on the right.....

The clearances to insert the frame spar bolts are VERY close...that's why you don't want to tighten down the rear and top mounts too tight at first. You may need to wiggle the frame some to get the holes in the frame to line up perfectly with the threaded lugs on the motor. The clearances are THAT tight.

Now it's important to torque all the motor mounts in a particular order. As those of you who have installed sliders on Gen I bikes know, you torque down the left side spar bolts first, THEN the right side. There's a good reason.....the left side bolts pull the frame tight against the left side of the motor. The two right side spar bolts tighten down on a bushing that pulls flush up tight against the motor, THEN the pinch bolts on the frame are tightened to lock the right side frame spar to the motor. You can clearly see the bushings underneath the bolt heads and the pinch bolts for the final tightening.

The same bushing/pinch bolt arrangement is used on the bottom-rear through bolt mount.....

Now go check the torque specs on the upper-rear bolt/nut, and the two top/rear mounts.

You're done rehanging the motor.

(again)

Bolt the clutch slave back on.....

.....stick the forks back on.....

.....put the front wheel back on.....

.....and I'll be damned if it ain't startin' to look like a motorcycle again!

Tomorrow, exhaust system and cooling system.

'Howie

 

[Patriot]

good deal...sorry about the friggin shaft guard...that was one of the first things I looked at on my new used motor on Thur.

Pristine :yahoo:

 

[Brodie]

Looking good Howie!

Even though you may have been mumbling choice words about yourself under your breath, it's much better than having the bike completed without it and knowing you should have done it right.

Keep paying attention to detail and you will be happy as hell with it when your'e heading down the road.

Brodie

 

[Grumpy]

Hell Howie, it's beginning to look naked instead of anesthetized! Congratulations!

 

[7xray]

That's great Howie. I am in awe of your ability and stick-to-it-ness to be able to do all that and document it too.

It's wonderful.

Cheers,

Fred

 

[wfooshee]

Aw, man, I can only imagine the feeling when you found that missing splash guard. I think we heard the vocabulary exercise up here in the panhandle! (Mighta been jets at Tyndall, or the airport half a mile south of my house, but I think there were words in the noise. . . . .)

I thought I'd been set back when the airbox wouldn't go on, and I discovered the throttle bodies hadn't gone on straight, the bottoms weren't on all the way which tilted them up about 5 degrees. Had to pull lots of stuff and get those back into place, lost a half hour or 45 minutes, but I sure didn't have to pull no frickin' motor to get back on schedule!

Good on ya for seeing it through, and not using a shortcut that would come back and haunt you later!

 

[mcatrophy]

I guess the colour of the pictures reflects your mood after you realised you'd got to pull the motor again :wacko: ...

 

[TestPilot]

[SIZE=18pt]Saturday Update 10/17/09[/SIZE]
So now I'm back where I was Wednesday night. Damn. Time to put the motor BACK in the frame. Still no hoist, Eric....but I did figure out an install method that was simple and fast.

With the motor sitting flat on the floor, you can't simply lower the frame over the motor, since the centerstand, exhaust mounts and bottom of the shock will hit the floor long before the frame is low enough for the motor mount holes to match up.

BUT, if you tilt the motor forward about 30 degrees, using a block of wood to keep it from tipping completely over, the rear motor mounts are raised more than enough that two people can pick up the frame, and slide it forward and down over the motor and the rear motor mounts line up perfectly. Install the long bolt through the frame and the upper rear motor mount...

..........

'Howie

Pity I didn't see this thread earlier - I could have told you that's how they do it at the factory :yahoo: :clapping: :yahoo:

Thanks for the detailed posts, and I hope it's all done soon. Oh, and change the blue light in your garage to daylight - it's easier to see what you're doing