V-Twin Stainless Rocker Covers

[steve_wood]

Hey folks. In case anybody was wondering about these....

On the good side:

- Nice finish. The picture doesn't do it justice. With just a little
bit of polish they came out so shiny you might think they were chrome.

On the bad side:

- Gasket surface was no where near flat. It took an hour of lapping
on the big granite block. Then we had to TIG-braze to add metal to
the inside of the surface in the corners. Without this, guaranteed leak
out the screw holes. Another hour of lapping after the brazing and
I finally had a perfectly flat surface. Then I had to tweak the underside
of the D-Rings so they contacted the rocker cover evenly. That took
another hour. A lot of work, but the results seem to be good. I turned
the pan upside down, put some 10W oil in it, put an accurate engineering
gasket on it, then bolted it to the head with only 4 screws. I rotated
the head to move the oil around the gasket junction and there were
no apparent leaks. We'll see how they do on a working engine.

Overall rating: Good, but be prepared to do some work.

steve

[FlatHeadSix]

Steve..
Did all the bolt holes line up? Another major complaint about previous TEDD pans was bad hole alignment, and, of course, not flat.

Good job!. I saw your cylinders in the gallery, I remember when mine looked like that, but it was a long time ago.....

mike

[Cotten]

It would be quite easy to cork the pushrod holes and put low airpressure upon the oil drain hole for a bubble test.

I hope I remember to do that when I finally assemble my Pans.

....Cotten

[steve_wood]

Bolt holes: I was impressed! The rocker cover holes AND the D-Ring holes both lined up nicely with the stock heads.

Air pressure test: Good idea. Do I have to block off both the small hole and the big hole?

steve

[Cotten]

Steve!

The oil feed hole would probably be restricted enough to where it would only take a little extra tweak on the regulator, particularly if you were generous with assembly lube. It would be nice to know if air would come out.

Post me your address off-forum at liberty@npoint.net and I'll mail you a couple of #2 rubber stoppers for the pushrod holes on Monday morn.

...Cotten

[VintageTwin]

Great product review Steve and an investment that's worth the end result. That's what we need more of. Testing and advising potential customers of product claims upon application. Glad your holes all lined up. Too bad about the needed surfacing of the cover bottoms and D-ring bottom. Stainless is some hard material to re-contour, but since the s/s is denser than drawn steel, and with the felts glued in, it might make for a quieter motor at the top end.
I like those tank divider rubber strips too. That helps.

An alternative to s/s, would be to use Taiwan chrome, but buy them from Kick-Start (616) 245-8991. The holes will line up with OEM or aftermarket D-rings, but you will need to flat surface the bottom.
The Pan covers (and rigid OHV rear brake shoes) they sell are Vintage Twin® approved aftermarket parts.
We're putting our stamp of approval on every 1936-1959 OHV aftermarket part that is exact, or can be made serviceable with some "home builder" "labor intensive ratings" of A, B, or C.
"A" is a reasonable replica ready to bolt on right out of the skin-pack (i.e; 37-9021 Steering head lock assembly).
"B" is a reasonable replica that needs grinding, filing, and light hand tools to make the part fit or function.
"C" is a reasonable replica that needs flat surfacing, brazing, welding, lathe turning or machine shop equipment to make the part function. (i.e; A part may get a "C" if it's a perfect axle, but it takes a lathe to make the part function. Maybe it was a simple lathe function, but most people don't own one.)
Note: Even a "C" which may otherwise appear perfect, can be made to function braze-fill and decking. I know the parts personally. I've bought them all, and have access to the current aftermarket inventory daily if needed.
Buy your rigid exhaust from Corso, your rigid rear brake shoes from Kick-Start, and the rest from V-Twin or it's outlets.

V-Twin has a parts checker here. If it's on backorder they tell you. If it's discontinued, like the 39-0535 '59-61 neutral light lens, it tells you. Even if you don't buy parts from V-Twin, you'll know if it's in stock when you order it from your dealer. http://www.vtwinmfg.com/NewVtwinWeb/Par ... cInput.jsp

I'm picking up my 4-piece exhaust from the chromer tomorrow and my rigid Pan is being wired next. I'll post some rapid progress pics. I feel like I've been wading through molasses on this build. Now I hope to gain speed.
************************
Side note: If you're using http://www.imageshack.us/ to reduce your photos, you might try the 640 x 480 resolution. It gives you a big enough pic and people don't have to scroll east and west to see the whole pic. The lingering problem with posting a larger pic, is that once posted to a topic, it sets the wide text margins for any other pics that get posted. So, you'll see my small pic, but you'll still have to scroll way eastward to read the text.
Here's an http://www.imageshack.us/ 640 x 480 pic:

Spark and throttle "push" spirals for Pan and later.

[steve_wood]

With many thanks to Cotten for materials and advice, I was able to run a bubble test on the heads.

Success! No leaks! But even though I spent a lot of time flattening the rockers, I think the superior gaskets from Accurate Engineering had more to do with it.

Anyways, the heads look good and hopefully I'll have them installed this week.


steve

[joe]

I realize this post is quite old, but here goes;

Does anyone know what is involved with TIG brazing? My pals at work tried to fill in the corners of my covers (just like the ones shown in this thread) but it didn't work. Is there a special technique or rod used to TIG braze? If I just use a torch will it warp and/or discolor the pans?

Thanks,

Joe

[Bigincher]

Steve, from the photos, the holes appear to be 1/4". Is that so?

[Bigincher]

Steve, from the photos, the holes appear to be 1/4". Is that so?

(Sorry, I see this thread IS fairly old...)