More tranny building:

Okay, if you look in the picture of the two cases above, you can see that the black case has a roller bearing where the mainshaft comes out. The new case doesn't. There is a HUGE snap ring that holds that bearing in, so I had to call in some help on that one. I went to my buddy's machine shop (where the bike currently is) and luckily he had a set of snap ring pliers big enough. He used to work on Indy cars back in the 70's, so they used similar sized snap rings for the hubs.

Here are the pliers:


















Here is the big ass snap ring and the new bearing on the table behind it:

If you notice, the snap ring is tapered around the edge. The tapered side has to go out for the ring to fit in the groove once you place the bearing in. I had to pull it and redo it because I screwed this up the first time.



Installing the bearing is pretty simple. Since it is only a slight interference fit, I just heated up the case a little with a propane torch and popped the bearing in the freezer for about 20 minutes. I set the bearing over the hole and with a very light tap from a brass hammer, it went right in. With the bearing set, I could replace the snap ring in the new case.



Before I did all of this though, I had to do a little work on the drill press. Since I am not running a starter, I enlisted the help of Irish Rich on a trick oil filter setup that will clean up the back side of the tranny, as well as place the filter in the place of the starter so that the ear on the tranny casing doesn't have to be machined off. Rich made the plate that holds the filter block and cleans everything up. I'll have to get some more pics of the block and backing plate later, but as for now you can see what needed to be done. On the right side of the starter ear, the plate slides over the dowel for the starter. I machined a little off of the edges and cleaned it up, then set it in place. Because there are no through holes and to make everything clean, I drilled holes through the casing so the filter block can be mounted through the left side of the starter ear and the covered up with the block off plate that Rich supplied.

Here it is before and after. As I said, the filter block is clocked, so you rotate its mounting position so the oil lines don't interfere with anything.

Before:














After:

I'll get up some more this week. I have to make a tool to set the main drive gear in the bearing.

Most productive lazy evening in a long time

Since I couldn't find much else I felt like doing last night and I used most of my .45 supplies this weekend, I decided to get into some reloading. I test fired a few loads this weekend and was pleased with them so I felt confident in loading up another 100 rounds. I have brass already primed so tossing powder and projectiles in these took me about an hour. Not a bad night's work and frankly it was a good excuse to sit and have a few beers before bed.... You can see my helper is tired at the bottom of the picture from our 3 mile jog before getting started.

My next ambition is to get some dies for 7.62x54R which is the round my new PSL uses. I would really like to get a good load for that. Partly because they are expensive and partly because it should be a very good long range rifle (over 800 yds according to the soldiers that carry them) Pics of that to follow since right now it doesn't want to chamber a round properly.

Little mountain riding... overdue report

So a few weeks ago Jes and I went to Helen, GA for Oktoberfest. Every year some friends and I go and either get a hotel in town or a cabin nearby. This year Jes and I took her truck with the bikes strapped in the back. Proved to be an excelelnt idea. Weather was a little windy and a slight chill but really good for riding. This was Jes's first experience in the mountains so she had a ton of fun getting to know her bike. Here's a picture of her:




And this is her new bike which she needs a little getting used to. It's 1999 ZX-6R, a slight upgrade from the Ninja 250. We got the height within her range but it could use some fine tuning to make it comfortable and smooth for her:

Thanks to Kyle from Death Machine...

I entered a drawing into his Halloween contest, but I was a little late on entry, so I couldn't win. He still posted it on Church of Choppers though.

http://churchofchoppers.blogspot.com/2008/11/submitted-by-jarrod-from-ga.html

Thanks again, Kyle.

Tranny building...and a thanks to the Vets.

I started to get on here this morning and post a thanks to the veterans and those currently serving, but Rob beat me to it. I still want to say thanks, but I'll also post a little more.

Okay, I will start this out, and take pictures and do a commentary as I go along. I had an Ultima 6 speed for my build that I purchased with the original intent I had for the bike. At first I was going to go all black Evo, etc so I went with a black case when I purchased it. Seeing as how I completely changed my mind of what I wanted to build, I decided to change things up. I'll reveal more as I go along, but for now I will just start things off. Since I already had the Ultima, I thought it through, and instead of pulling the case and polishing it or buying a new tranny I decided to put the guts in a new case...with some other additions along the way. I called Jason Hallman to get a few parts and to talk to him about some of the Baker goods. Since he had been going around popping in the DD6s/OD6s/etc. for Baker at shows recently, I knew he had expertise on the matter. I told him if my intentions and he told me he would talk me through it over the phone. I have plenty of experience turning wrenches, but I have never taken apart one of these trannies. Any help was MUCH appreciated and I have a new friend from the experience.

First off, here are the guts after pulling them from the case. I would've taken pics of the teardown, but I didn't really think about it...I will start from the ground up. From left to right, you can see the clutch cover, main drive gear, shift forks and shafts (outer spacer in between), gearset still mounted to trapdoor (with allen bolts to the top left, and shift lever to the top right), shift drum and top cover.

Next is just a picture of the two cases. The one on the left is the new polished S&S case and the one on the right is the black Ultima case. From the looks of it, the only difference I notice in the cases is for the sensor, which is on the actual case itself on the S&S, but was on the trapdoor on the Ultima (even though the casting is there).

Next is the new case with a few parts already installed...these were the last things left on the case, so they are the first to be installed. Circled in green is the shifter pawl, which is mounted on a splined shaft that runs through the case (circled in red).

When installing the pawl, you have to press a new seal into the case, followed by a washer, all of which is held together with a black spring clip, which can be seen in the picture. Next to that, circled in blue, is the pawl adjuster. This consists of nothing more than a threaded shaft with an offset rod on the end to adjust the pawl's contact with the shift drum. Once it's screwed in, the threads that are still showing are locked down with a jam nut so that the pawl doesn't go out of adjustment every time you ride.

Okay, if you notice in the pic of the cases next to each other, there is a plug in a hole next to the big main gear hole on the black case. That is the plug that holds the needle bearing for the counter shaft in the gear set. The new case didn't come with that plug, so I went to get a new one from the Harley dealership (part #8977). After a post on the JJ and a short conversation with Irish Rich, I got it in.In this pic, you can see the plug lying face up and the hole it needs to be pressed into.

Now, with a bit of persuasion from a plastic dead blow and an oversized (1 1/4") socket, you can SQUARELY set it into place. It is a bit of a pain in the ass, but it eventually flushed with the case.

I know there are a lot of people who have already done this, but there are some that haven't I would personally rather know every in and out of what I am building and not just throw parts together, so I was all about tearing into this tranny and making my own little Frankenstein.

Thanks to the soldiers!

I have been meaning to post some stuff for weeks now but this is more important so I'll wait to post my stuff...
I would just like to take the chance to remind everyone that today is a day for thanking those who have served. Both wartime and peacetime, these guys and girls have given a large portion of themselves to make our lives livable and make sure that our quality of life is sustained. We owe them a lot more than we care to think about most of the time.